With Black Friday just around the corner, Samsung has announced a new budget Chromebook, the Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE, for launch in the UK this month.
It launched in the US originally as the Galaxy Chromebook Go in July, and AT&T in August offered up an LTE variant of the low-cost laptop.
Here's a closer look at Samsung's latest low-cost Chromebook contender.
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE
Manufacturer: Samsung | Operating System: ChromeOS | Processor: Intel Celeron N4500 | RAM: 4GB | Storage: 64GB | Display: 14 inch TFT HD panel
Opinion: Is The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE Worth It?
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE clocks in at £399 or so, placing it in the mid-range area of budget Chromebooks. That is to say, there are others that you can get for under £300 or so, whilst you can go and spend over £500 on a Chromebook if that suits.
Within the last few months or so, there's been a flurry of new budget-oriented Chromebooks that have been thrown onto the market that all look to have remarkably similar spec sheets, with the only key difference being price.
For a budget Chromebook, you are getting a pretty standard-issue spec sheet on the Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE with a dual-core Celeron N4500 CPU, alongside 4GB of RAM and 64GB eMMC storage.
Whilst there is some debate about whether eMMC or SSD storage is best, for a budget Chromebook like this one, blazing-fast transfer speeds aren't likely to be a top priority. Similarly, for casual computing, opting for 4GB over 8GB of RAM is likely to be plenty.
In addition, its 14-inch TFT panel opts to use a resolution of 1366x768, which seems to be the bog-standard offering for sub-£500 Chromebooks, as other Chromebooks we've got listed also feature a similar panel.
In this arena, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE does fall down a little, as spending around £100 less won't actually lose you too much in terms of hardware, apart from the LTE connection that's offered up here, as well as WiFi-6 and Bluetooth 5.1 connectivity.
On the plus side though, when it comes to ports, Samsung has been kind enough to provide a decent selection for a lower-end machine with 2x USB-C 3.2s and 1x USB-A 3.2, alongside a Micro SD card slot and a 3.5mm audio jack.
For a laptop at this price, expectations when it comes to performance aren't going to be that high, but you're most likely going to be engaging in some casual computing, be it typing up Word documents, browsing the web and installing some apps from the Play Store.
The Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE should be pretty decent for those tasks, and having an LTE connection so you can get online practically anywhere is a massive bonus, although may not necessarily constitute a £100 or so upgrade over the standard model.
In the debate of laptops vs. Chromebooks too, options like this Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE will come out on top simply due to both their ease of use and affordability.
However, there are some questions as to whether its price is perhaps a little expensive for a Chromebook with this spec sheet, but maybe Samsung has just got it right this time, and their reputation as a top brand may just push them over the line here.
After all, their other Chromebooks, like the original Galaxy Chromebook with its 4K panel, are brilliant machines in our eyes, and it would be nice to think their new wallet-friendly contender could also be up there with the best Chromebooks around.
Of course, we'd have to get our hands on the Galaxy Chromebook Go LTE to give it a true going-over, but its spec sheet will please those looking for a handy option for proper on-the-go computing.
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