Samsung was one of the first companies to introduce a laptop powered by the Snapdragon 8cx, Qualcomm"s high-end chipset designed from the ground-up for PCs, and it did so in the form of the Galaxy Book S. It was first announced in August of last year, and it was meant to be available in December, but it only went up for pre-order toward the end of last month. Now, it"s actually available.
Aside from being powered by the Snapdragon 8cx, the Galaxy Book S has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. It also has a 13.3-inch Full HD display, quad stereo speakers from AKG, two USB Type-C ports, and a combo audio jack. And, of course, because it"s an actual laptop, it has a keyboard and trackpad right out of the box.
The only comparable device on the market right now is Microsoft"s Surface Pro X, which uses the Microsoft SQ1 (for Surface Qualcomm) chipset, and that"s only a slightly tweaked version of the Snapdragon 8cx. At the same $999 price, the Pro X has a higher-resolution display with touch support, but doesn"t include a keyboard, mouse, or even a pen. It also only has half the storage, at 128GB, and upgrading to 256GB bumps up the price to $1,299.
If you"re interested, you can order the Galaxy Book S from Samsung"s website or from Verizon. It"s listed on the Microsoft Store, but it"s currently out of stock, and Sprint will only start selling it tomorrow, February 14.