I haven’t seen the Samsung Galaxy Book S in person but I already like it. In the Galaxy Galaxy Note 10/10+ launch event, Samsung took the opportunity to launch a laptop as well. It’s a $1000 laptop powered by a Snapdragon processor and has an acclaimed battery life of 23-hours! But it’s also super slim… It’s literally less than half an inch thick, that’s impressive. It also feels premium. Cherlynn Low from Engadget, says the Galaxy Book S feels more premium than a Dell XPS 13 or even the MacBook Air. This is definitely looking to be one good laptop.
The Samsung Galaxy Book S features a 13.3-inch display. It’s a proper traditional laptop and not a 2-in-1 convertible or a 4:3 display, which was the first two things that came to my mind. With that out the way, the display itself is a Full-HD resolution touch panel. That might be a bummer for some, but you are also getting about 23 hours of battery life on a single charge. Other than that, the laptop is 11.8mm thick, and it also weighs just 0.96kgs.
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Snapdragon 8cx
Given the numbers, you can probably guess it’s a fanless design because it’s powered by the Snapdragon 8cx. Yup, the same processor or SoC in this case that was made for Windows-powered laptops. This might as well be the first time we are seeing this, apart from that demo Lenovo, more of a prototype rather than a finished product. But this one is here, and with that comes a big question, will it be powerful enough. It’s here to go head-on with low watt Intel CPUs and sure those aren’t perfect by any means but ARM CPUs have proven to be worst.
According to Samsung, the SD 8cx will offer 40% more CPU performance, 80% better GPU performance and adds memory bandwidth to the Snapdragon 850. Basically, it means more power with less power consumption totaling 23 hours of movie playback on a single charge. Sure the real-world performance will be much less, but it is really something to look forward to. And given the Qualcomm chip, the laptop was bound to have some sort of LTE integrations. It features support for Gigabyte LTE so you stay connected on the go.
Overview:
Well, the claimed 23-hour battery life comes from a 42Wh battery cell. It gets 8GB of LPDDR4X memory, 256GB or 512GB of internal storage which is expandable via a microSD card. Yes, this laptop has a Micro SD card slot that supports a max 1TB card and a SIM tray for that LTE connection. Other than that, you get a 720p webcam up front, Bluetooth 5.0, fingerprint sensor, AKG stereo speakers and Windows Hello.
It looks like a laptop, but it has the essence of a smartphone
Hassan Anjum, Samsung
But what about the port selection? For that, you get 2 USB port, one on each side. The left one is accompanied by a headphone jack while the right one remains lonely. Charging happens through one of the USB C port, and guess what, you can use the same charger from your smartphone. Both the ports are USB 3.1 standard, maybe Thunderbolt 3 would have opened it up to vast possibilities.
At least on paper, this looks to be a compelling device, given it’s $999 starting price tag. The laptop will go on sale starting September, available color versions will be gold and gray.
Samsung Galaxy Book S Specifications
- Display: 13.3’’ FHD TFT (16:9) Touch: 10-point multi-touch screen
- Dimensions: 305.2 x 203.2 x 6.2-11.8 mm, 0.96 kg
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx, 7nm 64-bit Octa-core processor (Max. 2.84 GHz + 1.8GHz)
- RAM: Memory 8GB RAM (LPDDR4X),
- Storage: 256 / 512GB+ microSD slot (up to 1TB)
- Camera: 720p HD
- Battery: 42Wh, up to 23 hours video playback
- Other features: Gigabit LTE, Bluetooth 5.0, fingerprint sensor, Dolby Atmos, Windows Hello support
