HP Elite Folio vs. Elite Dragonfly: Comparison by HP

HP Elite Folio vs. Elite Dragonfly: Comparing HP's premium business laptops

HP's Elite series offers premium notebooks aimed primarily at the enterprise audience, offering a good balance of style, performance and security. The company has added a new product to the lineup, the

Elite Folio

, earlier this year, which is one of the best Windows on ARM laptops you can get today, displacing the Surface Pro X. Which brings us to an important question. How does it compare to HP's highest-end business notebook, the Elite Dragonfly? Well, we're about to find out.

HP Elite Folio vs HP Elite Dragonfly: Specs

HP Elite Folio

HP Elite Dragonfly

CPU

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen2 (up to 3.0 GHz burst frequency, 4 MB L3 cache, 8 cores)

Intel Core i3-1115G4

Intel Core i5-1135G7

Intel Core i7-1165G7

Intel Core i7-1185G7

graphic

Qualcomm Adreno 690 graphics card

Intel UHD graphics

Integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics

Body

298.45 × 229.36 × 16 mm (11.75 × 9.03 × 0.63 in)

1.32 kg (2.92 pounds)

304.29 × 197.61 × 16 mm (11.98 × 7.78 × 0.63 in)

Starting at 988g (2.18 pounds)

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13.5 inch WUXGA+ (1920×1280), touchscreen, Corning Gorilla Glass 5, 400 cd/m², low power consumption, 72% NTSC

13.5 inch IPS WUXGA+ (1920×1280) touchscreen, Corning Gorilla Glass 5, 1000 cd/m², Sure View Reflect Privacy

13.3 inch FHD touchscreen (1920×1080), 400 cd/m², Corning Gorilla Glass 5

13.3 inch FHD touchscreen (1920 × 1080), 1000 cd/m², Corning Gorilla Glass 5, HP Sure View Reflect

13.3" 4K UHD touchscreen (3840×2160) with Corning Gorilla Glass 5, 550 cd/m², HDR 400

ports

2x USB Type-C 5 Gbit/s signaling rate (USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4)

1x headphone/microphone combo

1x Nano SIM

2x Thunderbolt 4 with USB4 Type-C

1x USB Type-A 5 Gbit/s

1x headphone/microphone combo

1x HDMI 2.0b

storage

Up to 512GB PCIe NVMe TLC SSD

Up to 2TB PCIe NVMe TLC SSD

R.A.M.

Up to 16GB LPDDR4 4266MHz RAM

Up to 32GB LPDDR4X 4266MHz

battery

HP Long Life 4-cell, 46 Wh Lithium-Ion battery

65W USB Type-C Adapter

2-cell, 38Wh

4 cells, 56 Wh

65 watt power adapter, USB-C port

Audio

Bang & Olufsen quad stereo speakers

Dual array microphones

Audio by B&O

4 premium stereo speakers

World-facing multi-array microphone

keyboard

HP Premium Collaboration Keyboard - Spill-resistant, backlit keyboard

Clickpad with multi-touch gesture support

HP modernized keyboard, spill-resistant, backlit with DuraKeys; glass clickpad, Microsoft Precision Touchpad

HP modernized privacy keyboard, spill-resistant, backlit with DuraKeys; glass clickpad, Microsoft Precision Touchpad

camera

720p HD Hybrid IR Camera

720p HD+IR camera with integrated electronic privacy screen, HP Sure Shutter

connectivity

Qualcomm Atheros 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (2×2) WiFi

bluetooth 5

Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE Cat 16

Intel Dual Band WiFi 6

bluetooth 5

Intel XMM 7360 LTE Enhanced Broadband Wireless (Cat 9)

Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Broadband Wireless (Cat. 20)

Price

Starting at $1,758

Starts at $1,649

Design: The Elite Dragonfly comes with more features

Both the Elite Folio and Elite Dragonfly are top-of-the-line convertible laptops; however, there are some differences in design. The Elite Folio has a pleasing vegan leather finish that wraps around the entire machine Grip. The Elite Dragonfly is a traditional 2-in-1 laptop with a solid magnesium body. It also uses ocean-bound plastic, which is reclaimed plastic that would end up in the ocean, making it a bit more environmentally friendly.

The extra layer of leather on the

Elite Folio

makes it heavier (2.92 pounds vs. 2.18 pounds), but both notebooks offer the same thickness (0.63 inches). Another interesting aspect is how these laptops can change shape. The Elite Dragonfly has two hinges , which you see on most convertible laptops, which allows you to flip the display all the way back and use the laptop in tent mode, media mode, tablet mode, and so on.

The Elite Folio is also able to flex, but instead of a hinge, the top portion that houses the display is attached via the outer leather finish. Instead of folding the display backwards, it offers a pull-forward design.

When it comes to port selection, the Elite Dragonfly has the upper hand, offering two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a full-size USB Type-A port, an HDMI port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The Elite Folio has two USB-C ports (not Thunderbolt) and a headphone jack. The Elite Dragonfly also offers two ways to log into Windows using the IR webcam or the fingerprint scanner. The Folio only offers an optional IR camera, but no fingerprint scanner .

Both laptops have a unique perspective on the design itself, and the Elite Folio is undoubtedly a new approach compared to the Elite Dragonfly's traditional design. However, the Dragonfly is obviously a better choice as it offers many more features than the Folio.

Display: The Elite Dragonfly offers up to 4K resolution

HP offers very similar configurations for the display on the

Elite Folio

and the

Elite Dragonfly

The Folio offers a slightly larger 13.5-inch diagonal 1920×1280 display due to its 3:2 aspect ratio compared to the Dragonfly's 13.3-inch 1080p panel. However, the latter is also in a A sharper 4K UHD option is available with 550nit brightness and HDR400 support. A 4K resolution display will make for sharper images, but it won't be very useful at this size. At the same time, it will end up using more battery to displace those extra pixels.

The displays also offer pen input support, and you get a stylus on both laptops. Between the display and the keyboard, the Elite Folio has a nice garage to store the somewhat flat stylus. On the other hand, the Elite Dragonfly has a rounded, traditional-looking stylus .Remember that there is no storage for the stylus on the Elite Dragonfly and you can only stick it to the top of the laptop with the built-in magnets. You should be able to take notes easily and even create complicated sketches , as you get 4,096 levels of pressure and tilt sensitivity.

Again, the Elite Dragonfly offers solid competition to the Folio, as not only does it offer the same display options, but it can also be configured with a 4K resolution panel, especially if you value a better visual experience over battery life.

Performance: Intel overwhelms ARM

This is where it gets interesting. The Elite Folio is HP's latest laptop powered by an ARM processor, specifically the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen2, which is an octa-core processor capable of going up to 3 GHz. It's one too one of the few ARM-based laptops that come with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD storage.

The Elite Dragonfly is an Intel-based laptop that comes with 11th Gen Tiger Lake options all the way up to the Core i7-1185G7 with up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. It's pretty obvious that the Elite Dragonfly offers a much better performance experience, and then you also have a choice of four SKUs.

For comparison, here is the Geekbench score comparison of the Elite Folio vs

Elite Dragonfly Max

, which is very similar to the Elite Dragonfly with some additional features.

HP Elite Dragonfly Max Core i7-1185G7

HP Elite Folio Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2

Geekbench

1,117 / 3,663

801 / 3,150

However, the Elite Folio is one of the most powerful Windows on ARM laptops to come out in recent years. It manages to outperform the Microsoft Surface Pro X, which was one of the most popular choices.

Because ARM processors are more energy efficient, the Elite Folio delivers better battery performance. On a typical day, you should get close to 10 hours from its 46Wh battery. The Elite Dragonfly has a larger 56Wh battery, but that's enough for the Power hungry Intel processors aren't enough and you can expect between 7-8 hours of battery life. Both laptops offer standard Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 and optional 5G mobile connectivity in terms of connectivity. Speaking of which, check out our list of

best 4G/LTE

and

best 5G laptops

.

bottom line

The HP Elite Dragonfly is a wise choice when we compare it to the Elite Folio.It offers better performance thanks to the more powerful 11th Intel processors.Nevertheless, the Elite Folio is in a league of its own.It has a unique convertible design, a faux leather finish and is one of the few ARM-based laptops that we can actually recommend.

HP Elite Dragonfly G2

The HP Elite Dragonfly is a lightweight premium convertible notebook for business users with the latest 11th generation Tiger Lake processors from Intel.

Buy on HP.com

HP Elite Folio

The HP Elite Folio is a premium convertible laptop from the company and also one of the best Windows machines with an ARM chipset.

Buy on HP.com

If you are looking for a new laptop, you should definitely read our guide on the subject

The best laptops to buy in 2021

.We also have a special list of

best hp laptops

.