Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G has been announced by the South Korean tech giant as the latest entry into its hybrid portfolio. It is the company's first 5G-equipped laptop and also boasts of Intel's latest 11th-Gen Core processors. The Galaxy Book Flex 5G is a 2-in-1 and comes with an S Pen that slots right into the laptop when not needed. It is also the company's first laptop to sport a 13-megapixel camera on the keyboard deck that is used as a rear camera in tablet mode.
Samsung has not revealed the pricing and availability for the Galaxy Book Flex 5G yet and is expected to do so in the coming days. The Samsung 2-in-1 will be offered in a single Royal Silver color option and multiple configurations. It is unclear if the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G will come to India.
It’s a big day for Intel. The company launched its 11th Gen Tiger Lake mobile processors. It also announced its newest badge of honor for laptops: the Intel Evo brand, building on last year’s Project Athena program. And in tandem with Samsung, it unveiled the first 5G-enabled system to meet the Evo requirements: the Galaxy Book Flex 5G.
The Flex is Samsung’s first 5G laptop, and it certainly looks nice. It weighs 2.7 pounds (1.26kg) and comes in a light “royal silver” finish. You can configure it with a 13.3-inch 1920 x 1080 display, up to 16GB RAM, a 69.7Wh battery, and up to a 512GB SSD. There’s a 13-megapixel “world-facing” camera to snap or shoot video on the go, a built-in S Pen and a backlit keyboard.
But the most exciting feature — in addition to 5G — is the processor.
The Flex can come with either a Core i5 or Core i7 from Intel’s new Tiger Lake lineup. The new chips will bring unprecedented performance and power efficiency to thin-and-light systems like the Flex, says Chris Walker, Intel vice president, and general manager of mobile client platforms.
“As a 5G Intel-based platform, you really aren’t compromising on battery life, wireless connectivity, CPU performance, compatibility in the Windows ecosystem — they really are able to bring everybody’s wish list together,” said Walker in an interview with The Verge.
Intel’s Evo program also has stricter requirements than Project Athena’s. For one, candidates need to include Tiger Lake processors (Project Athena only certified 10th Gen systems). Walker also says that the performance bar is higher and includes more use cases.
Systems will need to last nine or more hours on a “real-world” battery test, which includes Chrome, G Suite, Microsoft Office 365, YouTube, and Zoom use. They’ll also need to be able to wake from sleep in less than a second and support fast charging (up to a four-hour charge in under 30 minutes if they have an FHD display) as well as Wi-Fi 6 and Intel’s new Thunderbolt 4 standard.
“That’s all really intensive lab work — that’s not a specification where you check off some boxes, then you get it,” Walker says. “The systems come in, they’re tested and tuned over multiple runs and trials.”
In all, Intel says that it’s trying to differentiate the laptops that best serve everyday use cases (rather than excelling on synthetic benchmarks). By granting the Flex the Evo label, Intel is certifying that the system does that well.
Samsung and Intel say the Flex is targeting a base of mobile workers — students, remote employees, and “go-getters,” per Walker. Walker says that Intel spent “thousands of hours” asking those users what they needed most out of their laptops. One priority was quick to boot time and responsiveness to help people maintain focus as they move between devices and tabs.
Others were all-day battery life and a clean desk. “They want one plug that can power multiple monitors. They want docks, keyboard, mouse, and power delivery all in one simple cable.” That’s where Thunderbolt 4 comes in, Walker says: “It simplifies that whole flow for people.”
MC Lee, Samsung VP of new computing sales and marketing, says 5G connectivity has also become more important to these consumers amid COVID-19. “When we began designing Galaxy Book Flex 5G, we were preparing to embrace an always-connected world — but we had no idea how quickly the world would change, and how staying connected with colleagues, friends and loved ones would become even more important,” Lee says. “We believe that consumers will continue to prioritize these experiences in the ‘next to normal.’”
While this is an early foray into 5G for Intel, it won’t be the last. “You’ll see many more 5G systems with Intel partners starting next year,” says Walker, though he declined to provide specifics.
And it’s easy to see why a 5G laptop makes sense for Intel and Samsung. While it still takes some effort to find a fast and consistent connection in many areas of the US (as we learned in testing Lenovo’s Flex last month), it’s more available in some other countries, and better service is coming.
And though the US tech industry’s revenue is set to decline by 2.2 percent this year, according to a recent Consumer Technology Association forecast, 5G smartphones are expected to generate $11 billion in revenue (a 665 percent increase from last year).
Lee expects consumers to treat 5G purchases as an investment. “5G will become a key connection to the world,” says Lee. “Users will get to experience 5G connectivity whether it’s available in their region now or in six months.”
But all eyes are on Intel’s processors because the manufacturer’s competition has never been steeper. Lenovo’s Flex, the first 5G laptop to hit shelves, launched with an ARM-based processor. Samsung’s Galaxy Book S also launched with an ARM chip earlier this year, and it both performed well and delivered stupendous battery results. Apple is also switching away from Intel to ARM-based Macs over the next two years, and (like Intel) it’s promising better performance and lower power consumption.
Meanwhile, AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series has left Intel in the dust this year. From ultraportables like HP’s Envy x360 and Lenovo’s IdeaPad Slim 7 to gaming rigs like Asus’ Zephyrus G14 and Dell’s G5 15 SE, AMD has been offering six-core and eight-core chips with better battery life and better prices than comparable Intel systems. Tiger Lake tops out at four cores, at least for this initial launch.
Walker argues that while Tiger Lake systems like the Flex may lose in synthetic benchmarks, they will win in real-world use cases. “Core count has nothing to do with the performance in the applications you use every day in the real world,” he says. “I’m going to show that people will experience productivity, content creation, gaming, all far superior on the four-core Tiger Lake processor.
The core count is not a proxy for performance. It’s a proxy for Cinebench performance, but not in real life. Not in the real world.” Of course, the proof is in the pudding — and Samsung hasn’t announced pricing or availability for the Flex yet.
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G Key Specs
- Display size
- 13.30-inch
- Display resolution
- 1920x1080 pixels
- Touchscreen
- Yes
- Processor
- Core i5
- OS
- Windows 10
- Hard disk
- No
- Weight
- 1.26 kg
The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G runs on Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro. It features a 13.3-inch full-HD (1,920x1,080 pixels) touchscreen and the panel houses the 720p front-facing camera for video calls. The 2-in-1 notebook is powered by Intel's 11th generation Tiger Lake Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs with Intel Iris Xe graphics with up to 16GB LPDDR4x RAM. You can get up to 512GB NVMe SSD for storage.
The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G takes care of audio with its dual 5W speakers by AKG. For connectivity, you get 5G (Sub6), LTE, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth v5.1, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB Type-C port, and a USB 3.0 Type-A port, HDMI, 3.5mm headphone/ mic combo jack, UFS, and microSD card slot, and a SIM slot. The battery on the Galaxy Book Flex 5G is 69.7Wh. You also get a fingerprint scanner on this notebook.
The keyboard is backlit and the S Pen has a slot in the front of the laptop. There is also a 13-megapixel camera above the keyboard that acts as a rear-facing camera when the 2-in-1 is in tablet mode with the keyboard folded all the way back. The Galaxy Book Flex 5G measures 304.9x202.3x13.9mm and weighs 1.26kg.
The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G meets the requirements of the new Intel Evo platform that demands an 11th-Gen Intel Core i5 or Core i7 mobile processors with Intel Iris Xe graphics, “remarkable responsiveness, battery life, connectivity, audio, displays, and thin and light designs,” as per Intel. These laptops also need to have the instant wake feature that the Galaxy Book Flex 5G does.
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G Price
The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G Convertible Laptop and Preliminary unofficial specifications will start Expected Price $1799 in the USA when it launches within the Expected Released 2020, October
Finally, Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G is a Windows 10 laptop with a 13.30-inch display that has a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. It is powered by a Core i5 processor.
Connectivity options include Wi-Fi 802.11 ac, Bluetooth and it comes with 3 USB ports (1 x USB 3.0 (Type A)), HDMI Port, Headphone, and Mic Combo Jack ports.
Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G Full Specifications
General
Brand
|
Samsung
|
Model
|
Galaxy Book Flex 5G
|
Release date
|
3rd September 2020
|
Model Name
|
Galaxy Book Flex 5G
|
Series
|
Galaxy Book
|
Dimensions (mm)
|
202.30 x 304.90 x 13.90
|
Weight (kg)
|
1.26
|
Colors
|
Royal Silver
|
Operating system
|
Windows 10
|
Battery Capacity (WHR)
|
69.7
|
Display
Size
|
13.30-inch
|
Resolution
|
1920x1080 pixels
|
Touch Screen
|
Yes
|
Processor
Processor
|
Intel Core i5
|
Memory
Expandable RAM up to (GB)
|
16GB
|
Storage
Hard disk
|
No
|
Connectivity
Wi-Fi standards supported
|
802.11 ac
|
Bluetooth version
|
5.1
|
Inputs
Web Camera
|
Yes
|
Pointer Device
|
Touchpad
|
Backlit Keyboard
|
Yes
|
Touchpad
|
Yes
|
Internal Mic
|
Yes
|
Speakers
|
2 Speakers
|
Ports and Slots
Number of USB Ports
|
3
|
USB Ports
|
1 x USB 3.0 (Type A)
|
HDMI Port
|
Yes
|
Headphone and Mic Combo Jack
|
Yes
|
Post a Comment