Review of the Samsung Galaxy Book 2: The Amateur Surface

About two years ago, Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would be compatible with ARM processors, including Qualcomm's Snapdragon line of chips in mobile phones. At that time, I wrote that this offered Microsoft the perfect opportunity to produce the ideal Surface Pro: a thin, lightweight computer, always connected via integrated LTE and having a considerable battery life. Since then, Microsoft has released several new Surface computers, including models with integrated LTE, but has not yet produced one powered by an ARM chip instead of Intel's more energy-hungry processors.

This is where Samsung's new Galaxy Book 2 comes in. The $ 999 Galaxy Book 2 is essentially the same type of machine as Microsoft's popular Surface Pro: a tablet with a detachable keyboard and stylus that offers complete Windows 10 experience. But Book 2 is also part of the new Always Connected computers powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 processor.

On paper, the Book 2 is the Surface Pro I was looking for: an ultra-portable computer always connected, which will last more than a whole day away from any point of sale. But, as often, what is written is not always consistent with reality.

For the uninitiated, the Galaxy Book 2 is virtually identical to Microsoft's Surface Pro. It's a slim tablet with an infinitely adjustable integrated kickstand, a magnetically attached keyboard at the bottom and a pressure-sensitive pen for writing and drawing. The Book 2 has about the same dimensions as the Surface Pro, up to its weight of 1.75 pounds (without keyboard).

The screen is different: the Book 2 has a touch screen OLED 3: 2 of 12 inches (with Samsung brand Super AMOLED), rich in pixels and rich in color. It also becomes bright enough to use the tablet on the outside. The screen is a little smaller than the Surface Pro, but I have not noticed the size difference as much as the giant goggles that surround it, which are considerably larger than the already big glbades.

You will find other differences on the sides, the Book 2 being provided with two USB-C ports, one or the other that can be used to charge the computer, and a fingerprint scanner in the upper right corner behind the screen. I prefer a face recognition camera to a fingerprint scanner for connecting to a laptop, but it is fast and reliable.

Samsung has equipped the Book 2 with AKG side-trigger tuners, which sound rather thin and flat. They work well for conference calls, but using them to watch videos or listen to music is not very pleasant.

Included in the box, a full size keyboard with backlit keys and a large trackpad. It's a nice, easy typing keyboard, but its plasticky finish is not nearly as good as the Alcantara keyboards available for the Surface Pro. However, Microsoft does not include its keyboard in the box, which costs 159 dollars more than the surface.

The same can be said for the S pen Pen included in the Book 2: it's a perfectly functional, pressure-sensitive stylus, fitted with an eraser at the back, which does not It's not as nice as Microsoft's $ 99 Surface Pen, but Samsung has included it in the box.

Overall, the Book 2 hardware is qualified as competent: there is no major flaw or glaring problem, but the adaptation and finishing of the hardware are well below those offered by Microsoft. Given the price differences between devices (a Surface Pro equipped with LTE with a stylus and keyboard will last several hundred dollars more), most of these expenses can be excused in favor of Book 2.

Inside, things are a little different. As I said, the Galaxy Book 2 avoids the traditional Intel processor options for a Qualcomm Snapdragon 850, a modified version of the Snapdragon 845 found in many smartphones, specifically designed for Windows computers. It is badociated with 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. (There are no other options or specification levels to choose from with book 2.)

The Book 2 is one of the first devices to be sold with the 850, and this is the first one I used. My initial experience with the previous-generation Always Connected computers powered by Snapdragon 835 was less than positive: I encountered a number of application compatibility issues and the performance was slow and frustrating.

Unfortunately, while the 850 is improved over the previous generation chip, it still suffers from many identical problems. The Galaxy Book 2 comes with Windows 10 in S mode, which limits the applications you can install to those of the Microsoft Store by default. But even in this case, I encountered several utilities that I could not use because they were not compatible with the ARM platform. Other apps I could install, such as LastPbad, did not run and crashed at launch.

In addition, the performance limits of Book 2 are soon to be verified. Although it can work without problems for light and casual work, as soon as I try to juggle several tasks and I switch between a browser with a dozen open tabs. , e-mail, Slack, Word and other productivity applications, the Book 2 begins to give way under pressure. The performances in Slack are so slow and frustrating that I ended up giving up the desktop application and using a browser tab to access it.

Book 2 will also be suspended when switching between virtual desktops or even when trying to simply open the Start menu and search in Cortana. I guess the capacity of 4GB of RAM is a big limitation here. Even the smartphone of the Samsung Galaxy Note 9 has more RAM on board, but this is probably also due to CPU overhead.

On the positive side, the Book 2 is quiet because it has no fans and stays cold, even when juggling with a lot of tasks. The battery life is excellent: although it does not reach the 20 hours requested by Samsung, I am able to use it all day at work and on my way home without having to connect it. I have never used an ultraportable Intel. PC with so much stamina for the battery.

All this makes the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 rather frustrating. It has an excellent form factor, a long battery life, a long battery life and an integrated LTE technology, which should make it an excellent computer for road warriors. However, its processor platform and lack of RAM make it more difficult. Those who have only a handful of tasks to do for their work may not have problems with Book 2's performance, but those who juggle a lot of web browsing with other productivity applications will probably hit the wall pretty quickly.

Samsung may have been the closest to making my dream computer, but Book 2 just does not have enough of the pro that I need to be my everyday computer.

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