When Samsung’s Galaxy Book came to Australia last year, we liked it but found it wasn’t without its faults. Samsung has now announced the next iteration of the line, funnily enough called Galaxy Book 2, and it seems to have addressed many of the criticisms leveled at the original.
The new Galaxy Book 2 is a 12″ device – a fantastic and practical form factor for users who are always on the move. It offers plenty of grunt for a mobile device thanks to the Snapdragon 850 processor, and the power efficiency of that grunt is one of the reasons it has “multi-workday battery life” – which sounds neat but is about 20 hours of worktime. Should you find yourself running short of battery, the fast charging should see you through with only a short period of time wall hugging.
Much like its predecessor, the Galaxy Book 2 has LTE built-in, meaning you’re always connected with ready-to-go connectivity when you’re away from Wifi, or when you’re at a friendly base.
The market expectation these days is that accessories (like pens and keyboards) are optional extras but not with the Galaxy Book 2.
The Galaxy Book2 takes your work to the next level with a keyboard and S Pen that come included in the box. The keyboard doubles as a screen cover, to keep your Galaxy Book2 protected wherever you go. With the S Pen, you can take notes, mark up documents, and even translate phrases—all with a pen that never has to be charged.
- DISPLAY: 12.0” sAMOLED FHD+ (2160×1440)
- CHIPSET: Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 850 (Quad 2.96GHZ + Quad 1.7 GHz)
- LTE SUPPORT: Snapdragon X20 LTE Modem Cat.18 5CA, up to 4X4 MIMO
- MEMORY / STORAGE: 4GB / 128GB
- CAMERA: 8MP Rear / 5MP Front
- PORT: USB Type-C x2, microSD, 3.5mm
- SENSORS: Accelerometer, Fingerprint Sensor, Gyro Sensor, Geomagnetic Sensor, Light Sensor
- WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac 2.4+5GHz, VHT80 MIMO
- DIMENSION / WEIGHT: 11.32″ x 7.89″ x .30″ / 1.75 lbs
- BATTERY LIFE: Up to 20 hours (S Mode)
- OS / UPGRADE: Windows 10 in S Mode[1]
- ACCESSORIES: S Pen, Keyboard (both included)
- VIDEO: MP4,M4V,3GP,WMV,ASF,AVI,MKV
- AUDIO: MP3,M4A,AAC,WAV,WMA,FLAC
The Galaxy Book 2 is currently listed at US$999, with no official word on whether we’ll see it in Australia – but we’ll stay on top of that detail.
Update: We reached out to Samsung Australia who returned the following statement
Samsung Electronics Australia plans to launch the Galaxy Book2 in Australia. More details will be announced closer to local launch.
We will post further detail including pricing and launch date for Australia once available.
Is a mobile, fully functional Windows-based device something you need in your tech bag?
Still no news from Samsung? They have not been very engaging with Australian consumers 🙁 Asked them a few times on their Facebook page for info and they give the exact same generic response everytime.
The downpoints I see in the specs are: Win10 and no Android, 8MP rear camera. I’ll discuss the latter point, first, as it’s easiest. My current tablet is a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 P585. Its rear camera is 8MP. If Samsung wants me to consider the Galaxy Book as a possible upgrade then Better Rear Camera than older devices. As for the former point, having Win10 as the OS on the device means I’d be forced to endure Win10, and I’ve no desire to do so. An Android 9.x version of this device with better rear camera would have been… Read more »
Then the Tab S4 is what you’re looking for, not the windows device.
Latest versions of windows 10 and office are IMOA exceptional, I used to be iOS only but have been agnostic for the past 2 years and now reach for my windows machine over booting up the Mac, 100% of the time.
Looks good but would have liked a 10″ option which would be a bit more affordable….also 8GB of RAM would be nice
Well done Samsung on including the keyboard and pen.
The galaxy book sounds alright , I’d be tempted to give that one a go if it came here .