Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook 2 looks set to improve battery life and the price of its predecessor, according to Samsung’s short slides (by 9to5Google). Previously, the Galaxy Chromebook was an attractively designed 2-in-1, which still faltered due to the battery life and the high price of 999 USD. If these slides are to be believed, then next year some Chromebooks may be full of hope.
The most important change is the battery life. Slide shared by the leaker WalkingCat we say that Samsung aims for more than 12 hours of battery life on this new model. It’s much more than the 4 hours and 20 minutes (and the 8 hours that Samsung promised) that we noticed in this year’s model review.
Samsung Slides also notes that the Galaxy Chromebook 2 will be the first Chromebook with a QLED screen or LED quantum. The company’s previous Chromebook used a 4K AMOLED, a choice that seemed to affect the device’s battery life. The move to QLED would match Samsung’s change to its non-Chrome OS laptops in 2020.
The old Galaxy Chromebook was based on a 10th generation Intel Core i5 that was more than capable of coping with the tasks for which Samsung imagined it would use the device, but this new Galaxy Chromebook 2 is moving to a Core i3 to 10th generation. It’s not necessarily a step down for browser-based operation in the Chrome operating system, but it’s interesting given the availability of 11th-generation Intel processors in 2021.
All of these changes could have played a role in the $ 699 (probably entry-level) price, the last notable moment in the WalkingCat leak. The original Galaxy Chromebook was presented as something “premium” for “professionals” and at least from the renderings we saw, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 retains that sleek design.
The cheaper price of the Galaxy Chromebook 2 brings it closer to the latest generation Chromebooks than to the appropriate laptops from Apple and others. Switching to a different processor and relying on a display you already get for your other laptops could help improve sales, especially when combined with a lower price.
We’ll have to wait until the promised launch date in February 2021 of the slide, to know for sure. But CES 2021 is just around the corner, and with that comes some clarity on Samsung’s Chromebook roadmap for next year and beyond.