CES 2023 First Look: HP’s Dragonfly Pro Chromebook Is…RGB-Enhanced?

As part of its product push during CES 2023, HP has revealed a ChromeOS counterpart to its premium Dragonfly Pro laptop. The Dragonfly Pro Chromebook is a professional-grade portable for business execs and digital content creators who are deep into Google's online ecosystem. It's also the first mainstream Chromebook with a gaming-laptop-style RGB-backlit keyboard.

Detailing the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook

HP hasn't yet shared the price of the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, but it's clearly a high-end model that HP says is aimed at freelance or contract professionals. The chassis, crafted from recycled magnesium and aluminum and available in white or black, holds a 12th Generation Intel Core i5-1235U processor (two Performance cores, eight Efficient cores, 12 threads) with integrated graphics. Backing up the 15-watt CPU are 16GB of memory and a 256GB NVMe solid-state drive.

(Credit: HP)

Describing the Chromebook's ports doesn't take long, because all you'll find are four USB4 Type-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support, with two on either side of the laptop. These will do all heavy lifting in terms of accessory support and charging, though you may need a few adapters to get by (notably a USB-C DisplayPort dongle for an external monitor). Up-to-date wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. HP says the Dragonfly Pro Chromebook boasts an 8-megapixel webcam that should make it a star for video meetings.

The company also boasts that the laptop's 14-inch IPS touch screen is the brightest yet seen on a Chromebook, delivering up to 1,200 nits of luminance and showing 100% of the sRGB color gamut. The display provides 2,560-by-1,600-pixel resolution.

The First RGB Backlit Keyboard on a Mainstream Chromebook

However, there's something about the Dragonfly Pro's keyboard that makes us love the screen even more: its RGB backlighting tuned to the primary screen color. Recent gaming Chromebooks from Acer, Asus, and Lenovo were the first to feature RGB keyboards, but the HP is the first mainstream or productivity-focused Chromebook to have one.

We can't speak to the keyboard's typing feel or the unit's overall build quality, because the system we saw at a pre-CES demo was a pre-production unit. But it did flaunt the kicky feature codeveloped by HP and Google: the keys' backlighting syncs to the hue of the background wallpaper, glowing green, for example, if the desktop shows a mostly green image.

(Credit: HP)

AI-powered RGB backlighting doesn't exactly count as a revolutionary boost in productivity, but it's certainly fun to have and a trend we'd love to see take hold. More RGB for everyone!

The Dragonfly Pro Chromebook experience is sustained by all-day battery life—HP estimates its unplugged runtime at around 11 and a half hours. If you're a contract professional and spend your day in Google Workspace, you should safely get through a full workday plus an evening of streaming entertainment. Like the Windows Dragonfly Pro, the ChromeOS model supports HP's fast charging, promising to go from an empty battery to 50% capacity in just half an hour. It sounds like it's going to be hard to run out of battery life with this Chromebook, but we'll be the judge of that when we get a production unit in hand.

Impressive and Flashy, But Will It Serve a Need?

We're impressed by our first look at the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook; it's a handsome system with cutting-edge connectivity, plenty of performance, a superior screen, and a cute keyboard gimmick. Admittedly, we're not sure how many freelance and contract professionals have joined the growing number of corporate IT managers choosing Chromebooks for business, especially at what's likely to be a premium price, but stay tuned for our full review this spring.