Why you should consider the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 at just $349

I’ll freely admit and stand by my assertion that the Galaxy Chromebook 2 was an odd release by Samsung in 2021 and another Chromebook that they fumbled upon delivery. The reasons are plenty, but for the purposes of this post, I’ll stick with two big ones: features and price. With Chromebooks – perhaps more so than any other electronic device people buy – price informs opinion. Percieved value is a big deal in the Chromebook space and manufacturers have to get that right. Along with solid features, a higher-priced Chromebook really must work hard to sell consumers on why they should pay up to get one.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 messed both of these things up in its own way. As for the features, this awesome-looking red Chromebook would have been a breath of fresh air if presented on its own, but it clearly wasn’t. Instead, it came on the heels of 2020’s launch of the original Galaxy Chromebook that was also a striking red color.

With similar names and colors, the comparisons were inevitable. And being the successor (as denoted by the number 2 in the name), most of us expected at least an iteration. What we got was a roll-back. With the same processor generation as the original device, a fantastic (but less-amazing) QLED screen versus the orignal’s 4K OLED, a downgrade to more plastic in the chassis, and the removal of the stylus and fingerprint scanner, what we got was Chromebook that was really pretty great in its own right, but set up to fail as the successor to one of the nicest Chromebooks ever made the year prior.

And then there was the unfortunate matter of the price. At launch, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 commanded a steep $699 price tag that – while it undercut the original – didn’t jibe with what this Chromebook brought to the table. As confusing as the feature set was, the price further muddied those waters and made it nearly impossible to recommend; even though I liked a lot about it. Simply put, it was a frustrating Chromebook release that should have been handled differently in so many ways.

Price informs opinion

Fast forward to today, and what we’re looking at is a massive discount on new (not refurbished) models of the Galaxy Chromebook 2 at Best Buy for just $349. That’s a whopping $350 discount on a device that still has a huge upside here in 2024. Yes, I was hard on it as the successor to a superior device that was simply overpriced, but those days are well behind us.

Looking at it as-is for $349, the narrative changes greatly. The 10th-gen Intel Core i3 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage stacks up quite nicely with what we’re seeing in Chromebook Plus models today, though the processor won’t be quite as fast as these newer models. However, the screen on the Galaxy Chromebook 2 outclasses all the Chromebook Plus models, and nothing out there look as good as this one does, either.

If you watch my review up there, you’ll see that I really wanted to love the Galaxy Chromebook 2 when it launched, but at the time it didn’t make a lot of sense. A few years removed and 50% off, however, this device is pretty compelling. Getting a good-looking convertible Chromebook with a QLED screen for this price is a great deal, and with Google’s AUE extension, it’ll keep getting updates until June of 2030. There’s no doubting it this time around: the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is finally worth considering.