Samsung’s Galaxy lineup consists of Windows 10 laptops, wireless earbuds, tablets, phones and, now, a Chromebook. The South Korean tech company announced the Galaxy Chromebook on Monday during CES 2020, the annual consumer electronics show.
As flashy as the neon lights are on the Las Vegas Strip, so too is the Galaxy Chromebook. It has a bright Fiesta Red aluminum shell, or for those who want a more subdued look, there’s a Mercury Gray color option.
There are two USB-C ports, a 3.5-millimeter headphone jack and a microSD card reader between the two sides of its housing.
When you open the lid you’ll find an impressive 13.3-inch 4K UHD AMOLED touch display. That’s the same type of display Samsung and Apple use in their high-end smartphones, providing bright and vivid colors. According to Samsung, this is the first time an AMOLED display has been used in a Chromebook.
Powering the display is Intel’s 10th Generation Core i5 processor, up to 16 GB of memory and up to 1 TB of storage. If you’ve upgraded your home’s wireless network to a Wi-Fi 6 system, you’ll be able to take advantage of that, thanks to the Chromebook’s support for the latest Wi-Fi technology.
There are two cameras on the Galaxy Chromebook: a 1-megapixel camera above the display and an 8-megapixel camera just above the color matching keyboard. Presumably, the second camera can double as a rear-facing camera when you rotate the display into tablet orientation, where you can then take photos or use during a video call.
There’s also a built-in pen for jotting notes. It would have been an obvious omission by Samsung if it had left the pen out, given the Galaxy Note and its notoriety for the S-Pen.
With ChromeOS support, you’ll have full access to Chrome’s suite of extensions and apps, as well as Android apps from the Google Play Store.
The main selling points of Google’s ChromeOS are its overall performance, boot time and ease of use. If you’re familiar with the Chrome browser, the learning curve for ChromeOS will be minimal. Software and security updates are handled in the background, adding to its appeal.
Google announced its high-end Chromebook, the $999 Pixelbook, in late 2017, and there hasn’t been much competition since. With the Galaxy Chromebook, Samsung is not only adding competition, but doing so at a far more impressive device.
The Galaxy Chromebook will start at $999 and launch in the first quarter of this year.
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