Review: HP’s Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is the cream of the ChromeOS crop

Chromebooks are bored with being handled like second-class residents.

Over the past decade, the builders of ChromeOS have tried to evolve the working system with features that might put it more on par with macOS and Home windows. Google has been pushing Chromebooks as enterprise machines, touting the purported simplicity and safety advantages of their pared-down working system.

HP’s new Elite Dragonfly Chromebook represents a ChromeOS system pushed to the boundaries, from its look to its elements.

The laptop computer comes dressed like a few of HP’s most coveted enterprise machines and with as much as a twelfth Gen Intel Core i7 CPU with Intel vPro assist. Efficiency and elegance are in a category notably larger than what many consider after they consider Chromebooks.

However whereas it is appropriate for enterprise customers with easy, web-focused wants alone, its efficiency would not equal Home windows machines in the identical worth vary.

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With guarantees of business-class efficiency, the Elite Dragonfly Chromebook is without doubt one of the most costly Chromebooks accessible, at nicely over $1,000 with maxed-out specs. After all, there are nonetheless Chromebooks accessible for a couple of hundred {dollars}, however with a rising curiosity in pushing Chromebooks as fleet-ready enterprise machines, eventual gaming devices, and ultraportables with versatile type components, there are already a number of Chromebooks within the Dragonfly Chromebook’s elite worth class.

Here is what you will get specs-wise from different expensive Chromebooks when configured equally to our evaluated machine and based mostly on what’s available as of this writing. Observe that our configuration is not a particular SKU however was quite configured on HP.com. Yow will discover the same SKU to my evaluate unit however with a 1920×1280 decision for $1,450.

One of many Dragonfly Chromebooks’ largest claims to fame is its optionally available inclusion of Intel vPro. Amongst Chromebooks, solely the ThinkPad C14 shares this feature. vPro assist helps promote machines to IT departments because it allows remote management of the gadgets.

HP is especially within the stability that the platform guarantees, a spokesperson advised reviewers throughout a briefing. vPro machines are supposed to make use of identical silicon throughout models for so long as the system is offered. HP additionally pointed to vPro’s efficiency requirements and safety perks, notably vPro’s whole reminiscence encryption.

The two-in-1 additionally helps 4G for cellular working. 5G is purportedly coming this fall and would assist the Dragonfly to stand out.

Further safety claims come from Google, which says its read-only OS, verified boot, and blocked executables cut back the necessity for antivirus safety. IT workers also can approve and block apps and extensions, remotely disable or wipe gadgets, and carry out background updates.