Last week, after waiting a long time for Samsung to make a new move in the Chromebook market space, the company, alongside Google, unveiled the Galaxy Chromebook Plus. The latter featured an Intel Core 3 100U (Raptor Lake-R) CPU under the hood, but an upgraded version with a better chip has now surfaced through the Samsung e-shop in the UK.
The super lightweight and ultra-thin Galaxy Chromebook Plus is now popping up in Samsung's online stores in several markets. In the UK, the laptop is not yet available for purchase, but the landing pages are all up and running in preparation of the imminent release.
More importantly, Samsung's UK store page confirms a second, more powerful version, and reveals how much more it costs. This new variant sports the Intel Core 5 120U CPU.
A higher frequency and more cache
In terms of raw specs, the Intel Core 3 100U chip has a base frequency of 1.2GHz and can boost at up to 4.7GHz. It also features 10MB of Smart Cache.
In contrast, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus with an Intel Core 5 120U chip benefits from a higher base frequency of 1.4GHz and a boost frequency of up to 5.0GHz. Furthermore, this chip has 12MB of Smart Cache.
However, aside from the upgraded Intel chip, specifications look the same on both Galaxy Chromebook Plus variants across the board. They both have an Intel Graphics chip, 8GBB of LPDDR5X RAM, and 256GB of eUFS storage.
Although the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is not yet available in the UK at the time of writing, fortunately, pricing details are up. We know what this Intel Core 5 version of the Galaxy Chromebook Plus costs, i.e., £749.
Samsung lists the Intel Core 3 variant of the Galaxy Chromebook Plus next to a price of £649, which means the upgraded Intel Core 5 CPU will set you back an extra £100. Is it worth it? Maybe not, but it's a nice option to have. Join us below for more performance details.
As per ChromeUnboxed and Geekbench benchmark scores, the Intel Core 5 120U CPU performs roughly the same as the Core 3 version in single-core tests and tops around 2,000 points. On the other hand, the Core 5 version shows more significant improvement in the multi-core tests, topping around 7,600 points instead of ~5,800.
As always, synthetic benchmark scores don't tell the whole story. And you have to remember that this is a Chromebook rather than a high-performance machine. It's also unclear how or if the more powerful Intel Core 5 CPU affects battery life. Samsung says its Chromebook Plus, whether with Core 3 or Core 5, can top up to 13 hours of usage on a full battery charge.
Worth it or not, this beefier Chromebook version, powered by the Core 5 chip, isn't listed everywhere. For now, it only appears to have shown up on the Samsung e-shop in the UK and is missing in markets like the USA. Nevertheless, it could very well reach more regions at any moment.
Image Credit: Samsung
