Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review: Samsung is back! [VIDEO]

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus

Manufacturer’s suggested retail price – $699.00

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

“The overall experience of this Chromebook is so great that you can ignore the few things that aren’t great.”

Strong Points

• incredible build quality
• incredibly thin and light
• AMOLED screen
• Secure port selection
• great keyboard and trackpad
• fast performance
• excellent battery life

Cons

• No touchscreen option
• mediocre webcam
• quiet speaker
• useless numeric keypad
• divisive keyboard layout

we have been waiting for this for a long time. Since 2020 and the debut of the original Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, Samsung’s revenue in the Chromebook space has only declined. With each new device, it becomes more and more obvious that they don’t take Chromebooks seriously.

But with the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, everything changes. Gone are the forgettable cost-cutting, uninspired design choices, and slow, outdated internals of the past four years. Samsung is back in a big way. We’re excited to talk about how this new Galaxy Chromebook Plus marks a new trajectory for Samsung in the Chromebook space.

Chassis is the main character

For most Chromebooks, we’ll start with the chassis as a starting point before we get into the notable elements inside. But with the Galaxy Chromebook Plus, that’s a big part of the whole story. It is true that there are many good things inside, but I don’t think there’s ever been a Chromebook with such a striking silhouette that I can recall off the top of my head.

It’s not a joke. Everyone I gave this Chromebook to There was a visceral reaction To keep it. When you combine its 15.6-inch size with a weight of 2.58 pounds and a thickness of 11.8 mm, it seems downright impossible. I’ve been using this device for a few weeks now and it still has the same feeling I had when I held it in my hands. It feels wild when you hold it in your hand.

But thin and light Chromebooks only work if they’re thankfully rigid. The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also wins in this department. It doesn’t flex at all when held from a corner, and feels 100% solid whether you hold it in your hand, place it on your desk, open it or close it. The engineering is great and this is the epitome of Wellmade. I can’t stress enough how much I love the build quality of this Chromebook.

And Samsung didn’t use the excuse that the Chromebook was too thin to skimp on ports. It comes with two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A, a headphone/mic jack, a micro SD card slot, and – yes – a full-size HDMI port. Incredible for a device this thin and light.

The screen, keyboard and trackpad are top notch

But that’s not the only good thing. The perfectly balanced Neptune Blue lid lifts open with one finger to reveal a gorgeous AMOLED screen, a great keyboard, and one of the best trackpads I’ve used on a Chromebook. These three items make up the bulk of the interactivity on any device, so when done right, they provide a better overall experience.

And Samsung has achieved all three. The AMOLED screen is FHD and plenty bright at 400 nits. I’d love to see a QHD screen and 120Hz, but I understand that there are certain trade-offs needed to keep the price at $699, which is very acceptable. The display is absolutely fantastic, and even though it’s not 120Hz, there are no ghosting or artifacts throughout the OS, and it looks great with smooth animations, deep blacks, and surprisingly punchy colors everywhere you look. It’s Samsung AMOLED. What did you expect?

However, this is not a touchscreen, and for some people that will be a huge discomfort. In my case, I’ve gotten used to not using the touchscreen much, and it’s never been an issue for me. That being said, you need to know what you’re getting into. If touch input is a big issue for you, know that it’s not an option on the Galaxy Chromebook Plus.

Beneath that beautiful screen is a clicky, backlit keyboard with fairly short keys that I was able to use with great precision. You can’t really move the keyboard around on a device this thin, but the feedback is great, it’s quiet, and I really enjoy typing on this keyboard. The layout will take some time to get used to, but you’ll be back in no time.

The trackpad below the keyboard is large and made of glass, and is very easy to use. Admittedly, I’d like to see Samsung include a tactile trackpad here, but I’m not sure it would fit the size of this chassis, nor would it improve the overall price. I am sure. It utilizes a standard trackpad mechanism, but it’s very easy to use and I love using it. The surface is buttery smooth, the click feel is solid and confident, and all gestures work as expected. No complaints here.

Performance that matches her beauty

Under the hood, it has an Intel Core 3 with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. Don’t get me wrong. This device is very fast. For reference, I’ve had Octane scores in the 90,000+ range, and I’ve never once come close to breaking a sweat. And even if the fan started moving, I didn’t notice it.

It doesn’t get hot and the battery life is good. You’ll need to keep the display below 40% to get close to the 13 hours Samsung claims, but you can get more than 10 hours of use if you keep it at about 60% brightness, and I was able to use it at a 5-6 hour pace. Even if the brightness is between 90% and 100%, you don’t need to use this level very often.

It’s important to remember that OLED screens actually use a lot of battery power when you turn up the brightness, so spending too much time at some of the top brightness settings will drain your battery faster. If you stay south of that, the battery will last all day without any issues.

nothing is perfect

Now, all of this is great, right? But not everything will work, right? Of course not. There are a few things about this Chromebook that are a bit frustrating. The first is the keyboard layout. The extra keys like the dedicated accessibility and dictation buttons are great, and the new quick insert keys are starting to come in handy too. My brain is now even starting to remember to use the bottom launcher key, and I’m making fewer and fewer mistakes pressing the quick insert key instead of that launcher key.

You’ll get used to these things over time, so there’s nothing to panic about. My real problem is the number pad. It’s not worth much because it’s missing an important key and that’s the fact. The right side of the numeric keypad should have plus, minus, and enter keys. This is not the case, and it becomes basically impossible to do the calculations without looking down. Isn’t that the purpose of adding this section of the keyboard?

And the decision to include this basically useless keypad means it won’t fit into the upward-facing speakers. And maybe it would have helped the audio a little. As it stands, the downward-facing speakers are mediocre at best, far too quiet to emanate from a 15.6-inch laptop. The sound quality is OK, but the overall volume is very limited, which is quite disappointing.

The same goes for the 1080p webcam on top. It’s functional, but there are plenty of webcams with far better features. Samsung’s price cuts here show that. Unfortunately, this is the worst I’ve ever seen, although it hit the resolution specs needed to keep the Chromebook Plus name.

Should I buy it?

But in my book those corner cuts are kept to a minimum. You can upgrade to a USB webcam if needed. I don’t listen to a ton of audio directly from my Chromebook, and I don’t really use the number pad much. If these things are a deal breaker for you, be careful. I am not just looking for a point to make. All of them are understandably substandard for a device that is otherwise great to use.

And I really mean that last part. For someone like me, this Chromebook does what I need so well that I can ignore the things it doesn’t do well. With this housing, screen, keyboard, trackpad, and performance, I’ve really enjoyed using the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus. I love using it in the office, home, coffee shop, and on airplanes. It really blends the experience of a big screen with the portability of a small device, and it looks great while doing so. I’m not sure if this is the best Chromebook. everyone, I think it’s a great option for most people. At $699, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a comparable Chromebook experience.