Unboxing your new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus [VIDEO]

We already have the new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus at home, and we’re really excited to get inside the box to get a closer look at this amazing Chromebook. My time in New York was pretty limited, but now that I have a review department, I’m sure I’ll be spending a ton of time working on this over the next few weeks.

And as we all know, it all starts with unpacking. Again, we saw this device at Google’s fall Chromebook showcase, and our initial thoughts and feelings were completely superficial. I only had a few minutes of hands-on time with this Chromebook. So I decided to test it out a bit more to get my first impressions upon unboxing.

Build quality is great

That was the main goal of the Galaxy Chromebook Plus, so let me reiterate how great this Chromebook feels to open and handle. At just 11.8 mm thick and just 2.58 pounds, this 15.6-inch Chromebook is unlike any other.

The Neptune Blue lid comes in all sorts of colors and looks great, adding to the incredible thinness of this Chromebook. Lifting it up and cracking it open with one finger feels like it defies the laws of physics, and just like it did in New York, the build quality, thinness, lightness, and overall feel of the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is amazing. I was surprised.

The screen is cleaner than I remember

Underneath that lid is a 15.6-inch 16:9 FHD AMOLED screen, which is as good as you’d expect. Although it’s not touch-enabled, this 400-nit panel is a feast for the eyes. It also measures 15.6 inches, so there’s plenty of room for you to stretch out a bit. We’re already finding that watching content and general web browsing feels a little more comfortable than usual thanks to AMOLED’s deep blacks and incredible contrast ratio. It also helps that the bezel is thin.

keyboard and trackpad are great

Beneath that dazzling screen is a backlit keyboard with great clicks, which we hope will ultimately result in great typing. The keys feel solidly placed, the backlight doesn’t leak all over the place, and the keys sound and feel great. I need a little more time to really work with this keyboard, but so far it feels very good.

However, the layout takes a little getting used to. I’ve already talked about this, but the Galaxy Chromebook Plus has some significant changes to the standard Chromebook keyboard layout that I’m still not used to. The biggest change is the use of quick insert keys instead of launcher keys, which will be a difficult change. We’ll talk more about this in our full review.

The huge glass trackpad below the keyboard is great, offering a satisfying click and a very smooth surface, so there’s no reason to complain at first glance. It’s not a tactile trackpad, but keeping this device under $700 wasn’t easy. As long as the trackpad feels this good, I don’t really care if it physically moves or not.

speaker and camera are normal

However, not everything is great, the speakers and webcam both look average. The speakers produce good sound, but not very loud. Also, the webcam is 1080p, but the initial images and videos aren’t very impressive. Again, at $699, it doesn’t do every part of the formula perfectly. Samsung just couldn’t seem to find the budget to go all-in on speakers and cameras here.

The internals are fast and the battery seems to be genuine.

Finally, a quick look at the internals. The 14th Gen Intel Core 3-100U processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage feel more than enough for the average Chromebook user. You’ll have to actually work with the device to know this, but first impressions upon unboxing suggest that most people will have no problems with this setup. The initial setup process and a few quick touches with the OS were quick and felt very fast.

And when I was recording video, I would look at the battery and it would regularly report 12-13 hours left on a 95% charge. This sounds great, but you’ll need to use your Galaxy Chromebook Plus a little more to get really accurate battery numbers. But overall, I don’t think Samsung will have the same problems it had with the original Galaxy Chromebook in 2020.

For now, that’s all I have to share. A review is in progress, but I only received this device a few days ago. This is 100% worth the time and effort to actually test it. What I’d most like to know is that the battery lasts a long time, that it doesn’t overheat a ton, and that the experience of using this new Samsung Chromebook is as good as the device looks. So far, so good.