It looks like Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook 2 will improve battery life and the price of its predecessor, according to leaked Samsung slides (via 9to5Google). The previous Galaxy Chromebook was an attractively designed 2-in-1 that nonetheless faltered due to battery life and a high price tag of $ 999. If these slides are to be believed, next year you might be hoping for some Chromebooks.
The most important change is the battery life. Slides shared by a leaker WalkingCat let’s say Samsung targets 12 hours of battery life on this new model. That’s a lot more than the meager 4 hours and 20 minutes (and 8 hours that Samsung promised) we spotted in our review of this year’s model.
Samsung’s slides also note that the Galaxy Chromebook 2 will be the first Chromebook with QLED or Quantum Dot LEDs. The company’s previous Chromebook used 4K AMOLED, a choice that seems to have damaged the device’s battery life. Switching to QLED would match the change Samsung has made in its non-Chrome OS 2020 laptops.
The old Galaxy Chromebook relied on the tenth-generation Intel Core i5 which was more than capable of coping with tasks that Samsung envisioned customers using the device, but this new Galaxy Chromebook 2 reportedly switches to the tenth-generation Core i3. This isn’t necessarily a step further for browser-based work in Chrome OS, 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 price (probably entry-level), the last significant trifle since the WalkingCat leak. The original Galaxy Chromebook is presented as something “superior” for “professionals”, and at least according to the views we have seen, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 maintains this elegant design.
The lower price of the Galaxy Chromebook 2 brings it closer to real high-end Chromebooks than the corresponding laptops from Apple and others. Replacing it with another processor and relying on a screen it already produces for other laptops could help improve sales, especially when combined with a lower price tag.
We’ll have to wait until that promised launch date from the slide in February 2021 to know for sure. But CES 2021 is just around the corner, and with it comes the possibility of some clarity on Samsung’s Chromebook map for next year and beyond.