Samsung Galaxy Book S
Price: £999 (inc VAT) from fave.co/2V5GDcy
The Samsung Galaxy Book S is worth a look for several reasons: This ultralight, fanless 13.3in clamshell combines superb battery life with WWAN connectivity that compels you to work on the go. Priced at £999, it’s affordable, too.
The Galaxy Book S boasts Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8cx chip, an ARM processor that trades middling performance for a crazy 16 hours of battery life. Samsung’s learned what users like: The laptop adds a decent fingerprint reader, USB-C ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
It’s the best Qualcomm-powered PC we’ve seen in some time, including the Microsoft Surface Pro X, but the standard performance caveats of Snapdragon notebooks remain. Meanwhile, some X86-based machines have improved so much in battery life that they’ve stolen Qualcomm’s claim to fame.
Super-thin, super-light
At 961g, the Samsung Galaxy Book S lands in tablet territory (including a keyboard). Thanks to its anodized aluminium construction, you’d have to call it one of the most impressive ultralight PCs around. We received the Mercury Grey colour from Samsung for review, though the pinkish ‘Earthy Gold’ is also available. On the desk, the Book S opens with a finger, and the display reclines to about 45 degrees. It’s solid, too: I perceive no keyboard flex while typing, and the display barely flops
