Samsung has been building laptops for a while but has been more active (in the U.S market) in the past couple of years, and the new Samsung Galaxy Book Flex α (alpha) is an expansion in the Thin & light (sub 4 Lbs) market, at an $830 price where the volumes may be higher.
The price could be vital in swaying potential customers because many of the prospect competitors have prices starting from $1000+. There’s a high probability that Samsung is trying to use its vertical integration (SSD, Memory, Display and Battery) to gain a price advantage.
The configuration options are relatively standard with an Intel Gen10 CPU option (no SKUs announced) and storage options of 256 or 512 GB. The memory could be better with 8GB as a starting point which is a bit tight, but a maximum of 12GB could provide some relief for people who like to keep a bunch of browser tabs open.
The Samsung 1080p QLED touch-display has the strength of being very bright and at 600-NITs, it can beat a whole lot of laptops if you work in bright lighting conditions. At this point, we don’t know how accurate the colors are, but Samsung mentions a Billion colors, and that’s usually associated with good sRGB coverage.
Generally, Samsung OLED displays offer higher performance in most aspects (except brightness maybe), but QLED is an LCD-based technology with LED backlighting and a layer of nano-particles. These particles can manipulate light waves to make colors more saturated and increase color gamut.
The display supports using a (Samsung) Active Pen, and that’s an excellent option to have for notes, sketching etc. To keep the laptop affordable, an active pen is not included, but other Samsung Pens usually retail for $60-$70 for existing models used in the Tab S6 for example.
The Galaxy Book Flex Alpha features a 54 Wh battery which is in the upper-range capacity for compact 13.3” laptops. We often see 48Wh to 55Wh across a large section of this category.
This laptop will be available in “the first half of 2020” in the USA, which is a bit vague but we can speculate that April/May might be when it hits retail and online channels.
| Galaxy Book Flex α 13” α (alpha) | |
|---|---|
| Dimensions | 304.9 x 202.0 x 13.9 mm |
| Weight | 1.19 kg |
| Display | 13.3″ QLED FHD Display (1920 x 1080) |
| CPU | 10th generation Intel® Core™ Processor |
| Graphics | Intel® UHD Graphics |
| Memory | 8GB/12GB DDR4 |
| Storage | 256GB |
| 512GB | |
| Up to 1TB SSD (NVMe) | |
| WLAN | Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+), 802.11ax 2×2 |
| Camera / Mic | 720p HD / Dual Array Digital Mic |
| Audio | Stereo Speakers ( 1.5 W x 2 ) |
| Pen | Active Pen (sold separately) |
| Security | Fingerprint |
| Keyboard | Backlit |
| Material | Aluminum |
| Battery | 54Wh |
| Ports | USB-C | USB 3.0 (2) | HDMI | MicroSD | 3.5pi HP/Mic |
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