HP Elite Dragonfly Max Elite Max 13.3", Core i7-1165G7, 16GB, 512GB SSD, Black

A premium business convertible that's showing its age, but at $500 it's hard to ignore. Great for light work and travel, terrible for gaming and screen snobs.

The Core i7-1165G7 with 16GB of RAM handles everyday work fine. Our database puts the CPU at the 80th percentile for this category, which is solid for a machine this age. The Iris Xe graphics are about average, and the 512GB NVMe SSD is middle of the pack. What surprised us is how well this thing still holds up for productivity. It won't win any rendering contests, but for spreadsheets, video calls, and a dozen browser tabs, it's still got plenty of fight left.

Stack this against the Apple MacBook Air M4 and it's not even close on performance or screen quality, but the MacBook costs way more and isn't a convertible. The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 7 gives you newer internals and better reliability scores, but you lose the touchscreen and 2-in-1 flexibility. The ASUS Zenbook UX3405CA has a much better display and newer CPU, but again, no convertible hinge. If the 2-in-1 form factor matters, the Dragonfly Max is the only one in this group that delivers it at this price.

At $500, this is a genuinely interesting deal if you want a premium business convertible without paying premium money. The Thunderbolt 4 ports alone are worth a chunk of that. But you're buying a refurb with unknown battery health and an aging processor. If you need a reliable daily driver for the next three years, this is a gamble. If you need a second machine for travel or light office work, it's a steal.

The HP Elite Dragonfly Max is a business-class 2-in-1 that's landed in refurbished territory at a price that makes it interesting again. At $500, you're getting a convertible with Thunderbolt 4, a touchscreen, and that premium Dragonfly build quality. The catch? It's running an older 11th-gen Intel chip and the screen is a basic 1080p panel that doesn't do the rest of the machine justice.

If you're looking for a primary laptop with a great screen and modern performance, this isn't it. Go get a MacBook Air M4 or a newer ASUS Zenbook instead. If you want to game, even casually, look elsewhere entirely. This is a machine for people who specifically need a compact 2-in-1 with Thunderbolt and don't care about display quality or raw speed.

The HP Elite Dragonfly Max is a niche pick. Buy it if you specifically want a premium convertible with Thunderbolt 4 and don't mind an older CPU and a mediocre screen. Skip it if you need a primary machine for heavy work or anything involving graphics. For $500, it's a solid secondary laptop or a budget entry into the Dragonfly line, but it's not the deal of the century.