Samsung Galaxy Book Go 14 Fhd Laptop

Screen Flickering / Pwm

Samsung Galaxy Book Go: $349 Best Budget Laptop?

Screen flickering / PWM detected

200 Hz

20 % brightness setting

The display backlight flickers at 200 Hz Flickering detected at a brightness setting of 20 % and below. There should be no flickering or PWM above this brightness setting.

The frequency of 200 Hz is relatively low, so sensitive users will likely notice flickering and experience eyestrain at the stated brightness setting and below.

In comparison: 52 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 21594 Hz was measured.

The TN panel installed by Samsung is not viewing-angle stable, which means that image content appears with clearly distorted colors when viewed from the side. Therefore, you have to look at the display as straight as possible in everyday use, since the display already deviates from angles of about 45 degrees.

Samsung Galaxy Book Go Review: Price And Competition

The Galaxy Book Go will initially be available in two versions: one with 8GB of RAM for £499 and a cheaper variant with 4GB of RAM for £399. It’s the latter model that Samsung sent us to test.

Traditionally, cheap Windows laptops have been pretty dire. Were thinking specifically here of things such as the super-budget HP Stream 11 notebooks that are built around outdated Celeron processors with low-resolution displays and measly storage.

Thankfully, if you want Windows 10 on the cheap then there are a number of better options at around the £400 mark at the moment. Microsofts Surface Go 2 starts at just £399, though admittedly its more a 10.5in tablet than a laptop, and the entry version only has a dual-core Pentium 4425Y chip and 64GB of storage. Microsofts Type Cover keyboard attachment will set you back another £99, and those prices are without an LTE modem. Add that and the price jumps to £719, albeit with a more powerful m3 processor and 128GB of storage.

Huaweis Ryzen 5-based MateBook D15 is our current favourite cheap laptop, although at £600 its quite a bit more expensive. We liked the all-metal chassis and brilliant performance for the price, but the battery life isnt great and the 15.6in FHD display doesnt boast great colour accuracy, either.

Work And Play With The Rest Of Your Galaxy

Pair your devices and easily jump from your work life to your personal life on your Galaxy Book Go. Set it up as a second screen for twice the productivity. Stop emailing yourself, thanks to Quick Share instant file sharing or play your favorite mobile gaming app on a much larger display. Or connect your Galaxy Buds Pro, and go from expert video conferencing to catching up with your best friend in perfect clarity.

Design: The Samsung Galaxy Book Go Looks And Feels Premium

As far as design goes, the Samsung Galaxy Book Go looks and feels like a premium device.

As far as the design goes with the Samsung Galaxy Book Go, it looks and feels like a premium device. What I mean by that is if I put this on a shelf with a half-dozen premium ultrabooks and convertibles, you probably wouldnt be able to guess which one costs $349. And when I say it feels premium, I have to say I was surprised when I saw it was made out of plastic. Just by the feel, I thought it was metal.

The color it comes in is silver, so theres nothing about it that really stands out. I still like the look a lot better than a gray laptop, like other Samsung laptops. The only marking on the lid is the shiny Samsung logo.

This is actually the first Windows on ARM device that Ive seen with a USB Type-A port, which is cool. Its USB 2.0 unfortunately, but you can still use it for connecting basic peripherals like a mouse.

Youll also find two USB Type-C ports, one on each side. Its always nice to be able to choose which side to plug a charger into. On the left side, theres also a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD card slot, so the ports really do check the right boxes.

Samsung Galaxy Book Go Software And Warranty

Samsung 14" Galaxy Book Go Laptop (Silver) NP340XLA

The Galaxy Book Go comes with Windows 10 Home, and there are some preinstalled apps that you may categorize as bloatware, including the Booking.com Partner App , Microsoft Solitaire and Skype.

Theres also a crapload of Samsung-branded apps that are itching to drag Galaxy Book Go users into the Samsung ecosystem , including SmartThings, Samsung TV Plus, Samsung Flow and Samsung Notes. If you have a compatible Samsung phone, TV, tablet and/or smart-home device, they will all work cohesively and seamlessly with the Galaxy Book Go. One useful app called Quick Share lets users instantly transfer data from their Galaxy devices to the Samsung laptop.

The Galaxy Book Go comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Samsung fared on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands special reports.

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Samsung Galaxy Book Go Audio

For a sub-$400 laptop, the dual speakers on the Galaxy Book Go sound pretty damn good.

I listened to Beggin by Italian rock band Måneskin on Spotify I said Not bad! as the bottom-firing speakers emanated a booming acapella male voice that sent a chill down my spine. The gritty crooning was well balanced with the sweet-sounding guitar riffs and cymbals.

There is a Dolby Access app that lets you tune the speakers to your liking. There are five presets: Dynamic, Game, Movie, Music and Voice. Beggin sounded the best with the Dynamic profile, which identifies the audio content and performs automatic adjustments to deliver the best sound.

I cranked up the Galaxy Book Gos speakers to its maximum volume setting. Its not kill-your-eardrums loud, but the amplification was adequate enough to fill my medium-sized testing room.

Samsung Galaxy Book Go: What’s Good

The Galaxy Book Go is an entry-level standard Windows laptop. It features a nicely sized 14-inch full HD TFT display that is non-touch with a 16:9 aspect. The chassis is a mix of metal and plastic that has some mild creaking, which is not unexpected at this price level. That also contributes to the decent 3.04-pound weight , which isn’t super light but not too heavy either.

It’s also worth pointing out the Galaxy Book Go is, comparatively, very thin at just 14.9mm. Every sub-$500 laptop is at least 17.5mm but often closer to 19mm thick. That also translates into more weight, too, and with no fan, the Galaxy Book Go is always quiet.

Compared to other Windows PCs in this category, the Galaxy Book Go is unusually thin.

Two Dolby Atmos speakers are on the bottom, which is not ideal, but they do sound much better than previous budget laptops of the past.

The full-sized keyboard sports chicklet-style keys with decent travel, and it’s pretty enjoyable for long typing sessions. The trackpad features Microsoft Precision drivers, is quite massive, and it has a satisfying click.

For ports and features, there is a front-facing 720P webcam that is passable. There are two Type-C ports , one legacy Type-A port, and even a microSD card slot. That’s a very modern offering and nice to see. There is even a tiny LED on the left side for charging status: red when charging, green when charged, and blue when used.

Colors

Silver

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Samsung Galaxy Book Go: Price And Availability

The Galaxy Book Go is now available through Samsung, Amazon, Walmart, and various other retailers.

The entry-level version begins at $350 , although it can be found on sale for $300 from the resellers mentioned above. That version includes 4GB of RAM, 128GB of eUFS internal storage and is Wi-Fi only.

A 5G-enabled version with 8GB of RAM is expected later in 2021.

Incredibly Compact For Enhanced Portability

Samsung Galaxy Book Go Real-World Test (Review, Battery Test, & Vlog)

Galaxy Book Go fits a massive 14-inch screen on a compact design that slips into your bag, and delivers immersive visual and audio with Dolby Atmos® sound. Slim yet sturdy, the durable silver build comes complete with a 180-degree hinge ready to go where life takes you.

* Based on internal testing, Galaxy Book Go meets the 6 items of US Military Standard : High temperature, Low temperature, Thermal shock, Vibration, Low Pressure, Humidity

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Samsung Galaxy Book Go Review: Verdict

What to make of the Galaxy Book Go, then? It certainly makes good on its two main promises of great battery life and always-on wireless connectivity, but its awful display is impossible to overlook. Thats a shame, because the keyboard is great and hardware performance isnt an issue, either.

Windows 10 runs beautifully on the Qualcomm chipset, as do Windows on ARM native apps. But the performance penalty incurred when running x86 Win32 apps under emulation really knocks the shine off, as does the current inability to run x64 apps at all.

An ARM64 native version of Chrome would go a long way to improving the situation making the Galaxy Book Go a potential Chromebook killer but your guess is as good as mine as to whether this will eventually come to fruition.

The great battery life, quality keyboard and built-in 4G modem may well attract some interest at the price, and if all you want is a laptop for basic on-the-go productivity then it may suit, but that wretched display and inconsistent app compatibility inevitably lead the Galaxy Book Go to being just a poor mans MacBook Air.

Keyboard: Its A Standard Chiclet

One of the biggest pain points of this machine is the display, but the rest of it is pretty good. The Chiclet-style keyboard obviously isnt winning any awards its not an HP EliteBook or a Lenovo ThinkPad but its solid. For the price, its pretty good and I have no complaints.

As you can see from the image above, theres nothing that stands out here. Its your standard black keys on top of a silver deck. Above the keyboard is the power button, which sits flush with the deck however, its not a fingerprint sensor. Indeed, any Windows Hello biometric authentication isnt happening here. Thats a sacrifice made to get to the price, and a reasonable one.

The touchpad is nice and big, at least big enough given the amount of real estate. The whole input experience is pretty good, or at least there isnt anything bad about it. Ive had laptops that cost two or three times as much with keyboards that are awful. Id call this a win.

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