CES 2021 is one week from now, and declarations are beginning to hit the wire. A year ago, Samsung launched the Galaxy Chromebook, a premium $1,000 Chrome OS PC that felt like a successor to the Google Pixelbook. Much the same as Google, in the wake of encountering the sales of a premium $1,000 Chromebook, Samsung has chosen to restrain the excellent ness in subsequent versions, and the present “Galaxy Chromebook 2,” is a less expensive follow-up.
A year ago’s Galaxy Chromebook featured a headline-grabbing 13.3-inch 4K OLED display, yet this year, Samsung has hacked and cut at the spec sheet to get down to a lower cost. Rather than a 4K OLED, we have a 1080p LCD. The laptop is slower, thicker, and heavier than last year’s, with less storage, less cameras, and less RAM. This cost-cutting has almost cut the cost in half, however: it currently begins at $549.
For the beginning $549, you get a 13.3-inch 1920×1080 (16:9) LCD touchscreen; a 1.9GHz, 14nm, dual-core Intel Celeron 5205U; 4GB of LPDDR3 RAM; 64GB of eMMC storage; and a 45.5Wh battery. For $699, there is an upgraded model with an Intel Core i3-10110U, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage.
The laptop actually has an aluminum body and still comes in either an incredibly red color or gray. The laptop is presently 13.9mm thick rather than a year ago’s 9.9mm. The weight goes up from 2.29 pounds to 2.71 pounds. The keyboard is still backlit, there are as yet stereo speakers, you actually get a 360° hinge, Wi-Fi 6, 2 USB-C ports, and expandable MicroSD storage. Tragically, Samsung eliminated the fingerprint sensor.
