Samsung set out to make the thinnest and lightest Chromebook Plus laptop on the market, and it succeeded with the new Galaxy Chromebook Plus. At just 0.46 inches thick and 2.58 pounds, it's among the thinnest and one of the lightest computers right now. Naturally, the first question that came to my mind was: What did the company sacrifice to reach those slim dimensions? Turns out, not much at all.
It’s hard to overstate the unique experience of holding the Galaxy Chromebook Plus when you first take it out of the box. After reviewing a slate of other great Chromebooks that offer plenty of power but in a chunkier frame, this laptop feels like a breath of fresh air. Even as thin and light as it is, its weight is extremely well-balanced with premium materials throughout.
The Galaxy Chromebook Plus comes in just one color, but it’s a beautiful blue metal hue that pops under the right light. In some lighting, it can almost appear as a bluish gray, which is a neat effect. Meanwhile, the keyboard deck and the rest of the body are sturdy black plastic with very little flex.
Samsung's first Chromebook Plus is powered by an Intel Core 3 100U processor with 8 GB of RAM and a 256-GB solid state drive. This is a typical combination for Chromebook Plus models—a standard Google launched last year that sets a threshold these laptops need to meet. However, the storage space here is double what Google requires for a laptop to qualify as a “Chromebook Plus.” You also get a 1080p webcam that performs pretty well, though it’s not the most impressive shooter you can find on a laptop.
Performance was fantastic throughout my testing, which is no surprise. Google has dialed in the specs for the Chromebook Plus label such that you have to actively work to slow things down with ChromeOS. The processor and spacious RAM kept things running smooth and snappy, even with multiple apps running alongside a bevy of Chrome tabs.