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Samsung’s aspirational Galaxy Chromebook: Shell out $1k for a fast beaut (and remember to try Linux if you're into that)

Svelte beast, pretty on the inside

CES Amidst the stifling heat and ever-present body odour of the annual CES trade show, Samsung lifted the lid on its latest top-tier 2-in-1 Chromebook – the Galaxy Chromebook.

Available this quarter, and with a price tag of $999.99 (plus tax), the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is arguably the most aspirational Chrome OS device we've encountered since the original launch of the Chromebook Pixel in 2013.

Front-and-centre is an impressive 13.3-inch 4K UHD AMOLED display, with a bezel measuring just 3.9mm. At the end of the year, a software update will give the Galaxy Chromebook HDR400 capability, per Samsung, as well as Ambient EQ, which is designed to reduce eye-strain.

Augmenting this are the kind of internal specs you'd find on a mid-to-high-end lappy, pictured below. It packs an unspecified 10th generation Intel Core i5 processor with the standard UHD Graphics. The latter isn't a deal-breaker, given you almost certainly won't be using the Galaxy Chromebook to play the latest Call of Duty.

Galaxy Chromebook
group

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Punters can configure the laptop with up to 16GB of LPDDR3 memory, and the Galaxy Chromebook supports up to 1TB of flash storage.

While that sounds excessive for a device heavily skewed towards the web browser, it's worth pointing out that it's fairly trivial to run a full Linux distro with Chrome OS. And that's without mentioning Chrome OS's compatibility with many Android apps. We therefore wouldn't be surprised to see some power-users max this option out.

The Galaxy Chromebook comes with a few added extras that justify its steep asking price, including a built-in pen and fingerprint reader, as well the latest Wi-Fi 6 tech.

And then there are the dimensions. The Galaxy Chromebook weighs roughly 1KG. At its thickest point, it measures 9.9mm. That's impressive, but given it's packing a full Core i5 processor, we're desperately curious to see how Samsung has handled the thermal demands that inevitably ensue from such a powerful chip. ®

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