HP Elite Dragonfly Max: A Complete Review

As home and office workers spend more time connecting and collaborating with colleagues, clients, and acquaintances using their personal PCs, you need systems that can handle the surge in videoconferencing, working, and creating.

In this HP Elite Dragonfly review, we’ll take a look at how this laptop goes beyond expectations to deliver the most advanced collaboration experience in a business convertible with a 5-megapixel camera.

What is the HP Elite Dragonfly notebook PC?

The HP Elite Dragonfly Max officially launched at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2021) as part of our latest portfolio of computing innovations designed to power hybrid work environments. Our goal is to help people create, collaborate, and connect wherever you are.

The HP Dragonfly Elite is specifically built to handle heavy conferencing demands. It delivers an immersive collaboration experience that gives you the freedom to move around the house or around the world, wherever you’re working from today.

Featuring a 5-megapixel camera and four wide-range microphones with artificial intelligence-driven audio software, the HP Elite Dragonfly Max is particularly suited for collaborating online. Optional 5G connectivity provides plenty of bandwidth to connect with coworkers, clients, or friends. And a brilliant EyeSafe-certified display reduces eye discomfort and helps shield you from harmful blue light while you’re working.

The HP Elite Dragonfly family notebooks

The HP Elite Dragonfly series of notebooks blends the best of consumer and business features into premium laptops that are ideal for professionals on the go. These notebooks provide mobility beyond expectation as the world’s lightest compact business convertibles starting at less than 2.2 lbs with a 13.3-inch diagonal touchscreen display. Yet they are also high performing with powerful processors, 4G and 5G connectivity options, and long battery life that starts at 24.5 hours.

The HP Elite Dragonfly notebook PC is part of the world’s most sustainable PC portfolio with integrated recycled materials such as ocean-bound plastics. As a bonus, they are also stylish looking with striking finishes and accents made of a CNC magnesium metallic chassis in eye-catching colors.

How does the HP Elite Dragonfly Max differ from the other models in the family?

Here are a few of the ways that the HP Elite Dragonfly Max differs from the other models in the family:

•    5-megapixel (5 MP) webcam with IR sensor and a manual, mechanical privacy webcam shutter
•    Four wide-range microphones – two of them world-facing – to improve inbound ambient noise cancellation
•    HP Eye Ease, a low blue-light filter to help reduce eye discomfort with an EyeSafe-certified display
•    HP Presence Aware, which uses the system’s proximity sensor to automatically lock or awaken the device.
•    Available in a Sparkling Black color option in addition to Dragonfly Blue

Features and benefits of the HP Elite Dragonfly Max laptop

1. COLLABORATION CAPABILITIES

The HP Elite Dragonfly Max is the system for collaboration. Its 5 MP front-facing camera offers sharp clarity and high resolution to ensure the best visual experience for your video calls, remote meetings, and presentations. That visual experience is complemented by similarly superb audio capabilities. There are four wide-range, 360-degree pickup microphones so that you will be heard loudly and clearly during your conference calls.

2. SUPPRESS BACKGROUND NOISE

These wide-array microphones won’t pick up unwanted sounds, however. They use HP Dynamic Audio to suppress ambient background noise such as traffic, household conversations, dogs barking, or other inside (and outside) noises.

Using AI technology for immersive sound

The HP Dragonfly Elite also includes HP Elite Wireless Earbuds for an immersive sound experience, which apply AI-based technology in HP Sound Calibration. You can calibrate these earbuds to your hearing profile and preferences as well as adjust them to match your specific listening environment, whether you’re at home, in the office, or out and about. They’ll also let you switch seamlessly between devices such as your phone, PC, or Mac.

3. MAKE CONNECTIONS

Collaborate and connect when and where you need to. The HP Elite Dragonfly Max offers the choice of fast 5G wireless broadband, so your office can be practically anywhere you want it to be.

4. PORTABLE, ADAPTABLE DESIGN IN A X360, 2-IN-1 CONVERTIBLE

The HP Elite Dragonfly Max features a flexible yet robust 360-degree design with four versatile modes that let you work the way you need to:

• Laptop – type away using the traditional clamshell design with the display adjacent to the keyboard
• Tablet – take notes, create, design, and draw on the touchscreen display that’s rotated 360 degrees
• Tent – share content, present, and design on the 180-degree flipped display with the keyboard on the opposite side
• Stand – present, watch, or collaborate (hands-free) while the keyboard is tucked underneath

Sustainable, striking design

This notebook uses ocean-bound plastics in the speaker enclosure and display bezel, and the outer box packaging is 100% sustainably sourced. It’s also built with lightweight magnesium with durable yet striking finishes and diamond-cut accents, available in Dragonfly Blue or the new Sparkling Black color.

Work comfortably at the display

The Elite Dragonfly Max's 13.3-inch Full HD (FHD) touchscreen display is both impressively bright at 1000 nits and easy on the eyes – literally. This EyeSafe-certified display features HP Eye Ease, which is an always-on, low-blue-light filter that protects against potentially harmful blue light and minimizes eye discomfort while you’re working at your screen.

5. OUT-OF-THE-BOX SECURITY FEATURES FROM THE BIOS TO THE BROWSER

The HP Elite Dragonfly Max offers security features from HP that work together to help protect your notebook from threats, creating an always-on, always-acting, always resilient defense from the BIOS to the browser.

HP Sure View Reflect

HP Sure View Reflect instantly blocks nosy parkers, and even more nefarious eye-owners, from being able to see your screen from the side. Ensure that your work and information remains visible on screen for your eyes only.

HP Privacy Camera

The 5 MP camera not only allows brilliant clarity, but it also helps protect against unwelcome intrusions. It has a manual privacy shutter that you can physically open and close.

HP Presence Aware

HP Presence Aware is an installed application that uses a proximity sensor to detect human presence or absence based on motion and distance. Your notebook will automatically awaken as you approach or lock as you walk away, when you need it to. So you can log in faster without having to use your camera.

HP Sure Recover

Advanced malware attacks can not only destroy your OS, but they can also disrupt your very business. HP Sure Recover with embedded reimaging offers secure, fast, and automated recovery so that you can quickly get back to business.

Perfect accessories to pair with the HP Elite Dragonfly Max

HP RECHARGEABLE ACTIVE PEN

Use the HP Rechargeable Active Pen to draw, design, create, take notes, and navigate apps on-screen while your notebook is in tablet mode. It allows you to quickly launch apps and shortcuts via customizable button functions and a programmable Bluetooth feature that pairs with frequently used productivity applications.

This helpful accessory is rechargeable – an LED lets you know its charging status – through the device’s USB-C adapter. And if you leave it behind, a digital proximity alert will let you know.

HP WIRELESS PREMIUM KEYBOARD

The Elite Dragonfly Max is equipped with a premium keyboard that is backlit and spill-resistant. But when you want to step away from your desk, the HP Wireless Premium Keyboard offers the perfect option to work from up to 30 ft away from your notebook with a Link-5 USB nano-receiver. This receiver is also a wireless hub for up to four additional Link-5 accessories so you can conserve USB ports on your notebook.

The stylish, anodized aluminum-trimmed keyboard has a slim profile, adjustable angle, and ultra-quiet scissor keys for easy travel and accurate typing. And when your battery is low after all that typing, an LED conveniently alerts you so that you can avoid missed work or downtime.

HP EXECUTIVE 15.6 BACKPACK

Impress your colleagues, clients, or fellow travelers with the HP Executive 15.6-inch backpack. While it boasts lots of room for all your gear and gadgets – including a dedicated compartment for your HP Elite Dragonfly Max laptop – it has a slim profile with easy access to the interior. And when you need to charge on the go, you won’t even need to open the bag thanks to pass-through cable management, an internal pocket for the power bank, and an exterior USB port.

At-a-glance features

Operating system: Windows 10 Pro/Home 64/Windows 10 Pro for business

Processor: 11th Generation Intel Core i7 processor with 4 cores

Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Integrated Graphics

Display: 13.3-inch diagonal anti-glare FHD (1920 x 1080) touchscreen with Corning Gorilla Glass 5, 1000 nits, HP Sure View Reflect Privacy

Memory: 16GB or 32GB LPDDR4X-4266 SDRAM (supports dual channel memory)

Storage: 512GB PCIe NVMe TLC SSD; 1TB PCIe NVMe TLC SSD; 2TB PCIe NVMe TLC SSD

Battery: HP Long Life 4-cell, 56 Wh Li-ion; Fast charging 50% in 30 minutes

External I/O ports: 2 SuperSpeed USB Type-C 5 Gbps signaling rate; 1 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5 Gbps signaling rate; 1 headphone/microphone combo; 1 HDMI 2.0

Dimensions: 11.98 x 7.78 x 0.63 inches (30.43 x 19.75 x 1.61 cm)

Weight: Starting at 2.49 lbs

Summing it up

The HP Elite Dragonfly Max provides a truly immersive, stunning collaboration experience in an ultralight, portable, and adaptable business convertible. It affords you the autonomy you need to work from anywhere, yet provides the business-class features that you have come to expect in HP notebooks.

About the Author: Jolene Dobbin is a contributing writer for HP Tech Takes. Jolene is an East Coast-based writer with experience creating strategic messaging, marketing, and sales content for companies in the high-tech industry.