The stiff magnesium keyboard deck creates a flex-free foundation on which to type. The keys have a firm response with just the right amount of travel. If you have a wired set, then you'll need to get - and then not lose - an adapter, which is always a pain. If your go-to headphones are Bluetooth, then this audio-jack omission isn't a big deal. And most notably, there's no headphone jack. There's no SD card slot, micro or full-size. What's missing from the port selection? There are no USB-A ports or an Ethernet jack. Thunderbolt support on AMD-based laptops is a rarity, however, so at least that's in HP's favor. There isn't much of a difference between Thunderbolt 3 and 4 - both offer 40Gbps speed, but Thunderbolt 3 can support only one 4K display while Thunderbolt 4 can support two. The pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports offer four times the transfer speed. Two of the ports have Thunderbolt 3 support, and the other is a plain USB Type-C port with a 10Gbps transfer speed. There are three USB-C ports, and that's it. However, the Dragonfly Pro offers extremely limited connectivity. I appreciate the distinct lack of AMD Ryzen CPU and Radeon GPU stickers on the wrist rest.Īpple added some ports back to the latest MacBook Pros after a few iterations of limited connectivity. Tiny Bang & Olufsen wordmarks sit on each side of the laptop. HP's funky logo is centered on the lid and again on the center of the bottom screen bezel. Branding, as well as the ports, are kept to a minimum to complete the minimalist expression. The finish has a soft texture to it that's pleasing to the touch - it feels like the world's finest-grit sandpaper. The chassis is a matte-black thing of beauty. In anecdotal testing, the Dragonfly Pro felt peppy, operated quietly and didn't lag during a variety of multitasking scenarios. You'll be able to eke out a longer runtime when you aren't constantly streaming a video. It lasted roughly 7.5 hours on our demanding battery drain test, another average result. It finished in the middle of the pack on most of our benchmarks among a group of similarly priced laptops that feature an Intel Core i7-12700H CPU. Oddly, the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook has a better display with a 2,560x1,600-pixel resolution and an impressive rated brightness of 1,200 nits.Īs configured, our Dragonfly Pro test system produced solid performance results. Given the pricing of the Windows 11-based models, it feels overpriced at $1,000 for a Chromebook with a 12th-gen Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The 14-inch touch display features a 1,920x1,200-pixel with a 16:10 aspect ratio and is rated for 400 nits of brightness.īy the way, there's also a Dragonfly Pro Chromebook. The only other configurable item is the color: ceramic white or sparkling black we received the latter. The step-up model costs $1,550 and doubles the RAM to 32GB and the SSD to 1TB. It features an AMD Ryzen 7 7736U CPU, 16GB of RAM, integrated AMD Radeon Graphics and a 512GB SSD. We reviewed the baseline HP Dragonfly Pro model for $1,400. To attract them, HP made a couple of unusual inclusions.Ģx Thunderbolt 3, 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C The specific target is on-the-go, constantly connected freelancers and hybrid employees splitting time between home and office. HP designed the Dragonfly Pro for a more narrow audience than simply mainstream laptop users, though. And priced at a reasonable $1,400, it costs hundreds less than the 14-inch MacBook Pro. The 14-inch Dragonfly Pro boasts a similarly clean and rigid design and targets the same mainstream "pro" users. The Razer Blade 14's slab-like enclosure is a close facsimile to the sleek yet sturdy 14-inch MacBook Pro, but it's geared toward gamers - an entirely different audience than the MacBook Pro's. There are plenty of MacBook Pro alternatives, but perhaps none come as close to Apple's minimalist aesthetic as the HP Dragonfly Pro (OK, maybe the Samsung Galaxy Books, too).
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