Two New Laptops: Galaxy Book Ion & Flex still no SGB12 update

I think opinions will vary on whether 1080p is adequate at 15.6"-- it is fine to me. I prefer better battery life, so it is not an issue. It clearly is an issue to you, so there ya' go! I've gotten laptops, and deliberately NOT gotten higher res screens, because it's not been worth it for what I lose in battery life. That's a use case thing. Not much to say beyond that.

But after that, I think this is often a matter of moving the goal lines as we arrive at them. We want bigger EMR devices. Then we get them, and they're not big enough. We want them more powerful, then they become so but aren't powerful enough. Folks want a dGPU (practically unheard of just 5-7 years ago, in a tablet or convertible). Now we have them but they're not enough. People wanted brighter screens (remember the days of max 200 nit laptops?). Now we've got them, but it's not important. We wanted smaller bezels. Now we get them and no one cares. This device is basically the size of my current 14" device, but with a 15.6" screen in it, PLUS it weighs 3/4 lb less and is a .25" thinner. And provides probably 4-6 more hours battery life while doing it.

I just feel like this device does a lot, and certain things it does other devices don't do.
EMR? check
15.6"? check
silo? check
better speakers? check
thin and light? check
better battery? check
QLED? check

If EMR, pen silo, and QLED doesn't matter, and 4K or more power DOES matter, then I would pass. There are other devices. But the flavor it provides is what interests me, personally.

 

To me the most interring thing about it is the debut of QLED in a laptop. It has lots of promise i.e contrast and color gamut approaching OLED without the power consumption and relative fragility. Additionally there are some other benefits that may or may not matter to this crowd such as better temperature stability (the light output and gamut doesn't vary as much between 0 degrees and 60 for instance) and linearity (again gamut and color balance doesn't vary as much at say 30% compared to 80%)

Ironically , given the fact that quantum is right in the name, our understanding is that the biggest engineering challenge that's kept them from laptop displays until now is shrinking the individual elements down while still maintaining the other benefits. Which is also likely why we haven't seen a 4k version yet.

That being said, Samsung has already told us that QLED will be going in phones and tablets this year as well.

 

Finally some signs of the release of Samsung Galaxy Book Flex in USA. Electronics Express has the 13.3" listed https://www.electronicexpress.com/c...30qcgk01-133-i5-8gb-512gb-ssd-windows-10-home. But its the version with i5 processor and 8 GB RAM for $1349 and not available yet.

I wonder why its so delayed for release in USA. Announced in October and already out in South Korea, China, Hong Kong.

 

Delays in regulatory approval most likely. One of the ongoing issues for the next few months most likely as Covid has our government and most others as well focused on things like ventilators etc.

 

They just released the Galaxy Chromebook which was announced much later than The Galaxy Book Flex. I don't know how they are prioritizing.

 

Our experience with Samsung shows that marketing and compliance are rarely synced. I suspect that they wanted to keep the Chromebook under wraps until closer to ready whereas the flex while a nice system is essentially just an iteration of the existing notebook 9 line

 

Found a couple more listings for the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex but not available yet.

https://www.connection.com/product/...led-core-i7-8gb-512gb/np930qcg-k01us/38288311
Shows out-of-stock but looks like it allows you to place the order. When I contacted them they said availability expected in 4-5 weeks.

https://datavision.com/products/sam...-fhd-qled-i7-1065g7-8gb-512gb-windows-10-home
They said availability in 10 days.

Surprising that BestBuy and Amazon and Samsung US don't even have a proper page up yet. Hopefully soon.

 

I've heard informally that the delay is mostly due to some last minute issues with the QLED displays. While they have been in their TV's for awhile, shrinking them down (and thus much denser pixel matrix) while maintaining image quality (color accuracy, uniformity) has proven exceptionally challenging.

 

Now you can place an order on Electronics express for the Flex but not sure if or when it will ship. Its been available in Korea, Hong Kong, China and Indonesia for weeks now, so there is hope.

 

I've heard informally that an official US release is planned for May.

I'm looking forward to getting and testing one as I think I've mentioned before, I think QLED has promise for laptops especially as it should have many of the visual benefits of OLED without some of the downsides such as power consumption and relative fragility.