18 OCTOBER2020|COMPUTER SHOPPER|ISSUE
Typing on the Galaxy Book Ion is alargely
comfortable experience,although it dooesn’t
havethebestkeyboardintheworld.TThekeys
–whilelargeandeasytotouch-typeoon
withouttoomanytypos–don’thaveaa
particularly well-damped feel, and therreisn’t
much travel to them, either.
The layout, too, is imperfect. We likkethe
fact that the UK model has adouble-hheight
Enterkey,andthecursor,Backspaceaand
Deletekeysareintherightplacesandda
good size,too.However,the fingerprinnt
readerisplacedawkwardly,justtotheeright
of the right Shift key, shrinkingthe latttteerraanndd
crowdingitovertotheleft, whereit’seasy
to hit by accident.
It’s asimilar story with the touchpad,
which is OK but not brilliant. The smooth
glass topand wide dimensions are welcome,
but the built-in click action doesn’t feel
particularly nice under the finger.Again,it
feels alittle insubstantial, although we didn’t
have any issues with accuracy or reliability.
BLAZE OF GLORY
And you might be prepared to forgive the
keyboard and touchpad’s minor foibles once
you layeyes on that glorious QLED display.
Although its 16:9 aspect ratio isn’t as tall as
that of,say,the MicrosoftSurface Laptop 3
(Shopper385) or the new Dell XPS 13 (page
24), the brightness and colour performance
are like nothing else you’ll have ever seen on
alaptop.This is astunning display, capable
of rubbing shoulders with the very best that
Apple has to offer.
AAparrttiicullarllynottewortthhhy
innovatioonisOutdoor Mode.Hit
Fn-F10aand the displaygains a
significant boost to brightness,
allowing you to continue woorking
even intthe brightest of outtdoor
ssuunnlliigghhtt..IInnddeeeedd,ppeeaakkiinnggaattttaann
incrediblle791cd/m2, this is the
brightesttlaptop displaywe’’ve ever
tested; itteven goes brighter than
most smmartphone displays.
Colouurs, too, are sumptuuous.
TThheeddiissppppllaayyhhaassbbeeeennffaaccttoorrryy-
calibrateedtothe sRGB colour
space,allthough colour accuuracy is
pprreettttyyggooooddrraatthheerrtthhaanneexxcceeppttiioonnaall,wwiitthhaann
averagedelta-Eof2.64.Still,this isno
ordinarylaptopdisplay:notonlyisit
calibratedtosRGB,it’salsocapableof
reproducing the full Adobe RGB (99%) and
DCI-P3 colour spaces (101.8%).
IN FORTHE LONG HAUL
The internal fans whirr awayconstantly when
the laptop is plugged in, unless you engage
Samsung’s special Silent mode.Other than
this, however,the performance of the Ion is as
you might expect: on apar with other
current-generation Core i5 machines and
mostly slower than rivals equipped with a
Core i7.Scoring 72 overall in our 4K
benchmarks, it’s about even with the Acer
Swift 5(Shopper386), and it sits well behind
the 2020 XPS 13, which scored 103; that’s
nothing to be ashamed of,however,asthe
latter was tested with amoreexpensive,more
powerful spec. The Galaxy Book Ion also
comes within touching distance of at least
oneCCooreii 77 -powereddullttraaportable,
the Huuawei
MateBook XPro
(Shoppper389),
whichhscored 78.
In any case,
tthhiissiisssaperfectly
paceyylaptop for
most uses, and
the sppeed-demon
SSDhhelps lend
some extra zip.
AAggaaiinnn,the
GalaxxyBook Ion
produuces a
best-iin-class
showing here,
withssequential
rreeaaddaaand write
speeds of 2,5 00 8MB/s
and 2,148MB/s respecttively.
PPeerrhhaappsstthheemmoossttiimmpprreessssiivveeaassppeeccttoofftthhee
GalaxyBookIon’sperformance,however,isits
battery life. In ourvideo run test, the Ion
lasted for13h 3m. That’s not quitethe best
on record –infact, Samsung’s own Galaxy
Book S(Shopper391) pips it with 14h 28m –
but foranIntel-based Windows ultraportable,
it’s still absolutely superb.Remember that the
Galaxy Book SusesanARM-based processor,
partly to extend battery lifespecifically; this
choice also introduces compatibility issues
with x86 Windows applications, which simply
aren’t aproblem on the Galaxy Book Ion.
UPANDATOM
There are so many things to love about the
Galaxy Book Ion that the one or two little
foibles don’t spoil things. It’s fast and
responsive.It’s very light and thin. And, unlike
so many other ultraportables, there are loads
of ports to playwith; youcan even expand the
storage by adding asecond SSD internally.
Combined with astunningdisplay, a
brilliantly stubborn battery and aprice
that’s ultimately rather reasonable,itall
goes together to produce an ultraportable
laptop of rare quality.
JonathanBray
SPECIFICATIONS
Windowsoverall
Multitasking
Battery life
0% -50 Reference + 50 + 100
See page 82 forperformancedetails
PROCESSORQuad-core1.6GHzIntel Core i5-10210U•RAM
8GB•DIMENSIONS306x200x12.9mm•WEIGHT970g•
SCREEN SIZE13.3in•SCREEN RESOLUTION1,920x1,080•
GRAPHICSADAPTORIntelUHD Graphics620•TOTAL
STORAGE512GBSSD•OPERATINGSYSTEMWindows 10
Home•WARRANTYOneyearRTB•DETAILSwww.
samsung.com•PART CODEGalaxy Book Ion
13h3m
72
50
Perhaps the most
impressiveaspectof
the GalaxyBook Ion’s
performanceisits
battery life
