Last year’s Galaxy Chromebook was one of the slickest laptops announced at CES, and now for CES 2021, Samsung is returning with the Galaxy Chromebook 2 which sports a more affordable price tag and the first QLED display available on any Chrome OS device.
Starting at just $550, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 has retained many of the original $1,000 Galaxy Chromebook’s best qualities while coming in at almost half the price. The Galaxy Chromebook 2 still has a 360-degree 2-in-1 design with a premium aluminum chassis, a backlit keyboard, an included stylus with 4,096 levels of pressure sensitivity, and even the same eye-catching red (or gray) paint job.
However, instead of the OLED display Samsung used on the previous model, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 comes with a 1920 x 1080 13.3-inch QLED touchscreen, which borrows the quantum dot tech used in many of Samsung’s TVs to hopefully produce rich, vibrant colors. And to enhance the laptop’s entertainment and movie watching credentials even further, Samsung has included what it’s calling Smart AMP sound, which Samsung claims is 178% louder than an average laptop amplifier.
On the inside, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 comes in two configurations starting with an Intel Celeron 5205 U CPU, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of storage, with the option to upgrade to an Intel Core i3-10110U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage. And to round out the Galaxy Chromebook 2's specs, you also get support for Wi-Fi 6 along with two USB-C ports (both of which can be used for charging), a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack.
So even though the more expensive and fancier original Galaxy Chromebook isn’t going away, for those looking to put less stress on their budget, between its very similar design, its new QLED display, and its included stylus support, the new Galaxy Chromebook 2 seems like a much better value.
The new Galaxy Chromebook is slated to be available sometime in Q1 2021.
And if you want to see more new gadgets and devices from CES 2021, click here to read our complete coverage.