The potential of ARM-based processors in Windows laptops extends from the most affordable budget laptops to ultra-thin, ultralight, fanless premium PCs. Although the former have been many in recent years, it is only with the Galaxy Book Go that ARM-based PCs have made a significant impact on the ultra-cheap market.
The Galaxy Book Go has much to offer when you consider its ultra-low price, starting at $350. The Snapdragon 7cWe expected something like this, but any level of Windows 11 compatibility for x86 applications is generally pretty poor. However, we were hoping for a bit more responsiveness on the desktop-the laptop’s 4 GB of RAM is simply insufficient to handle more than one or two tasks at a time.
Even at an extremely affordable price, this computer lacks popularity where it is needed and looks exactly like a typical Windows laptop. The Gen 2 is still at least a generation away from being truly excellent, despite being one of the few small, fanless budget laptops with respectable battery life. Although there are many compromises when it comes to laptops under $300, Samsung still offers something special to the market and does many things well.
Design
With the design of the Galaxy Book Go, Samsung did not splurge, but confined itself to simple practicality in silver and black. And that’s just fine. We’ll gloss over the chin and forehead, because the extra vertical reach keeps the control surface from getting too crowded. The display is thin enough, without being offensive, and is the perfect size, with reasonably thin side bezels giving it a small footprint.
Even the power button is unobtrusive in an age when everyone moves this function to the top right of the keyboard. Offering points for such a small advantage makes me sad, but here we are. Although the 1080p resolution of the screen is higher than most devices in this price range, it is still bad.
The colors are terrible, the contrast is so poor that it feels like you’re looking through smoke, and although it’s not extremely dull when you move around, you definitely feel the 60Hz refresh rate. In addition, it is attached to the lid so tenuously that even touching it lightly or typing furiously causes small oscillations of the LCD in the corners, indicating that the screen is under significant strain.
Keyboard and Touchpad
The keyboard and trackpad are standard for an inexpensive computer, so there is not much to say about them. It is unfortunate that Samsung achieved this by spacing the keys rather than enlarging the individual keycaps, because the keyboard is quite large and extends largely to the sides of the device. The soft feel of the keyboard when typing is not helped by the limited key travel, but it still does the job and is sufficiently responsive.
Display
Samsung’s Galaxy Book Go has a 14-inch screen with a TN panel and 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution. The center of the screen has a maximum brightness of 230 cd/m2, but brightness drops dramatically toward the edges, reaching only 184 cd/m2 in the upper left corner, for example. The minimum illumination on our test field is only 80%.
A PWM with a relatively low frequency of 200 Hz and luminance of 20% is used for brightness control. Those with sensitive eyes may have problems because of this. The black value of 0.36 cd/m2 is marginally higher and the contrast ratio of 639:1 is extremely low. As a result, the dark image material appears with a gray haze, and the colors do not seem to be clearly separated from each other.
Audio
Although the 14-inch display on this laptop is huge for a device of this budget, it has some drawbacks. It is Full HD, with a resolution of 1920 x 1080, so at least Samsung has not cut corners as we have occasionally seen in other low-cost laptops. Unfortunately, other than that, it is not an outstanding screen. Using a SpyderX to test the screen’s performance, we found that it is only able to achieve 225 nits of maximum brightness, which is about half of what the best laptops can achieve, although it is still superior to a few other budget options.
It also only covers 62 percent of the sRGB spectrum in terms of color gamut. This means that it cannot display the full range of colors, offering inferior visual quality. It works well for simple office tasks, but movies and pictures will not be displayed at their best on this screen for a number of reasons, including the poor visibility of the screen from angles other than the front. It is unfortunate that there is no alternative to the touchscreen. This is not entirely out of the ordinary, given the cost, but it would have helped offset some of the other drawbacks of the laptop.
Graphics and Gaming
A snail moves faster than the Galaxy Book Go, in my opinion. When we loaded Google Chrome with 30 tabs, the Samsung Windows-on-ARM laptop, equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 CPU and 4 GB of RAM, crashed. To test the multitasking capabilities of Google Docs, we launched a brand-new instance, but it slowed down like a crowded, flashy MySpace page from 2006.
The Galaxy Book Go’s 64-bit processor was not very cooperative during our tests, as mentioned at the beginning of this review. It was unable to run the Handbrake video conversion test, Adobe Photoshop Elements, WebXPRT 3 or 3DMark (a graphics benchmarking software).
Performance
The Galaxy Book Go is not exactly the best representation of the capabilities of Windows on ARM because it is a relatively new hardware platform. It has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 processor, so 64-bit applications can only be used through emulation. This means that while there are not many programs that completely refuse to run and native programs like Microsoft Edge can run without too many problems, things take a dramatic and frustrating turn if you try to run a program like the Google Chrome browser that does not yet have native support.
Battery Life
In our real Wlan test, the Samsung notebook achieved a battery life of about 13 hours. Therefore, it performs admirably and is surpassed in our test only by the Galaxy Book S. With the included power adapter, the Galaxy Book Go’s battery can be fully recharged in about an hour and a half.
Despite all its flaws, Qualcomm’s 7C Gen 2 has one significant strength: battery life. The Galaxy Book Go outperformed most other budget competitors in our tests by a significant margin, lasting more than 15 hours of uninterrupted movie playback. When charging, it charges slowly, which is a disadvantage. This means you should get into the habit of charging it overnight, because a quick power outlet would do no good.
Heat
After enduring a 15-minute video at 1080p, the Galaxy Book Go remained cool under pressure in our thermal test. The bottom rose to 82.4 degrees Fahrenheit, well below the comfort threshold of 95 degrees. The touchpad and the middle of the keyboard reached 74.3 and 79 degrees, respectively. The hottest point on the laptop, with a temperature of 88.9 degrees, was the underside (about two inches from the center).
Final Words
Consider the Gateway Ultra Slim notebook if you want a good sub-$500 laptop without app compatibility issues. It is a 14-inch laptop, similar to the Galaxy Book Go, but with a 10th generation Intel processor, so you won’t have to worry about compatibility issues. The Gateway laptop is currently priced at only $299 at Walmart.
It is not as efficient as the Galaxy Book Go, which lasts only 8 hours on a charge. We really wanted to include the Galaxy Book Go in our list of the best laptops under $500, but this is a drawback. Although Samsung is one of the most reliable technology companies, this Windows-on-ARM PC was not up to the task.
