Samsung launches Galaxy Book Go series of affordable Arm-based Windows 10 laptops

[Humza]

In a nutshell: Samsung has added two Snapdragon-powered models to its Galaxy Book series of laptops. Although they carry the same 'Go' moniker as seen on Microsoft's 2-in-1 Surface Go, Samsung's bigger, 14-inch thin-and-light laptop features a traditional clamshell design and uses Qualcomm chips. These include the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 on the base model and the more powerful, 5G-capable Snapdragon 8cx Gen2 chip on the higher-end variant.

We recently saw Qualcomm's announcement of its new Arm-based compute platform for entry-level, affordable laptops called the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2. Among the first devices to feature this SoC is Samsung's Galaxy Book Go series.

Powered by Windows 10, Samsung's latest Chromebook rival should be of interest to students and users with modest requirements and budgets. Starting at $349, Samsung's Galaxy Book Go comes with a 14-inch 1080p TFT display mounted on a 180-degree hinge, 4GB RAM, 64GB of eUFS storage, and Windows 10 Home. It can also be specced with Windows 10 Pro and an 8GB/128GB storage configuration.

Several Samsung ecosystem features are supported as well, including Galaxy Buds sharing, Quick Share, TV Plus, Smart Switch and SmartThings

The fanless chassis weighs 1.38 kg (3.04lbs) and measures just under 15mm thick. Samsung claims up to 18 hours of battery life for the Go's 42.3Wh cell, and has included 25W fast charging via USB-C. In terms of connectivity, the base Go features Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.1, 2 x USB 3.2 Type-C ports, 1 x USB 2.0 Type-A, a 720p webcam, a Nano SIM card slot (for the optional LTE variant), a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm combo jack.

There's also a more powerful, 5G variant of the Galaxy Book Go that packs a beefier Snapdragon chip (8cx Gen2) with Wi-Fi 6. Although Samsung hasn't announced pricing for this model, it packs nearly identical specs (display, design, battery, ports) as the non-5G Go, so expect to pay a slight premium. The standard Go variant will be available to buy in select markets starting June 10, while the 5G version is expected to arrive later this year.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/89920-samsung-launches-galaxy-book-go-series-affordable-arm.html

 

[bviktor]

Seems like an instant get. If only they had an 8GB option...

 

[punctualturn]

Will wait to see how good their AMD powered Exynos chip is.

 

[DZillaXx]

Honestly I wouldn't think about a Windows ARM laptop until Cortex X1 chips are available. By that time Windows WOW64 (64bit x86 support) should be apart of the public build of windows 10 for arm.

The 8cx is useable for a basic machine for sure, but really isn't any better than a low end Intel Atom unit. Anything less than that is really pushing it. Especially if you plan on running x86 apps. The new x86 64bit emulation/translation is apart of the test channel on current windows for arm devices. It really does open up what can be ran on the machines.

 

[Dimitriid]

Honestly I wouldn't think about a Windows ARM laptop until Cortex X1 chips are available. By that time Windows WOW64 (64bit x86 support) should be apart of the public build of windows 10 for arm.

The 8cx is useable for a basic machine for sure, but really isn't any better than a low end Intel Atom unit. Anything less than that is really pushing it. Especially if you plan on running x86 apps. The new x86 64bit emulation/translation is apart of the test channel on current windows for arm devices. It really does open up what can be ran on the machines.

Yep, my first thought was "Windows 10? Yeah no: If we can get these running on Linux however, then that no might become a maybe"

 

[DZillaXx]

Yep, my first thought was "Windows 10? Yeah no: If we can get these running on Linux however, then that no might become a maybe"

Honestly ARM based Windows 10 Machines with great battery life and solid performance would be great in the business world. For the company I manage CPU power of even i5's from years ago are more than enough for all tasks that need to get done.

Honestly the only other OS that competes with Windows 10 on a AD setup is Google's Chrome Books. And IMO the GSuite is not as good as 365 for the cost.

But a low Cost Windows ARM Laptop all everything I said above would be great. Toss it onto a MS 365 Azure Active Directory setup, with most users on 365 business premium for example. You have a pretty powerful yet cost effective tool for business use. As you also get 1TB+ of Sharepoint storage plus 1TB+ for each user. You can set it up so all personal data stays uploaded to the cloud, so if machine brakes you pull out a new one and they log back in with everything they had before. Outlook, Excel, and Windows makes for a pretty hole in one for business productivity standpoint.

The Ability to use a USB-C Dock should be mandatory for machines like this. These machines with 5G/4G internet and the Azure AD makes these machines what I'd buy for 60% of our users. But the current crop of ARM laptops are a joke. Including these Galaxy Books. Even the 8CX is border line, and I'd imagine x86_64 performance on them would be pretty mediocre. I have big hopes for Cortex X1

 

[Dimitriid]

Honestly ARM based Windows 10 Machines with great battery life and solid performance would be great in the business world. For the company I manage CPU power of even i5's from years ago are more than enough for all tasks that need to get done.

Honestly the only other OS that competes with Windows 10 on a AD setup is Google's Chrome Books. And IMO the GSuite is not as good as 365 for the cost.

But a low Cost Windows ARM Laptop all everything I said above would be great. Toss it onto a MS 365 Azure Active Directory setup, with most users on 365 business premium for example. You have a pretty powerful yet cost effective tool for business use. As you also get 1TB+ of Sharepoint storage plus 1TB+ for each user. You can set it up so all personal data stays uploaded to the cloud, so if machine brakes you pull out a new one and they log back in with everything they had before. Outlook, Excel, and Windows makes for a pretty hole in one for business productivity standpoint.

The Ability to use a USB-C should be mandatory for machines like this. These machines with 5G/4G internet and the Azure AD makes these machines what I'd buy for 60% of our users. But the current crop of ARM laptops are a joke. Including these Galaxy Books. Even the 8CX is border line, and I'd imagine x86_64 performance on them would be pretty mediocre. I have big hopes for Cortex X1

That makes quite a bit of sense: If I could have anything I wanted for a work computer I would like to have an M1 macbook air that is either seamlessly integrated with AD or runs Windows 10 without sacrificing all of the performance and battery to do so. The windows requirement is mostly for stuff like SSMS that we're still running as of today but migrating to Azure is about to begin so I probably won't be needing even that anymore in the near future.

I'd be nice to have but I could complete my workflow with just the Azure tools for SQL and maybe Notepad++ and I'd be good.