ISSUE392|COMPUTER SHOPPER|OCTOBER 2020 17
THEGALAXYYBOOKIonisalaptopyouknow
is special as soon as you prise it from its box.
It’s incredibly light, yet robust and well made;
it’s practically and sensibly thought out, too,
and the screen is astunner.
And yet, Samsung has somehow managed
to make it look different from the crowd as
well. This is no MacBook Air clone; the
Samsung Galaxy Book Ion has its very own
identity,and it’s all the better forit.
LITTLEAND LARGE
The Samsung Galaxy Book Ion comes in two
sizes: with either a13.3in or a15.6in screen,
both non-touch. Both sizes could reasonably
be termed ultraportable,with the 13.3in model
weighing under akilogram and the 15.6in
model tipping the scales at 1.26kg.
It’s the 13.3in model we’re testing here,
though in the UK both versions have the
same internal specs: an Intel Core i5-10210U
processor,8GB of RAM and a512GB SSD.
Whichever model you choose,you’re also
getting a1,920x1,080 QLED display, ahealthy
selection of ports, and aclever reverse-
charging touchpad, which can be used to
charge your phone or other devices wirelessly.
The angular body,low weight and the way
the Ion’s hinge lifts up the base at the rear –
to help with cooling –ispleasantly
reminiscent of the old Sony Vaio Zlaptops.
The build quality is similar,too: first
impressions are that it isn’t particularly
substantial, but that’s often theway with
ultra-light laptops. There’s ultimately a
trade-offbetween the luxury feel of,say,a
MacBook Pro and something that you barely
notice is there when you stow it in abag.
The13.3in Galaxy Book Ion definitely falls
intothe latter category.Itweighsjust 970g,
measures 12.9mm thick when closed and,
thanks to 4mm bezels to the leftand right of
the screen and a7mm bezel above it, feels
absolutely tiny.
Despitethis, the Galaxy Book Ion is
tough in all the right places. The base feels
nice and solid to type on and, if you give the
chassis atwist, it barely moves: there’s
certainly no creaking or cracking to indicate
poor build quality.The displaybacking is
more flexible,but there’s no rippling in the
displaypanel if you push your fingers hard
on the rear of the lid.INSERTHERE
It looks good, too. TheGalaxy Book Ion is
available only in Aura Silver,which has an
attractive,pearlescent sheen to it when thelightfallsonit.Withametallicbluestrip
runningalongthespineofthelaptopit
looksdistinctlydifferentfromtherestof
theultraportablecrowd.
Samsunghasn’tforgottenthe
practicalities,either.Itmightbeslim,but
theGalaxyBookIonhasplentyofportsand
socketsalongtheedges.Ontheleftarea
full-sized HDMI output and Thunderbolt
3-enabled USB Type-C port, alongside a
3.5mm headset jack and DC charging port.
On the right, meanwhile,are apairoffull-size
USB3.1ports and amicroSD cardtray.
Interestingly,the latter also supports
Samsung’s UFS memory cards, which are
faster than regular SD cards, offering read
and writespeeds of up to 500MB/s and
200MB/s respectively.Alas, since these
cards are hard to come by (you can’t even
buy one from Samsung’s own UK website),
it looks like you’ll be stuck using slower
standard microSD cards.
However,there is away to addmore
high-speed storage,ifyou don’t mind getting
busy with ascrewdriver.Inside the chassis,
the Galaxy Book Ion has space to add both
extra SSD storage and RAM. Youonly get
one slot foreach, but even having enough
space forthat is something you don’t often
see in ultraportable laptops.
Even amid all this functionality,however,
the two humble USB3.1ports still manage to
stand out. Ultraportables largely favour
smaller Type-C connectors, which can be
faster and more versatile,but if you want to
use aUSB mouse or an older external hard
disk, these two ports will save you having to
buy and carry an adaptor.