The typical businessperson depends on running applications like Microsoft Office, Slack, Teams, Outlook — often all at the same time. Today’s most common CPUs provide more than enough productivity performance, whether we’re talking about Intel’s 12th-gen Core processors or AMD’s Ryzen 6000 chips. The only exceptions are business users who run demanding scientific, engineering, or creative applications like AutoCAD or Adobe’s Creative Suite — but in those cases, they won’t be choosing thin and light laptops like the Elite Dragonfly G3.

It’s not a machine that’s tuned for high performance, especially since its Core i7-1265U processor runs at only 15 watts. But even similar laptops with the same chip score a bit better in benchmarks. The Dell Latitude 7330 UL is the best example, which outperforms the HP Elite Dragonfly G3 in Geekbench 5 and Handbrake.

Nevertheless, the Elite Dragonfly G3 still receives a bump in performance using its 12th-gen Intel processor, which keeps it more than fast enough to keep up with the kind of workflows it’s designed for. So, while the Elite Dragonfly G3 is far from a performer, it’s plenty fast for its intended use.

With competent if not impressive business performance out of the way, the next question is how long does the Elite Dragonfly G3 last on a single charge of the battery? That’s incredibly important to businesspeople, who are more apt to take their laptops on the road. When flying from one side of the country to the other, you want a laptop that will make it all the way without worrying about whether the airliner provides the power you need.

Here, the HP did much better. In fact, it’s a class-leading laptop when it comes to battery life, demonstrating that HP created a solid compromise between performance and longevity. There are 68 watt-hours of battery capacity tucked away inside the laptop’s diminutive chassis, which is a fair amount for the 13.5-inch 3:2 WUXGA (1,920 x 1,280) low-power IPS display. The Elite Dragonfly G3 makes great use of its battery capacity and lower performance tuning to turn in some impressive battery life scores.

It’ll last just under 12.5 hours in light web browsing and nearly 19 hours in local video playback. For actual work, you’ll get less, but there’s no doubt it will last a full business day of work on a single charge — and then some.

The ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 7 is the only of its rivals to come close to competing with it here, and it’s still a couple of hours behind.

HP paid great attention to creating a laptop that is incredibly comfortable to use. That includes the keyboard, which has large keycaps, excellent spacing, and light, snappy switches that make for fatigue-free typing.

It’s one of the better keyboards on a business-class machine. The touchpad is large with plenty of space on the palm rest thanks to the 3:2 display, and its glass surface is smooth and precise with confident yet quiet button clicks. A touch display is optional and not included in my review unit.

HP built in some nifty privacy features, starting with an electronic shutter for the webcam that’scontrolled by a key on the keyboard. There’s also user presence detection, which can lock the laptop and put it to sleep when the user walks away and wake it back up when the user returns. It worked well during my testing and, in fact, I needed to turn off the feature to conduct my battery tests.

The display on my review unit was the low-power non-touch 13.5-inch 3:2 WUXGA+ (1,920 x 1,280) IPS display. I found it to be bright and colorful with plenty of contrast, and my colorimeter agreed.

Colors were right at the premium average in terms of sRGB and AdobeRGB gamma and accuracy, which results in a display that’s plenty colorful for productivity work and media consumption. Brightness was well above our 300-nit threshold at 398 nits, and contrast was excellent at 1,610:1, smashing through our preferred 1,000:1. While creators want wider colors, business users will find this display quite pleasant.

Two downward-firing and two upward-firing speakers provide a surprising amount of volume for such a small laptop, with clear mids and highs and a touch of bass. The audio system is more than good enough for videoconferencing, augmented by two-way AI-control noise reduction, as well as the occasional Netflix bingeing session.

Speaking of videoconferencing, the webcam is a high-resolution 5MP model with an infrared camera, and HP built in several tools to make for the highest-quality video and the best experience during videoconferencing sessions. There are the usual lighting adjustment and background blur capabilities, along with an Appearance Filter to smooth out the rough edges and Autoframe to allow the user to move around while still remaining centered in the video.

Finally, Windows 11 Hello passwordless login is provided by both facial recognition and a fingerprint reader. Both methods worked quickly and reliably.

The HP Elite Dragonfly G3 is a business laptop masquerading as an elegant, premium consumer laptop. It has everything a business needs and everything a business user wants. It’s not the fastest laptop, but it’s fast enough, and its battery life is stellar. The fact that it’s incredibly thin and light is just icing on the cake.