For us announcement and practical posts about the upcoming HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, we discuss the specs and talk a little about what it’s really like to use this beautiful Chromebook for a while. As long as that’s okay, what I really wanted to say all along is this Dragonfly looks like the first legit Pixelbook-style Chromebook we’ve ever owned. Let me explain.
I’ve written a lot about Pixelbooks, why they’re special, and why do we need another manufacturer to step in if google has exited the chromebook market for now. To clarify, they never said they won’t ever make another Pixelbook, but it’s become clear that won’t happen until the need arises again. For now, the market is maturing, great devices are being released by partner OEMs, and Google isn’t exactly interested in competing with any of them.
I’m pretty confident that Google is unlikely to return to the Pixelbook until it’s needed. Also, I feel confident saying that, until now, no manufacturer has achieved the same high quality attention to detail in a Chromebook as Pixelbooks have in the past. In the end, it’s not about big specs; it’s the last 10% that smoothes the edges and takes a laptop from great to great. The Chromebook Pixels, Pixelbook and Pixelbook Go did this like no other.
High-end Chromebooks almost lost
While many of us yearn for another Pixelbook to have a new Chromebook with the fit and finish that only seems to come from Google’s original hardware, the truth is, we all just wish somebody to step up and deliver it. Time and time again, we advertise Chromebooks that are full of promise, full of specs, and when they arrive, something is missing.
ASUS Chromebook CX9 is a perfect example of this phenomenon. When it was announced, we all thought it would end up being one of the best Chromebooks ever built. When it arrived it simply failed to live up to the spec sheet and ended up providing a great experience completely devoid of personality or fine-tuning. It was proof positive that a great Chromebook takes more than throwing your kitchen sink into a laptop.
The same can be said for the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook; a device that felt like the proper successor to the Pixelbook we’ve been waiting for. In just a few minutes at CES 2020, I felt that device was ready to take up the mantle as the new king of Chromebooks, only to be sorely disappointed when it arrived at the office. Battery life was atrocious, it got too hot, and certain parts of the admittedly beautiful hardware felt ignored and not fully thought out. Again, it had all the right parts, but they weren’t put together in a way that felt special.
Finally, a refined high-class non-Google Chromebook
While our limited time with the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook isn’t enough to make me absolutely certain of this, I finally think we could have a proper Pixelbook-class Chromebook in our hands this time around. It’s impossible to know for sure, but picking up the Dragonfly Pro at CES 2023, browsing it for a few minutes and simply holding it in my hands, I was immediately taken back to the first time I held the Pixelbook Go.
Sure, it has all the specs you want, the screen is incredibly bright, and the speakers sound amazing, but the real proof comes when you hold a Chromebook in your hands. As we’ve seen with past Pixelbooks, Microsoft’s Surface lineup, and Macbooks, you know quality and attention to detail when you feel them in your hand. This Dragonfly Pro Chromebook does.
Last year’s original HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook wanted have it, but missed the mark. It’s a great Chromebook; don’t get me wrong. But using that Chromebook versus the original Pixelbook or Pixelbook Go is just not the same. Once again, the HP Elite Dragonfly has everything you could want on paper, but it needed the final 10% to achieve the indefinable characteristics we see in the Pixelbook or Pixelbook Go.
From what we can deduce, HP learned from that device, worked closely with Google, and built something pretty special into the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook this time around. While it may show up at the office in the coming weeks and not live up to the memory I have of CES 2023, my gut tells me that HP has finally got it.
As we’re finally seeing more attention to detail on affordable Chromebooks here in 2023, it seems the same is also true in the high end. If delivered in the end, the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook will finally achieve something that has yet to be done by anyone other than Google in this market, and it will be truly amazing to use. Why this has been so elusive up until this point is a mystery to me, but I’m glad to see we can finally get over the hurdle. And if we do, hopefully it means we’ll see other manufacturers follow suit. If that means we won’t see another Pixelbook because of this, then I’m completely fine with that too.
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