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HP Dragonfly G4 Review: A Hybrid Worker’s Delight

HP Dragonfly G4 Review_ A Hybrid Worker’s Delight

The News: I recently had the opportunity to test the HP Dragonfly G4 clamshell notebook, which is targeted at hybrid workers needing a device that is powerful and has excellent collaboration features, connectivity, and security options. Read more about the HP Dragonfly G4.

HP Dragonfly G4 Review: A Hybrid Worker’s Delight

Analyst Take: I recently had the chance to demo the HP Dragonfly G4 notebook, which is designed for hybrid workers looking for a system offering excellent power, battery life, camera, security, and connectivity, and is designed with sustainability in mind to promote a circular economy.

Hybrid Worker Types: Across All Verticals and Job Functions

Although there are hundreds of hybrid worker types, I would highlight just a few that are good targets for the HP Dragonfly G4 notebook, out of hundreds of functions that are expected to grow much faster than the US average. These job functions include market research analysts, insurance agents, financial advisors, paralegals and assistants, property appraisers, and others that are often in the field visiting clients, patients, or conducting market research.

HP Dragonfly G4 Review.Hybrid-Worker

A common thread among these job functions is they often strike a balance between being in the office and on the road, are highly collaborative, and require the ability to cancel out unwanted noises and distractions to maintain professionalism on calls. A key for many of these job functions is dealing with highly-sensitive information where extra security precautions are needed. Another commonality among these functions is many will often have multiple web browser tabs open, more than a typical employee – for purposes of conducting research, analyzing data, creating research documents, designing presentations with heavy graphics, and much more. In fact, it is not uncommon for market research professionals to have 15 to 30 tabs open at once when they are researching or writing. Similarly, many paralegals are frequently on the phone with clients or witnesses, researching case law for the attorneys and creating highly graphical presentations or illustrations that are presented in the courtroom via interactive whiteboards (IWBs), document cameras, or overhead projectors. Many attorneys are increasing their use of more advanced graphical presentations in the courtroom to make it easier for the jury to understand the presented evidence, very much akin to a management consultant presenting a summary slide to a board of directors.

HP Dragonfly G4 Review.Hybrid-Jobs

HP Dragonfly G4: Packed with Power and Intelligence

The HP Dragonfly G4 has excellent horsepower and intelligence under the hood. The one I am reviewing is outfitted with an Intel 13 Generation (Raptor Lake) Intel Core i7 1365U CPU targeted at higher-end mobile devices in the thin and light category. The Intel Core i7 1365U has a total of 10 cores consisting of 2 P-Cores, 8 E-cores, and 12 supported threads (making multitasking a breeze).

The CPU has a Max Turbo frequency of 5.20 GHz, a Performance-core Max Turbo Frequency of 5.20 GHz, and an Efficient-core Max Turbo Frequency of 3.90 GHz. The HP Dragonfly G4 also comes with Intel’s Iris Xe Graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR 5 RAM, and 512 GB of solid-state storage.

During the review, I had the HP Dragonfly G4 running more than 50 browser tabs, music streaming, and crunching data in Microsoft Excel, to name a few. From a performance perspective, my impression is the device did not miss a beat when performing these functions, which should resonate with the power user crowd. Also, from a battery life perspective, the HP Dragonfly G4 comes with a 68wh battery, which lasted more than 20 hours with video playback, outperforming many of its rivals during the benchmarking process.

The device is outfitted with HP Smart Sense, which intelligently optimizes the device’s PC power and thermal performance based on the user’s usage, an important capability for hybrid workers. As an example, the device can detect whether the notebook is in the user’s lap and intelligently adjusts its mode to a cooler setting, which is great for those who may be more sensitive to heat. HP made the HP Smart Sense settings the default mode for the devices, offering the users better performance.

From an acoustic perspective, the HP Dragonfly 4 is exceptionally quiet. In balanced mode, the device was 27 decibels and 33 decibels in best performance mode, which outperformed the bulk of rival devices during the benchmark. Remember, 10 decibels are equivalent to a pin dropping, 20 decibels are equivalent to rustling leaves, and 30 is equivalent to a whisper or soft music. In essence, the device is very quiet.

HP Dragonfly G4: Collaboration, Connectivity, and Inclusivity

From a collaboration and connectivity perspective, the HP Dragonfly G4 also has excellent features and performed exceptionally well in multiple situations, whether it was being used indoors or outdoors. The HP Dragonfly G4 comes with a 13.5-inch WUXGA+ 1920 x 1280-pixel display and has 400 nits of brightness, which I thought was more than suitable for outdoor activity in brighter areas such as working on a park bench, patio, or at a football, baseball, or soccer game. For low-lighted areas, the device is perfect.

For employees that do a considerable amount of web conferencing, the HP Dragonfly G4 also comes with a 5-megapixel web camera (like the prior generation) that includes providing an excellent collaboration experience regardless of whether the user is in low-light or high-lighted conditions. The camera includes an 88-degree field of view.

The device also has port and starboard edge microphones at the top of the PC with audio enhancements that include HP AI-based noise reduction 2.0 and HP Dynamic Voice Leveling, allowing you to be heard even when you move away from the PC. The device performed very well for purposes of pruning unwanted noises such as a fire engine, a dog barking, or crumbing a bag of chips while on the call. For job functions that include serious calls with patients or clients, this is a key capability.

On the video enhancement front, the HP Dragonfly G4 also includes the HP Appearance Filter, HP Background Adjustment (blurring), and HP Auto Frame, making the collaboration experience more equitable for everyone on the call. HP announced three new features for video enhancement: multi-camera experience, Auto Camera Select, and HP Keystone Correction.

With auto-camera selection, you may be using your integrated 5-megapixel camera on the HP Dragonfly G4, but if you have an additional external camera attached to your workstation, with auto-camera selection, if you move away from your integrated 5-megapixel camera, auto-camera selection will shift to the camera that you are in front of automatically. A few examples of where this is useful is when you have two large displays and move to the monitor with the other camera, and it automatically shifts to you. A great use case is when a physician moves to another monitor and explains the results of an X-ray to you remotely. On some occasions, hospitals will take X-rays and use an overseas radiologist.

Another great feature addition is the HP Keystone Correction, which allows the second camera (e.g., Poly Studio P5) to focus on an object and isolate it via manual keystone. A good example of this is when a math, English, or science teacher is teaching remotely and using the functionality of a document camera in a classroom. Also, the multi-camera feature allows you to merge both cameras, allowing you to put your face in a small square on a screen.

From a product design perspective, the chassis is like the prior generation. From a port configuration perspective, the HP Dragonfly 4 has two USB-C (Thunderbolt 4) charging ports on the port and starboard side, one USBA 3.2 Gen 1 charging port, and one 3.5 mm audio jack/microphone combo, one HDMI 2.1 port, one Nano SIM card reader, and a Nano lock slot. For users who are frequently moving around from workspace to workspace (e.g., home, hot desk, coffee shop, etc.), the ability to charge on either side is great since desktop configurations or charging areas are often different at different locations. In fact, on many occasions at industry conferences or airports, you will often find a table that can fit three to four people on each side and one or two outlets. There have been many occasions where the power outlet was too far away to reach, impeding my ability to recharge the device. This approach contrasts with HP’s rivals, such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 and the Dell Latitude 7340 (Ultralight), which have two Thunderbolt 4 connectors on their left sides only.

From an internet connectivity front, the device includes wireless LAN and wireless WAN with Wi-Fi 6e, coupled with 5G cellular connectivity, which is great for users on the road or living in areas that are more prone to natural disasters or power outages. In fact, where I live, there have been many instances where blackouts have occurred, taking out the WLAN and then using cellular connectivity for backup. A key trend that we have witnessed is that more employees have moved to more rural areas where housing affordability is much more favorable, but many have dealt with power outages. Thus, 5G connectivity is the perfect backup for those situations when you are on a conference call with a client.

Sustainability: Yes, It Matters

From a sustainability and circular economy perspective, HP continues to seek ways of ensuring it is doing what it can to help mitigate e-waste, single-use plastics, and more by using alternative materials. Having sustainability in mind when designing products continues to be at the forefront of younger and older generations alike.

The Dragonfly G4 carries over previous sustainability work from the prior generation, which includes 90% recycled magnesium by weight, its keycap has 90% recycled plastic from DVDs, its speaker enclosure contains 5% ocean-bound plastics, and the outer box and packaging is 100% sustainably sourced.

New to the HP Dragonfly G4, the company continues to add new elements to the device that are less harmful to the environment. HP uses more than 35% of indium in its display and is also working with those suppliers to make the indium mining process much more environmentally friendly by removing indium from the wastewater. The display bezel on the HP Dragonfly G4 contains more than 35% recycled materials or bio circulars such as used cooking oil to help lower CO2 emissions.

Overall, I am impressed by the HP Dragonfly G4 notebook and think its new features will resonate with hybrid workers looking for a solution that has excellent power, connectivity, inclusivity, intelligence, and sustainability in mind. Although there are hundreds of examples of job functions that the device will resonate with, the HP Dragonfly G4 should delight knowledge workers who are on the go, are heavy multi-taskers, and need a device that is powerful, light, and can stay connected wherever they are.

Disclosure: The Futurum Group is a research and advisory firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this article. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this article.

Analysis and opinions expressed herein are specific to the analyst individually and data and other information that might have been provided for validation, not those of The Futurum Group as a whole.

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Image Source: HP

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