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Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook is everything you'd expect from the maker of some of the nicest Android phones on the market: premium hardware, custom adapted to the needs of this device. The fanless design is one-of-kind with this chipset, and the close integration with ChromeOS features makes for a smoother user experience than most Chromebooks.
This is everything Google's Chromebook Pixel once was, and more. With Google apparently happy to let the Pixel fade away, Samsung has stepped up to provide a first-class Chromebook experience. Unfortunately, this great piece of hardware suffers from most of the same limitations all Chromebook's suffer from: ChromeOS.
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The attention to detail in Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook is apparent from the minute you pull it out of the box. It feels like a premium machine, and it is, especially in the Chromebook world. The sleek aluminum body, high-resolution 4K AMOLED screen, and tenth-generation i5 processor have far more in common in high-end Windows machines than other Chromebooks. It come in either a sedate gray or an aptly name "fiesta red."
A built-in pen, fingerprint reader, support for WiFi 6, up to 16 GB of RAM, and up to one-terabyte of storage space (plus an SD card slot) round out the high-end specs. There's also a digital dual array microphone that makes working with Google Assistant voice commands easier than many other devices I've tried. You can control your Galaxy by yelling at it from across the room just was well as you can control Google's various home smart devices.
This is the thinnest Chromebook you'll find, at only 9.9mm tall. And it definitely has the sharpest, brightest screen I've ever used with ChromeOS (it's the first Chromebook with an AMOLED screen). That AMOLED sharpness comes at cost in battery life though, the Galaxy Chromebook managed tk hours in our standard battery drain test (playing a looped 1080p video at 75 percent brightness).
If you turn down the brightness even more -- and you can afford to here since the screen is so sharp -- you can coax a full day of use out of the battery. Normally this is the part where I would say something like, assuming ordinary tasks like browsing the web, checking email, messaging on Slack, but this is a Chromebook so of course that's all you're going to be doing.
This is unquestionably a nice laptop. You are paying for what you get though. At $999 the Galaxy Chromebook is an expensive piece of kit, and one that's never going to run, for instance, Photoshop, Overwatch, or any other popular desktop applications or games.
So long as that's not a requirement for you, there's much here to love. An example of the refinement and integration in this laptop, when you press in on the spring-release pen to pull it out, the Galaxy will automatically open Google Keep, and be ready for your handwritten notes or sketches. It's a small thing, but here are a lot of these small things that add up to the smoothest, nicest ChromeOS experience I've had.
###ChromeOS
My major problem with the Galaxy Chromebook is not the hardware, it's the software. There are parts of ChromeOS that are fantastic. The instant-on experience of opening the lid of your laptop and having it ready to type is addictive. Everything else seems terribly slow to me now. Likewise the simple, fluid means of installing software (which are really just browser-based apps) is really wonderful compared even to the software stores on Windows and macOS.
Google likes to tout support for Android apps as well when talking about ChromeOS, but there I've had less luck. If by apps you mean the top 50 apps in the Play Store then yes, support is pretty good. Alas, once you stray outside the big name apps, your odds of finding something that works drop considerably.
While Google doesn't tout it's Linux support much, I found that to be nearly flawless. If you're a developer building apps for Google Platforms, The Galaxy Chromebook is one of the few that's up to the task. The Linux-based software tools you want are easy to install, and the i5 chip has the power to actually compile software. It's nowhere near desktop power, but if you want a development machine for Google-centric software projects, the Galaxy Chromebook is up to the task.
This laptop makes sense for hardcore Google product users. If you live in Chrome, sync everything through Google Drive, post your photos to Google Photos, and email from Gmail, then the Samsung will serve you well.
Samsung's latest high end Chromebook is a brilliant piece of hardware hamstrung by an OS that still feels half-baked, and worse, [mandates an expiration date](https://support.google.com/chromebook/answer/9367166?hl=en). The GEAR team already has a 2015 Chromebook Pixel that can't get updates (and therefore can't load Netflix among other things), do we need another?
To be fair, this Samsung will receive updates until 2028, which right now feels like centuries away. And maybe that's good enough for you. In which case there is much here to love. From a hardware standpoint I have never used a nicer Chromebook. I just wish it ran Windows.
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