The HP Dragonfly Pro could have been a great productivity laptop, if it wasn’t broken.
HP Dragonfly Pro: Two-minute review
HP has been pushing to reach the freelancer and gig-worker market with its new line of productivity laptops, including the HP Dragonfly Pro. This laptop boasts plenty of features that make it appealing to those who rely on their laptop for their career including superior battery life, a thin and light form factor, a powerful CPU for fast performance, and a handy single-press key that connects you with a customer service agent when something goes wrong.
And when these features do work, they work incredibly well. For instance, the battery life will carry you past a full workday easily and takes about an hour to fully charge. Its lightweight and thin body makes it easy to carry around in most laptop bag sizes, and productivity work is a breeze. The camera is also solid, with plenty of webcam features like an auto frame that keeps your face centered, automatic color adjustment, noise removal, and the auto color that lets you choose a color space preset. All for the betterment of your video conference calls.
The HP Dragonfly Pro also has an excellent backlit keyboard with nice wide keys for easy typing and a touchpad that’s very responsive. The touchscreen is sensitive and intuitive to your touch, making for a great alternative way to use your machine – though I imagine most freelancers don’t have that much of a use for it since the idea is to have a more practical laptop. So, even if the port selection is pretty bad, with a whopping three USB Type-C ports and nothing else – hardly suitable for a freelancer who needs this as their main machine, there’s still a lot here to benefit its target market.
This laptop is part of a collaboration between HP and AMD, with the machine outfitted with an AMD Ryzen 7 GPU that makes productivity performance as speedy and efficient as possible. It also has a feature called AMD platform management framework (PMF), which adjusts current performance levels based on usage. It not only makes for a fast and responsive laptop but ensures that your battery life isn’t drained too quickly. The main issue I’ve found with the battery is that when it’s in sleep mode and placed in a bag, the temperature quickly rises, most likely due to the PMF system that regulates it being thrown off.
Of course, the most talked about feature is the enhanced 24/7 support, which can be accessed with a click of a designated key. It offers a wide range of options that include speaking with a live agent directly, and after a certain amount of time of free trial, you can opt to pay for a subscription that continues access to this service. For those who can afford it on top of the price tag for the laptop itself, it’s a great service that eliminates confusing phone menus and online sites, putting you in touch with a live agent immediately.
It’s set to be available in the US, and only in the US. Though the price tags on these machines are a bit hefty, with the 16GB model at $1,399 (around £1,160 / AU$2,110) and the 32GB model costing $1,549 (around £1,285 / AU$2,335). That might be considered an investment for a freelancer, but many can’t afford such prices.
This leads to my next point, that despite my liking this laptop quite a bit, it’s difficult to recommend. That’s not based on my own personal experience but more on issues cropping up with other review laptops. For instance, our sister site Tom’s Guide had numerous problems with overheating and the battery not fully charging. There was also an issue that affected us all, which was the customer care feature not working properly, requiring us to be sent out new test machines. The fact that the three biggest features of this laptop are not working consistently across the board is a huge problem, one that HP will need to fix and soon.HP Dragonfly Pro: Price & availability
Starting at $1,399 (around £1,160 / around AU$2,110)
Available now in the US
The HP Dragonfly Pro will run you $1,399 (around £1,160 / AU$2,110) for the 16GB RAM model, while the 32GB model will cost you $1,549 (around £1,285 / AU$2,335). The problem with the pricing is that it’s approaching Ultrabook pricing without having the premium features or weighing less.
Adding on to this is the 24/7 live customer service, which is free for a year and then is subscription only. Once that kicks in, it adds yet another cost to the laptop. Consider that the target audience for this laptop is freelancers who live on fixed incomes and most likely can’t afford this.
