Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2: a better balance between premium and practical

Samsung’s first Galaxy Chromebook was a thing to behold. It has an incredibly sharp and vibrant 4K screen, an amazing keyboard and a thin, light, well-designed body. That was almost all you would want from a laptop, but the price of $ 1,000 and the embarrassment of battery life made it a non-starter.

Wisely, Samsung is back to the drawing board for the sequel. This year, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 looks a lot like the original, but under the hood there are significant changes, nothing more than the new screen. The beautiful, striking 4K resolution is over. Instead, you get a 1080p screen for more pedestrians. Samsung has also made a number of compromises on this PC – but the good news is that these are all smart changes that make the Galaxy Chromebook 2 cheaper ($ 699 as rated) and better than its predecessor.

Hardware and design

At first glance, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 looks almost identical to last year’s model. Again, the model I am reviewing has a bold “fiesta red” color, but there is also a gray option for dull businesses. Gone is the striking silver metal rim that ran around the older laptop; this one is red all over. And the body of the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is also a bit larger – 13.9mm thick and 2.7 pounds. It’s quite compact, but the old Galaxy Chromebook was only 9.9mm thick and 2.2 pounds. This is the first compromise you will notice, but despite the change, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is still a well-made laptop that is easy to carry around all day.

Before I turned on the laptop, I noticed a few other things that were missing. There is no camera on the keyboard, so if you turn on the laptop in tablet mode, you will not be able to take pictures. Not a big loss. The same goes for the lack of a built-in stylus – it’s just not something I find useful on a Chromebook. But if you miss it, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 works with any Universal Stylus Initiative pen. Finally, there is no fingerprint sensor on the keyboard as in the original. This is the first thing I really missed here, because using a fingerprint to log in is simpler than using a password. Fortunately, you can also set up a six-digit PIN to sign in or use an Android phone to unlock the laptop.

When I turned on the laptop, I briefly forgot that it does not have a 4K screen, because the 1080p QLED touch screen looks excellent. Colors are bright and saturated without being exaggerated and the viewing angles are solid. It is also a very bright screen which has helped a lot when working on a sunny morning. Yes, the resolution is lower, but the quality of the screen makes up for it – and given that a large output is a 4K screen on a laptop battery, it’s a compromise that will benefit almost everyone. Probably another saving measure, Samsung has cut the Ambient EQ feature that automatically adjusts the color temperature of the screen to your environment. Given how aggressive it was on the original Galaxy Chromebook, I do not miss it too much here.

The screen still has minimal edges, at least on three sides; the chin under the screen remains an eye and I really want the screen to be stretched more vertically. I have said many times how much I prefer a 16:10 (or higher) aspect ratio on a laptop, but the vast majority of Chromebooks still stay at 16: 9. I’m used to it, but still sigh a little and miss the Pixelbook’s 3: 2 screen of 2017.

I believe Samsung used the same keyboard and trackpad as on the original Galaxy Chromebook, which I did not have a problem with. The keyboard is not the best – it’s slightly shallow, like Apple’s old butterfly keyboards. But it’s much softer to tap and I quickly got used to it. I still wish the whole keyboard was a little higher than it was to make room for a larger trackpad, but it’s still a good (if not exceptional) experience. One thing that did stop me was that I occasionally got double spaces when I typed, which reminded me of the trapped keys that the old MacBook Pro had to contend with. Everything is looking good at the moment, but it’s definitely something I keep an eye on during long-term tests.

(Also allow me to talk for a moment about a giant promotional sticker on the left side of the palm rest. A sticker under your palm is not a premium experience. I tried to remove it but it did not come off clean, so I left it for better photos. But if I pay $ 700 for this laptop and the day I pull off a pointless sticker, leave a mess behind, I’ll be furious. Let’s say it out loud: by 2021, you’ll not need to have stickers on a laptop.)

As is often the case with convertible laptops, Samsung places speakers at the bottom rather than looking up from the keyboard. There are two smaller ones on the left and right, as well as a large, long one that runs through the middle. It’s not the best I’ve ever heard, but it sounds good for a relatively small computer. Samsung says it’s using a technology called Smart Amp to turn these speakers up to 178 percent louder than ‘standard laptops’ without experiencing distortion. I do not know what they measure, but they are impressively loud and fairly clear. They’re not as good as the speaker in Apple’s recent MacBook Pro models, but the PCs cost a lot more than the Galaxy Chromebook 2. The finish is two USB-C ports (one on each side), a microSD card card slot, a headphone jack, a volume rocker and an on / off button. Those buttons on the side are meant to be used when the laptop is in tablet mode – but since the Galaxy Chromebook weighs almost 3 pounds, I never used it as a tablet.

In use

Samsung sells two models of the Galaxy Chromebook 2; the $ 699 I tested has a 10-generation dual-core Intel Core i3 processor, 128GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM. There is also a $ 549 model with a 10-generation Intel Celeron 5205U processor, 64 GB of storage and 4 GB of RAM. The i3 model contributes a lot to the future stock of your investment, so I bet most people will have to spend the extra $ 150. Although I have not tried a Chromebook powered Chromebook recently, the bottom model should be good for most basic computers.

Last year’s model had a Core i5 processor, so this is another place where Samsung took a turn to save money. Like the rest of the changes to the Galaxy Chromebook 2, I think it made sense, because a Core i3 was a lot of power for my workflow. To be honest, my needs are not very processor intensive. Most days I have a couple of Chrome windows with 10-15 tabs each, plus web apps for Hangouts, Slack, Trello, Tweetdeck, Keep, and YouTube Music. I also run a handful of Android apps, including Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Spotify, and Adobe Lightroom, though most do not run all the time.

The Galaxy Chromebook 2 handled all these tasks without delay. I’m sure I could open enough tabs to make an impact, but if you are not the kind of person who needs 30 or 40 tabs, the Core i3 processor and 8GB of RAM is more than the challenge. The performance was smooth in other programs, even though a number of tabs pressed higher than normal – things like Lightroom stayed smooth and my music did not need to buffer at all.

Since the Galaxy Chromebook 2 does not come with a stylus, I could not test how drawing programs work and how responsive the screen is. But as I say almost every time I use a convertible Chromebook, the vast majority of people will probably only use it as a laptop. And sometimes watch a video in tablet mode. If this was not clear, I do not consider tablet mode on a Chromebook to be a big selling point.

The biggest question I had in this review was whether Samsung has improved the battery life of the Galaxy Chromebook 2. I’m glad to say that the answer is a resounding yes, but unfortunately it’s not all good news. In our video playback test, where we use a 1080p video continuously until the battery is empty, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 lasted 11 hours and 49 minutes. This is not quite the 13 hours that Samsung promises, but since last year’s model lasted only 5 hours and 11 minutes, it’s a big improvement.

Real world performance was unfortunately a bit mixed. I got between six and seven hours of life before I had to go to the charger. Something as simple as a 20-minute video call really hurt the battery, but it speaks more to how hungry Google Meet is than any serious shortcoming of the Galaxy Chromebook 2. Overall, I wish the battery life on this laptop was regular eight hours without having to baby it.

The competition

The most obvious competitor to Samsung’s latest is last year’s ASUS Chromebook Flip C436. It’s essentially identical to the Galaxy Chromebook 2. ASUS offers the Flip with $ 799, the same processor, RAM, storage and screen size. The Flip C436 has minimal edges, a 360-degree hinge and a similarly moderate battery life. That said, I do not see much reason to recommend the ASUS model over Samsung’s latest, as it costs $ 100 more.

Although one and a half years old, Google’s Pixelbook Go remains easy to recommend, thanks to its excellent keyboard, excellent battery life and solid overall design. It’s noticeably thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Chromebook 2, and I still regularly get more than eight hours of battery life out of it. For $ 650 you can get it with an eighth generation Intel m3 processor, 8 GB RAM and 64 GB or storage; If you spend $ 50 more on Samsung’s latest, you’ll get a better processor and twice the storage space. You can also spend $ 850 and get a Core i5 processor and 128 GB of storage.

Somewhat surprisingly, Samsung plans to continue selling last year’s Galaxy Chromebook. The company told me that it still wants to offer a Chromebook with all the bells and whistles it has, such as the 4K screen, built-in stylus and more powerful processor. But given the poor battery life, I still can not recommend it, even at the new lower price of $ 700.

Lenovo still sells the Chromebook I have the best value, the Flex 5. It costs about $ 400 on Amazon and has the same processor as the Galaxy Chromebook 2. The screen is not that nice and has only 4 GB RAM and 64 GB storage. But for many people, that’s enough for a Chromebook. It’s not that attractive either, but it’s an affordable study option that is one of the best.

As for the upcoming, Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 was recently offered for sale and I will review it soon. From a spec and price point of view, it could be a winner – with $ 630 you get a 10th generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage and a spacious, 13.5-inch screen with a high resolution of 2256 x 1504.