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Samsung Galaxy Book 10.6 WiFi Only Review - The Work / Life Balance Assistant

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Samsung has been pushing their fans to have a great work / life balance. Thus, they released devices that can help you transition from work to play seamlessly. Enter the Samsung Galaxy Book.
The Samsung Galaxy Book Work-Life Assistant
Samsung Galaxy Book review

The Galaxy Book is a tweener device in my eyes as it is a 2-in-1 tablet / workbook combo. This is Samsung's attempt to provide us with can assist you in both the work and play aspect of your life. 

The Galaxy Book, out of the box, feels really premium in the hand. It has a gorgeous display, a metal build with a bundled S Pen and keyboard case. It has a pretty good heft to it yet it is really comfortable to hold. 

Now, after using it for quite sometime now, let us see if the Galaxy Book will rock the on-the-go workbook stage!


Display Quality

The gorgeous 10.6 inch FHD display
The gorgeous 10.6 inch FHD display

The Samsung Galaxy Book that I got to use has a 10.6 inch TFT 1920 x 1080 FHD display with 218 pixel per inch screen density. The display is gorgeous. The images come out as sharp and vibrant. Color reproduction is very good as well as it does not seem over or under saturated in my experience.

I was also able to enjoy watching some YouTube and Netflix with the Galaxy Book. I was able to enjoy 1080p videos at 60 fps which is a very impressive experience. I experienced no hiccups when it comes to frame drops too.

The touchscreen is really responsive especially with the S Pen. I enjoyed doodling with this bad boy as well practicing my penmanship while taking down some grocery lists.

Audio Quality

Speakers on the sides
Speakers on the sides

It has dual speakers on either sides of the device that deliver fairly loud stereo sound. At times, I forgot that I am not wearing any earphones because the audio is really clear. 

The speaker audio quality here is superb in my opinion!

However, when listening to music, using the speakers will only deliver average quality audio. The bass line is almost non-existent. This is just a minor gripe from me because it is usable and tolerable for listening while working. Overall, I am fairly satisfied in this department.

The Galaxy Book also has a 3.5 mm headphone port. Using a pair of average earphones, the audio quality is good but can be better. Maybe a few tweaks with an equalizer is what it needs but considering that I am not using a high end earphones, it is quite impressive.

Battery Life

Battery life with the Galaxy Book is on the so-so part side for me. It can get you through your day with its 4,000 mAh battery but a little more juice for a workbook is better. 5 - 6 hours of battery life is actually good enough for writing some documents, surfing and some movies too.

Charging time is around 2-3 hours. Pretty average for a tablet. In my opinion, the Galaxy Book could have benefited with a Quick Charge capabilities as Samsung wants this as an on-the-go device. The ability to quickly charge any device is a must-have for any active individual.

Camera

The Galaxy Book certainly lacks on this department if it is just a tablet. However, it is being marketed as a workbook, which means a rear camera can be left out. If you think about it, laptops do not have a rear facing camera. With that said, the Galaxy Book only has a 5 MP f/2.2 front facing camera that can record 1080p videos at 30 fps.

This camera is meant to be used mainly as a webcam for video calls. It can still take decent photos in great lighting though. The ability to record 1080p videos is a great addition too. However, other than that, there is nothing else to say about the Galaxy Book in this department.

Camera Sample

Indoor Selfie
Indoor Selfie

Performance

A closer look at the Galaxy Book's keyboard
A closer look at the Galaxy Book's keyboard

The Galaxy Book performed normal tasks like writing, surfing the net and note taking very well. That's to be expected for a device that aims to balance work and play. However, the Intel Core m3 processor and the Intel HD 615 GPU are a bit lacking with the play part. 

I have tried to stream some of my Steam games from a beefier PC via the In-Home streaming feature. I managed to start the game stream however there is so much lag. My home network is pretty good so I ruled that out as a problem.

The keyboard is not for meant gaming that is for sure. It is a bit cramped up which is understandable because this is supposed to be portable. There is also minimal key travel here due to the chiclet design. Other than that, it is a fairly decent keyboard for the size.

Also the lack of other ports out of the box really hampered the device's usability.
Simple doodle of Edo Tensei Naruto
Simple doodle of Edo Tensei Naruto

The best use I found for this is a digital sketch pad. I love doodling and sketching. I did not load up Adobe Illustrator though as even a beefier PC has some trouble running it. I settled with Samsung Notes for now and I am contented with it.

The S Pen is very responsive which makes drawing with it a great experience!

One noticeable thing about the Galaxy Book is how hot it gets overtime. If I have Chrome up, while I am playing music and doodling as well, the Galaxy book literally heats up in a matter of minutes. I end up letting cool down before using it again as it gets very uncomfortable.

WiFi connectivity is very stable and strong too!

Pros - Great build quality, loud dual speakers, good integration of the S Pen, good performance in terms of office tasks, beautiful display, stable WiFi
Cons - A bit on the heavy side, keyboard can be better, needs more I/O ports, thermal management is sub par, charging is kind of slow

Verdict

So is the Samsung Galaxy Book worth the price it's asking for? That depends on how you will use it. If its for media consumption and light office tasks then yes it can be worth your time. The S Pen integration is a great addition in that aspect of things.

However, for me, I'd rather invest in a full pledged laptop. For PHP 44,900, you could get a decent laptop with more performance, complete I/O ports and overall a better experience.

This is a device for a very niche crowd out there. I am not just part of that crowd.

Build / Design - 4.5
Display - 4.75
Audio - 4.5
Battery - 4
Camera - 3.75
Performance - 4
Average - 4.25 / 5
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