Earlier this week, I reported on the first price seen for the HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook. I thought the $2,165 price tag represented something akin to the highest-end configuration. Boy was I wrong. Like really wrong. You can now configure and order this 13.5-inch convertible Chromebook, and when I did, I saw that the $2,165 cost was almost the lowest configuration. So you can now order an HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook but be prepared for major sticker shock and a long wait.
Just to illustrate this situation, here’s what you get for just over two grand:
- An Intel Core i3-1215U CPU with Intel UHD graphics
- 8 GB of memory
- 256 GB of NVME M.2 storage
- A 1080p touch display with 400 nits of brightness
- Backlit keyboard and haptic trackpad
- HP digital pen
- WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2
- Integrated fingerprint sensor
- 50 Whr battery and 45W power adapter
Overall, this is a really nice package. It’s not, however, even close to what a mid-spec or top-tier configuration will cost you.
Want to jump up to an Intel Core i5-1235U and get the Intel Iris Xe GPU for Steam support? That’s $153. But if you want 16 GB of memory with that Core i5, it will cost you $452 more. That’s partially because the CPU jumps up to a 1245U and includes Intel vPro support. And at that point, you’re looking at paying $2,627.
I was hesitant to see what a Core i7 upgrade costs but curiosity got the better of me.
It’s a $746 upgrade over the base model to get a Core i7-1265U processor which also includes a memory upgrade to 16 GB. That’s a $2,971 Chromebook for those without a calculator. And that’s not even the top end. You can jump to 32 GB of memory for an additional cost although I doubt many will do so.
As I noted earlier this week, this is still an “enterprise” branded Chromebook.
There are supposed to be consumer models as well with similar configurations, although they probably won’t include any vPro support. It’s not something a consumer likely needs. That and the fact that a Chrome Enterprise license isn’t needed for a consumer device should bring lower price points.
But how much lower if they’re going to have 12th-gen Intel CPUs and a minimum of 8 GB of memory? They’d have to be at least a thousand dollars lower on a relatively like-for-like basis to make any dent in the consumer market beyond Chrome OS power users.
So you can order an HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook now but… I wouldn’t.
Even if you do, all of the delivery dates are currently out to October of this year. Those are subject to change but that’s what HP is showing right now. Let’s hope those change and we see some much lower prices for consumer models. I’m still dubious about that.
11 Comments
For enterprise, you have to rule out gaming as a viable justification. So, the user of one of these would have to be a very serious database app developer that had a need to use a single machine to work on Web apps, Linux apps, and Windows apps, with some Android apps thrown in for grins.
Maybe they priced in the massive real world inflation the world is going through.
Or maybe it’s just HP being HP and just want to milk a few people who don’t care about price so much. HP is the new IBM “no one ever got sacked for buying IBM” the old saying went.
There’s a reason the top spec selling Chromebooks have been Google made i.e Google took a low profit to sell chrome OS more generally or Acer who are always more competitive. HP are used to selling ink that costs more than gold after all.
The idea of Chromebooks being cheaper laptops was always a con in my mind. Ok low spec ones were fast and so cheap, but it’s a new OS, new OS / software is always faster for the first few years. Just look at Chrome on Windows as an example, it’s nowhere near as efficient as once was even though they keep saying they found was to make it more efficient. Same with Windows every new version is supposedly X% faster but it never is in reality.
The “blank sheet” / fresh start engineering advantage days are over for Chrome OS, you need good hardware these days and the hardware makers are going to make you pay for it.
I wonder if this is HP’s response to the Mac Studio Launch a couple of weeks ago featuring the M2-Plus-XSquared-FoldsYourLaundry Chip set.
The price is one thing, but pay today for an October delivery seems a bit out there to me.
I’m in for $3168. Yikes.
$3121 for the top-of-the-line 32/512 GB, 4K edition. Ouch!
Can you double check with HP to make sure that a non-Enterprise consumer model is truly coming?
Otherwise, I’m sticking with the old Pixelbook a while longer…
This is too much for its asking price.
I have used Chromebooks with 4gb and they work. 32g and 12 gen. That’s almost as pricey as their omen gaming series.
I was seriously considering replaceing my 2017 Pixelbook because the battery health after almost 1300 cycles is 50-60 percent. I did get the 16gb 512gb I7 version and it was a whopping 1600 dollars when I got it. I just ordered a new battery for it because the cost is increasing to quickly on anything with a decent amount of ram and ssd storage….. So another 2-4 years on the old thing..
These prices are the reason companies like IBM went out of business and HP will follow suite.
For $2400, I can get a significantly better MacBook Pro and just load Chrome on it – yes, there’s no touch screen and it’s not the same thing but at idiotic prices like these – they become the worse – acceptable competition – most people I know don’t use the touchscreen extensively.
Or, for $1200, pick up a fully loaded consumer-grade Lenovo machine that’s going to outspec this by 2x and load Google’s version of Cloudready on it for ChromeOS ?
I think you are correct on both devices/ I only run Chrome OS/Android, but as a consumer, anything above 2.5K is just too much for my blood.