Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus impresses with its satiny design , substantial power and first-class survival . It also features a solid port selection and decorous FHD AMOLED display . It ’s just picayune thing that have it down such as slender speakers .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus evidence that a Chromebook does n’t have to be a lesser laptop – merely because it runs a lighter oxygen than Windows or macOS .
If anything , Samsung ’s latest ChromeOS - powered option is a deterrent example to other manufacturers that it is possible to make a smart , lightweight laptop with unanimous power and efficiency for less than is currently being charged for a comparable Windows choice .
At £ 749/$700 , it ’s similar in Leontyne Price to the convertible wonder , theAcer Chromebook Spin 714 ( 2023)and slenderly behind another impressively lissom Windows ultrabook from late months , theAsus Zenbook A14 , while giving you a capable Intel Core 5 120U processor , as well as a enceinte 15.6 - in FHD AMOLED blind and decorous survival . It ’s also extremely lightweight and portable .
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I ’ve been putting this Galaxy Chromebook Plus through its yard for the last twosome of weeks to see if it ’s one of thebest Chromebookswe’ve tested . There ’s some starchy competition , so rent ’s take a closer look .
Design and Keyboard
Samsung has n’t followed the trend when it come to Chromebook design , taking more cue from forward-looking Windows ultrabooks than ChromeOS - establish contender . As such , the Galaxy Chromebook Plus seem and feels excellent .
It features a penetrative low-spirited metal palpebra which is evocative of Apple ’s Midnight colourway for modern MacBooks , while the rest of the form is disastrous and self-coloured plastic . Bezels are thin around its big 15.6 - column inch screen , and tipping the musical scale at just 1.17 kg also make this Galaxy Chromebook Plus especially light to the point I think it ’s the lightest laptop of its sizing I ’ve tested . Well done , Samsung .
It ’s also quite thin at just 11.8 millimeter , give it easily stowable in a bag without taking up too much place . For such a lithesome machine , there ’s a decent selection of remark , with the left side home to a full - size HDMI and a duad of USB - Cs , one of which is used for charging . The correct side houses the sole USB - A port , a MicroSD reader and a headphone jack .
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Being a heavy sieve selection also mean the Galaxy Chromebook Plus benefits from a full - sizing keyboard , complete with issue launch area and arrow key , as well as a right routine row .
Travel is short , but the keyboard is responsive for elongated periods . My only gripe with it is that the spacing for some of the keys seems a little off , so it did make me prone to typos initially .
With this in psyche , there has been a remarkable modification to the layout of the keyboard against Chromebooks of erstwhile .
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The Caps Lock key had always had a petty mapping as a launcher Florida key to open ChromeOS ’s equivalent of Spotlight Search , which has now been moved to a Google logotype key fruit that sits next to the Fn and Alt headstone in the bottom odd box . Instead , the Caps Lock key now doubles as Google ’s Quick Insert Francis Scott Key , which brings up a command prompt for Gemini AI and a contextual menu establish on what ’s in front of you .
For a laptop of its sizing , the Galaxy Chromebook Plus also has a huge trackpad that come with fluent and antiphonal tracking . Sometimes Chromebook trackpads have been restive and overeager in the yesteryear , especially those fitted with Gorilla Glass , although that was n’t the pillowcase here .
Display and Sound
If there ’s one arena where a lot of Chromebooks have skimped on for being more affordable , it ’s the display . The Galaxy Chromebook Plus has aimed to plow that fairly by opting for a big 15.6 - column inch AMOLED screen that bring the benefit of its venire type with wondrous colours , contrast and deep blacks to make productivity and more intensive workloads a breeze .
Okay , it is only 60Hz , so lacks the silky smoothness that some ultrabooks are offering with 120Hz refresh charge per unit , but it does get the job done . Its Full HD resolve is a short sub - par at this price power point though , offering only adequate detail . Rival premium laptops benefit from higher resolutions across a similarly - sized , or smaller , screen for a acute look .
The CRT screen is n’t touch - enabled , and as the Galaxy Chromebook Plus ca n’t exchange into a tablet , it entail this jury miss some versatility against Acer ’s Spin lineup of Chromebooks .
The speakers here are fine for everyday listening , although I would n’t drive them too hard as they can voice quite thin at high bulk . In increase , being downward - sacking mean value sound could get muffled if you habituate the laptop on a cushy airfoil such as a bed or couch .
Performance
As much as the powertrains inside Chromebooks have often been chips with small kernel counts and meagre performance , the Galaxy Chromebook Plus bucks the vogue again . You get the choice of either an Intel Core 3 100U on the base model or a Core 5 120U in the faster model I have here .
This is a 10 - core ( split between 2 Performance and 8 Efficiency cores ) and 12 - thread chip that can boost to 5GHz ,
In the Geekbench 6 bench mark psychometric test , this Chromebook recorded some peculiarly eminent piles for a laptop in its class , with splendid single - marrow functioning and decent multi - threaded major power , too . Single - nucleus performance is in line with the Asus Zenbook A14 andMSI Modern 15 F13MGfor instance , although the Galaxy Chromebook Plus falls slightly behind in multi - core labor .
This particular model come with 8 GB of RAM , which admittedly feel a little stingy for a laptop computer at this price when 16 GB is easily the touchstone these day . A 256 GB drive inside true is fine for a Chromebook though , as most of your body of work is probably fail on Google Docs , Sheets or other constituent of the G - Suite of productivity applications programme .
It is n’t the standard - issue NVMe memory board you might expect , though , as Samsung has opted to use slower eUFS entrepot here . In my experience , I did n’t have any offspring using Chrome , Spotify and benchmarking software during my clip with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus , feeling slow , but your mileage may variegate .
Software
ChromeOS has often been a slick , lightweight OS that ’s excellent for productivity labor , and that ’s no unlike on the Galaxy Chromebook Plus . It comes with no real bloatware , or extra software besides Google ’s own G - Suite of apps , aside from Adobe Express to allow access to web - based Photoshop . you could establish more apps using the Play Store if you ’d opt others .
Where this fussy Chromebook differ is by the fact it forms part of the Chromebook Plus canyon of machines . This was a classification that Google introduced a match of year ago that could be capable of certain chore by having above a certain stipulation .
For instance , they should have at least a 12th - gen Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 7000 chip inside , as well as 8 sarin and 128 GB of storage , Full HD IP ( or above ) screen door and a 1080p webcam .
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Being a Chromebook Plus fashion model also means the Galaxy Chromebook Plus benefits from some additional timber - of - life features , in the same way that Microsoft ’s designate Copilot+ PCs do . For instance , they have access to Google Gemini right from the taskbar where you could need it all way of things , including any enquiry , or even to help you see or rewrite a document .
In addition , you also get handy AI feature such as Magic Eraser , Google ’s clever Photo editing trickery that could previously be found on Pixel and later other Android earphone . This mechanically erases unwanted things from photos , working the same path on both equipment . You select an image , and it recognises potentially unwanted items to murder by place a white and gray schema around it . To remove it , you agitate done .
It ’s very clever and works well , even on images where you need nothing removed . For instance , in a photo I take when I go to Scotland a few weeks ago , there were some unwanted people in the nook embarrass the view of the beach . I selected those hoi polloi to be removed , and surely enough , the AI did a solid job of getting free of them .
Other features that the Chromebook Plus computer software update has brought with it are more focused on a Chromebook being a utilitarian machine for productivity work load including working with G - Suite apps and Google Meet . For instance , it offers Offline File Sync , which back up data file unremarkably saved in the cloud to be saved on the equipment ’s inner ride . This is hidden away in the options menu a little , but is nonetheless useful for save document offline if you do n’t have perpetual internet access .
In addition , the Chromebook Plus gadget also do good from some handy features for video conferencing , such as Live Translate which uses AI to transform any caption into a unlike nomenclature . It also ferment for YouTube video , too . Google Meet also amount with standardized convenient feature as the Windows Studio effects on Copilot+ PCs , such as car framing and rebalancing uneven lighting .
Battery Life
With their lightweight operating system and pocket-sized power , Chromebooks have often been excellent for endurance and elongated barrage fire life , with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus being no different . It jibe a 68Whr cell into its slim chassis that , with the brightness down to one-half , and a 1080p YouTube TV on a grummet , negociate to last for 15 60 minutes 25 arcminute before conking out .
That ’s some marvellous survival against other Chromebooks and a lot more expensive Windows laptops . You ’ll easily be able-bodied to get nigh two full working years out of this laptop computer before you ’ll need to think about institutionalize it back up again .
The Galaxy Chromebook Plus comes with a 45W USB - speed of light charging brick which offers adequate speeds , taking 52 minutes to go from zero to full , while a full electric charge took 112 minute . That ’s not bad , although other laptops are fast .
Should you buy it?
The Galaxy Chromebook Plus benefits from both a streamlined and lightweight chassis , as well as satisfying power from its Intel Core 5 chip that makes productiveness workloads a breeze . If you want a laptop that ’ll make light study of basic tasks , this is a fantastic selection .
count on your needs , the Galaxy Chromebook Plus ’ more established form factor may not be what you need , such as if you ’re a graphic designer or a creative type . For that , a Chromebook with a 2 - in-1 grade cistron and touch screen may be better .
Final Thoughts
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus impress with its silklike design , satisfying exponent and excellent survival . It also features a solid port survival and decent AMOLED display . It ’s just little thing that permit it down such as thinner speakers .
Moreover , other Chromebooks at this toll point in time are arguably a short cleverer , such as theAcer Chromebook Spin 714 ( Intel 13th Gen)coming with a 2 - in-1 form factor and touchscreen , but lacks the benefit of an OLED cover . It is swings and roundabouts at this top end of the Chromebook food market , but Samsung ’s option does a reverend job to back the claim of thebest Chromebookwe’ve examine .
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How we test
Every laptop computer we review buy the farm through a series of unvarying stay designed to gauge primal thing include physique quality , performance , blind quality and battery living .
These let in formal celluloid benchmark and scripted tests , plus a serial of real - earth impediment , such as how well it runs pop apps .
FAQs
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus weighs 1.17 kg , make it light for a 15.6 - inch laptop .
Test Data
Full Specs
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