With just over one grand to spend on a gadget, you can either buy Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S21 Ultra phone, or you can get the company’s latest flagship laptop, the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex. The pricing is just a sign of how ridiculous phone price have become, but it’s also evidence that Samsung can create a beautiful laptop at a reasonable price, than competitors like HP and Dell.
Available in either 13-inch or 15-inch screen, the Samsung Galaxy Flex checks almost all boxes for a premium 2-in-1 convertible laptop, including a gorgeous touch display, a Bluetooth-enabled S pen and class-leading battery life.
Despite a few software glitches and a middling keyboard, it’s an excellent pick for anyone in need of a flexible notebook with a bright, high-quality display. Nd, its nifty Qi-charging touchpad brings on board the unique functionality we’d all like to see other laptop makers toy with – but for now Samsung takes the win.
Our 13-inch Samsung Galaxy Book (NP930QCG-K01US) review unit is configured with a 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, 8GB of memory, 512GB SSD storage and Intel Iris Plus graphics. As configured, this 2-in-1 laptop manages to offer a mix of strong performance with some unique features, that set it apart from the competition.
Samsung Galaxy Flex Book Specs
Design
Samsung is all-out with colors on its latest devices (the Fiesta Red Galaxy Chromebook is a major highlight), and the Royal Blue Galaxy Book Flex adds to the train. Almost every part of the Galaxy Book is blue – even the touchpad. The only exceptional portions are the shiny silver edges and the black glass-covered display bezel.
It’s reasonably pleasing to the eye, and very comfortable to hold in your hand, all thanks to a solid, premium build quality. Measuring 0.51 inches thick and weighing 2.56 pounds, the Galaxy Book Flex is much lighter than the Dell XPS 13 (0.7 inches thick, 4.5 pounds) and the Lenovo ThinkBook 14s (0.67 inches, 3.5 pounds).
Being a convertible 2-in-1, the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex’s screen can rotate up to 360 degrees, hence, you can use it as a tablet or prop it in display or tent mode. Samsung throws in a S-Pen stylus, but we hope the Book Flex’s hinge was much stronger.
Ports and S-Pen
On the Galaxy Book Flex, connectivity is excellent including: fast Thunderbolt 3 USB-C port on the right side, next to a power button and an S-Pen dock. The left side holds a regular USB-C port, headphone jack and a microSD card reader.
Like the Samsung Note series, the S-Pen on this device ever protrudes, and it feels a bit unnecessary for this machine. When you pop it out, it activates a list of potential commands on the screen. The commands include taking and viewing notes, using the pen to make drains for a screenshot and you can even annotate the screen. For creatives looking to doodle or draw or take notes with handwriting instead of using keys, this feature is very handy.
Display
With the Galaxy Book Flex, Samsung is offering the first ever QLED display technology in the portable PC scene. Both the 13-inch and 15-inch models have a full HD resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels. Like the OLED screens that stormed the market last year, QLED displays use the common LCD panels and LED backlight arrays.
The only difference is in the “Q”, which means quantum dots – Samsung’s branding term for nanoparticles that reproduce light at different frequencies when subjected to electricity. By tweaking the light, the panel is able to produce more precise color in a wider range as compared to LCDs illuminated by white LEDs.
As a result of this QLED technology, colors on the Galaxy Book Flex appear brilliant, but we’re not sure of how much of the excellent experience can be attributed to the QLED technology and how much is as a result of high dynamic range (HDR), which many laptops in this price range also support.
Overall, the experience using the Samsung Galaxy Book is akin to using a 4K screen, made even better by the high rated maximum brightness of 600 nits, but the highest brightness level we see on consumer laptops is 500 nits. The extra 100 nits has Samsung confident enough to market the Galaxy Book Flex as a laptop designed for outdoor viewing.
Keyboard & Touchpad
The keyboard and touchpad are sturdy. And the touchpad serves as an oversize slab that doubles as a. Qi wireless charging pad. All you do I plug your laptop in before you go to bed, set your Qi-compatible phone or smart watch on the touchpad, and everything will be charged by dawn. It’s a novel feature, but you can’t take advantage of it when using the touchpad.
But, there’s a problem. The keys on the keyboard aren’t much of a problem: the layout is. The keyboard’s sturdiness highlights just how shallow and uncomfortable the keys are. In fact, they are similar to the butterfly-style keyboard that Apple is shaving off its laptops following negative feedback. Typing on the Galaxy Book Flex is just tapping, which is OK if you do it occasionally, but woe unto to you if you will be writing emails or reports all day long.
Galaxy Flex Book performance
In addition to the 10th Gen Intel Core i7-1065G7 processor, our Galaxy Book Flex review unit also includes 8GB of memory, a 512GB solid-state drive, and Intel Iris Plus graphics card. It’s a strong combination, and in casual use over several days, you’ll find the laptop to be snappy and responsive, and also to last all day without connecting to a power outlet even when streaming online videos.
The 512GB SSD on the Samsung Flex is fast, managing to duplicate 4.97 GB of files in 26.53 seconds, but it doesn’t match the 10-second and 13-second transfer from the Dell XPS 15 (1TB SSD) and the HP Spectre x360 (1TB SSD), respectively.
Also, you can get away with casual games but at less than 60 frames per second on medium settings at 1080p – Dirt 3 racing game runs at 51 fps – while the Spectre x360 (Intel Core i7-8565U CPU, Nvidia GeForce MX150 GPU, 16GB RAM) runs the same game at 118 fps.
Battery Life
Apart from the breathtaking looks, the Samsung Flex’s battery life is another selling point. The laptop lasts 15 hours and 47 minutes during tests, consisting of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness.
That’s almost double the 9:05 premium laptop average, and way ahead the XPS 15 (8:49), Lenovo Yoga (8:54) and HP Spectre (7:51). The Flex still last longer even when you switch to Outdoor mode, averaging 13 hours and 1 minutes.
Bottom Line
Throughout this Samsung Galaxy Book Flex review, I ‘ve been impressed by this 2-in-1 laptop. So far, it’s my favorite. The included Samsung S pen is the Swiss Army knife of styluses – if you’re a creative, tis is a boon – you can sketch, color, highlight, underline, swipe screens, operate videos and do much more with this versatile tool.
The super-bright QLED display on the Galaxy Book Flex is another appealing feature that you can enjoy in different modes, and the stunning dark blue hue make it premium, while maintaining. Classy, refined aesthetic. Plus, the almost 16 hours of battery life and lightning-fast SSD are nothing you can beat either.
Overall, the 13-inch Samsung Galaxy Book Flex is simply the best laptop for creatives (and pretty anybody else) who wants a big canvas for their next project. If you need a bigger screen, the Acer Swift X SFX14 is equally great, with a Core i7 processor and 16GB memory for ultimate performance.
Last update on 2024-06-24 at 05:20 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
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