HP Dragonfly Professional (2023) Overview: Peak Prosumer

Verdict

HP’s MacBook contender gives a compelling proposition for Home windows customers in search of a productiveness champion in or out of the workplace. The Dragonfly Professional (2023) doesn’t have any deal-breaking weaknesses. Although it’s a bit heavy, the keyboard format received’t be for everybody. The help upsell is annoying too.

Introduction

The HP Dragonfly Professional, the model’s newest prosumer flagship laptop computer, is an attention-grabbing beast. Launched within the USA, the Home windows 11 laptop computer arrives with bundles of energy, a loaded spec sheet, a pretty design and a succesful 14-inch touchscreen.

It’s HPs reply to Apple’s MacBook Air M2 and has been designed with hybrid work in thoughts. Bolstered by glorious battery life, it’s bought virtually every thing you should be productive and transportable as a distant employee or freelancer. Nevertheless, it’s additionally succesful sufficient to be your essential machine typically. 

It’s additionally an attention-grabbing pivot away from Intel. The assessment mannequin we had been despatched options the late-2022 AMD Ryzen 7 chipset (7736U, 8 cores and 16 threads, 4.6GHz max enhance) based mostly on the Zen 3+ structure. It’s bought built-in AMD Radeon graphics, which ought to be able to some gentle gaming (plus the benefits of the Xbox app for cloud-based gaming).

HP can also be pitching an elective guarantee subscription to patrons. For $10.99 a month, you get a 12 months of unintentional harm protection, plus the HP Care Pack providing 24/7 dwell help. That, and the associated fastened keyboard hotkeys, could also be a turn-off for some, however it might be splendid for customers who want issues fastened rapidly.

It’s an attention-grabbing proposition, beginning at $1,399, however does HP’s pitch have sufficient to win over prosumers in a cluttered market?

Design and Keyboard

• Engaging design and stable construct
• Too heavy to be an ultra-portable
• Full-size keyboard is good, however operate keys are a ache

The HP Dragonfly Professional is a sturdy laptop computer with loads of heft. The mannequin weighs 3.42lbs (1.55kg) general, however it stays slimline at 0.72-inches (18.2mm). Nevertheless, we wouldn’t name this ultra-portable. You definitely can’t throw in your backpack and overlook about it.

The 14-inch diagonal show leaves loads of room for the full-sized keyboard throughout the general dimensions. Keys are responsive, with reassuring spring, and deep sufficient journey for these split-second corrections. Presses are accompanied by a satisfyingly muted thud for a hard-hitting typer like myself, however I did discover the keys to be fractionally extra cramped in comparison with my MacBook Air M2.

HP has additionally included a column of shortcut keys to the skin proper of the Backspace, Shift and Enter keys. There’s one for webcam/audio settings, one other to entry the 24-hour dwell help, and one other one that may be programmed to your personal ends, comparable to opening a number of apps or web sites with one click on.

Annoyingly, I by accident hit these keys on a regular basis. It’s simply instinctual to achieve in the direction of the sting of the floor when your pinky is trying to find Backspace, however you’ll seemingly get used to it.

The keyboard is flanked by stereo audio system – from Bang & Olufsen no-less – and HP has included a big and spacious haptic trackpad that’s very responsive and clean to the contact (it’s product of glass) and there’s a great deal of room to relaxation your wrists both facet. There are two further backlighting settings for the keyboard too in addition to a fingerprint sensor.

The “ceramic white” off-white matte end (it additionally is available in “glowing black”) and aluminium/magnesium really feel agreeable to the contact and it’s one in all HP’s extra trendy fashions. It’s a conventional laptop computer design, with a regular hinge, so there’s no acrobatics by way of orienting the machine for pill actions or watching video. There’s some satisfying magnetic resistance when opening the laptop computer lid too. 

HP hasn’t gone overboard by way of ports. There’s only a trio of USB-C outs, two of that are 10Gbps Thunderbolt 3 ports that means you may add a 4K show to the combination. Surprisingly, there’s no headphone jack, not to mention choices for connecting USB-A natively, Ethernet or SD. Even port-averse Apple has a 3.5mm out. Welcome to the dongle-verse.

Show and Sound

• Touchscreen is succesful, however fingerprint inclined
• Respectable brightness at 400 nits, however solely FHD+ res
• Home windows Howdy within the webcam works effectively

The big 14-inch diagonal show matches the dimensions of the latest MacBook Professional M2 Professional/Max fashions from Apple however falls slightly quick by way of decision. The 16:10 IPS show maxes out at FHD+ 1920 x 1200 decision (in comparison with 3024 x 1964 on the 14-inch MBP M2, and 13.6-inch MBA M2 which has a 2560 a 1664). Nevertheless, the show specs are in keeping with what you may count on from Home windows 11 laptops at this worth level, such because the Dell XPS 15.

The show has nice color and distinction, and is definitely vivid sufficient on the max 400 nits, however that spec falls in need of a few of its rivals. Nonetheless, I had no issues studying the show in vivid sunshine to work on paperwork or shopping the net. The anti-reflection Gorilla Glass coating definitely helps. Nevertheless, relying on the circumstances, the max brightness isn’t splendid for gaming, watching video or modifying photographs.

When you’re gaming on this show, say with the Xbox Cloud Gaming answer through the Xbox app (which I discovered labored effectively), you’re not going to have the ability to recreation past a 60Hz refresh charge. Nevertheless, I have to say Forza Horizon 5 seemed very good on the show and the Bang & Olufsen stereo audio system carried out surprisingly effectively. 

One factor the show does have is an effective multitouch choice, that means you swipe, zoom, faucet, pinch and use a number of various gestures to attain your objectives. Nevertheless, as with most touchscreen laptops, you’re going to need to content material with fingerprints. When the display timed out, it was plagued by broad smears from the varied gestures.

The sting-to-edge glass show space has comparatively slender bezels, whereas the show itself has rounded corners. Above the show is a webcam, which helps Home windows Howdy. It really works virtually immediately, that means you don’t even have to consider opening your laptop computer. With Apple including a notch to its laptops in recent times, it’s a disgrace there’s no Face ID choice for MacBook customers.

The webcam itself is 5-megapixels, not very sharp with an apparently low body charge. There are look filters, however I seemed extra like Peppa Pig than my pure pasty pores and skin tone –though I had simply bought again from a scorching yoga class. Auto framing tech works effectively and can naturally zoom in in your face once you draw again from the display.

Efficiency

• AMD chipset gives ample energy for productiveness wants
• Fan generally is a little loud throughout intensive duties
• Can deal with gentle gaming, albeit with show restrictions

You’ll be pleased with the efficiency from the HP Dragonfly Professional, at this worth level. It performs very effectively with duties like reasonable photograph modifying, cloud gaming, dealing with massive paperwork, internet shopping and extra.

It doesn’t profit from the very newest Ryzen Zen 4 structure from AMD, however it does profit from the late 2022 Ryzen 7 7736U​ CPU, which is predicated upon the older Zen 3+ platform, and has a base clock pace of two.7GHz (4.7 GHz max enhance clock). 

By way of graphics, you’ll get the built-in 12-core AMD Radeon 680M GPU. That’s coupled with 16GB of DDR5 RAM with 512GB of stable state storage.

In Geekbench 6 exams, the single-core rating of 1679 is complemented by a multi-core rating of 7145. The sooner Geekbench 5 check (which we’ve been utilizing to match laptops right here at Trusted Evaluations) scores the laptop computer at 1510 (single-core) and 9164 (multi-core).

The PCMark 10 benchmarking counterpart arrived at a rating of 5888. The corresponding to the Intel Core i7-powered and lately reviewed Asus Zenbook 14X OLED which achieves a rating of 5785.

It is possible for you to to ably play some PC video games in your HP Dragonfly Professional. I performed the primary half an hour of Resident Evil Village from Steam with none glitches. The fan kicked up a fuss, however it was playable. After all, you’re slightly restricted by the show’s refresh charge and backbone and the absence of a devoted GPU. You’ll obtain a efficiency warning in the event you attempt to run something extra demanding, like Horizon Zero Daybreak, for instance. It’s not not possible however I solely achieved a body charge of round 20fps each time the motion intensified.

For context, the 3D Mark rating got here out at 2572, in comparison with a median 2020 gaming laptop computer of 5730 and a premium gaming PC’s rating of 19781.

Battery Life

• Over 12 hours in benchmarking exams
• 1 hour of HD video drains 10%
• 50% recharge in simply half an hour

Battery life is a serious success on the Dragonfly Professional. The PC Mark 10 Fashionable Workplace benchmarking device, which simulates the workload of a laptop computer by way of the typical workday – writing, internet shopping, chat, and so forth – introduced spectacular outcomes. The 64.6Wh cell provided an estimated 12 hours and 34 minutes, not far in need of HP’s declare of as much as 15 hours. 

Watching one hour of The Banshees of Inersherin on regular quantity and full brightness on HBO Max dropped the battery life from 100% to 90%, so you may count on 10 hours of HD video too.

The general battery efficiency handily beats the reviewed the Lenovo ThinkPad Z13 Gen 1, an analogous productivity-styled pocket book additionally working AMD silicon (Ryzen 5 PRO 6650U CPU with 16GB RAM), which solely hit 9 hours and 6 minutes off a single cost. After all, it has a smaller 51.5Wh battery. 

The HP Dragonfly Professional will be replenished 50% in simply half an hour on cost, however you’ll have to have the laptop computer powered off for full impact.

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