Samsung’s next Chromebook may be a premium model with a 12.3 inch, 2400 x 1600 pixel touchscreen display and a 360-degree hinge that allows the notebook to become a tablet when the screen is tilted back.
But that’s just one of the things that makes the Samsung Chromebook Pro unusual. It may also be one of the first Chromebooks to feature support for digital pen input, and the convertible tablet is surprisingly compact for a model with a 12.3 inch screen: it measures 11″ x 8.7″ x 0.55″ and weighs 2.38 pounds.
Samsung hasn’t officially introduced the Chromebook Pro. But a series of leaks SamMobile of what we can expect from this upcoming convertible Chromebook. It should be available soon for around $499.
Like most new Chrome OS hardware, the Samsung Chromebook Pro should be compatible with Android apps when support for the Play Store for Chrome OS rolls out more widely. And Samsung knows a thing or two about using a digital pen with Android apps. The Chromebok Pro will come with a pen and apps for drawing or painting, taking notes, or capturing and annotating screenshots.
The convertible laptop has an all-metal body, a touchscreen with edge-to-edge glass, and a display with 234 pixels per inch, a 3:2 aspect ratio, and 400 nits brightness level. Other features include 4GB of RAM, 32GB of storage, 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth, and a webcam. It also has an unspecified hexa-core ARMv8 processor with two ARM Cortex-A72 CPU cores and four ARM Cortex-A54 CPU cores. It comes with two USB Type-C ports, a headphone jack, and an SD card slot. Samsung is also offering ad-free, one-year subscription of AirDroid app.
Samsung’s promotional materials say the laptop should get up to 10 hours of battery life on a charge. And while the battery is not designed to be user replaceable, Samsung says its “Battery Life Extender” feature should mean the battery will still be good for up to 7 hours of usage at a stretch after 3 years.
Oh, there’s one other thing that makes the Samsung Chromebook Pro stand out: it’s one of the first Chromebooks I’m aware of that will ship with bloatware. Promotional materials say “a range of exciting software comes pre-loaded,” with no mention of whether you can easily un-load it.
The device is currently listed on Adorama for pre-order and previous appeared on B&H, but has since been pulled. That listing did reveal a potential shipping date of October 24th, and if that is to be believed, we should be hearing a lot more about this Chromebook in the next week or so.
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