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Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2: Premium at a better price (and better battery life?)

Samsung's new Chrome OS 2-in-1, announced ahead of CES 2021, brings the price down without sacrificing style.

Joshua Goldman Managing Editor / Advice
Managing Editor Josh Goldman is a laptop expert and has been writing about and reviewing them since built-in Wi-Fi was an optional feature. He also covers almost anything connected to a PC, including keyboards, mice, USB-C docks and PC gaming accessories. In addition, he writes about cameras, including action cams and drones. And while he doesn't consider himself a gamer, he spends entirely too much time playing them.
Expertise Laptops, desktops and computer and PC gaming accessories including keyboards, mice and controllers, cameras, action cameras and drones Credentials
  • More than two decades experience writing about PCs and accessories, and 15 years writing about cameras of all kinds.
Joshua Goldman
2 min read

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is a beautiful 13.3-inch Chrome OS two-in-one with a gorgeous 4K-resolution AMOLED display and a strong Intel Core i5 processor. It's also $1,000 and has a relatively short battery life compared to some of its less costly competition. For its second go-round, the Galaxy Chromebook 2, Samsung made some feature tweaks to bring the price down -- and hopefully improve battery life -- while keeping the same premium look and feel of the original.

samsung-galaxy-chromebook-2-01
Samsung

Announced ahead of CES 2021, the new model will be the first with a 13.3-inch QLED display with 1,920x1,080-pixel resolution, which can be found on a couple of Samsung's Windows 10 laptops. This change alone should help battery life, but Samsung also dipped down to configurations using either an Intel 10th-gen Core i3-10110U or Celeron 5205U processors. 

The Celeron configuration, which also has 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage, is expected to sell for $550, while the Core i3 model with twice the memory and storage will be $700. Those prices convert to approximately £400 and £515 for the UK, and AU$710 and AU$900 for Australia. 

Much of the rest of the package remains the same as the original, including a sub-3-pound weight (1.2 kg), a slim aluminum chassis, a backlit keyboard and a color-matched touchpad. You'll also find two USB-C ports, a headphone jack and a microSD card slot. 

What you won't find is one of Samsung's S Pens. While the company's slim active pen is included with the first-gen model, Samsung removed it in favor of USI pen support. Also gone is the world-facing camera from above the Galaxy Chromebook's keyboard. Both seem like acceptable sacrifices to bring down the price.