At CES 2020, Samsung in the end launched a Chromebook that used to be worthy of its Galaxy name. The unique Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 used to be an AMOLED-equipped beauty, making a Chromebook into a luxury product. However, due to the fact of its luxury status, it used to be priced way too excessive to be really worth a recommendation to everybody different than avid Galaxy fans.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 at CES 2021, however, bucks this trend by means of bringing the whole lot that made the unique great, however bringing the fee down and battery power up, via going with a QLED panel instead of AMOLED, and limiting the processor to a Core i3.
That sounds like Samsung has crippled its flagship processor in the identity of attainability, however, honestly, these cuts make the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 shine in its new price category, instead of how the first Samsung Galaxy Chromebook felt way out of its league last year.
Price and availability
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook two is coming Q1 2021 and will begin at $549, which is a long way much less pricey than the unique Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, which launched last year at $999.
Where the unique Galaxy Chromebook was once a difficult sell at that price tag, particularly when you took the very short battery life into consideration, this one is lots of extra approachable.
That beginning price will net you a very Chromebook-y configuration of an Intel Celeron 5205U, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC storage. That does not appear like a lot, however, have in mind that Chromebooks do not really need a Core i7 to get the job done. If you do prefer extra horsepower, you can bump that price up to $699 to get a Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 with a 10th-gen Intel Core i3, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.
At $699 at the top-end, the value of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 has totally shifted and is now in the running for one of the fine Chromebooks, however, we will have to wait till we get it in-house for a full review before we absolutely make that decision.
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Design
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 generally retains the identical design as the unique and it’s the perfect praise we can supply it. While the first Samsung Galaxy Chromebook was once extraordinarily expensive, we idea it was once an absolute work of art, and that truly hasn’t changed.
The aluminum chassis has a stunning red colorway, which will be right away striking each time you whip it out of your bag at your local coffee shop – when we’re certainly in a position to sit down in local coffee shops again, anyway.
Laptops have a tendency to all go with a grey coloration alternative in the name of professionalism, a move that is generally overrated and needs to end. There is nonetheless a silver colorway available, due to the fact, of course, there is, however when such a striking red laptop computer is available, we do not understand why anybody would choose the version that appears like each and every different boring laptop computer on the market.
There are a few modifications here, though. The largest of these is the shift away from the 4K AMOLED display in the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook to a 13.3-inch FHD QLED panel, which we’re advised is inspired by means of Samsung’s TVs.
Sure, it’s a lot less decrease resolution than we obtained last year, however, we’re talking about a 13.3-inch display. At this display size, 4K is absolutely unnecessary and just serves to drain the battery faster in the identity of a fancier spec sheet.
To our eyes, the Galaxy Chromebook 2’s display is nevertheless one of the quality Chromebook displays we have ever seen. And whilst we do not have stats on how shiny or color accurate the display screen absolutely is, it is extra than shiny and colorful enough to devour all your favored media on. The truth that such a stunning QLED panel is included in a Chromebook that is this affordable is a triumph for Samsung.
And, at the give up of the day, if you are searching for a laptop computer that has a display fit for content material creation, you possibly should not be searching at a Chromebook both ways.
The keyboard feels a good deal the identical as it did last year, which is to say it is extraordinarily comfortable to type on. Spacing is on point and whilst the travel is not too deep, bottoming out would not feel too terrible.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is nonetheless a 2-in-1, which means it will nonetheless be capable to flip into a tablet when you want it to, which makes it so lots extra compelling of a media consumption device. Unfortunately, Samsung isn’t always including a pen with the Galaxy Chromebook 2, even though you will be capable to purchase it separately.
As a long way as ports go, you are nonetheless getting two USB-C ports and a microSD card reader. We’d love to see a USB-A port, however, such is the way laptops have been going for a while.
Performance
We had been capable to go hands-on with the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 geared up with an Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. Now, whilst we weren’t in a position to run robust benchmarks on it – such that benchmarks are even capable to be run on a Chromebook – it used to be extra than responsive enough to get the job done.
However, it truly is no longer where Samsung is actually claiming to have made big improvements, anyway.
With the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2, Samsung is claiming up to 14 hours of battery life on a single charge, which is a big improvement over the unique laptop. According to our sister web page LaptopMag, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook only lasted 5 hours and 56 minutes.
If Samsung’s battery life claims are correct – which stays to be viewed – the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 will final almost three times as long, which will see it up there with current Chromebooks like the Google Pixelbook Go.
