At $700, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is without doubt one of the best-feeling Chromebooks you should buy this yr. Nevertheless, even with a high quality display, chassis, and really feel, it lacks in some key areas. I’ve loved most of the new options launched to Chromebooks within the final two years. However are these units now the true AI laptops, due to Google’s Gemini? No, after all not.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus
It is an awesome Chromebook, but it surely lacks some options that may hold it from being your all the things leisure system.
Professionals
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Glorious, shiny AMOLED Show -
Chromebook options like duties and focus are glorious additions -
Loads of ports -
Good efficiency and sufficient battery life
Cons
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Skinny, tinny audio high quality -
AI options do not add an excessive amount of -
60 Hz refresh charge is okay, however beneath what I need for sport streaming -
Expensive for a Chromebook
I like an excellent Chromebook as a lot as anyone, and the Chromebook Plus models have largely been a solid upgrade for what are nonetheless ultra-cheap laptops. There are a couple of locations the place you’ll be able to nab a “Plus” laptop computer for fundamental looking, streaming, and doubtlessly extra intensive cloud-based duties for round $350, just like the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11. With its enterprise-level chassis, this system prices as a lot because the Asus ExpertBook CX54 Chromebook Plus. Samsung’s system can also be the primary Chromebook to make use of the brand new Fast Entry Key (proper the place you discover your Caps Lock button). The fast entry to Gemini AI actually isn’t value the additional price, so what’s?
What the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus has going for it’s a nice really feel, from the chassis to the I/O port choice right down to the spacious keyboard. It’s so skinny; one PR rep for Google was happy to show how the brand new Galaxy Chromebook Plus was as thick as two graded Pokémon playing cards. It’s a really particular metric, to make certain, however at 11.8 mm skinny, there’s no bag or crack within the wall it received’t match into.
It has a stable battery life that lasts a little bit greater than 10 hours after periodic use. The Samsung-brand Chromebook additionally packs a high quality near-16-inch AMOLED show that feels luxuriously large. That, plus the keyboard with full numpad and HDMI port with a stable collection of I/O, makes it an awesome all-rounder. It additionally comes with 256GB of storage on your content material outdoors the cloud, greater than you usually get elsewhere. Efficiency on the Intel Core 3 chip is the place you want it to be with such a typical Chromebook CPU. On the similar time, it has a minimal of 8GB of RAM to qualify for Chromebook Plus standing.
Nevertheless, and not using a touchscreen or another noticeable options, save for the skinny chassis, there’s not a lot about this Chromebook that excites me to advocate it for $700. You’ll be able to’t get significantly better if you need a stable Chromebook and don’t care about price.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Evaluation: Construct High quality and Usability
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus sits in a .47-inch tall physique and weighs 2.58 kilos. Sure, it’s gentle, rattling gentle, however higher than that, it nonetheless feels stable. The chassis does have some bend towards the middle (not practically as dangerous because the Acer Swift 16 AI), particularly across the palm relaxation. In any other case, the laptop computer feels premium, and you’ve got the additional advantage of the pleasing deep blue colour for the duvet. The one difficulty is that the system tends to shine together with your greasy fingers and palms, requiring common wiping. There’s additionally the additional advantage of loads of I/O ports, together with two USB-C, a USB sort A, HDMI, and a micro-SD card slot.
See Galaxy Chromebook Plus at Samsung
The keyboard and trackpad really feel nearly proper. The skinny keys aren’t too stiff, although they nonetheless have a clacky feeling with out being squishy. The clickpad-type trackpad has a easy texture, though not as high-quality as a glass floor. I solely had a couple of cases of palm rejection points, however not sufficient to be regarding for long-term use. Total, it’s simply very normal, particularly because you don’t get a touchscreen on this mannequin.
After that, it’s all right down to the ChromeOS software program. Simply, my favourite a part of the most recent updates is the Welcome Recap. It masses each time you restart your Chromebook, permitting you to see what you have been most just lately engaged on, alongside little widgets on your Calendar, Climate, and Docs. As for the Fast Insert key, I solely used it to textual content emojis or for fast entry to GIFs to ship to coworkers in Slack. That’s lots helpful for the memelords, however not a lot else.
After utilizing it for every week, I liked the brand new Focus options. You’ll be able to set it to trip your focus duties, lowering pop-ups and different distractions. You’ll be able to allow it with YouTube Music, however there’s a small collection of “Focus Sounds” to hearken to as an alternative. There are tracks to emulate a thunderstorm, with rain pattering on an invisible roof, or you can select the “classical” observe to serenade your self with gentle strings and brass as you’re employed. I solely want you had extra management over each playlist and that there have been extra to select from. Google additionally built-in Google Duties straight into the taskbar above the calendar perform. It’s easy however efficient, particularly if you happen to’re the kind that wants a reminder each few hours about what it was you have been presupposed to be doing.
The sound high quality is spectacular, notably when utilizing headphones. The show is great, however the slim design doesn’t help its function as an entire all-in-one leisure system.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Evaluation: Show and Sound
One of many Galaxy Chromebook’s greatest promoting factors is its 15.6-inch AMOLED show. It’s a pleasant dimension, and the 1080p decision is sweet sufficient for streaming YouTube or Netflix. The display was additionally lots shiny for my use, so I first relied on it to slide into my condominium’s dwelling space, the place it will get probably the most solar.
Sure, it appears nice, however its panel has a refresh charge of solely 60Hz. That’s high-quality for streaming video content material, however what if I wished to load up Sport Move or Geforce Now for some sport streaming on this shiny, stunning display? At this value level, I’d need a 120Hz panel just like the Acer Chromebook 516 GE.
Sadly, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus doesn’t sound pretty much as good because it appears. It may get loud, but it surely’s nonetheless very tinny, which is actually not the standard you need to watch your favourite motion pictures whereas huddled on the mattress together with your important different.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Evaluation: Efficiency and Battery Life
The laptop computer makes use of an Intel Core 3 100U Raptor Lake processor launched in January, earlier than all of the hubbub across the Qualcomm Snapdragon, AMD Strix Level, and Intel Lunar Lake for skinny PCs. It’s an entry-level chip, but it surely’s good at that stage. Nevertheless, it doesn’t have the battery life of those most up-to-date $1,000-plus laptops.
The fan couldn’t be known as loud, however I used to be stunned to listen to it whirring because the system dealt with three separate Chrome home windows and an exterior show. The laptop computer may additionally get comparatively heat underneath stress, however you’ll solely really feel it if you happen to held it from the underside. I by no means observed any cases the place the warmth impacted efficiency.
The Galaxy Chromebook Plus additionally has 8GB of RAM, greater than you usually get with a Chromebook Plus mannequin. Due to this, the Chromebook was speedy for many duties, however operating it with all these home windows and too many open tabs induced me to expertise some cursor slowdowns and occasional hitching.
Battery life was once one of many defining advantages of Chromebooks, however different small Home windows PCs have since eclipsed them. Samsung guarantees 13 hours of battery life, although that was based mostly on the Chromebook energy load check. I discovered I may get between six and 7 hours earlier than I wanted to recharge. It’s not dangerous, and I used it with too many open tabs, as I often do. It simply received’t be a multi-day laptop computer.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Evaluation: AI Additions
New Chromebook Plus fashions are presupposed to sport the Fast Entry key touchdown on the Caps Lock house the place the previous “G” key was once (don’t fear, the Launcher button has new house subsequent to the left Alt key). The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is the primary of its type to get this addition. This has a couple of advantages. It permits you to entry information you final had open and see a possible URL hyperlink you can add to some textual content. Nevertheless, its principal raison d’etre is to provide you fast entry to AI writing capabilities.
Nevertheless, I’ve critical doubts about whether or not anybody ought to use this for something past outlining or brainstorming. I requested Google’s Gemini to write down a paragraph explaining the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus specs simply to show a degree. Gemini spat out a number of choices for a paragraph and offered inaccuracies in regards to the show, CPU, dimension, and extra. It can confidently lie about issues it doesn’t have the proper details about, and that’s an issue.
Even the proofread perform is much less useful than it must be. It doesn’t let you know what elements of a highlighted paragraph will change. That is all with a Gemini Superior subscription, which is Google’s most-capable LLM accessible to Chromebook customers from the desktop.
And, after all, there’s Gemini Superior. All new Chromebook Plus consumers get 12 months freed from Google’s extra superior chatbot, plus 2TB of cloud storage. Gemini Superior comes with a couple of “Gems” like coding companions; relying on the consumer, it may show helpful. Primarily based on Google’s suggestion, I requested the “Brainstormer” Gem to assist me develop reward concepts for a buddy who likes Baldur’s Gate III. To be succinct, it’s reward concepts completely sucked. Its finest thought was to provide a present card or a shirt to an area sport store.
Don’t purchase this or another new Chromebook due to its AI capabilities. That mentioned, if you happen to use on-device voice recorders, you’ll discover the brand new AI-generated transcriptions and summaries on the ChromeOS Recorder App, which aren’t too dangerous.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Evaluation: Verdict
The extra I used the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, the extra I endeared myself to it. It’s the Chromebook I may see somebody changing their laptop computer with. It has sufficient ports and a stable show, however with out all of the little extras, like a better refresh charge and higher audio system, I’d inevitably really feel like I’m lacking one thing. I’d need a Chromebook with out compromise for the worth you’re paying.