HP Partners with Sprint, Tile for New 5G Elite Dragonfly Commercial Laptop

HP will preview the first upgrade of its Elite Dragonfly, the 2.2-pound commercial convertible 2-in-1 mobile PC conspicuous for its unique navy-blue color, at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The second version of the HP Elite Dragonfly, set to ship this summer, will support 5G wireless WAN connectivity, initially from Sprint, and it is the first laptop that will include embedded location services from Tile.

The HP Elite Dragonfly, introduced in September, just started shipping in volume in late October. While the inaugural version offers 4G LTE connectivity, the new version will come with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X55 LTE+5G modem. HP also is upgrading the CPU with Intel’s latest 10^th Generation Core processor and an option for vPro security. The current Elite Dragonfly has an 8^th Gen Core processor with gigabit class 4×4 LTE antenna providing enhanced 4G WWAN connectivity.

HP’s Cory McElroy

“This is going to allow for significant improvements in performance in connectivity building upon the security that comes from an always connected device,” said Corey McElroy, HP’s head of premium commercial notebook product management and marketing, speaking during a pre-CES press briefing. McElroy said HP has partnered with Sprint, making it the initial go-to-market carrier for providing 5G services with the new Elite Dragonfly.

“This is really our foundational carrier partnership that we’re announcing,” he said. “We looked at the carrier landscape and really felt a strong connection with Sprint’s focus from the build-out across SMB and enterprise, and we’re driving the Dragonfly product.”

McElroy added that the partnership is not exclusive.

“We will continue to build carrier relationships and partnerships throughout 2020, so stay tuned,” he said.

In addition to aligning with Sprint, HP has formed a partnership with Tile, which claims its namesake location chips are attached to 27 million keychains, wallets and handbags, among other personal belongings, to help find them when they are lost. Tile said the HP Elite Dragonfly will be the laptops embedded with its wireless locators.

While Tiles use Bluetooth to communicate location, if it’s out of the owner’s range, it uses peer-to-peer connectivity with other Tile devices that are in proximity of the lost item.

“We’ve created the largest community powered finding platform,” said C.J. Prober, Tile’s CEO, who attended the HP pre-CES briefing. Prober said Tile’s go forward-strategy is to embed tile into third party products.

“If you think about the opportunity around laptops, there’s a billion or so laptops coming to market over the next five years and if you think about the nature of a laptop, it’s high value,” Prober added. “If you lose it, not only is it expensive, but it’s a massive calamity in your life. With the information that’s on there, replacing it is a huge problem. So laptops were a huge priority vertical for us to address.”

The Tile capability will be available for HP existing Elite Dragonfly models starting in February and the new 5G-enabled ones set to ship this summer.

The HP Dragonfly also introduces a new version of HP’s Sure View privacy screens. HP Sure View Reflect will let users activate privacy mode with a keyboard command.

Building on HP’s Sustainability initiative and the fact that the HP Elite Dragonfly includes components in the speaker assemblies that are made from recycled materials, the updated model will up the ante on that initiative. Specifically, 82% of its mechanical components will be manufactured with recycled components, the keyboard will be made from 50% recycled DVDs and 90% of chassis will be made from recycled magnesium.