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Samsung is doing a solid job at trying to control the conversation at CES this year with a pair of new smartphones and tipping the date for their own event later this month and today is no exception with the announcement of the Galaxy Chromebook taking a swing at the high-end Chrome OS market.
The Galaxy Chromebook will start at $999 and before you say that’s crazy for a Chromebook and move on, you’re going to want to check out the features on offer as Samsung isn’t holding back here.
Starting with the display it will feature a 13.3-inch 4K AMOLED touchscreen display, the first of its kind in a Chromebook. Inside you’ll have an Intel 10th gen core I5 processor with up to 16GB of DDR3 RAM and up to a 1TB SSD. No specific statements on battery life yet, but it’s a 49.2Wh battery.
WiFi 6 is also present, which is solid future-proofing for this Chromebook and something we recommend to look for in 2020. Instant Tethering is also present to let you keep working seamlessly away from WiFi without having to add another data plan.
Befitting its high-end price the laptop uses aluminum construction and comes in at 2.29 lbs and just 9.9mm thick. Both of those figures just slightly edge out the Pixelbook 2 for comparison.
Samsung has put 2 cameras in the Galaxy Chromebook, one 1MP camera in the traditional location in the top bezel and a second 8MP camera just above the keyboard in the base of the laptop. The second is an interesting addition, trying to give it some more content creation options presumably and we’ll look forward to hearing more about Samsung’s intentions there.
There is a built-in pen as well and a fingerprint reader, both nice extras and in keeping with the kitchen sink approach on this Chromebook. You also get 2 USB-C ports, a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack, and UFS/MicroSD port.
The Galaxy Chromebook will be available in Q1 of this year and will come in Fiesta Red or Mercury Grey. It’s a compelling package and we’ll certainly be interested to get our hands on it as soon as possible. With the popularity of ChromeOS in education, it seems natural that some will eventually want to graduate to a high-end version of the hardware, but to date we’ve only really seen Google play in this space, this kind of a strong entry from a major brand like Samsung may be what was needed to crack that market though.
Would the Galaxy Chromebook get you to spend $1,000 or more on a Chromebook or regardless of the hardware is that just too much to spend on Chrome OS?
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