HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook evaluation: The better of ChromeOS, however not well worth the worth | Engadget

Google has been making high-end Chromebooks for nearly a decade now, relationship again to the $1,300 Chromebook Pixel in 2013. At the time, many individuals noticed it as an exquisite however unusual system. In the years that adopted, each Google and its {hardware} companions have made premium Chromebooks increasingly more commonplace. Though, a still-unconfirmed report earlier this yr suggests Google is giving up on making laptop computer {hardware}, no less than for now. The firm hasn’t mentioned something of the kind but, however the actuality is that Google hasn’t made a brand new Chromebook because the Pixelbook Go in late 2019.

Of course, that hasn’t stopped different producers from making Chromebooks with attractive screens, nice industrial design and highly effective {hardware}. But HP’s Elite Dragonfly Chromebook, launched earlier this yr, is perhaps the nicest I’ve utilized in a very long time. It additionally has a jaw-dropping worth level, beginning at nicely over $1,000. Much like the unique Chromebook Pixel, HP’s newest is a pleasure to make use of that may be very exhausting to advocate due to that worth.

Design

Before we discuss concerning the bummer that’s the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook’s value, let’s go over the good things. The Dragonfly is analogous in stature to a MacBook Air, weighing in at about 2.8 kilos and measuring solely .65 inches thick. Combined with a reasonably spacious 13.5-inch touchscreen show with a 3:2 side ratio, the Dragonfly is comfy to work on and simple to journey with.

Design-wise, it’s a spartan affair, with a darkish grey end and only some silver accents to be discovered. But on condition that HP is primarily focusing on this pc at enterprise customers, it is smart that they went with a basic look right here. There’s a good number of ports, regardless of the Dragonfly’s moderately slim profile: it has two USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB-A connection, a headphone jack, HDMI and a microSD slot. That’s quite a bit higher than you’ll get on a typical ultraportable.

Screen and keyboard

There’s a handful of issues that make the Dragonfly actually stand out. For starters, it has a superb show, with a 3:2 side ratio that gives much more vertical viewing area than your commonplace 16:9 display. The configuration I’m testing has a 2,256 x 1,504 decision, good for about 200 pixels per inch. Sure, there are extra pixel-dense shows on the market, however this one seems to be beautiful, with sharp textual content and pictures and principally no seen pixels. It’s the nicest display on a Chromebook I’ve seen in a very long time. The solely minor knock is its unremarkable 60Hz refresh charge, however that shouldn’t be a significant problem for most individuals. Still, HP spared principally no expense on all the pieces else, so it will have been good to have.

Despite the refresh charge, the Dragonfly’s show is nice past simply the side ratio. It’s vivid and has good distinction with out issues being too over-exaggerated. It’s additionally moderately reflective, which makes it not perfect if there’s a lightweight shining on the show, however the display is vivid sufficient that it needs to be usable in all however the harshest of sunshine.

The keyboard and trackpad are additionally glorious. The keys are agency, however not too agency, and have loads of journey for a comparatively skinny laptop computer. The trackpad, in the meantime, is giant and responsive. Nothing fairly matches as much as the trackpad on a MacBook for me, however this one feels fairly shut. HP says it’s a haptic trackpad, with personalized vibrations for some particular actions like pinning home windows in cut up display or switching between digital desks, however I can’t say I seen a lot of something there.

Good specs (for a Chromebook)

Finally, the Dragonfly largely has cutting-edge spec choices; the mannequin I examined has a Twelfth-generation Intel Core i5 processor, built-in LTE, 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. LTE isn’t precisely cutting-edge anymore, and 8GB of RAM is a bit stingy on a pc this dear. But apart from these quibbles, that is loads of horsepower for principally something you need to do in ChromeOS; I by no means skilled any stutters when switching apps or enjoying again music and video. Despite the high-resolution display and highly effective processor, battery life is stable if not spectacular. I received between six and eight hours of regular utilization, which concerned lots of Chrome tabs, Spotify, Todoist, Slack, Google Keep, Trello and the occasional Android app right here and there. It managed to play again a film for 8 hours and 50 minutes in our battery drain take a look at. If battery is your foremost concern, the mannequin with a Core i3 processor or the lower-resolution display will probably final even longer.

It additionally does a high quality job operating the handful of Android apps I examined it with. In the final yr or so, you’ve been in a position to run downloaded apps in pill, telephone or resizable home windows, and for probably the most half I used to be in a position to get Todoist, Spotify and Lightroom all working nicely in resizable home windows. Even Instagram lastly works correctly, though now that the web site now means that you can create posts, it’s not likely vital any extra. Putting that apart, efficiency throughout principally all of the Android apps and video games I attempted was stable. But given what number of apps are within the Play Store, there’s nonetheless a superb likelihood of operating throughout some that don’t work nicely.

While Chromebooks aren’t identified for gaming, the Dragonfly simply dealt with some cloud-based play through NVIDIA’s GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming – not a shock given the highly effective (for a Chromebook, no less than) {hardware}. At this level, ChromeOS has fairly stable recreation controller help, and it clearly works with exterior keyboards and mice. So supplied the titles you need can be found, that is in all probability the easiest way to play video games on a Chromebook at this level. That mentioned, this {hardware} ought to greater than meet the minimize for putting in Steam, as soon as Google and Valve begin rolling that out past its present restricted alpha part.