Samsung Galaxy Book S: Despite being only 0.96kg, it’s no lightweight

How thin and light can notebooks get without compromising quality, and do the new generation of sub 1kg devices deliver the same performance ability as their heavier competitors?

The market for the new generation of sub 1kg wafer thin devices has been driven by the likes of Microsoft and their Surface devices, which are significantly heavier than what Samsung is delivering with its new Book S.

Brands such as Dell, Acer and HP are also all jumping into this category, but none of them come close to Samsung’s new offering.

It has taken Samsung, with their mobile phone expertise, coupled with their design and component manufacturing capability, to deliver what I think is a new benchmark for portable computing – a 0.96kg sleek device that easily fits into most bags and has a fabulous touchscreen display.

In fact, I don’t even want to call their new Galaxy Book S a notebook, because this stereotypes the device. I believe that the Book S is more than a notebook, and instead is a cross between a smartphone and a tablet with a lot of added benefits.

It’s a highly practical information management and retrieval system, which operates on Microsoft’s Windows 10. It fits easily into a bag and can be pulled out and activated instantly because of its ‘always on’ capability.

This is a device that sits comfortably alongside a Samsung Galaxy smartphone or any Android device because it’s not only light and practical, it’s an excellent tool for road warriors or people flying from one meeting to another who don’t want to lug a heavy PC around and want quick access to information.

While some brands have taken to selling notebooks as ‘Creative’ production machines for video editing or layout design, Samsung has stuck to delivering a machine that is designed as a major extension of a smartphone or tablet.

The Galaxy Book S can be easily plugged into a TV or projector for PowerPoint

The Galaxy Book S is an ultralight ARM-based device that has a 13.3-inch FHD TFT display.

presentations, allows users to write a story or edit a PDF on the fly with ease, and instantly get access to content in a coffee lounge or airport.

You can manage emails and spreadsheets, as well as view a video or Netflix on a screen that is crisp, bright and capable of delivering detail as good as some of the more expensive TVs.

I see it as an extension of the capabilities that a tablet or notebook delivers, with the biggest benefit being the great keyboard, which on many of the Surface devices were terrible, soft, spongy and not necessarily productive.

The Galaxy Book S is an ultra-light ARM-based device that has a 13.3inch FHD TFT display, which is crisp, bright and easy on the eyes.

The big difference is that Samsung, who install more Qualcomm processors in the Galaxy smartphones than any other smartphone-maker, has invested in the Snapdragon 8cx processor instead of an Intel processor found in most other notebooks.

Qualcomm has a reputation for being able to deliver performance while still preserving battery life.

The device has 8GB of RAM, which is where a lot of work takes place with this device, and for those who want to store on-board, it comes with 256GB of storage, which is expandable to 1TB.

I travel a lot and am constantly posting online to our websites, so the inclusion of an eSIM slot is a big advantage.

I highly recommend that you configure this device by taking advantage of its on-board eSIM capability, as this allows you to easily operate in a cloud environment.

For example, I need to be able to use Office 365, Adobe Creative Suite and Dropbox online, while also having easy access to our Xero accounting package, Insightly and our Syndigo Content system, which is used by Australian retailers.

The Snapdragon 8cx ARM processor delivers great performance, and after two weeks of heavy use, this device has

The Samsung Book S is a cracker of a product that has been specifically designed for people on the move.

not let me down when it comes to speed and downloading.

The biggest problem though is the Windows OS, which has nothing to do with Samsung.

All Microsoft want to do is sell you something. For example, I have a multiple-user Office 365 Business account, but despite entering the same details as I have for my desktop, Microsoft still treats one as a new user and tries to sign one up to a new subscription. This is downright annoying.

The next problem is that Microsoft forces users to download OneDrive for S Mode, instead of allowing the use of Dropbox, which I myself prefer. The reason is that Microsoft wants to make it difficult for Dropbox users so they can flog you a OneDrive storage solution instead.

Despite the Microsoft bugs, this device has a 42W fastcharging battery, which not only charges super quick, but also delivers excellent battery performance. I got 19 hours on a single charge, and Samsung claims it can deliver 25 hours of video playback, which I have not tested.

The $1,699 0.96kg Book S is remarkably light compared to the Dell XPS 13 for example, which comes in at 1.2kg, but it is expensive even at the discounted price of $2399 at JB Hi-Fi. This means one is seriously paying for 204g of extra weight without any of the added benefits that the Book S delivers.

Conclusion

Lightweight with a brilliant design, it’s what you expect from a Samsung product – sleek, compact and highly functional. The fact that the Book S allows one to immediately log in quickly, due to the use of an ARM Qualcomm processor, makes a big difference when you arrive to present at a meeting.

The keyboard is as good as any premium notebook and the big letdown is not confined to this device, as it’s the way that Microsoft is using security as a reason to stop downloads of competitors products such as Dropbox.

You also have to work around loading Google or Adobe fonts, as it’s not as simple as with a Windows 10 for desktop OS.

If all you want is a high performance device for fast information retrieval, watching videos and easy connectivity between an Android smartphone and this device, the Samsung Book S is a cracker of a product that has been specifically designed for people on the move that hate lugging around heavy notebooks.

Lightweight with a brilliant design, it's what you expect from a Samsung product.