Samsung doesn’t update its Chromebook line as often as other brands. But when it does, there’s usually some unique aspect. Case in point: The newly-announced Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 has an entry-level processor but a super high-resolution touchscreen.
Unlike Samsung’s current low-end Chromebooks, this one is a 2-in-1 convertible. Hence the “360” in the name. But last year’s Galaxy Chromebook 2 was also a 2-in-1. This Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 also has larger keycaps and a bigger touchpad, which is nice to see.
What’s really nice to look at is the 12.4-inch LED touch display and its 2560 x 1600 resolution. That works out to just over 264 pixels per inch. That’s great because education laptops usually have abysmal screens.
Of course, to keep costs in line with school budgets, you’d expect some lesser hardware in the mix. And that’s what you find inside.
A year-old Intel Celeron N4500 powers this Chromebook and the base model has 4 GB of memory paired with 64 GB of eMMC storage. There will be options to double both capacities, however.
WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, optional LTE, a 720p front-facing camera, an 8-megapixel world view camera, and a 45.5 W/hr battery make up the rest of the hardware package. This is all supplemented with a pair of USB Type-C ports, a single USB Type-A, a microSD card slot, and a headphone/microphone jack.
That’s pretty much standard fare with devices in this segment. So the display is the star of the show here, and that star shines pretty brightly: 340 nits.
Aside from not understanding the higher resolution screen, even though students will appreciate it, this is an odd follow-up to last year’s Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2.
That model was a lesser version of the original model, but at a more reasonable cost and with better battery life. The new Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 looks nothing like a follow-up and has a mish-mosh of hardware. I guess this was designed to meet a price point?
Unfortunately, we don’t even know what that price point is yet. All we have is a Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 360 infographic to go on. Given this is for the education market, I expect we’ll hear about pricing and availability in a few months as the new school year approaches.
5 Comments
With double the RAM & storage, depending on price it starts to be interesting.
Nah. It would still have a dual core single-threaded Celeron CPU. An Exynos 1200 or 1280 SOC would have actually made it compelling.
As near as I can tell Samsung had 3 Chromebook lines.
1. The Galaxy Chromebook. The first iteration was a fanless quad core 10th gen Intel i5 version with a 4K screen that had horrible battery life, serious overheating problems and cost $999. Samsung is still trying to get rid of them in fire sales 2 years later. The second one ditched the Core i5 for Core i3 and Celeron chips and cut the 4K to 2K and halved the price but it still didn’t sell because they were $100-$200 more than similarly specced devices.
2. The Galaxy Chromebook Go. Appropriately priced Celeron devices with LTE and 14″ screen. Sadly Samsung chose not to provide this to retail channels or advertise them so no one knows that they exist.
3. The Chromebook line. (Seriously they are just called Samsung Chromebook, Samsung Chromebook 2, Chromebook 4+ etc.) Their cheapest Chromebook ($299 and frequently on sale), Celeron processor, but lately 15.6″ screen, the biggest ChromeOS offers. This is their best seller but it isn’t saying much.
It appears that rather than offering a better product that is good enough in specs, design decisions and pricing to compete with HP, Lenovo, Acer and Asus models, Samsung is simply merging their Galaxy Chromebook and Galaxy Chromebook Go lines to create the Chromebook 2 360. Samsung announced the Galaxy Chromebook at MWC in 2020 and the Chromebook 2 around the same time in 2021. So with 1Q2022 nearly over with no Galaxy Chromebook 3 announced it is no surprise that they pull something like this.
Finally the 12.4″ 2K screen is no mystery: it is recycled from the Galaxy S7+ and S8+ Android tablets. Remember your “why doesn’t Samsung put ChromeOS on their tablets?” Well this is the closest you are going to get to it.
I’ve been using the N4500 for awhile now in a couple Chromebooks, and it’s a very nice, fast processor for doing all the basic stuff; it should be more than enough for your typical coursework. Frankly, it’s almost as fast as my several years old Core i3 Chromebook (which has 8GB of memory). I’d recommend it for anyone who wants a good, solid processor. So, it’s not good for gaming(?) and rendering–no surprise there. Jasper Lake is an excellent processor line for typical people (including students) doing typical things.
Thanks. That’s what I want to know. Currently I’m using an Acer with a Mediatek 8183 and if the Samsung with N4500 is equal or better then that’s just fine. The main thing here is the exellent screen with thin bezels which so far has been non existing in 12 inch chromebooks.