Samsung Galaxy Book2 - Review 2022

As a Windows tablet with built-in gigabit LTE and twenty-hour battery life, the Samsung Milky way Book2 has a lot of potential for tablet shoppers looking for a more than capable alternative to the Apple iPad. Theoretically, the $999.99 Galaxy Book2 combines the all-time of the large-screen Apple iPad Pro (long bombardment life, instant startup, vivid touch screen, pen support) with the power of Windows 10 (the ability to use a mouse and run desktop software). Add in a gigabit LTE modem, and it becomes even more than intriguing. The big downside for people who need to practice more than scout videos or compose emails is that the Book2'south Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 processor delivers a computing experience marred at times by sluggishness and incompatible apps.

Keyboard and Pen Included

Pick up the Galaxy Book2 for the showtime time, and y'all notice that it has more in mutual with the Microsoft Surface Pro than it does with the Apple iPad Pro. That's because the Galaxy Book2 features a born kickstand for propping up the tablet on your desk-bound, and information technology also comes with a keyboard cover in the box. Attach the keyboard encompass—complete with miniature touchpad—to the tablet using the magnetized POGO-style connector, and you get a credible substitute for a laptop.

Microsoft pioneered this setup with the Surface Pro, and other companies such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo subsequently refined it in devices similar the Lenovo IdeaPad Miix 520. In the Milky way Book2's case, the unabridged packet feels more like a thick java-table book than a laptop. The 12-inch screen is slightly smaller than the iPad Pro'southward 12.9 inches and the Surface Pro'due south 12.iii inches, merely information technology's a negligible difference when you're holding information technology. Instance in bespeak: Without the keyboard encompass, the Galaxy Book2 weighs 1.75 pounds and measures 0.3 by 11.32 by 7.89 pounds (HWD), while the Surface Pro 6 measures 0.33 by 11.v by 7.9 inches (HWD) and weighs one.seven pounds. You'd be hard-pressed to give either the edge.

The keys feel very solid and travel a satisfying distance when you press them, but the keyboard encompass itself is quite bendy, which results in a significant amount of flex if you type forcefully. I do appreciate the textured back of the keyboard embrace, only by far the best matter I tin say about it is that information technology is included at no extra charge, unlike the Surface Blazon Cover, which must be purchased separately from the Surface Pro.

The display is an AMOLED panel, and its ii,160-by-ane,440-pixel resolution lies in betwixt 4K and full HD. It's not quite as high-res as the 2,736-by-1,824-pixel Surface Pro half-dozen screen, simply the AMOLED technology lends a vivacity to the colors that the Surface Pro can't match. I, personally, would rather take the college resolution than the AMOLED applied science, but it'south certainly a close telephone call.

The Galaxy Book2's S Pen stylus (which is also included in the $1,000 base price, dissimilar the optional $99 Surface Pen) is pleasing to use, with excellent pressure sensitivity and palm rejection. I appreciate that Samsung includes a spare pen tip, as well as a tool for swapping out the tips, which will tedious over time like a pencil tip does.

The major downside of the S Pen is that it has a weak magnet. It sticks to the tablet'due south left edge, but it takes some effort to get it to stay, and each time I picked upwards the tablet, the pen fell off. Samsung claims that the magnet is supposed to serve as a place to rest the pen when you need to briefly switch between cartoon and tapping or typing, and the magnets are not intended to store the pen while in transit. For that, y'all tin can use the included plastic sheath, which matches the gray color of the pen.

I'm non a fan of the drab gray look, just at least it'southward consequent, with the South Pen, the keyboard cover, and the rear of the tablet all sporting almost the same shade of greyness. The bezel, or edge around the screen, is jet-black and rather wide, especially compared with the vanishingly thin bezels that now grace the latest ultraportable laptops, such every bit the Dell XPS 13.

More Connectivity Than an iPad

If you're in the market for a Windows tablet, chances are y'all're looking for more than connectivity options than an iPad or an Amazon Fire tablet can provide. The Galaxy Book2 has yous partially covered, with ii USB Type-C ports, a headphone jack, and an SD carte du jour slot built into the SIM-bill of fare tray. To insert an SD card, you accept to pop out the tray using the included SIM tool. Information technology's unfortunate that at that place'south no USB Blazon-A port, which you tin can find on the IdeaPad Miix 520.

Mixed in with the ports are two speakers, one each on the left and correct edges. They offer startlingly rich sound for a tablet. AKG, an audio firm that sells decent headphones like the N60 NC, tuned the 2-watt speakers, and the event appears to be a noticeable perk rather than a gimmick. I noticed rich, total audio while listening to music tracks, although the highs and lows were somewhat muffled. On the whole, the sound quality matches what you lot'd expect from an ultraportable laptop rather than from a tablet or a smartphone.

The eight-megapixel main camera offers very good image quality as far every bit laptop or tablet webcams go, with almost no graininess nowadays in still images taken indoors in depression calorie-free. Still, photograph quality is far below the camera on a high-finish smartphone like Samsung'southward own Galaxy S9. In that location's also a forepart-facing 5-megapixel camera for Skype sessions.

The Galaxy Book2'south 4GB of retention and 128GB of storage are rather stingy for a $1,000 motorcar. On the plus side, you most certainly won't be doing heavy multitasking or other memory-intensive activities, or installing massive game files on this tablet.

The Galaxy Book2 will be bachelor online at from AT&T, Microsoft, and Samsung starting Nov. 2, and will be available in stores at AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon afterwards in the month.

Superior Battery Life, Lackluster Performance

The Galaxy Book2's real potential equally a game-changing Windows tablet lies in Samsung'south bombardment-life and computing-operation claims. Evaluating the performance of the Snapdragon 850-powered Book2 isn't like testing ordinary Intel- or AMD-powered laptops or desktops, because the CPU uses an entirely dissimilar instruction prepare. That means some of PCMag'southward criterion apps aren't compatible, and despite efforts from Microsoft to get app makers on board, some of your favorite apps might not be, either.

The good news is that the Windows-on-Snapdragon state of affairs appears to have improved immensely since the outset machines appeared earlier this year. Plagued by a slower processor (the Snapdragon 835) and an earlier version of Windows 10, the Asus NovaGo was so sluggish that it was well-nigh unusable when I start tested it.

But that's not the case at all with the Milky way Book2. Cheers to both hardware and software improvements, the week I've spent using it since it was announced in mid-October have been entirely stutter-gratis. That applies not only to Microsoft apps like the Edge web browser and the Sticky Notes app, but likewise tertiary-party apps similar the Opera browser, Samsung'south note-taking app, and the pre-installed Verizon app that lets you manage your data connection.

My use has been limited mostly to watching YouTube videos, navigating through websites, and doodling with the pen. If you attempt to do anything more resources-intensive (say, manipulating an image in Adobe Photoshop), PCMag's benchmark tests show that you'll want to schedule a java break. It took nearly sixteen minutes for the Milky way Book2 to apply a series of eleven filters to a JPEG, an absurdly long fourth dimension for a $ane,000 Windows automobile. About of the latest ultraportables and convertible laptops in this cost range, such equally the Microsoft Surface Pro vi, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet, and even the previous-generation Galaxy Book, can consummate this test in less than 4 minutes.

The same is true of rendering a brusque HD video using the Handbrake app. This task took the Galaxy Book2 more than 5 minutes, compared with the sub-1-minute times of the ThinkPad X1 Tablet and the Surface Pro vi. Information technology'south important to notation that both of these tests run using an emulation layer congenital into Windows, since the Handbrake and Photoshop CS6 apps are designed to use the x86 software instruction set designed for Intel and AMD processors. This emulation layer is likely responsible for much of the Book2'south performance deficiency.

A secondary problem for the Photoshop test was a lack of graphics acceleration. Adobe designed its Artistic Suite apps to take advantage of a computer'southward GPU and CPU, but the CS6 version of Photoshop doesn't support graphics acceleration on Qualcomm'south Adreno GPU, and it displays a warning to this consequence when you open the app.

Samsung Galaxy Book2 Graphics Performance Chart

Just when y'all thought things couldn't get twistier, notation that the Galaxy Book2 ships with Windows x S Mode enabled by default, and you lot'll need to upgrade to the full version of Windows ten Home to install apps that aren't bachelor in the Microsoft Store. (I ran PCMag'south criterion apps using Windows 10 Home, since Windows 10 Southward Mode limits you to running but Store-sourced apps.)

Finally, the Milky way Book2 is not a capable gaming machine, and you'll struggle to run anything other than browser-based games or the ones that come up pre-installed with Windows, like Candy Vanquish. That's besides true of the ThinkPad X1 Tablet and the Surface Pro, only the Book2 scored an exceptionally depression 12 frames per second (fps) on our medium-quality Sky and Valley gaming simulations, compared with scores of around 20fps for nigh of its competition. Just like with video rendering, software emulation is over again responsible for much of the gaming-functioning slowdown.

In short, compatibility is thorny on this car, and it might dissuade you from running anything other than bones apps such every bit Mail or a spider web browser. If you're feeling more than adventurous, check out our guide for more on the emulation process and how to tell if your favorite apps volition run well on a Snapdragon-powered PC.

The silverish lining to the Galaxy Book2'south potentially headache-inducing software problems is fantabulous bombardment life. The Snapdragon 850 is a power-sipping CPU that needs no fan and generates footling rut. It might not be very good at rendering video, but it's great at playing it dorsum. To wit: The Milky way Book2 lasted for 21 hours and 29 minutes on our battery rundown test, which involves playing a local HD video file at fifty percent screen brightness with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi disabled.

Cheers to a slumber mode that uses about no power, I noted that it's likewise possible to leave the Galaxy Book2 unplugged overnight without losing more than than a single per centum point of battery life. Even better, I accomplished this outcome with the tablet set to never disconnect its LTE connexion.

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Equipped with a Snapdragon X20 LTE modem, the Galaxy Book2 can take advantage of seriously fast mobile data speeds. I measured 37MBps download speeds and 4MBps upload speeds on the Verizon network using Ookla's Speedtest.cyberspace in PC Labs, a location that normally exhibits poor signal strength on the networks of all carriers. (Annotation: PCMag'south publisher, Ziff Davis, also owns Ookla.) Non simply does this mean quick downloads and web browsing, but it besides raises the prospect of never having to connect to airport or coffee-store Wi-Fi ever over again.

You lot'll be able to use the Galaxy Book2 on three major The states carriers: AT&T and Sprint, in addition to Verizon. Samsung has confirmed that there's no T-Mobile version. Whichever carrier you cull, you'll have to buy a data plan and get a SIM card. That's a major downside compared to the cellular-capable versions of the iPad, which don't crave a concrete SIM and let you sign upwards for and cancel data plans right from the device without talking to a carrier.

Battery Life Isn't Everything

The Samsung Milky way Book2 is a well-designed Windows tablet, and at $999, it's even a good bargain when you consider that you won't have to beat out extra for the all-simply-necessary keyboard comprehend and overnice-to-accept digital stylus as you would with the Microsoft Surface Pro. The downside is that information technology offers woefully slow and frustrating computing performance if you try to do anything more demanding than browsing websites, watching videos, or checking your electronic mail.

If that'southward all y'all need to exercise, and y'all can live with a slightly smaller screen, at only $549 with a keyboard encompass, the Microsoft Surface Become is a much more than appropriate choice. If you lot're willing to spend more than and don't demand quite the extended battery life, a similarly equipped Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Tablet volition offer a far amend computing experience than the Galaxy Book2.