Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook is now slated to launch on April 6. And at $999 with a premium metal construction, this ultra-portable laptop has the chops to take on Apple’s newly refreshed MacBook Air. Like the MacBook Air, Samsung’s Galaxy Chromebook utilizes a 13.3-inch display and comes with a sleek design, but the similarities between the laptops largely end there.
The star of the Galaxy Chromebook is its gorgeous screen, which is mounted on a 360-degree hinge to allow the device to convert between classic laptop form and tablet mode and everything in between. Here, you’re getting a vibrant 4K UHD AMOLED display. Additionally, the Galaxy Chromebook will be the first Chrome OS device to support Ambient EQ, allowing the software to tune the display’s white balance and color temperature for optimal viewing.
And unlike the MacBook Air, the Galaxy Chromebook’s 4K display is touchscreen-enabled, meaning you can either interact with Chrome OS or Android apps using the backlit keyboard and trackpad or by touching the display. The touchscreen also supports Samsung’s built-in S Pen, so you’ll also be able to jot notes, annotate documents, or draw on the display.
Powering the whole setup is, according to Best Buy’s pre-order listing, an Intel 10th-gen quad-core Core i5-10210U processor, which surprisingly is a stronger CPU than the more energy-efficient Y-series chip used by Apple on the MacBook Air. You’ll also get Intel’s integrated UHD graphics with the 10th-gen processor. The Galaxy Chromebook comes with 8GB of memory and a 256GB solid-state drive.
There are two USB-C ports — the MacBook Air edges ahead of the Galaxy Chromebook with its faster Thunderbolt 3 port — a built-in fingerprint scanner, microSD card slot, and microphone jack on the 0.4-inch thick body. The whole package weighs 2.29 pounds, which is lighter than the 2.75-pound Air. You can also use the 1-megapixel webcam built into the display’s slim bezels to take video calls, or you can use the 8-megapixel camera on the keyboard deck to capture photos when using the Galaxy Chromebook as a tablet.
Best Buy has two color variants available on the Galaxy Chromebook. Business users will want to stick with the more subdued Mercury Gray color, but if you need something splashier, the Fiesta Red is definitely eye-catching. Samsung also has a sign-up page on its website, according to The Verge.
At its premium price, the Galaxy Chromebook will compete against upgraded configurations of Google’s Pixel Slate as well as the Pixelbook.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Google DeepMind's AI world model Genie 4 can now build interactive worlds that you can explore and reshape as they run. It also generates ambient sounds, music, and dialogue that respond to your actions.
The new world model builds on Genie 3 with improved realism, more natural human movement, and better simulations of real-world physics. It could eventually help with everything from game development to training robots.
Apple has an incredible talent for making me admire its products while simultaneously questioning what on earth it's thinking with the pricing. This isn't even something as bizarre as a monitor stand, but the audacity for starting a new laptop lineup from $2,000 doesn't surprise me.
The newly announced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M6 is just the latest to showcase this. The funny thing is, I already know that it's going to be a reliable workstation. You get a powerful new 2nm M6 processor, a gorgeous Liquid Retina XDR display, and up to 24 hours of battery life. We were impressed by the M5 MacBook Air, so the high-end M6 powered MacBook Pro definitely won't let us down.