The HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is unbelievable — with one massive drawback

There isn’t a lot I have to say in regards to the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook that has not already been evident from the leaks, bulletins, and common hype surrounding this factor.

It’s a gorgeous system. It’s quick, with enterprise-grade specs — one of many first Chromebooks, in reality, to help Intel’s vPro platform. And but, the distinctive nature of the chassis actually lays naked, extra so than another system I’ve examined this yr, one of many largest complaints I’ve in regards to the present Chromebook area: ChromeOS. As a lot as I really like utilizing ChromeOS, and as a lot progress because it’s made through the years, it’s not prepared for the enterprise world — and it’s not prepared for units that, even of their most cost-effective kind, value effectively over $1,000.

Chromebook fans have been ready for a tool like this. They’ve been ready for fairly a while — the final lustworthy, high-end Chromebook was Google’s personal Pixelbook in 2017. And I believe HP has in all probability accomplished near every little thing it might to make an unbelievable enterprise machine.

I’ll run you thru the great issues. It’s mild, at simply 2.8 kilos (simply 0.1 heavier than the MacBook Air, although it’s a superb deal thicker) with a sturdy magnesium / aluminum hybrid chassis. It seems to be and feels similar to HP’s premium Windows Dragonfly line, with a superb 3:2 show (together with a 1,000-nit choice and a Sure View Reflect privateness display screen choice), implausible Bang & Olufsen-tuned audio system, a surprisingly sharp 5MP webcam with a bodily shutter, and an optionally available rechargeable USI pen that magnetically attaches to the chassis.

Even the port choice is ok (relative to the port-starved world that ultraportables presently stay in), together with an HDMI in addition to two USB-Cs and a USB-A.

The Core i5-1245U chip inside my evaluate unit completely flies. Even picture modifying within the Lightroom app was silky clean and quicker than it’s once I use the desktop model on some slower Windows laptops. Swapping between tabs and apps was instantaneous. Provided that every little thing it is advisable to run performs properly with ChromeOS, I don’t see any workload giving this system vital bother.

Battery life could possibly be higher however was not horrible. I averaged seven hours of steady use with a mixture of Chrome tabs, Android apps, and PWAs at medium brightness. (I had a QHD mannequin, however I think about you would possibly see extra from the 1920 x 1080 choice.) You can anticipate to really feel some steady heat within the keyboard and throughout the underside however nothing uncomfortable. The included adapter took 54 minutes to cost the system as much as 60 p.c, which is sort of a quick charging pace as Chromebooks go.

This is all effectively and good. I sincerely have only a few unhealthy issues to say about this Chromebook on paper. The solely actual nitpick is that the display screen is a tad reflective, and I often needed to bump up the brightness when utilizing it near our workplace window (the horror). It’s a pleasant system that’s nice enjoyable to make use of.

I want to stress that the criticism I’m about to make isn’t actually HP’s fault. This isn’t a kind of evaluations the place I’m out to make a broad indictment of the product’s producer. Many firms are concerned in establishing the HP Elite Dragonfly’s consumer expertise, as is the case with any gadget you would possibly choose up — I’m simply right here to explain that consumer expertise.

Here is the very best description of that have I may give you: the Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is nice to make use of for leisure, and it’s tough to make use of for work.

Now, to be clear: I respect that some energy customers simply need a very high-powered Chromebook for coding, virtualization, video games, and the like. I do know that this group may be very enthusiastic about this launch, and I’m certain you all shall be proud of the system — it’s every little thing it was speculated to be. But I do suppose you may get related energy in cheaper units for a lot much less cash. The broadly praised Acer Chromebook Spin 714 presently affords almost the exact same processor that’s in my evaluate unit for $729, which is lower than half the value of my unit and over $400 lower than absolutely the most cost-effective Dragonfly Chromebook’s MSRP. The Dragonfly is definitely extra highly effective than that Spin 714 — however whether or not it’s that far more highly effective is one other matter.

And for the mainstream enterprise consumer (traditionally the target market for the Dragonfly line that this laptop computer is a part of), I don’t suppose the Dragonfly Chromebook is value its price ticket.

Much of my work life takes place on Slack. I do know this isn’t the case for each office, however it’s the case for a great many of them. ChromeOS customers are required to decide on between utilizing Slack of their browser (and there’s a cause most individuals don’t do that on Windows — the desktop app makes loads of issues simpler together with shortcuts, workspace swapping, launching, looking, and many others.) or utilizing Slack in its Android app kind (simply not nice).

Here’s a smattering of complaints I’ve in regards to the present Slack app on Chromebooks:

• Messages are generally delayed. I’ll often get a notification, click on on it to open Slack, after which not have the ability to discover the message.
• The Android app accessible on ChromeOS doesn’t appear to speak effectively with different variations of Slack. If I exploit the desktop or iOS apps sooner or later and open the Chromebook the subsequent morning, I’ll typically be bombarded with message notifications from the day past that I’ve already seen and addressed.
• The textual content field retains closing whereas I’m in the midst of typing a message, exhibiting solely the primary half and hiding what I used to be typing.
• Background refresh is funky. I’ll typically see somebody typing once I’m clicked into Chrome however have Slack open on the facet, however their message received’t come up till I’ve clicked again into Slack (even when it was despatched fairly a while in the past).
• Links generally don’t unfurl and present previews the place they’d within the desktop model.
• Statuses are gradual to replace. I’ve to attend a number of seconds every time I click on into the app for it to indicate who’s on-line and who isn’t.
• The app generally received’t convey unread channels as much as the highest of the app, which means I’ve to dig by way of my lists on the underside to see what’s bolded.
• Text generally will get overlaid over different textual content in a approach that doesn’t essentially intrude with my use however does make the app look decidedly unfinished.

There are additionally common responsiveness points. I maintain having to click on channels a number of occasions to be able to get them to open. Oh, and the app simply froze a number of occasions throughout my testing as effectively.

I’m not the one one who needs there have been a greater non-browser choice for this program — the Google Play Store is filled with folks complaining in regards to the bugginess of the Slack Android app. And I do know these all sound like small issues, however in case you’re somebody who makes use of Slack all day (and once more, many individuals do), they’re sufficient to have you ever reaching the top of your rope in a short time.

While I do consider Slack is this system that wants probably the most rapid fixing earlier than I can advocate any Chromebook as a critical enterprise system, I had all types of points with different apps that I used all through my workday as effectively. Discord, for instance, is one other program that can be utilized in Chrome however has a considerably quicker and extra feature-rich desktop model accessible for Windows. This isn’t so on ChromeOS — the Discord Android app simply straight-up doesn’t work on the Dragonfly. I couldn’t click on on something — I used to be caught in no matter channel occurred to be open once I opened the app. Even once I scrolled inside that channel, the app crashed ceaselessly. And whereas Discord isn’t a business-critical app the best way that Slack could be, it’s nonetheless central to many individuals’s work and social lives. (I take briefings on it infrequently, and Verge workers use it as a backup when Slack goes down.)

I can not let you know what number of random bugs I bumped into in different Android apps that I attempted to make use of. Messenger takes a superb three to 4 seconds to load new messages and on-line statuses after I open it, generally simply opened to a clean white display screen, and infrequently froze and required a restart. (Though it’s not crashing the whole Chromebook, which has been a problem prior to now.) I attempted to run Geekbench on this system a number of occasions however might by no means full a run earlier than the app crashed. The Zoom Android app crashed quite a lot of occasions throughout calls. (There is a Zoom PWA within the app retailer, however it is extremely straightforward to by accident open the Android app as an alternative.) And throughout the board, there have been gradual boot occasions, gradual load occasions, and situations once I needed to click on issues a bunch of occasions to get them to open.

Again, ChromeOS and the Dragonfly itself are each lightning quick lately, however the apps — even a few of the hottest ones enterprise customers would possibly want — will not be practically pretty much as good as their Windows desktop equivalents. And then there are nonetheless applications some enterprise customers stay in which can be solely accessible of their internet equivalents on ChromeOS, together with Microsoft Office (whose internet applications are lacking quite a lot of options the desktop applications have).

Now, as I’m certain persons are on the brink of level out within the feedback, there are methods round these limitations. There’s Parallels Desktop, which lets you boot Windows in a digital machine on Chromebooks (and the Dragonfly comes with a year-long free trial when you have the Chrome Enterprise improve). That’s nice, however as soon as the free interval is up, enterprise prospects might want to pay $69.99 per user, per year to maintain it. That’s not nothing. And you can too run Linux, after all, however we’re speaking about firms probably deploying massive fleets of items to time-pressed staff — it’s practical to imagine that ChromeOS is what many individuals shall be utilizing on this system.

To repeat, I’m a ChromeOS fan. I really like the pace and safety it affords. I believe the state of non-browser software program choices is a high quality tradeoff to make for a leisure system you’ll be utilizing for enjoyable. I’ve extra bother endorsing that once we’re speaking a few system that livelihoods will depend upon.

And that’s earlier than we get into the value. The most cost-effective prebuilt Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is $1,149, with costs ranging as much as $1,799. Customizable units are then an entire different factor — the most cost effective one I can presently configure is $1,961 (and received’t ship till March of subsequent yr, in line with HP’s website).

It will get sophisticated with the unit I’ve, which features a vPro Core i5, 8GB of reminiscence, LTE, and 256GB of storage with the stylus included. This configuration isn’t really accessible for buy as a prebuilt, however a comparable mannequin with 128GB of storage is currently listed for $1,579.99. I’ll notice for full accuracy that technically the one method to get this particular unit is as a configurable, and that may value a minimal of $2,408. Either approach, we’re effectively into MacBook pricing territory right here, and which means you actually shouldn’t have so many apps accessible which can be filled with glitches. (It’s not an apples-to-apples comparability for all types of causes however, only for kicks, an M2 MacBook Air with related specs could be $1,219.)

Now, we have seen Core i3 variations of this system dip well below $1,000 at sure occasions. That pricing would change the sport right here if you could find it, however that’s not the listed worth of any items as of this writing.

This is a gorgeous system. HP has accomplished what it might right here — it made probably the most stunning Chromebook I’ve ever used.

But the desktop software program that ChromeOS can provide isn’t worthy of this magnificence — or this worth. Again, I do know a few of my points are nitpicky, however that is software program that enterprise customers use on daily basis and are being requested to pay very excessive costs to make use of. And I believe that Google, having simply canceled its subsequent high-end Pixelbook product, could also be coming to the identical conclusion.

I do know fixes are coming. PWAs are on their approach. Linux is turning into extra accessible. Android apps on ChromeOS have come an extended, great distance since I first began reviewing them, and I’m certain they’ll come additional nonetheless. This is a superb and enjoyable working system to make use of. But it’s not prepared for the C-suite simply but.