Samsung Reveals Galaxy Book Ion: Ultralight Laptops w/ QLED Monitor & Comet Lake
by Anton Shilov on October 30, 2019 5:00 PM EST
Samsung has introduced its new Galaxy Book Ion lineup of laptops that bring together an ultralight weight, an innovative display with quantum dot-enhanced backlighting, and Intel’s 10th Generation Core (Comet Lake) platform. The latest notebooks are the company’s first Project Athena-class PCs, designed to meet the standards of Intel's premium PC program.
To minimize weight, Samsung’s Galaxy Book Ion notebooks come in chassis made of magnesium and are engineered for maximum portability. The machines come in a 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch form-factor, with weights starting at 0.97 kilograms and 1.19 kilograms respectively. Besides portability, the key feature of the Galaxy Book Ion laptops is their QLED Full-HD display that features up to 600 nits brightness, a high contrast ratio, and promises to support a wide color gamut. Another unique feature of the notebooks is Samsung's Wireless PowerShare, which allows the laptop to charge Qi-compatible smartphones and headsets. The Galaxy Book Ion is equipped with a 69.7 Wh battery, so while charging any client devices will deplete the laptop's battery sooner, it has a fairly significant reservoir to start with.
Inside Samsung’s Galaxy Book Ion laptops is Intel’s 10th Generation Core (Comet Lake) processor paired with up to 16 GB of DDR4 memory, as well as an SSD with capacities up to 1TB. The 15.6-inch model sports an additional SO-DIMM slot, can house one more solid-state drive, and optionally includes NVIDIA’s GeForce MX 250 discrete GPU with 2 GB of VRAM for those who need a higher performance graphics.
As we are talking about high-end Project Athena-verified notebooks, the Galaxy Book Ion has plenty of wired and wireless connectivity, including Wi-Fi 6, a Thunderbolt 3 port, two USB 3.0 Type-A port, an HDMI output, a microSD/UFS card reader, and a 3.5-mm audio jack for headsets. Of course, Samsung also equipped its laptop with a fingerprint reader, a 720p webcam, a microphone array, and stereo speakers co-designed with AKG and enhanced with an amplifier.
| General Specifications of Samsung's Galaxy Book Ion | |||
| Galaxy Book Ion 13.3-inch |
Galaxy Book Ion 15.6-inch |
||
| Launch | Q4 2019 | Q4 2019 | |
| Display | Type | 13.3" | 15.6" |
| Resolution | 1920×1080 | ||
| Brightness | 600 nits | 600 nits | |
| CPU | 10th Gen Intel Core (Comet Lake) |
||
| Graphics | Intel UHD Graphics 630 (24 EUs) |
Intel UHD Graphics 630 (24 EUs) Optional: NVIDIA GeForce MX 250 2 GB |
|
| Memory | up to 16 GB DDR4 | up to 16 GB DDR4 + 1 SODIMM |
|
| Storage | SSD primary | up to 1 TB PCIe/NVMe SSD | |
| SSD secondary | - | Additional M.2 slot | |
| Card | UFS + microSD card reader | ||
| Wireless Connectivity | 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) BT |
||
| Thunderbolt 3 | 1 × Thunderbolt 3 | ||
| USB | 2 × USB 3.0 Type-A | ||
| Display Outputs | DP 1.2 via TB3 HDMI |
||
| Webcam | 720p webcam | ||
| Battery | 69.7 Wh | ||
| Audio | Stereo speakers with Smart Amp 1 × microphone 1× TRRS jack |
||
| Dimensions | Width | 305.7 mm | 12.03" | 356.1 mm | 14.01" |
| Depth | 199.8 | 7.86" | 228 mm | 8.97" | |
| Thickness | 12.9 mm | 0.5" | 14.9 mm | 0.58" | |
| Weight | 0.97 kg | 2.13 lbs | 1.19 kg | 2.62 lbs 1.26 kg | 2.77 lbs (w/ dGPU) |
|
Samsung will start sales of its Galaxy Book Ion notebooks in December. Actual prices are unknown, but we are clearly talking premium products here.
Related Reading:
- Intel Unveils ‘Engineered for Mobile Performance’ Badge for Project Athena Program
- Samsung Announces Always-Connected Galaxy Book S Laptop with Snapdragon 8cx
- Samsung Unveils Galaxy Book2: 12-Inch, Snapdragon 850 with X20 LTE, 20 Hrs
- Samsung Unveils 2019 Notebook 9 Pen 13 & 15
- Samsung Notebook 7 Spin 13.3-inch Convertible Gets Quad-Core i5 & SSD, Loses Weight
- CES 2019: Samsung Announces The Notebook Odyssey
- CES 2019: Samsung Launches The Notebook 9 Pro And Notebook Flash
Source: Samsung
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arsjum - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
What's wrong with 1920x1080? If you are referring to aspect ratio, I agree. But if you mean it's not 4k, it's a win rather than failure in my book.mkozakewich - Friday, November 1, 2019 - link
The Surface Book has 3000x2000 for the 12" model, and it's actually very nice. It's hard to notice any jagged edges if you're further than two feet away from the screen. If it was 1920x1280 (to preserve the aspect ratio), it wouldn't be bad, but it would barely be adequate. Certainly not premium.damianrobertjones - Monday, November 4, 2019 - link
A LOT of people don't have excellent sight. 1920×1080 is cool on a 13.3" machine. Yeah, sure, 4k would be nice, but ever so slightly wasted.awehring - Thursday, October 31, 2019 - link
One of the very few premium notebooks with an acceptable amount of connectors.HDMI is necessary for beamers in presentations.
Enough USB (Thunderbolt) ports.
(I hate dongles. Too easy to forget, loose.)
jseliger2 - Sunday, November 3, 2019 - link
What about Linux friendliness, though?jackhorizon8 - Sunday, August 30, 2020 - link
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