Skip to main content

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Samsung’s gorgeous Galaxy Chromebook goes on sale on April 6 for $999

Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook is now slated to launch on April 6. And at $999 with a premium metal construction, this ultra-portable laptop has the chops to take on Apple’s newly refreshed MacBook Air. Like the MacBook Air, Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook utilizes a 13.3-inch display and comes with a sleek design, but the similarities between the laptops largely end there.

The star of the Galaxy Chromebook is its gorgeous screen, which is mounted on a 360-degree hinge to allow the device to convert between classic laptop form and tablet mode and everything in between. Here, you’re getting a vibrant 4K UHD AMOLED display. Additionally, the Galaxy Chromebook will be the first Chrome OS device to support Ambient EQ, allowing the software to tune the display’s white balance and color temperature for optimal viewing.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

And unlike the MacBook Air, the Galaxy Chromebook’s 4K display is touchscreen-enabled, meaning you can either interact with Chrome OS or Android apps using the backlit keyboard and trackpad or by touching the display. The touchscreen also supports Samsung’s built-in S Pen, so you’ll also be able to jot notes, annotate documents, or draw on the display.

Powering the whole setup is, according to Best Buy’s pre-order listing, an Intel 10th-gen quad-core Core i5-10210U processor, which surprisingly is a stronger CPU than the more energy-efficient Y-series chip used by Apple on the MacBook Air. You’ll also get Intel’s integrated UHD graphics with the 10th-gen processor. The Galaxy Chromebook comes with 8GB of memory and a 256GB solid-state drive.

Image used with permission by copyright holder

There are two USB-C ports — the MacBook Air edges ahead of the Galaxy Chromebook with its faster Thunderbolt 3 port — a built-in fingerprint scanner, microSD card slot, and microphone jack on the 0.4-inch thick body. The whole package weighs 2.29 pounds, which is lighter than the 2.75-pound Air. You can also use the 1-megapixel webcam built into the display’s slim bezels to take video calls, or you can use the 8-megapixel camera on the keyboard deck to capture photos when using the Galaxy Chromebook as a tablet.

Best Buy has two color variants available on the Galaxy Chromebook. Business users will want to stick with the more subdued Mercury Gray color, but if you need something splashier, the Fiesta Red is definitely eye-catching. Samsung also has a sign-up page on its website, according to The Verge.

At its premium price, the Galaxy Chromebook will compete against upgraded configurations of Google’s Pixel Slate as well as the Pixelbook.

Editors' Recommendations

Chuong Nguyen
Silicon Valley-based technology reporter and Giants baseball fan who splits his time between Northern California and Southern…
Steam enters beta on Chromebooks, tripling number of supported devices
Chrome OS Chromebook Gaming Android Gaming

After a long incubation period, Valve's Steam gaming platform is now available on the beta channel of version 108 of ChromeOS, bringing along improved user experience, broader availability, and greater compatibility with popular gaming titles.

Gaming publisher Valve had, at the beginning of this year, been collaborating with the ChromeOS gaming team in releasing Steam in the alpha channel of ChromeOS. Graduating to the more stable and reliable beta channel means more users can try Steam out for themselves.

Read more
Editing video on Chromebooks just got a lot easier
Light and dark theme shown in ChromeOS.

Later this summer, Google Photos will be gaining new video editing features on Chromebooks, helping address one of the weaknesses of ChromeOS when compared to Windows and MacOS. Also coming are tweaks to the light and dark themes, new editing features in the gallery app, and new calendar integration and notification improvements in ChromeOS.

The new feature in Google Photos is expected to work natively within the app, and all within a few taps for making quick videos.

Read more
How ChromeOS Flex turns old PCs into Chromebooks for free
Chrome OS Flex on a ASUS laptop.

If you have an older MacBook or Windows system somewhere around your house, there's a chance you might that the device might be "too slow" or isn't getting security or major operating system updates anymore.

Microsoft's fading out of older Windows versions, strict requirements for Windows 11, and Apple's allowing newer MacOS versions to run on select Macs might have your computer in the dust. Even in the enterprise space, it is very expensive to replace older devices.

Read more