Samsung Galaxy Chromebook review: Great, until the battery runs out By Engadget

For years now, Google's made Chromebooks that cost $1,000 or more, but even though other companies have built premium, Chrome OS computers, few companies, besides Google, made one that expensive enter Samsung at CES this past January, the company showed off the stunning galaxy Chromebook, a computer that feels like a successor to Google's 2017 pixel book amenities included, gorgeous 4k touch display a towable pen, lots of storage and processor power into sleek all-metal enclosure. You can't miss it in that bold red color, either on paper. It's a capable and well-designed computer, usually one of the best Chromebooks on the market. But let's ask the same questions. We asked the pixel book. Should anyone spend that much money on the Chrome OS device? There are no two ways around it.

The galaxy Chromebook is a head-turner, the metallic red pops, like few other laptop colors I've seen over the years. You can also get the laptop and more pedestrian gray. If that's your jam, it's not just the color, though the galaxy Chromebooks silver metal, I, just squared off, not contoured like most laptops, it's near identical to the design of the original pixel book, and it helps the computer stand out when it's closed. The galaxy Chromebook has an intriguing set of ports and features for starters: you'll notice, the standard, 2 USB, C ports, one on each side, Samsung also included a micros card. Slot I prefer full-size SD, but it's better than nothing.

Since the Galaxy Chromebook has a 360 degree hinge. There are two small speakers on the side. There's also a speaker on the underside. The power button is on the side, along with the volume rocker and finally, there's a slot for the included stylus, which feels quite similar to those included with Samsung's, Chromebook plus and Chromebook pro from 2017. The Galaxy Chromebooks 360 degree hinge.

Lets you flip it around and uses a tablet at the pinch or prop it up for watching the videos. I've, never found 360 degree modes very useful, even though this computer is only nine point. Nine millimeters thin and weighs about 2.3 pounds. That's still a lot bigger than heavier than my iPad, but it makes for one very compact, laptop it's ever so slightly thinner than the original pixel book and much thinner than Google's latest pixel book, though well I, don't really care about being able to flip the screen around the galaxy. Chromebook excels is a more traditional laptop for starters.

Samsung absolutely nailed the keyboard here, it's quite uncomfortable, possibly even more so than the pixel book go. It's quickly become one of my favorite computers to type on it's the same keyboard layout you'll find on most Chromebooks with one notable exception. There's a fingerprint reader right where the touch ID sits on MacBook setting me up was easy and once I figured out how it wanted me to position my finger, it was a reliable and fast way to sign-in the trackpad, isn't quite as inspired it's smooth and responsive, but just a little too small, particularly in the vertical direction. There's a good amount of space between the edge of the chassis is on the top of the keyboard. So I wish Samsung and push things up a bit here to make room for a bigger trackpad.

But if that were the case, there might not be room for the camera embedded in the keyboard deck. Don't worry it's not for video chat. Samsung says it's primarily there for taking pictures of the whiteboard in class, for example, or for scanning documents. This requires flipping the screen around, so you're in tablet mode, which makes sense. The Chronic has never handled quick.

Switching between those two modes very well. The first time I tried it all. The apps I was using crashed. It's not a feature ever lie on, but it is there if you needed when looking at the galaxy Chromebook screen. The first thing, you'll, probably think, is wow.

Those bezels are thin. It's true Samsung says third 3.9 millimeters wide, though the top border is slightly thicker to make room for the video chat camera. The second thing, you'll, probably think, is wow. That bottom bezel is huge, and it is about an inch thick in fact, taken as a whole, the three tiny bezels and one big one, don't look bad per se, but it really makes you wish the screen extended further down. The galaxy Chromebook may offer impressive 4k resolution, but the 16 by 9 aspect ratio lacks too much vertical real estate.

For me, I pretty much always found myself wishing I could see more of a document. Web page or chat I was in happier news. The panel looks excellent. It's the first OLED display on a Chromebook in the high contrast, bright, colors and deep blacks were all pleasing to my eyes before hair resolution makes everything extremely sharp from websites to photos and movies. Going back to my MacBook Pro was a bit of a drag, although I will say that Samsung's display almost exaggerated scullers beyond their natural hues.

A common complaint when the company's smartphone displays the Galaxy Chromebook also has a feature called ambient EQ, which works like a true tone on Apple displays. It matches the color temperature of the screen to your surroundings, a first for a Chromebook. Well, the idea is the same as true tone. Ambient EQ is definitely more aggressive in terms of the adjustments it makes. The color temperature is very warm and yellow, even in rooms where I thought I had pretty neutral light.

Naturally, you can turn this feature off something I'd recommend when working with photos or watching a movie for now. Samsung is only selling one configuration of the Galaxy Chromebook, which includes a tenth generation, Intel Core, i5, processor, eight gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage. That's plenty to run just about everything. I need in Chrome OS without any issues that includes multiple browser windows with multiple tabs in each Plus, Chrome apps for Google, keep tourist Trello, YouTube, music, Tweeted, slack, hangouts and telegram for those basic needs. The Galaxy Chromebook has more enough operating power.

I never felt like I was pushing things too far, when opening more and more tabs and I also didn't notice that any hiccups end music playback, since the galaxy chroma can flip around and has a built-in pen I tried a handful of different sketching and note-taking apps I have no fine art skills, but I could get a sense of how well the pen worked. The good news is that note-taking Google keep is near lag-free, which hasn't always been the case. Google's simple, built-in canvas, drawing app also performs quite well as with most other Chromebooks, I've used I still feel features like a 360 degree hinge and a pen are nice to have at best, but hardly essential. My main concern is how the galaxy Chromebook holds up as a laptop. Its powerful hardware and excellent keyboard ensured it excelled in that department, as I mentioned earlier, it's already one of my favorite computers to type on, despite the lack of vertical screen real estate.

Unfortunately, there is one massive problem: the galaxy Chromebooks battery life is unacceptable in a test of my basic daily routine I failed to clear the four out mark. Multiple times the best I did was three hours and 52 minutes of use before the laptops shut down. When looping an HD movie stored on the laptops, drive, I got 5 hours and 11 minutes before the battery died. The clear cause of this was the notoriously power-hungry 4k display, but that doesn't make it okay. If Samson was hell-bent on that high resolution, it could have made the galaxy tor mach a little thicker with a bigger battery, or it could have kept the slim profile and went with a lower resolution, but doing both means that this will not be a reliable workhorse for people who need to spend a lot of time away from a charger.

Samsung's latest Chromebook as many things right. It's a delight to type on it impresses with a very compact design and the screen looks brilliant in many ways. It's a clear successor to Google's aging pixel book, but for $999 it's almost impossible to forgive that poor battery life, especially given that there are other options for powerful Chromebooks out there. I can accept that a laptop with a 4k display won't last 10 hours, but in 2020 I can't recommend one that doesn't even last, for especially when there are plenty of well-built Chromebooks head of better batteries and are nearly as capable and stylish for less money.

Source : Engadget