HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook now available for $999 with i5, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD

Ben Schoon | Mar 16 2023 - 6:23 am PT

Announced in January at CES 2023, HP has today opened sales of the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, which packs a punch with its spec sheet.

The HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is a machine HP has designed for freelance workers who use ChromeOS – there’s also a Windows-powered version of the same hardware, which starts at $1,399.

This premium laptop is built from a metal chassis, and has a 14-inch 2560×1600 touchscreen display that hits 1,200 nits of brightness, a fingerprint sensor, and more. This machine has the same haptic trackpad we enjoyed on last year’s HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook as well as a backlit keyboard that, as seen at CES, has an RGB mode.

Under the hood, the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is available with just one configuration. An Intel i5 processor (i5-1235U) with Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and a 256GB NVMe SSD for storage. There’s also Wi-Fi 6E support and four USB-C ports for charging and with Thunderbolt 4 support. As far as battery life goes, HP claims 11 hours and 30 minutes from the 51.3Wh battery, which charges 50% in 30 minutes (up to 96W charging).

Rounding out the package, there’s an 8MP camera, four speakers tuned by Bang & Olufsen, and the machine weighs in at 3.33 lb.

The HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is available now and shipping on March 24 from HP.com. Both the black and white color options are available, though initial stock seems like it might be limited.

Buy HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook

9to5Google’s Take

$999 is no small price for a Chromebook, but it’s far better than the pricing on the Elite Dragonfly, and not too far off from competing Chromebooks. Looking at machines with the same Intel i5 processor, prices range from $599 for Acer’s Vero 514 to around $700 for the Asus CX5500 and Acer Chromebook Spin 514. But all three of those machines have half as much RAM and, based on my limited experience, lesser hardware quality.

I’ve been using the HP Dragonfly for the past week or so and have been overall delighted by it so far. Battery life is solid, the keyboard rocks, and the hardware hits the nail right on the head.

For longtime Pixelbook holdouts, this is your upgrade.