New HP Elite Dragonfly laptops launch at CES 2021, make working from home easy

You only have to look at T3's best lightweight laptops guide to see that, when it comes round to business systems, the HP Elite Dragonfly is one of the absolute finest choices on the market today.

Indeed, in our lightweight laptops guide we state the HP Elite Dragon Fly is "the best laptop for business users" and praise its excellent screen, long-lasting battery life and professional looks. We also agree that it is one of the best laptops for working from home.

Well, now that system has just been upgraded by HP for 2021, and offered up in two flavors, the Elite Dragonfly G2 as well as Elite Dragonfly Max.

Both the HP Elite Dragonfly G2 and Dragonfly Max come with 13.3-inch screens as well as 11th Gen Intel Core processors, with everything from an i3 up to an i7 available. In terms of RAM both systems can be configured up to 32GB, too, and storage options are spacious, with up to 2TB of M.2 SSD space available.

In terms of ports, both systems also share two USB Type-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, a USB 3.1 charging port, a HDMI 1.4b port, as well as a Nano SIM slot.

The actual differences between the Elite Dragonfly G2 and Elite Dragonfly Max come in terms of display, webcam and mics.

So, while both systems comes with HP's privacy-preserving angle tinting, the G2 system can be equipped with either a FHD or a UHD resolution display, while the Max is only available with a FHD, 1920 x 1080 screen. Technically, therefore, the G2 has the potential to be higher specced in terms of screen – we're not sure why you'd want a 13.3-inch 4K screen, but you can get it if you want.

Where the Max takes home the specs gold medal, though, is in terms of its webcam and microphone setup. While the G2 variant of the Elite Dragonfly has a 1.2-megapixel webcam, the Dragonfly Max has a 5-megapixel one, and also four wide-array microphones for clearer audio in calls.

As you would expect from two laptops that are so geared around portability, both the G2 and Max are 5G-enabled, meaning that you can guarantee a faster than Wi-Fi connection if you sign up with a partner network.

Overall then, both these new HP Elite Dragonfly laptops look like rock solid upgrades over last year's debut model and, considering that system bagged 5 stars on review, it's hard not to think that one or even both of G2 and Max will follow suit.

They also seem very on trend in terms of the current working from home reality for many business professionals, with the system prioritising things like webcam, mic and battery life quality.

Of course, though, how these systems will be received will depend on what each system retails for, which right now remains a mystery.

However, considering that the original model is still retailing for, at base spec, over $1,600, we're guessing both with still be a princely proposition. As soon as we hear more we'll let you know.

• For great performance on a budget consider one of the best student laptops