Along with the Galaxy Chromebook, Samsung also had a few Windows 10 laptops on display at CES 2020. There was the Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion, which were announced back in October, along with the Galaxy Book Flex Alpha, which was announced this week. The company also had the Galaxy Book S on display, although that was announced back in August, and it still hasn"t shipped.
One thing that I noticed about Samsung is that it"s pushing the Galaxy Book S hard. There were a few banners that were dozens of feet tall, promoting only this product. It got me excited to see a company pushing a Windows on ARM laptop like that.
The Galaxy Book S is impossibly thin and light, at 11.8mm thin and 0.96kg. It"s just a clamshell though, making it the first ARM-based PC that"s not either a tablet or a convertible laptop.
It includes a 13.3-inch 1080p display, which is fine. Naturally, you"ll get 4G LTE, since it"s integrated into the Snapdragon 8cx chipset, so that"s one of the real value propositions. It"s one of those PCs that I"m really looking forward to getting my hands on.
And then there"s the Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion, both of which have 1080p QLED displays, and both of which come in 13.3- and 15.6-inch sizes. In fact, the main difference between the two is that the Flex is a convertible and the Ion is a clamshell, although the Flex includes Intel Ice Lake processors while the Ion has Comet Lake. Presumably, this is because Comet Lake is geared more for productivity and Ice Lake is aimed more at creativity.
Another thing that"s cool is that they both have an option for Nvdia GeForce MX250 graphics in the 15-inch models. Paired with Intel Ice Lake in the Flex, that should be pretty good.
The Galaxy Book Flex comes in a Royal Blue color, and it"s a two-tone design with silver sides. With an all-aluminum design and a metallic finish, it"s really beautiful, similar to the company"s Galaxy Chromebook.
The Galaxy Book Ion comes in Aurora Silver, which is nice, although personally, I"d take the blue.
One thing that"s cool is that both of these PCs have wireless charging pads in the trackpad. While it"s cool, I"m not sure how practical it is. After all, if that Qi pad is powered up, then you"re probably using the PC, so it"s in your way.
The Flex comes with an S Pen stored inside of the device, as you"d expect from a Samsung convertible.
Finally, we have the Galaxy Book Flex α, or Alpha. This is basically a lower-end version of the Flex proper. There"s no wireless charging pad in the trackpad, no S Pen, and Comet Lake processors. It does still have a QLED FHD display though.
The Galaxy Book α will arrive in H1 this year, starting at $829.99. The Galaxy Book Flex and Galaxy Book Ion should already available, with the Galaxy Book S just about ready for launch.