SAMSUNG 13.3” Galaxy Chromebook Laptop Computer w/ 256GB Storage, 8GB RAM, ‎4K AMOLED Touchscreen Display, Ultra Slim Design, Chrome OS, WiFi 6, Mercury Gray

This is a review that I am going to try to keep brief, but I might fail. Here's why: The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook has had some of the most unfair reviews I have ever read about an inanimate object, and I'd like to clear the air of some of those comments. Let's start with the only thing I agree with from so many negative reviews, and that agreement is 'somewhat' at best, and that's the fact that the battery life is not all that great. Some would say it is terrible, I would say that is true if only going by specs alone. But, in real-life usage by a couch potato like myself, is a minor inconvenience. Why? Well, because I do not use my Chromebook in a manner that requires I run on battery power more than 3 or four hours at a time. If after something between 3 and 5 hours, I get low on battery I do what I have always done... I plug it in! I am not being silly, but serious. I plug it in and keep going for a while, then I unplug it and keep going some more. YES, I could not do that in the forest, at the beach, or on a long flight. But my use case does not require that any longer, like it did when I was an executive in the computer business, taking long flights. SO, if your use case or use model allows plugging in now and then, and 3-plus hours will get you what you need and you can plugin for a while at that point, THAT is what real-world usage is like for many many users of this machine. Next, and last, on the agreed-to complaints list of other reviews is that, yes, the machine does heat up sometimes, but no differently than does my $3500 Apple MacBook Pro every now and then. There isn't a lot to say about that, other than it is not constant nor always-so but does occur about as often and gets about as warm, as my Mac laptops have occasionally become. These two main points are in agreement with similar points on other reviews. But many, if not most, of the other points on clearly negative reviews, are less than objective or real-world, in my opinion. For example, I read a review that said the glass screen was so thin if was prone to break, and that the trackpad was just too small, that the hinges were terrible, that the keyboard was terrible, and on and on. All of which is categorically false, and is not a realistic appraisal of the machine, especially when compared with other very high-end laptops, such as some Apple models, some other high-end Chromebooks such as those from Samsung and Google's own offerings. Now... for the sweet sauce, the good points about this amazingly cool little machine... read on. This machine is thin... really thin. So much so, that for the 1st few days I found myself handling it like the newborn baby it was, but soon I reverted to treating it like a laptop computer. All to say this thing is built really well, AND that it is a top-tier piece of precision electronics like a high-end camera or sophisticated medical device. But while it is not unduly delicate, it does deserve a degree of understanding that it is not a 1-inch thick block of ABS plastic, so use and treat it accordingly. Next, the hinges, no complaints from me. Some reviewers claim they are lousy because the lid/screen will oscillate a bit when adjusted. True. And so does every really thin lid machine I have ever owned. Bu tin the real world, we don't do that, do we? We adjust the screen position and carefully, and it stays put. Next, the keyboard, it is every bit as good, and perhaps better than the keys on any Mac portable I've used for the past 5 plus years, in fact, I think it is a little bit better because the key-travel feels a little bit longer, which can make for better feedback and improved speed. No need to comment on the display, it's simply about as good as it can be. Literally. I don't think you can get a better screen on any laptop today. And many of the reviewers panned the machine because of a lack of 4K video material to consume. Someone should tell them it isn't the machine's issue, is it? Sound. The sound is fine, again, consider what you just purchased, it is not a Bose foldback bass design with an array of 6 drivers for sound. It is an amazingly thin laptop, and it sounds just fine. Does it get loud enough? Yes. Does it get really really really loud? No. The hinges are fine, too. My only complaint is that when fully opened into tablet-style, the lid doesn't lock into place, and my copy floated about 1/8th of an inch above the base unit when handheld at an angle. When in tablet configuration and laying flat, as on a desk or table, the lid was flush as it should be. A little annoying at most. All the great features you've read about are absolutely true of this machine. It is simply the best laptop I have ever owned. In terms of the build detail, it meets, and actually, IMPO surpasses, many if not all major laptop manufacturers' latest designs, especially in the Chromebook marketplace, where this machine may be the best, again, depending on your individual feature, functions, and use-case needs. Performance-wise the included i5 10th generation Clearlake U chipset seems to me to outperform or minimally to keep up with my 2015 Google Pixel Chromebook which used an i7 2.6Ghz processor married to 16GB of RAM. This machine I am reviewing has a chip that moves along at 1.6Ghz and throttles up to 3.9 (some spec sheets rate it above 4.x Ghz) and as such I have had zero performance issues even though it has 8 GB of RAM. So performance-wise, I am very pleased. Would I have been happy if I'd spent $1,000 (actually $999) on this machine? Well, my 2015 machined aluminum, best of breed, Google Pixel Chromebook (the second release in that brand/line) cost me over $1,200 when new, and I never looked back. This machine was discounted to $799 a year ago, and now that it is replaced with the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2, this original Galaxy Chromebook can be had for $599 new while inventory supplies are available. At that price, I would replace it in a micro-second if mine was damaged or lost. Those of us who have been Chromium OS and Chromebook pioneers have been rewarded with an ever increase of Chromebook capabilities in both the hardware and the apps and operating system. This machine, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook (original version) is a real winner in every way, and while battery life is not top-of-class, this reviewer asserts that pretty much everything else is, and for $600, I am very happy with my purchase. I hope this review has been helpful, regardless of what you end up purchasing when shopping for your next Chromebook computer.

A good place to start would be that I got this chromebook at a discount ($749, down from $999). And my needs are mainly to run Citrix (through browser or Chrome app, either works) for work and to casually browse, read magazines/books or listen to Spotify. Not a "Power User" by any means, though not sure any Chrome OS user is. That being said, this is THE BEST CHROMEBOOK I'VE EVER USED, and it is more than perfect to suit my needs. Build: The thing is beautiful, a really premium feel to the materials, and the red is really classy and not too gaudy as I was a bit worried and almost went with the more drab grey option - I'm glad I didn't. The chrome ring around the outside is also a premium touch that looks great. It's the thinnest and lightest 2-in-1 laptop I've ever seen, and I know that I like to use 2-in-1s in tablet mode and this is the first time it actually feels comfortable and feasible to do that for more than a brief period of time. The 2.2lbs was a big draw for me when comparing this laptop to the Galaxy Chromebook 2, Asus C436, or the Acer Spin 713 - upon using it I am glad I took it into consideration. Other great things about the build are the relatively loud stereo speakers and the built-in stylus. Minor drawbacks would be the weak hinge that doesn't always hold the screen in place when moving the laptop if open (though for the most part it does the job) and the lack of ports (you just get 2 USB-C ports, which also function as charging ports, so if you're charging you only have 1...adapters easily solve this). Also the cameras are weak but I don't use those - if you're buying for camera quality only for some reason (Zoom?) then this isn't the one for you. Screen: The SCREEN is AMAZING. The OLED is top notch and better than any Chromebook I've ever seen, at full brightness the colors are insane. That being said, the high resolution and the brightness eat at the battery life a lot, so in most cases I've got brightness scaled way down and I don't really miss anything, it works fine. Touch works perfectly, the stylus allows for really detailed notes/drawings in Canva or other apps. One drawback might be the bezel placement, there are 3 super-thin outer bezels and one larger bottom bezel... in tablet mode that one larger bezel functions well as a "handle" of sorts, but the other sides can't be touched without accidentally hitting the screen and scrolling or clicking a link, etc. A very minor nuisance at most. Another minor issue is that the resolution is SO GOOD that when I run Citrix, the session almost appears blurry, but still workable - on high resolution windows machines Citrix has addressed this with DPI scaling, but they've yet to master this on the Chrome OS app or the Chrome web app. Not Samsung's issue, but still part of my experience with the machine so I thought it worth mentioning. Performance: This thing is a BEAST. There's arguably no need for an Intel i5 in a Chromebook, but here we are, and the thing is FAST. Scrolling is smooth and even with tons of tabs open I've never experienced lag when playing videos or games. With lots going on under the hood, and no fan, I've heard mention from others that the computer can get really hot under heavy loads - I've barely experienced this while using a decent amount of processing power, and would elaborate that when I did feel heat it was very minor and not unbearable by any means. I'm thinking unless you are gaming a lot or developing in linux or doing something really really processor heavy, you'll be fine. A small performance gripe in general is that Android apps don't always play well with Chrome OS and have re-sizing issues or some lag, but this is not a Samsung problem, more of a Google problem. Battery Life: Some people have called this the achilles heel of the laptop, but I don't have much issue. Again, I'm not a real gamer/developer/super user - I am Joe Basic using it for administrative work and browsing/music/reading. On an average day at like 70% brightness I can unplug at 8am and make it to about 3 or 4pm before having to plug back in while working in Citrix doing basic tasks on MS Access, Excel, etc - nothing intense but that's pretty much constant screentime for about 6-7 hours before it starts getting low and I've got to plug in. Obviously this is not great in comparison to 10+ hours at full brightness seen on other Chromebooks - but you are getting more than the average Chromebook here and this is a bit of a concession made on Samsung's part to provide the rest of the goods. Overall if you don't need to be away from a charger for more than 6 hours every day, you shouldn't have an issue. Should you buy it: If you have read this far and think your needs/usage are similar to mine and you want the sleek-est, coolest, thinnest chromebook out there, DEFINITELY BUY THIS (especially if on discount, which it frequently is between Amazon, Best Buy, and Samdsung's own site).

2024: I've owned this for about 3 years now and it's been solid even after dropping it, getting water in it. The left charge port after getting water in it is a little more finicky. But everything else works great. I gave this a 3 star because so much of this wasn't working well the first year. It's gotten better with the updates. It's consistent even though the battery runs out in about 2.5 hours but I can drag it out longer if I needed to. It travels well and the Stylus works as expected. Now it's really a 5 start but obviously not the first year. 2021: The laptop is pretty to look at and it's thin. The screen is a really nice quality but doesn't outshine a MacBook but maybe a little better than the pixelbool. When you use it as a tablet it doesn't close fully so it's floppy and you can't really hold it because the bezels are so small you're always touching the screen. A common issue many have reported is the touchpad which jumps all over but that's a software issue with other apps which are incompatible. I deleted a bunch and it worked but dunno which was the culprit. If you are buying this because you hope to use other Samsung devices with this seamlessly, well, my galaxy buds don't always pair with this and there is no interface which I was surprised by. In fact you can't use the apps for galaxy devices with this Chromebook. It doesn't recognize my Samsung phone even which my Google pixelbook does a slightly better job at. The fingerprint scanner works maybe 50 percent of the time because it doesn't pick up my fingerprints well. Battery life isn't great but it hasn't been too bad for me. It's fast and rarely have I seen it glitch. I would have returned it for sure if I was still in the US but I bought it and left the country. I bought it to replace my pixelbook wthoch I've beat up a lot but even in it's poor state I use the pixelbook 90 percent of the time. I wanted to add to this review - it's really hard to use this laptop because when you turn it into a tablet it doesn't close all the way so you're holding something a little floppy. And the edges of the screen are so small that you're constantly activating something with your finger pads. Ironically, as sensitive as these edges are when you click on something on the screen it doesn't really register the finger well and you have to press a little hard. I'm comparing this to my Chromebook Pixel and it lacks a lot. Update March 2022. The screen quality isn't that high to explain why the battery runs out so fast. The screen not closing all the way against the case in tablet mode remains a big problem in terms of usability. I can't manage to keep the pads of my hand to activate the screen when maneuvering this laptop. A zero bezel is terrible even on a phone much less a touchscreen laptop.

Early impressions - Impossibly thin. Android apps are surprisingly better than web app variants. Red is the laptop color I never knew I needed. The keyboard travel and "thud" is satisfying and the trackpad is Apple level. Like every other review, the battery is abysmal compared to any ultrabook in 2020 (3-4 hours max with comfortable brightness). However, this is the best home laptop you can get right now. The design is hard to appreciate until it's in your hands, but I have never seen a thinner device with an i5 chip. It gets warm without a fan but nothing uncomfortable. The pen performs better than the gen 1 Apple Pencil I'm coming off of. I can't say this is great for art, but you get access to Concepts in the Play store and Adobe Draw. I do wish Samsung Notes was an option given the Galaxy name, but here we are. Big, big fan of using my mobile only fantasy football app (Sleeper) on a bigger screen. Most Android apps I've installed are responsive which helps to avoid going fullscreen/forced to use the touchscreen in portrait. Connecting a Dualshock4 controller was effortless, didn't need to configure for Among Us either. Some games like Shadowfall will need some effort to work. No CoD Mobile support was a bummer, hopefully in an update. Complaints: The screen looks great, however no 4k support on most streaming options AND due to the OLED this screen is very dim by default. If you have it at 50% your eyes will be strained after an hour. 70% is comfortable, getting 4 hours average. If you're looking to continue your Android experience in laptop form, this is the way.

This is a beautiful little Chromebook. It is light, with a high resolution screen, and a nice keyboard. Unfortunately, it is unreliable. I got one about a month ago. Several times a day it crashed. It stopped while I was working, or when I opened the top to turn it back on, it had crashed back to the sign-on screen with a message: "Chrome didn't shut down correctly." It also hung up, refusing to turn on until you held the power key for 20 seconds. Also, it did not work with the wi-fi extender. A "powerwash" reset did not help. Amazon gave me a replacement unit with no argument. It arrived yesterday. Yesterday it crashed once, and hung up once. Today it crashed again. Modern computer equipment is reliable so this is unusual. I do not think it is a coincidence that two out of two are unreliable. In my opinion, the designers put too much effort into strange features such as the stylus, and a non-working fingerprint detection key. (I finally got it to register after several attempts, but it does not sign on to anything.) They should have made it more reliable instead. I will probably keep it, because a Chromebook is more of a glorified i-Pad more than it is a computer. As long as you can browse, it is okay, even if it crashes unexpectedly. It has various applications such as word processing, but they are all the Google on-line versions, so you do not lose your work when it crashes. I will keep this one, but I would not recommend it to anyone. I recommend Chromebooks in general. For my purposes they are much better than laptop computers. I had another one for many years, from another maker. It never had problems like this. It finally died of old age, but it was reliable for a long time. FOLLOW UP: The replacement unit crashed 5 times in one day, so I returned it for a refund. Again, Amazon did not give me any trouble. They suggested I contact Samsung and tell them I had problems with two units. The woman at Samsung said, "we have not heard of any problems like that." I told her to come here to Amazon and read these reviews. I have a feeling that someone in their organization is not letting the bad news about this product spread through the company.

I rated this laptop five stars for a few reasons. I know you are reading this to know if you should buy it. To make it simple, there is a pros and cons list below. Pros: BEAUTIFUL 4k amoled display fast and responsive amazing clicky keyboard fingerprint sensor for ease of use responsive trackpad and while I understand many reviewers say there is not enough vertical real estate there certainly is and I promise you that. Chrome OS is easy to use and has great security gets extremely bright flips into a tablet can run geforce games such as fortnite has tent mods and great for watching netflix and such load times are very fast one finger lift While it does for many it does not overheat for me at all side speakers are much better than ones on the back of the keyboard if you like to keep your laptop on your lap but still not as good as front firing speakers but because of the size I understand while they were unable to do it get access to almost anything in the playstore that supports laptops text on messages for the web remembers passwords if you want Cons: High price Chrome OS is a con for some but a pro to others(this is not a con for me and any other chromebook user. I am putting this here if you are planning to make a switch from windows or mac. There are many tutorials to help guide you along the way) Overheating for some(not for me) I personally had to return the laptop 2-3 times for a new one because they were defective. It was probably just me though. large bottom bezel the screen may be too big for some. 60hz refresh rate could be a con for some All in all, this is clearly the best chromebook over 600 dollars. The beautiful screen, the nice, keyboard, and glass trackpad make it an easy buy. The bottom bezel actually makes the screen look bigger if it was still thirteen inches. If you have the money and a 13 inch screen is enough for you, buy it. If you are used to a 15 inch screen I promise the transition is easy. I went from a 15.5 inch to a 13.3 inch chromebook and it was much easier than expected. Should you buy it(if you have the money): YES Overall score: 9.4/10 (10 is the perfect laptop which will not happen for several years)

If I needed a computer merely for streaming content and wanted the best quality and highest resolution, then this is the clear leader and without exception the best offered in the market. If you need it to do other things it is best to look at something else. Despite the short battery life (around 4 hours of continuous use video streaming of Amazon prime HD offerings), I was willing to accept that, but constant and continuous other issues resulted in making me nuts. So what are the issues? 1. It gets hot and I don't mean warm, I mean hot enough to redden the skin if you are holding it on your lap. Everytime it got that hot which happens after using it for over a hour or so, I would elevate it on a rack I use for cooling cookies when they come out of the oven. This allowed air to constantly be under the laptop. Did it help? No. If you are intending to use this for several hours straight, you need to invest in a base which has a fan blowing cool air onto the bottom. This means the portabiity just went out the window. 2. Touchscreen fails to respond. It is maddening to be in the middle of a project only to have your touch screen stop responding to touch, provided epen, touch pad or cursor with a mouse. It was necessary to close everything down and restart the computer to fix it. 3. Keyboard touches opens random programs. This one was really puzzling. I would be typing and all of a sudden an program would open. I assumed I must have inadvertently touched something on the keyboard while typing, but have no clue as to what it was. Since I didn't know what caused it, I was unable to avoid doing it. 4. Weird keyboards show up on touch screen and you cant get them to close. I know there are times when you are using this in tablet mode that you want the keyboard to be on the screen. However why one would appear when you are typing was yet another mystery. How to get rid of it was equally puzzling. To add insult to injury, the keyboard which would show up differed from one time to another. Occasionally it was the Qwerty type, but frequently it was not. (One of them had row upon row of yellow circle face icons for heavens sake!) I would get rid of one only to have another show up. 5. Settings change without my input. You go to settings and have the computer's cursor, screen layout, wallpaper etc all set up to your own personal preferences. Then without any rhyme or reason they are changed. Yes it is easy to go back and set them again, but I shouldn't have to do this and it is a pain in the butt to keep reconfiguring they physical look of the display. 6. Bluetooth devices don't always stay paired. Once you have scanned and selected a blue tooth device, I am used to it always being on the list of available devices which you can then click to quickly reconnect. Here on a few occasions I had to go back to the repairing process to get them to connect. Again another time waster. There were othe6 I knew about before I purchased such as there only being a couple C type outlets. I had this issue with another Samsung product so had already purchased the doogle (dongle?) so that I could plug in my memory cards, usb and micro USB cords. Other positives are the look. This had to be the best looking laptop I have ever seen. Only the blue Samsung Galaxy laptop for windows looks as good. The built in epin when working was fabulous. You could set it up to magnify the screen, take a screenshot, etc so it allowed versatility not often seen in similar chromebooks. It is fast. Everything moved so quickly, and the processing was better than any other chromebook I have used to date. I know the new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 has worked to solve some of these issues. Unfortunately that has been done at the expense of factors which made the thing so great to start out with. In short if these are ever just a few hundred dollars I will get one for video streaming as I do a lot of it. But for over 600.? No not ever.

* The left arrow key doesn't reliably connect unless I hit it much harder than I have to hit the other keys. * It's a roll of the dice whether the laptop shuts off or merely sleeps when I close the lid, which means when I re-open it I'm often faced with a full restart, and Chrome has to re-load all my tabs etc. This seems to reset brightness preferences: the screen starts up intolerably dim, for some reason. * Even worse, occasionally when I re-open the laptop it's in this weird state where it seems to think it's on, but the screen is completely black and I have to force a restart. This is both annoying and concerning. * The keyboard is technically backlit, but the light is so dim that it barely helps even when it's dark. * The trackpad is easily pushed down to click near its bottom, but gets increasingly difficult as you go up, which just feels really weird and inconsistent. More than 1/2 of the way up, it's too hard to press for me to practically want to. Despite all the flaws, I love this machine. It's super light. I like the feel of the construction. I like the color. I really like having the browser back/forward/refresh on the keyboard. The stylus, working with Android art programs I already knew and loved, has been a delight. It's really nice to be able to go right from typing an article to drawing illustrations for it on the same device. Being able to run android apps natively on a 2-in-1 is really cool (even though realistically I'd often be better off using the desktop versions of apps on a mac or windows machine -- for example, Slack and Discord do not provide a great experience running their android app in chromos, compared with the experience of their desktop applications on mac. And in other cases, like Webtoons, I'm realistically better off just visiting the webpage. But running the app natively is so cool!).

Excellent deal. I paid only $100 CAD for a laptop that sold new only 5 years ago for... $1000+? I was almost entirely expecting a scam, but decided to give it a shot anyways. If true, the deal would be too good to pass up. And, MAN, was I not disappointed. This thing arrived in near-perfect condition, passed its diagnostics tests, wasn't enterprise-locked, and only had 3 charge cycles? All this, plus its 4K touchscreen AMOLED display, 10th gen i5, 8GB RAM, at $100?? A steal. An absolute steal. Be warned of the short battery life, but I'm perfectly content with that myself.

Absolutely love this chromebook! Yes it has a sub-par battery and it's certainly not a workhorse. It's a leisure laptop, browsing/youtube/movies the screen is amazing, with included stylus and effortless touchscreen. The fit and finish is solid, the red colour is eye catching. I consistently get 4 hours plus with 70% brightness with a mix of browsing/youtube/movies. Also it is super light. Mine does get slightly warm under the chasis with 10+ tabs open etc or when playing high res video, but general browsing it's cool to touch underneath.

Jahre lang das Samsung Galaxy Book benutzt. Aber das Windows Betriebssystem wird immer schwächer und bietet nicht wirklich viele Neuerungen. Deshalb habe ich mich für ein Chromebook entschieden. Und zwar das Samsung Galaxy Chromebook in Rot. Verarbeitung: Das Chromebook sieht super aus. Ist leicht, dünn und hochwertig verarbeitet. Mit integriertem S-Pen. Die rote Farbe leuchtet schön. Sieht Edel aus. Ausstattung. Das Gerät kommt mit Ladekabel (USA), man braucht einen Adapter für deutsche Steckdosen. Ersatzspitzen für den S-Pen. Kurze Anleitung. Display: 4K 8 GB RAM Speicherplatz: 256 GB. Kann durch eine Micro SD Karte noch erweitert werden. Sehr nützlich ist der Fingerprint Reader. Damit lässt sich das Gerät sehr schnell entsperren. Betriebssystem: Chrome OS. Ich selbst nutze Chrome OS Beta. Läuft rund ohne große Probleme. Batterie: Das ist das Problem bei diesem Gerät. Die Akkuleistung ist nicht gerade berauschend! Man kommt auf 4 bis maximal 8 Std. Je nachdem wie voft man es benutzt und was man alles eingenstellt hat. Ich kann mit der Batterieleistung leben. Nutze es nur Privat und nicht für den Job. Man kann es ganz aufklappen und dann den Tablet Modus nutzen. Ideal um mit dem Stift zu arbeiten. Fürs zeichnen ist der S-Pen nicht geeignet! Da es nur in Amerika erhältlich ist, kommt es ohne deutsche Tastatur aus. ẞ,Ö,Ä,Ü gibt es nicht. Fazit: Es wäre das Perfekte Chromebook wen die Akkuleistung besser wäre. Kann es aber trotzdem empfehlen. Für den Gelegenheits Chromebook User. Wer es für den Job braucht, sollte zu einem anderen Gerät greifen.

Still the best Chromebook on the market. The newer models suck compared to the thinness and beautiful 4K display on this product released in 2020. Yes battery life is not as good as others but still all I need.

I like everything in this laptop, 😌 its build Quality is superb 👌 two thumbs up Samsung, this review I read here in the review section most of them are bad but in my experience I research everything I need to know in this device, 😀 so for me I appreciate what this device can do and its limitations. 😌 so overall its a best buy.