Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: So Light, So Expensive

At $700, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is one of the best-feeling Chromebooks you can buy this year. However, even with a quality screen, chassis, and feel, it lacks in some key areas. I’ve enjoyed many of the new features introduced to Chromebooks in the last two years. But are these devices now the true AI laptops, thanks to Google’s Gemini? No, of course not.

I like a good Chromebook as much as anybody, and the Chromebook Plus models have largely been a solid upgrade for what are still ultra-cheap laptops. There are a few places where you can nab a “Plus” laptop for basic browsing, streaming, and potentially more intensive cloud-based tasks for around $350, like the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11. With its enterprise-level chassis, this device costs as much as the Asus ExpertBook CX54 Chromebook Plus. Samsung’s device is also the first Chromebook to use the new Quick Access Key (right where you find your Caps Lock button). The quick access to Gemini AI certainly isn’t worth the extra cost, so what is?

What the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus has going for it is a great feel, from the chassis to the I/O port selection down to the spacious keyboard. It’s so thin; one PR rep for Google was happy to show how the new Galaxy Chromebook Plus was as thick as two graded Pokémon cards. It’s a very specific metric, to be sure, but at 11.8 mm thin, there’s no bag or crack in the wall it won’t fit into.

It has a solid battery life that lasts a little more than 10 hours after periodic use. The Samsung-brand Chromebook also packs a quality near-16-inch AMOLED display that feels luxuriously wide. That, plus the keyboard with full numpad and HDMI port with a solid selection of I/O, makes it a great all-rounder. It also comes with 256GB of storage for your content outside the cloud, more than you normally get elsewhere. Performance on the Intel Core 3 chip is where you need it to be with such a common Chromebook CPU. At the same time, it has a minimum of 8GB of RAM to qualify for Chromebook Plus status.

However, without a touchscreen or any other noticeable features, save for the thin chassis, there’s not much about this Chromebook that excites me to recommend it for $700. You can’t get much better if you want a solid Chromebook and don’t care about cost.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: Build Quality and Usability

© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus sits in a .47-inch tall body and weighs 2.58 pounds. Yes, it’s light, damn light, but better than that, it still feels solid. The chassis does have some bend toward the center (not nearly as bad as the Acer Swift 16 AI), especially around the palm rest. Otherwise, the laptop feels premium, and you have the extra benefit of the pleasing deep blue color for the cover. The only issue is that the device tends to shine with your greasy fingers and palms, requiring regular wiping. There’s also the extra benefit of plenty of I/O ports, including two USB-C, a USB type A, HDMI, and a micro-SD card slot.

See Galaxy Chromebook Plus at Samsung

The keyboard and trackpad feel just about right. The thin keys aren’t too stiff, though they still have a clacky feeling without being squishy. The clickpad-type trackpad has a smooth texture, although not as fine as a glass surface. I only had a few instances of palm rejection issues, but not enough to be concerning for long-term use. Overall, it’s just very standard, especially since you don’t get a touchscreen on this model.

After that, it’s all down to the ChromeOS software. Easily, my favorite part of the latest updates is the Welcome Recap. It loads every time you restart your Chromebook, allowing you to see what you were most recently working on, alongside little widgets for your Calendar, Weather, and Docs. As for the Quick Insert key, I only used it to text emojis or for quick access to GIFs to send to coworkers in Slack. That’s plenty useful for the memelords, but not much else.

After using it for a week, I loved the new Focus features. You can set it to time out your focus tasks, reducing pop-ups and other distractions. You can enable it with YouTube Music, but there’s a small selection of “Focus Sounds” to listen to instead. There are tracks to emulate a thunderstorm, with rain pattering on an invisible roof, or you could choose the “classical” track to serenade yourself with soft strings and brass as you work. I only wish you had more control over every playlist and that there were more to choose from. Google also integrated Google Tasks directly into the taskbar above the calendar function. It’s simple but effective, especially if you’re the type that needs a reminder every few hours about what it was you were supposed to be doing.

The sound quality is impressive, particularly when using headphones. The display is excellent, but the slim design does not support its role as a complete all-in-one entertainment device.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: Display and Sound

One of the Galaxy Chromebook’s biggest selling points is its 15.6-inch AMOLED display. It’s a nice size, and the 1080p resolution is good enough for streaming YouTube or Netflix. The screen was also plenty bright for my use, so I first relied on it to slip into my apartment’s living area, where it gets the most sun.

Yes, it looks great, but its panel has a refresh rate of only 60Hz. That’s fine for streaming video content, but what if I wanted to load up Game Pass or Geforce Now for some game streaming on this bright, beautiful screen? At this price point, I’d want a 120Hz panel like the Acer Chromebook 516 GE.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus doesn’t sound as good as it looks. It can get loud, but it’s still very tinny, which is certainly not the quality you want to watch your favorite movies while huddled on the bed with your significant other.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: Performance and Battery Life

© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

The laptop uses an Intel Core 3 100U Raptor Lake processor released in January, before all the hubbub around the Qualcomm Snapdragon, AMD Strix Point, and Intel Lunar Lake for thin PCs. It’s an entry-level chip, but it’s good at that level. However, it doesn’t have the battery life of these most recent $1,000-plus laptops.

The fan couldn’t be called loud, but I was surprised to hear it whirring as the device handled three separate Chrome windows and an external display. The laptop could also get relatively warm under stress, but you would only feel it if you held it from the bottom. I never noticed any instances where the heat impacted performance.

The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also has 8GB of RAM, more than you normally get with a Chromebook Plus model. Because of this, the Chromebook was speedy for most tasks, but running it with all those windows and too many open tabs caused me to experience some cursor slowdowns and occasional hitching.

Battery life used to be one of the defining benefits of Chromebooks, but other small Windows PCs have since eclipsed them. Samsung promises 13 hours of battery life, though that was based on the Chromebook power load test. I found I could get between six and seven hours before I needed to recharge. It’s not bad, and I used it with too many open tabs, as I usually do. It just won’t be a multi-day laptop.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: AI Additions

© Photo: Kyle Barr / Gizmodo

New Chromebook Plus models are supposed to sport the Quick Access key landing on the Caps Lock space where the old “G” key used to be (don’t worry, the Launcher button has new space next to the left Alt key). The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is the first of its kind to get this addition. This has a few benefits. It lets you access files you last had open and see a potential URL link you could add to some text. However, its main raison d’etre is to give you immediate access to AI writing capabilities.

However, I have serious doubts about whether anyone should use this for anything beyond outlining or brainstorming. I asked Google’s Gemini to write a paragraph explaining the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus specs just to prove a point. Gemini spat out several options for a paragraph and provided inaccuracies about the display, CPU, size, and more. It will confidently lie about things it does not have the correct information about, and that’s a problem.

Even the proofread function is less helpful than it should be. It doesn’t tell you what parts of a highlighted paragraph will change. This is all with a Gemini Advanced subscription, which is Google’s most-capable LLM available to Chromebook users from the desktop.

And, of course, there’s Gemini Advanced. All new Chromebook Plus buyers get 12 months free of Google’s more advanced chatbot, plus 2TB of cloud storage. Gemini Advanced comes with a few “Gems” like coding partners; depending on the user, it could prove useful. Based on Google’s suggestion, I asked the “Brainstormer” Gem to help me develop gift ideas for a friend who likes Baldur’s Gate III. To be succinct, it’s gift ideas absolutely sucked. Its best idea was to give a gift card or a shirt to a local game shop.

Don’t buy this or any other new Chromebook because of its AI capabilities. That said, if you use on-device voice recorders, you’ll find the new AI-generated transcriptions and summaries on the ChromeOS Recorder App, which aren’t too bad.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: Verdict

The more I used the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, the more I endeared myself to it. It’s the Chromebook I could see someone replacing their laptop with. It has enough ports and a solid display, but without all the little extras, like a higher refresh rate and better speakers, I would inevitably feel like I’m missing something. I would want a Chromebook without compromise for the price you’re paying.

See Galaxy Chromebook Plus at Samsung