Skip to main content

Samsung’s upcoming $999 Galaxy Book S is the first Snapdragon 8cx laptop

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Samsung laptops have never caught on in the states quite like they have elsewhere, but the company hasn’t stopped trying. Its newest laptop is called the Galaxy Book S, and it was announced live at the Samsung Unpacked press event, alongside the Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10 Plus, on August 7.

The Galaxy Book S is a new laptop design with a slim profile, thin bezels, and spacious touchpad. It weight just 2.12 pounds, which is almost a pound lighter than the MacBook Air. Samsung laptops in the past have been known for super-lightweight designs, so we expect the Galaxy Book S to continue that tradition. In addition to a microSD card slot, the Galaxy Book S will include two USB-C ports — one on each side. These are not, of course, Thunderbolt 3, as that is an Intel technology.

The laptop is a follow-up to the Galaxy Book 2, a Surface Pro look-alike with a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and LTE connectivity.

samsung laptop leak 2
Evan Blass/Twitter: @evleaks

Surprisingly, the Galaxy Book S is powered not by the mobile Snapdragon 855, but the Snapdragon 8cx. The processor was first announced at the end of 2018, but this is the first device we’ve seen so far with this powerful new chip from Qualcomm. With eight cores, it’s meant to be a true competitor to Intel’s mobile processors, boasting significantly improved multitasking capabilities and higher clock speeds than previous Qualcomm PC processors. Samsung didn’t mention the chip by name in its announcement outside of the photo that was shown.

The two big advantages of this platform, according to Samsung, are battery life and connectivity. Samsung claims the Galaxy Book S will achieve an impressive 23 hours of battery life in video playback with its 42 watt-hour battery, enough to last you multiple days of usage. In terms of connectivity, you get access to built-in LTE support. This isn’t the rumored 5G laptop Samsung had in the works, but it does come with Qualcomm’s LTE modem for constant connectivity.

Samsuun laptop leaked photo
Evan Blass/Twitter: @evleaks

The device is said to have a 1080p, touch-enabled screen, though it doesn’t have a 360 hinge or any other 2-in-1 functionality. The base model includes 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, with the option of moving up to 512GB of storage.

The Galaxy Book S starts at $999, and Samsung says it’s set to ship in September of this year.

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Larsen
Senior Editor, Computing
Luke Larsen is the Senior editor of computing, managing all content covering laptops, monitors, PC hardware, Macs, and more.
Samsung’s CES 2023 gaming monitors range from curved QD-OLEDs to 8K behemoths
The Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 on a grey background.

Samsung is convinced you need a bigger gaming monitor -- or at least, that's what its CES 2023 lineup suggests. The company introduced four new monitors to its Odyssey gaming line, ranging from a 34-inch ultrawide monitor up to its 8K 57-inch monster.

It's an interesting move considering CES is also bringing the first 27-inch OLED monitors from LG that have been the talk of tech for the past couple of months. But for now, Samsung has just two Odyssey OLED monitors it's introducing: a 34-inch model and a 49-inch model.
Samsung Odyssey OLED G9

Read more
Get ready: the first 8K ultrawide monitors are coming out in 2023
A slide showing the first 8K ultrawide monitor from Samsung.

The first 8K ultrawide monitors are finally coming -- and they're coming soon. Details are incredibly sparse, but we do know that these high-resolution gaming displays will be launching sometime in 2023.

The announced was dropped at AMD's next-gen RX 7000 GPU launch, where the company announced that the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 would be the first official ultrawide monitor to support this higher resolution.

Read more
Powerful Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 Chromebooks could be coming soon
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 platform.

ARM-based Chromebooks have been around for many years, but they've been limited to the slower offerings from MediaTek and Qualcomm. But according to a discovery by Chrome Unboxed, there are mentions of Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 chip in the Chromium Repository.

This hints that work is being done in the code in ChromeOS to support the new, much more powerful SoC (system on chip).

Read more