At last year’s CES Samsung introduced the first Chromebook with an AMOLED screen. This year the company marks another first with the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2, the first of its kind to have a QLED display.

It’s a 2-in-1 device with a 13.3” touchscreen with 1,920 x 1,080 px resolution. The narrow bezels enclose an HDR display. Besides finger input, it also supports an USI Pen (a cross-compatible pen part of the Universal Stylus Initiative), which can detect 4,096 levels of pressure.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook is the first with a QLED display (13.3″ 1080p)

It’s not quite as thin and light as its premium sibling from last year, but at 1.23 kg and 13.9 mm it’s still very portable. And the 2020 model started at $1,000.

The Galaxy Chromebook 2 costs about half as much, it will start at $550. Though you only get an Intel Celeron 5205U for that price (a 15W CPU, 2 cores, 2 threads, with Intel UHD Graphics). If you want more performance, you can pick a 10th gen Intel Core i3 10110U (still a dual-core CPU but with 4 threads and higher clocks).

The laptop can be configured with 4 or 8 GB of RAM (LPDDR3) and 64GB or 128GB of storage. There’s a microSD slot on board as well. The 45.5 Wh battery promises to last 14 hours of use.

The two 5W speakers are backed by the Smart AMP feature, which is 178% louder than an average amplifier (according to Samsung). For video conferences on Google Meet there’s a 720p webcam. If you prefer to communicate in text, the backlit keyboard has wider keys to reduce the number of typos.

A better at the keyboard • Different ways to use the touchscreen

In terms of wireless connectivity, the Chrome OS laptop has Wi-Fi 6 (ax 2×2) and Bluetooth 5.0. The wired side of things features two USB-C ports and a headphone/microphone combo jack.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 will be available in Fiesta Red and Mercury Gray. The first units will be available in the US before the end of March.

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