Samsung Galaxy Book 2 tablet hands-on: Performance takes a back seat to battery life
After spending an intensive few days with Samsung’s Galaxy Book 2, we can see that it follows in the footsteps of the first-generation Galaxy Book that shipped last year by aiming to be a good value. It’s still a traditional Windows 2-in-1 tablet built around Samsung’s terrific AMOLED displays and rich sound, with LTE capability, a pen and keyboard, sold for a reasonable $999.
But the Galaxy Book 2 has also made some fundamental changes. Lured by Qualcomm’s promises of all-day battery life, Samsung switched from the Intel Core i5 chip it used in the first-generation Galaxy Book to Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 850 in the Galaxy Book 2. Our preliminary tests show that performance suffers as a result. On the other hand, battery life improves enormously—up to an industry-leading 17 hours.
In addition to the CPU switch, the second generation makes some other compromises. The built-in 4GB of memory and 128GB of storage is a bit skimpy, for instance, and the OS—Windows 10 Home in S Mode—might turn some off. As we work through more testing and file a full review, we’ll see if our first impressions evolve.
BASIC SPECS
Display: 12.0-inch Samsung AMOLED (2160x1440)
Processor: Qualcomm 8-core Snapdragon 850 (4 cores @ 2.96GHz; 4 cores @ 1.7 GHz)
Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno 630 (integrated)
Memory: 4GB
Storage: 128GB SSD
Ports: 2 USB-C, microSD, headphone jack
Wireless: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac VHT80 MIMO; Snapdragon X20 LTE Modem
Cameras: 5MP front, 8MP rear
Battery: 47Wh
Operating system: Windows 10 Home in S Mode (Windows 10 Home as tested)
