HP Dragonfly Folio G3: The luxurious business hybrid 2-in-1

HP created a masterpiece with the HP Dragonfly Folio G3 that would inspire Hephaestus, thanks to its beautiful, elegant design and outstanding engineering. The Folio G3 is what happens when someone combines tasteful elegance with transformative engineering while addressing the changing work environment of a pandemic-rattled business world. With its perfected ergonomics, this hybrid, spirited business laptop is up to the task. but depending on your budget, you may balk at its starting price of $2,379. 

When you add the sturdy pull-forward display design, and one of the best webcam and mic setups available, this Dragonfly Folio G3, 2-in-1’s ability to go from laptop to tablet is hard to beat. 

Without a doubt, I can say that the HP Dragonfly Folio G3 is one of the best business laptops of 2022, but read on to find out if it’s the right choice for you.

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 price and configurations

The HP Dragonfly Folio G3 I tested ($2,749) has a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1265U CPU, integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 13.5-inch (1920 x 1080-pixel) touchscreen display. 

The base model G3 starts at $2,379 and features the same display, RAM, webcam, and stylus, but steps down to a 256GB SSD, and  a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1245U processor. 

If you want to custom order the absolute top of the line through HP, things get a little wild. This model includes an Intel Core i7-1265U vPro CPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB 4x4 NVMe TLC SSD, Intel 5G, and a 13.5-inch BrightView OLED (3000 x 2000-pixel) touchscreen display. All for the sum of $4,814 direct through HP.

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 design

Where do I even start? HP pulled out all the stops when they designed the Dragonfly Folio G3. Like a fine meal prepared at a Michelin Star restaurant, the experience begins with its luxurious appearance. The gentle texture of the soft faux leather lid seems to caress the hand. Inviting you to open it as others look on with envy. It reminded me of when a friend saw me dining inside a fine restaurant, and I knew they were jealous.

The Folio G3 is as flexible as a contortionist, allowing you to transform it into numerous postures. Do you just want to stay in clamshell mode and type up a few reports? Perhaps you want to pull the display forward and write some notes (or take part in a video conference)?

Maybe you just want to use it as a tablet and use the stylus to make annotations — the options feel endless.

The Folio’s 13.5-inch, 16:10 aspect ratio display, paired with a Chiclet-style backlit black keyboard lying flat before you like a co-conspirator ready to help you write the best memo ever, appears to be much larger than its on-paper specs. It’s all clean lines and elegant white fonts as you look above to find the webcam centered seamlessly within the thin edge of the display. A chromed-out HP logo at the bottom of the display adds some subtle style.

Like a fine marathon runner, the Dragonfly Folio G3 appears to be slim, but up close, its physique is finely muscled and looks to be cut from a single slab of stone. 

The G3 measures 11.7 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches and weighs 3.1 pounds (but it feels like it weighs less than that). In comparison, the lightest member of our group is the Folio’s sibling, the Elite Dragonfly G3, which comes in at 11.7 x 8.7 x 0.64, weighing 2.2 pounds. The Dell Latitude 9430 arrives at 3.2 pounds and measures 12.2 x 8.5 x 0.5 inches. The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio rounds us out at a hefty 4 pounds and measures 12.7 x 9 x 0.75.

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 ports

The HP Dragonfly Folio G3 being ultraportable means it is light on ports, but it covers the basics.

On the left, you’ll find two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a combo audio jack, and that is all she wrote.  If you need more connectivity options you can turn to either a laptop docking station or a USB-C hub.

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 security

To cover your security needs, HP has a push-button security shutter/camera off feature for the webcam. That same webcam is IR capable and allows you to set up Windows Hello facial recognition software for easy, secure login.

HP’s Wolf Security suite also provides a secured and layered resiliency from hardware to cloud while cruising the internet, hopping from one WiFi connection to another, or even using the optional 4G LTE or 5G connectivity.

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 display

The 13.5-inch, 1920 x 1280-pixel resolution touch display of the Folio G3 is vivid, bright, and crystal clear. The G3’s display produces warm saturated colors with crispy text that would make crackers jealous. The sharp display helps when you’re editing documents for hours on end in Google Workspace or Microsoft Office. It also helps give you pinpoint accuracy when you’re using the stylus on the Folio G3.

The stunning neon cityscape of Tokyo serves as the rich background tapestry for the film Bullet Train as we find Brad Pitt chatting on his cell phone. The Dragonfly’s display reproduced the colorful backdrop accurately, and warmly giving the moving imagery the depth intended by its director.

Either pulled forward or tented, this display is excellent for binge watching your favorite TV shows or enjoying hours of video content while traveling. 

We measured the Dragonfly Folio G3’s display with a colorimeter, and it covered 80.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is beneath the premium laptop average of 87.7%. The Dell Latitude 9430 led our group covering 92.4%. The Elite Dragonfly trailed behind with a score oft 80.2%; the Surface Laptop Studio followed with a score of 75.8%. 

The Folio’s display scored 332 nits of brightness, placing it at the bottom of our group and below the category average of 428 nits of brightness. The Latitude 9430 and Surface Laptop Studio blew past the average with 498 and 487 nits, respectively, with the Elite Dragonfly G3 coming in at 370 nits

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 audio

I don’t know how they pulled it off but the Dragonfly Folio G3’s quad-speaker system is fantastic, thanks, in part, to its discrete amps featuring HP’s Immersive Audio 2.0. Whether listening to the thumpy bass lines of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Her” or while watching Bullet Train, the G3 filled my tiny studio with loud, crisp clear audio that had excellent depth and bassline reproduction of high and mid tones. The audio experience is rich and enjoyable — a testament to its excellent design. 

During Google Meet and Zoom calls, the top edge mics use HP’s Dynamic voice leveling and HP Ai-based noise canceling to provide an excellent experience that allows users to even walk away from the G3 without experiencing audio quality loss. Even a few feet away you will sound as if you have remained seated in front of the Folio.

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 keyboard and touchpad

HP’s backlit keyboard is perfectly bouncy, with smooth travel between keystrokes that is discretely clicky. I found that my massive mango smashers (er, I mean my fingers) enjoyed typing on the G3. During the 10FastFingers.com test, I scored 91 words per minute while averaging 94% accuracy. My typical average is 88 wpm with 91% accuracy, so I was slightly above my normal range.

The G3s touchpad is centrally located right beneath the keyboard and is super responsive and clicky. The 4.6 x 3.2 touchpad is quite large and easily handled all my Windows 11 gestures, including two-finger scrolling and pinch-to-zoom. 

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 performance

The HP Dragonfly Folio G3 comes with a 12th Gen Intel Core i7-1265U CPU with Intel integrated Iris Xe Graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. I jumped right into things and popped open Google Chrome to crank out some documents in Workspace. I tried to slow it down with 40 tabs in Google Chrome, five of which played YouTube videos simultaneously. I then launched a few Google Docs, a couple for images and the other for a PDF I wanted to edit. I did my best to bog it down and tried to cause it to freeze or bottleneck, but it never happened. The Folio G3’s performance was smooth, cool and steady, which is what business users are seeking. 

In our Geekbench 5.4 overall performance test, the G3 scored 6,879, which surpassed the premium laptop average of 5.977. The Latitude 9430 (Intel Core i7-1265U) tallied the best mark of the group at 7,730. The Folio’s brand sibling, the Elite Dragonfly (Intel Core i7-1265U CPU), notched a score of 6,501.The Surface Laptop Studio (Intel Core i7-11370H) landed in last place with a lousy score of 5,820. 

During the HandBrake video transcoding test, which tests how fast a laptop can convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution, the Folio G3 took 11 minutes and 16 seconds to complete the task, which is below the category average of 10 minutes and 2 seconds.On the plus side, the Folio G3 outpaced its competitors. The Surface Laptop Studio landed in second place (11:24). The Latitude 9430 and Elite Dragonfly G3 fell further behind at 12:59 and 13:09, respectively.. 

The 512GB SSD in the Folio G3 only averaged 674.5 megabytes per second (MBps) during our file transfer test, which came in below the category average of 1,165.6 MBps. The Elite Dragonfly (512 SSD) led our group averaging 1,157.23 MBps, with the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio (1TB SSD) following at 1,051.2 MBps. The Latitude 9430 (512GB SSD) snuck in the back door with 661 MBps and closed things out.

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 graphics

We tested the Folio G3’s integrated graphics using Sid Meier’s Civilization VI benchmark in 1080p. Our review unit scored 40 frames per second, six frames per second behind the 46 fps category average. The Surface Laptop Studio led our potent group by averaging 66 fps, with the Dragonfly G3 following up with an average of 25 fps and the Dell finishing us off at just 19 frames per second. 

We booted up the Time Spy benchmark on the Folio G3 and it scored 1,588, which is below the average of 2,600. The Surface owned this handily, scoring 5,066, followed by the Dell Latitude at 1,660. The HP Elite Dragon G3 scored 1,512 during this benchmark.

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 battery life

During our Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness, the Dragonfly Folio G3 lasted 9 hours and 36 minutes. Sadly, this fell below the category average of 10 hours and 43 minutes. So you are getting more than an eight hour work day, but it’s well below what we like to see from a premium business laptop.

The HP Elite Dragonfly G3 led our group with a runtime of 14 hours and 20 minutes. ; the Latitude 9430 came in second (12:40) followed by the Surface Laptop Studio (10:42). 

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 heat

During our heat test, which involves playing a 15-minute 1080p video, the Dragonfly Folio G3 was a pretty cool customer with its underside reaching just 92 degrees Fahrenheit. The keyboard hit 87 degrees between the G&H keys and the touchpad reached a relatively  cool 79 degrees. 

The keys and touchpad temperatures are below our 95-degree comfort threshold, even the underside score is just a touch below. While watching movies and working on other tasks, I rarely heard the fans come on. 

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 webcam

The 8MP camera on this Folio G3 is impressive with a 100-degree field-of-view that makes it easy for another teammate to join on screen if you’re collaborating in person. I found that HP’s auto-frame technology always kept me in the frame — even when I would get up and move around. 

The 8MP camera produces crisp, well-lit and color-accurate selfies and FHD 1080p videos. The autofocus is fast, the camera quickly adjusts to lighting changes, and is one of the best built-in webcams I’ve used thus far. However, if you desire higher resolution, check out our picks for the best webcams. 

HP Dragonfly Folio G3 software and warranty

The Dragonfly Folio G3 comes with Windows 11 Pro and nearly zero bloatware, which is what you hope for and expect from a serious business laptop. It does include HP’s Wolf Security suite, and of course, my favorite, HP Quickdrop, which allows you to share files with ease between your cell phone and laptop. 

The HP Dragonfly Folio G3 comes with a one-year limited warranty. To see how HP fared in our annual special reports, including Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands.

Bottom line

If you’re a business person that has returned to traveling, slowly and dramatically pulling the HP Dragonfly Folio G3 out of your briefcase or backpack will cause envy in the room. Its combination of style and performance is as perfectly balanced as the weight distribution of the laptop itself. 

With one of the best webcam and mic combos on the market, this go-anywhere hybrid business laptop is a win for HP and one you should take seriously if it's within your budget.