The newest model in Samsung’s Galaxy Book line of laptops, which includes a variety of contemporary ultraportable, is the Galaxy Book Go. Other Galaxy Books may have more powerful parts, better displays, and tablet functionality, but none of them can compare to the Galaxy Book Go in one crucial area. Samsung offers an affordable notebook with an ARM processor in the Galaxy Book Go. There shouldn’t be any issues with incompatible programmes in regular use if it is only used for office programmes and web browsing. Applications within the aforementioned scope can be run with the current performance. However, running multiple programmes simultaneously can cause the system to sluggish.
Samsung Galaxy Book Go review: Design
With the design of the Galaxy Book Go, Samsung hasn’t gone completely bonkers; this is just straightforward functionality in silver and black. That’s perfectly acceptable. We’ll overlook its chunky chin and forehead because the extra vertical reach prevents the control surface from becoming too crowded. It is thin enough, unoffensive, and the perfect size, with reasonably thin side bezels giving it an impressively compact footprint. Even the power button is discrete in this day and age when everyone moves that function to the top right of the keyboard. From a distance, the Samsung Galaxy Book Go’s attractive silver exterior may resemble a MacBook Air M1 or a significantly more expensive ultrabook. But as soon as you start using the laptop, this delusion quickly ends. In comparison to the smooth finish of the Spin 513, we discovered during testing that Samsung’s portable feels much rougher and slightly less expensive. When you consider the other options, this is unfortunate. Its 1.38kg weight and respectably thin bezels make it simple to transport. Both a touchscreen and a convertible keyboard are absent from the Galaxy Book Go. The screen can be pushed all the way down to lay completely flat, giving you a little bit more flexibility than most clamshell designs. Less cooling is required due to the use of an Arm CPU, which produces less heat than the typical suspects from AMD and Intel. Samsung can maintain a reasonably thin profile for the laptop thanks to this.
Keyboard and touchpad
It’s unfortunate that Samsung mostly achieved this by spacing the keys apart rather than enlarging the individual keycaps because the keyboard is fairly large and extends most of the way to the sides of the device. The keyboard’s soft and mushy feel when typing isn’t helped by the keys’ limited travel, but it still does the job and is responsive enough. There is a power button located above the keyboard as well, but unlike many contemporary laptops, there is no integrated fingerprint sensor. There is no biometric login option at all here because the 720p webcam does not support Windows Hello. Instead, you must enter a password or PIN each time. The trackpad also fits the bill. It’s big, which is good, but it’s obviously made of plastic. You won’t find any better without spending a lot more money, but it does feel a little sluggish and add some friction as you drag your finger across.
Display
Even though the FHD resolution on a PC at this price is impressive, it’s the screen that will make you realize just how expensive the Galaxy Book Go is. It’s just not good, to be honest. If you try to view it from any angle, there is obvious colour distortion, and it is obvious that this is a budget PC. Given that this is a clamshell laptop rather than a convertible, the lack of touch functionality comes as no surprise. As expected, the bezels are narrow on the sides and larger on top to accommodate the webcam. Unfortunately, that webcam only supports 720p resolution, but given the cost, that is not surprising. The matte anti-glare coating on the 14-inch HD LED display (1366 x 768) helps it be more visible in bright light, but the quality is subpar. In addition to having thick bezels around it, the screen lacks clarity, the colours don’t pop, and the contrast is poor, especially when the on-screen content is quite dark. Additionally, the display doesn’t get as bright as you might anticipate. Although these flaws won’t be a major issue for casual users, if you plan to use your next laptop continuously, you might want something a little more advanced in screen technology. you can read our article on Samsung Galaxy Book Go review.
Samsung Galaxy Book Go review: Audio
The Galaxy Book Go’s dual speakers sound pretty darn good for a laptop that costs less than $400. We were listening to the Italian rock band Mneskin’s song “Beggin’” on Spotify when the bottom-firing speakers started to emit a booming acapella male voice that made us shiver. We said, “Not bad!” The sweet-sounding guitar riffs and cymbals complemented the gritty crooning in a pleasing way. You can adjust the speaker settings using the Dolby Access app. There are five presets: Voice, Music, Movie, and Dynamic. The Dynamic profile, which recognizes the audio content and makes automatic adjustments to deliver the best sound, produced the best sound for “Beggin’.” The Galaxy Book Go’s speakers were turned up to their loudest setting. Although it’s not unbearably loud, the amplification was sufficient to fill our moderately sized testing room.
Graphics
The Galaxy Book Go’s 64-bit processor wasn’t particularly useful during our testing. It failed to run WebXPRT 3, Handbrake, Adobe Photoshop Elements, or 3DMark. Fortunately, Geekbench was the only benchmarking result we could still find for the Galaxy Book Go. In the Geekbench 5.4 general performance test, the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 processor in the Samsung achieved a score of 1,653, which is comparable to that of a typical low-cost laptop. The Galaxy Book Go defeated the MediaTek 8183 processor of the Chromebook Detachable CM3 and the Intel Core m3-8100Y CPU of the Surface Go 2, but the Gateway’s Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU won (3,369). It’s important to note that our lab tester attempted to instal Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Gathering Storm to test the Samsung laptop’s gaming capabilities but was unsuccessful. On the Galaxy Book Go, don’t even think about trying to play any demanding games because it lacks the internal hardware to handle that level of stress.
Performance
So, Windows on ARM. Since this is a Windows on ARM device, you may already have an opinion about what the Galaxy Book Go is capable of. The good news is that whatever you may think, you are correct. Unless of course you’re not. Do you think ARM is better suited for use in mobile devices like phones and tablets than in operating systems like mac OS? The core operations of Windows 11 run quickly enough if the processor isn’t overworked, but it’s very simple to steer the Galaxy Book in the wrong direction and run afoul of the sluggish translation layer. Sometimes things get very syrupy; Google Chrome, for instance, ran terribly because it doesn’t yet have a native app. Although this is a far cry from the dreary days of Windows RT, we would advise against buying this if there is anything you specifically want to do outside of a web browser that isn’t Chrome, which is a ridiculous statement to make of a Windows laptop. However, very few things we tried completely refused to run. On the other hand, some things actually caught us off guard. For instance, less taxing 2D independent games created for conventional PC processors performed fairly well, but 3D is a bit of a stretch. Consider that Windows on ARM effectively converts a laptop into a phone. Again, sort of correct: Qualcomm’s mobile processor technology enables excellent operation of phone-related functions.
Battery life
Qualcomm’s 7c Gen 2 does have one significant strength, however, and that is battery life. The Galaxy Book Go outlasted most other low-cost competitors in our tests by a significant margin, lasting more than 15 hours of nonstop video playback. This is not the highest rating we’ve ever recorded. In normal use, it’s the same story; you really won’t need to charge this laptop more frequently than once every few days. The drawback is that charging is slow when it happens. The laptop comes with a 25W USB-C charger, but it only managed to charge the device by an appalling 6% in 30 minutes. This means that overnight charging will probably need to become a habit for you because a quick plug-in won’t do much. also, you can learn our article on the Samsung Galaxy Book Go review.
Samsung Galaxy Book Go review: Heat
On our heat test, the Galaxy Book Go kept its cool under pressure even after watching a 15-minute 1080p video. The bottom temperature increased to 82.4 degrees Fahrenheit, which is much lower than our comfort threshold of 95 degrees. The middle of the keyboard and the touchpad both reached temperatures of 79 degrees and 74.3 degrees, respectively. The bottom of the laptop, about two inches from the centre, had the highest temperature, measuring 88.9 degrees.
Configuration options
It pits Samsung’s own Galaxy Chromebook Go, with which the Galaxy Book Go shares much of its hardware design, against a sizable number of other Chromebooks. Additionally, it pits it against the cheapest x86 products, which may not be the place where a Windows laptop wants to be.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go is best characterized by the words “basic” and “affordable.” You won’t go bankrupt if you buy this laptop. The poor screen and occasionally sluggish performance are unavoidable trade-offs made to keep the price so low. However, it does excel in some areas. It has a fashionable appearance, is portable, and supports 4G LTE connectivity, enabling you to access the internet from any location. Additional advantages include a long-lasting battery, a spacious trackpad, and a comfortable keyboard.
