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

sAmsung’s first Galaxy Chromebook was amazing. It had an incredibly sharp and vivid 4K screen, a wonderful keyboard and a slim, light and well-designed body. It was almost everything you could want from a laptop – but its $ 1,000 price tag and the awkward battery life made it a failure.

Wisely, Samsung returned to the drawing board for the sequel. This year’s Galaxy Chromebook 2 is very similar to the original, but under the hood there are significant changes, nothing more than the new screen. The garish and surprising 4K resolution is long gone. Instead, you get a simpler 1080p screen. Samsung has made a number of other concessions on this computer as well – but the good news is that they are all smart changes that make the Galaxy Chromebook 2 cheaper ($ 699 in review) and better than its predecessor.

Hardware and design

At first glance, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 looks almost identical to last year’s model. Once again, the model I’m looking at came in a bold “fiesta red” color, although there is also a gray option for monotonous corporate types. The attractive silver metal border around the older laptop disappeared; this is all red. And the body of the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is also slightly larger – 13.9 mm thick and 2.7 pounds. It is still quite compact, but the old Chromebook Galaxy was only 9.9 mm thick and 2.2 pounds. This is the first appointment you’ll notice, but despite the change, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is still a well-made laptop that’s easy to carry around all day.

Before turning on the laptop, I noticed some other things that were missing. There is no camera on the keyboard, so if you turn the laptop to tablet mode, you will not be able to take pictures. It is not a big loss. The same goes for the lack of a built-in pen – 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 there was on the original. That’s the first thing I really missed here, since using a fingerprint to log in is much easier than using a password. Fortunately, you can also set a six-digit PIN to sign in or use an Android phone to unlock your laptop.

When I turned on the laptop, I briefly forgot that it didn’t have a 4K screen, because the 1080p QLED touchscreen looks great. The colors are bright and saturated without being overdone and the viewing angles are solid. It is also a very bright screen that helped a lot when working on a sunny morning. Yes, the resolution is lower, but the quality of the screen pays off – and given the large consumption of a 4K screen on a laptop battery, this is a trade-off that almost everyone will be in favor of. In what was probably another cost-cutting measure, Samsung cut the Ambient EQ feature that automatically adjusted the screen’s color temperature to the environment. Given how aggressive he was on the original Galaxy Chromebook, I’m not missing out on much here.

The screen still has minimal settings, at least on three sides; the chin below the screen remains a monstrosity and I would really like the screen to stretch more vertically. I have said many times that I prefer a 16:10 (or higher) aspect ratio on a laptop, but the vast majority of Chromebooks are still 16: 9. I’m used to it, but I still sigh a little and miss screen 3: 2 of Pixelbook 2017.

I believe that Samsung used the same keyboard and trackpad as in the original Galaxy Chromebook, with which I have no problems. The keyboard isn’t the best – it’s a little shallow, like the old Apple butterfly keyboards. But it is much easier to type and I got used to it quickly. I would still like the entire keyboard to be moved a little higher than it is to make room for a larger trackpad, but it is still a good (if not exceptional) experience. One thing that got me thinking was that I occasionally got double spaces when I was typing, which reminded me of the locked keys with which the old MacBook Pro was plagued. Everything looks fine now, but it is definitely something I am looking at during the long-term tests.

(Also, let me tell you a little bit about a giant promotional sticker on the left hand rest. Having a sticker under your palm is no a premium experience. I tried to remove it, but it didn’t come out cleanly, so I left it where it was to take better pictures. But if I paid $ 700 for this laptop and left a mess for taking out a useless sticker the day I bought it, I would be furious. Let’s say it out loud: there is no need for stickers on a laptop in 2021.)

As is the case with convertible laptops, Samsung placed the speakers at the bottom, instead of facing upwards on the keyboard. There are two smaller ones on the left and right, as well as a large, long one that runs through the middle. They are not the best I have heard, but they sound good for a relatively small computer. Samsung says it is using a technology called Smart Amp to increase these speakers up to 178% higher than “standard laptops” without suffering distortion. I don’t know what they are measuring, but they are impressively tall and very clear. They’re not as good as the speaker on Apple’s recent MacBook Pro models, but these computers cost a lot more than the Galaxy Chromebook 2. Completing things are two USB-C ports (one on each side), one slot for microSD card, a headset, a volume button and an on / off button. These side buttons should be used when the laptop is in tablet mode – but given that the Galaxy Chromebook weighs in at almost 3 pounds, I never used it as a tablet.

In use

Samsung is selling two models of the Galaxy Chromebook 2; the $ 699 I tested has a 10th generation dual-core Intel Core i3 processor, 128 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM. There is also a $ 549 model that has a 10th generation Intel Celeron 5205U processor, 64 GB of storage and 4 GB of RAM. The i3 model adds a lot in terms of making your investment future proof, so I bet most people should spend the extra $ 150. Although I haven’t tried a Chromebook with Celeron recently, the lower model should be suitable for most basic computers.

Last year’s model had a Core i5 processor, so this is another place where Samsung paved the way to save some money. Like the rest of the changes on the Galaxy Chromebook 2, I think this was a wise one, since a Core i3 was quite powerful for my workflow. To be fair, my needs do not demand too much from the processor. Most days, I have a few Chrome windows with 10 to 15 tabs in each, plus web apps for Hangouts, Slack, Trello, Tweetdeck, Keep and YouTube Music. I also run several Android apps, including Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Spotify and Adobe Lightroom, although most of them aren’t working all the time.

The Galaxy Chromebook 2 accomplished all of these tasks without slowing down. I’m sure I could open enough tabs to make an impact, but unless you’re the type of person who needs a minimum of 30 or 40 tabs, the Core i3 processor and 8 GB of RAM are more than up to the challenge . Performance was good in other apps, even when pushing more than normal tabs – things like Lightroom remained smooth and my music didn’t need to be buffered.

Since the Galaxy Chromebook 2 does not come with a stylus, I was unable to test how the drawing apps worked and how responsive the screen was. But, as I say, almost every time I use a convertible Chromebook, the vast majority of people are likely to use it just like a laptop. And, maybe, occasionally, watch a video in tablet mode. In case it isn’t clear, I don’t consider tablet mode on a Chromebook to be a big selling point.

The biggest question I had when doing this analysis was whether Samsung improved the battery life of the Galaxy Chromebook 2. I am happy to say that the answer is a resounding yes, but unfortunately not everything is good news. In our video playback test, in which we repeated a 1080p video continuously until the battery runs out, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 lasted an impressive 11 hours and 49 minutes. It’s not exactly the 13 hours that Samsung promises – but given that last year’s model only lasted 5 hours and 11 minutes, that’s a big improvement.

Performance in the real world was, unfortunately, a little mixed. I had six to seven hours to live before I needed to get the charger. Something as simple as a 20-minute video call really hurt the battery, but it speaks more about how Google Meet consumes a lot of energy than any serious deficiency with the Galaxy Chromebook 2. Overall, I still want the battery life of this laptop regularly spent eight hours without having a baby.

The competition

The most obvious competitor of Samsung’s latest is last year’s ASUS Chromebook Flip C436. It is essentially identical in terms of specifications to the Galaxy Chromebook 2. For $ 799, ASUS offers the Flip with the same processor, RAM, storage and screen size. The Flip C436 has minimal bezels, a 360 degree hinge and a mediocre battery life. That said, I don’t see many reasons to recommend the ASUS model instead of Samsung’s latest, as it costs $ 100 more.

Even at 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 is noticeably thinner and lighter than the Galaxy Chromebook 2, and I still regularly get well over eight hours of battery life from it. For $ 650, you can get it with an 8th generation Intel m3 processor, 8 GB of RAM and 64 GB or storage; by spending $ 50 more on Samsung’s newest, you get a better processor and twice as much storage space. You can also spend $ 850 and get a Core i5 processor and 128 GB of storage.

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 features it has, like the 4K screen, integrated pen and more powerful processor. But given the low battery life, I still can’t recommend it, even with the new lower price of $ 700.

Lenovo is still selling what I believe to be the best overall value Chromebook, the Flex 5. It costs about $ 400 on Amazon and has the same processor as the Galaxy Chromebook 2. The screen is not that good and is only 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of storage. But for many people, this is enough for a Chromebook. It is also not so attractive, but it is an economical and study option that is one of the best out there.

As for what is to come, Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 went on sale recently and I will review it soon. From a spec and price standpoint, you could be a winner – $ 630 gives you a 10th generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage and a spacious 13.5-inch screen with high resolution 2256 x 1504.