Samsung Galaxy Book Flex Î± 2-in-1 gets QLED screen and aggressive price

By Chris Davies/Jan. 2, 2020 9:22 am EST

Samsung has a new 2-in-1 for CES 2020, with the Galaxy Book Flex α promising a QLED touchscreen and a body that can flip between notebook and tablet. Sibling to the Galaxy Book Flex revealed back in October 2019, the new "Alpha" version makes the Samsung Active Pen stylus optional, though it keeps the 13.3-inch display.

That runs at 1920 x 1080, and uses Samsung's QLED screen technology. We're still more familiar with that from the company's TVs for the moment, but specs like 600 nits of maximum brightness along with 100-percent color volume support should be just as useful on a notebook as they are in the living room.

Inside, there's Intel's 10th generation Core processors and Intel UHD graphics. No separate GPU option, sadly. Memory is either 8GB or 12GB of DDR4 RAM, and there's a choice of 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of NVMe SSD storage.

Connectivity includes WiFi 6 802.11ax 2x2, along with a USB-C port, two USB 3.0, HDMI, microSD, and a 3.5mm combo headphone/microphone jack. There's a fingerprint reader to go with the backlit keyboard, plus a 720p HD webcam, dual-array digital microphone, and twin 1.5W speakers.

Samsung says the 54 Wh battery should be good for up to 17.5 hours of use. There's Fast Charge support for speedier top-ups, too, just like in Samsung's recent Android phones.

Of course, the big appeal is the all-aluminum form-factor and skinny display bezels. The Galaxy Book Flex α is 1.19 kg (2.62 pounds) and measures in at 304.9 x 202.0 x 13.9 mm. It'll be offered in a single finish, Royal Silver.

Power users will probably still want to look to the Galaxy Book Flex announced last year, and set to go on sale early in 2020. That may be around the same size as the Galaxy Book Flex α, but it has the option of NVIDIA GeForce MX250 graphics with 2GB of its own memory, together with a pair of Thunderbolt 3 ports. It also includes the digital stylus, and has a slot into which it can be stored for safer transportation, whereas the Galaxy Book Flex α makes the pen an option.

Still, the advantage to this new 2-in-1 notebook is the price. Samsung says it will start at $829.99 when it goes on sale in the US sometime in the first half of 2020.