Samsung Galaxy Book 10.6 and Galaxy Book 12 hands-on

26 February 2017
Both Windows 10 devices come with a keyboard and S Pen out of the box.

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  • K
  • K
  • kke
  • 03 Aug 2018

So much galaxy book bashing! I've had my 12" LTE for about 6 months now, leaving my desktop to become a book shelf, and my surface pro has now become a beer coaster. I love it! To answer a few questions, Samsung nearly embraced the future by switching over to USB-C. Sadly no Thunderbolt, but I am pulling usb 3.0 speeds. It comes with a few connectors to use your old usb items, but USB-C does so much more, everything! With a single adapter, I can plug standard usb items, hdmi, VGA, dvi, ethernet, more headphones, whatever you can think of, i even use it as my guitar amp and effects pedal now! Screen doesn't flicker, great in all lights. I've only been able to connect 2 additional screens to it. Oddly with 2 connected screens, a wireless mouse and keyboard begin to lag pretty bad. The included keyboard is actually impressive. S-Pen is incredible. Only disadvantages I've found are it not being very stable on one's lap, and no thunderbolt. Yes, no thunderbolt. :( there is a work around, but it involves a heat gun and a few playing cards to remove the wifi card and steal its spot. Figured out how to keep the wifi card seated with a wire tapped off it to plug in my eGPU, but it's not pretty and it was a pain in the ...., and it's only using 85% of my rig, not to mention I voided all warranties! Only other issue I can think of is it needing a manual registry add to get photoshop and autocad suite working properly. Integer issues, Oh, and if your outside in the direct sun pushing graphics, it'll become too hot to charge, but just putting a few blank pieces of paper on top of it usually resolves.

    • C
    • Cam
    • 0Fb
    • 09 Feb 2018

    The Samsung book has its quirks but pretty great once you get using it. Unfortunately The NFC capability is just a sticker that pops open the flow app rather than an antenna like the one found on the back of a tab pro. Not that NFC was terribly useful but you cant turn off stickers and it annoys me when i rest my phone on palm rest only for the flow app to pop up, and oh yeah, FLOW DOESN'T WORK. The 12 inch model doesn't hold its charge too well (5-6 hours without too much battery control, maybe 8 with battery saver and lower brightness), and fast charging only works when screens off otherwise you stuck with a painfully slow 5 hour charge time.

    Using it on a bed or on an unbalanced surface might lead to some unwarranted track pad clicks but only if you have a very firm press on the palms rests. That said The keyboard is wonderful to type on. The tab pro s was very awkward as keys were bunched next to each other but the books island style keys are very familiar and comfortable to type on. I never feel like I have to look down to check I'm pressing the right key but when I do enjoy that i can get them back lit so can see them at night (although you'll want it off when saving battery). The track pad on the tab pro was great and this is too, being larger makes gestures easier. The s pen is superb and I use It regularly however the soft nibs are quite fragile and I broke all four in the first month. Luckily the harder ones that came with it are more resilient.

    All of your day to day tasks run well and screen is gorgeous. The resolution isn't the highest but the oled panel delivers great deep blacks and superb sharpness and contrast. It also supports HDR. The windows settings for HDR are greyed out and Im not sure if windows recognizes it as a HDR display the video player does appear to be playing my videos in HDR so I'm thinking Samsungs additional book settings sorts that out rather than windows native support.

    I have been able to get android x86 type USB boots working but I did have to manually input code as the Intel 620HD graphics weren't automatically being detected by the system. sound, wifi, screen brightness and Bluetooth etc werent working for me and Im sure with some more tweaking they would I just wasnt bothered to have about loading andoird onto it.

      • D
      • AnonD-42946
      • AAe
      • 02 Aug 2017

      AnonD-648846, 01 Mar 2017From Notebook Check, it seems to come with SSD's: Samsun... moreYeah the 12" model has an SSD. The 10.6" uses eMMC v5.1 I believe.

        • D
        • AnonD-42946
        • AAe
        • 02 Aug 2017

        AnonD-665478, 29 Apr 2017"WTF windows 10 ? why not some linux or mac os. Or simbya o... moreWindows 10 is a solid OS but if for some reason you don't like it I see no reason why this hardware couldn't run a Linux distro. As for using it as a hackintosh, I'm not convinced you'd be able to get all the drivers you'd need.

          • D
          • AnonD-42946
          • AAe
          • 02 Aug 2017

          I've just received my 10.6" model and I'm currently doing the requisite Windows updates. So far it seems like a pretty solid little bit of kit. I'm planning to stress test it by seeing how well it runs Ableton 9. That should be funny.

            • l
            • lulu
            • 7j%
            • 12 Jul 2017

            Sim slot-
            any sim we can use-3G,4G,5G,6G
            Can we write by using our hand as like as our notebook and pen(ink)?
            integrated light projector in side that we can write easily in Facebook in any language post it.

              • F
              • Freak Zoid
              • 7sc
              • 20 May 2017

              AnonD-665478, 29 Apr 2017"WTF windows 10 ? why not some linux or mac os. Or simbya o... moreHave you seen a product apart from Apple sell a device with MacOs? And linux? There are not enough users to market it to. Windows and Android has the most user base and these products are aimed at that market. That's why Ubuntu or other would be linux based products never get to production because there's not enough market. And if you're a linux user, chances are you have the ability to rig it to dual boot anyway.

                • D
                • AnonD-665478
                • r7{
                • 29 Apr 2017

                yym, 27 Feb 2017looks interresting actually i was looking for something li... moreAdding the ports you request would have made the thing twice as thick. At that point you might as well buy a Surface Pro 4. Though it doesn't have HDMI either.

                  • D
                  • AnonD-665478
                  • r7{
                  • 29 Apr 2017

                  mare, 28 Feb 2017WTF windows 10 ? why not some linux or mac os. Or simbya os... more"WTF windows 10 ? why not some linux or mac os. Or simbya os for change !!! Whats wrong with Samsung company ???"

                  I know it's hard for many to understand even now. But despite what the media wants to tell you, Windows is the only OS that gets productivity exactly right.

                  Mac OS would be a great alternative, except that Tim Cook, following after Steve Jobs, doesn't want you installing it on anything but their computers.

                    • r
                    • rank13
                    • wi4
                    • 24 Mar 2017

                    All is good, except there is no thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps, 4 lanes of PCI Express Gen 3) for eGPU support. When I back to office, I need a heavy GPU power for further productivity, such as, video editing, Nvidia Cuda base GPU rendering, GPU accelerated Cad, 2D CG, 3D CG application etc,..
                    It's a pity! no thunderbolt 3, no way.
                    Will look in HP Spectre x360 Convertible Laptop 15-bl075nr or Wait for Surface pro 5

                      • D
                      • AnonD-654310
                      • jk4
                      • 20 Mar 2017

                      The S Pen is not a "passive" pen - it is an active stylus but uses Wacom EMR technology so the power is in the screen digitizer and no battery is necessary. Passive (or capacitive) pens are not near as accurate nor fine-lined.

                        • D
                        • AnonD-648846
                        • 018
                        • 01 Mar 2017

                        From Notebook Check, it seems to come with SSD's:

                        Samsung Galaxy Book 12 Convertible Review (First Impressions)

                        Storage Devices
                        The storage solution (Samsung MZNTY256HDHP) of our pre-production sample has a capacity of 256 GB and manages good results in CrystalDiskMark, but cannot compete with PCIe-NVMe based solutions on the XPS 13 or the Lenovo Yoga 910, for instance.

                          • y
                          • yan
                          • 9xE
                          • 01 Mar 2017

                          for productivity sake this is for the win!

                            • ?
                            • Anonymous
                            • Pri
                            • 01 Mar 2017

                            mare, 28 Feb 2017WTF windows 10 ? why not some linux or mac os. Or simbya os... morewell, Mac os is only used in apple systems,and with the android lack of full tablet optimized apps and a flooded market with android tablets I dont see how could they be appealing.

                              • D
                              • AnonD-648846
                              • ke}
                              • 01 Mar 2017

                              Why do they come with the slower eMMc drives? :(

                                • m
                                • mare
                                • 0Tp
                                • 28 Feb 2017

                                WTF windows 10 ? why not some linux or mac os. Or simbya os for change !!! Whats wrong with Samsung company ???

                                  • D
                                  • AnonD-632062
                                  • 3Yc
                                  • 27 Feb 2017

                                  There used to be a time when Galaxy exclusively meant Samsung Android offerings. Samsung Windows 2-in-1s or Windows Mobile were on the short-lived Ativ series as it made for easy differentiation. I guess now they decided to cash in on the "Galaxy" brand.

                                    • D
                                    • AnonD-632062
                                    • 3Yc
                                    • 27 Feb 2017

                                    These look good. I wish they also released a new Android Tab with the 12 inch AMOLED 2160*1440 display. BTW I really appreciate how simple yet useful Samsung keeps their S-Pen allowing it to be backward compatible.

                                      • y
                                      • yym
                                      • 0Ue
                                      • 27 Feb 2017

                                      looks interresting
                                      actually i was looking for something like this
                                      samsung tablet/laptop/2in1/whatnot device with window10
                                      10bit hdr oled highres display very nice

                                      but this device has some serious missing features, which for me is a dealbreaker:
                                      - no hdmi port?? whatta? so i can not use an external monitor/livingroom TV with it, no thanks (i don't want to hear about dongles, or some streaming crap)
                                      - no standard usb ports, how am i supposed to use virtually any existing usb device with it, again no dongles, i don't have anything with usb c port, it is nice to have for the future but at this time i don't care about usb c i care about regular usb
                                      - no hinge, so one can not use any display angle one likes? use some crappy display stand with 3 fixed positions? why? it is not usable in the lap on the bed, just on tabletop, why not use a regular pc then?

                                      samsung please fix this, how can you make such a device, where compatibility with previous/current technology doesn't matter, usability doesn't matter, only looks, thinnes, nex gen stuff, those are all grea I want them all, but only as an addition to current technologies not as a replacement.

                                      luckily there are many devices that have all what I mentioned earlier, well no fancy 10bit display, not nice build quality, but all the things that are important to me are there.so see you next year samsung hope you come up with something better.

                                        • D
                                        • AnonD-625786
                                        • 0@j
                                        • 27 Feb 2017

                                        lol
                                        Waiting for the MateBook 2.