With a built-in stylus and a 360-degree wraparound screen, Samsung raises the bar with its Chromebook Plus V2 (I specifically tested the 521QAB). For users who value style as much as performance, it’s a good choice that doesn’t cost much more than lower-end devices.
Design
The rounded corners and slim construction of the Chromebook Plus V2 immediately distinguish it in a field dominated by chunky, utilitarian machines. The 12.2-inch laptop (1,920 by 1,080 pixel resolution) is designed with a 360-degree wraparound touchscreen, so you can use the device either in laptop mode or as a tablet. Nestled into the right side of the Chromebook Plus is a small stylus — roughly the size of a coffee stirrer — which gives you finer control over the touchscreen. It’s a passive stylus, meaning it doesn’t have a battery or any extra features (like an erase button), but it does offer ample precision when you need it. Lastly, the laptop’s two cameras (both front and rear facing) give you plenty of options if you want to use the machine for video conferencing or to take photos.
Features
The screen and stylus are the standouts here, but the spacious keyboard — which stretches to the very edges of the chassis — is also impressive, particularly since the springy action allows for easier touch-typing. I had no complaints with the touchpad, either, which is similarly roomy. Audio, courtesy of two small speakers on the underside of the front of the laptop, isn’t a strong point, but the bright screen is nice. At 2.9 pounds and 18 millimeters thick, the Plus V2 is thinner than either of the 11.6-inch laptops in this roundup and weighs the same. That’s not bad for an extra half inch of screen real estate. Finally, note that for an extra $100, the device is available with an integrated LTE radio so you can use it anywhere your data plan reaches, Wi-Fi or no. (A data plan will cost extra.)
Specs
A 1.5 GHz Celeron 3965Y, 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of flash storage cover the essentials. Ports include a single full-size USB 3.0 and two USB-C ports on the opposite side of the machine, along with a micro SD card slot. While there’s no dedicated HDMI output, the double USB-C ports (one of which is for the charger) offer ample flexibility.
Performance
Despite its low-end Celeron processor, the Chromebook Plus V2 performed well, beating the average scores on two of the three benchmark tests I ran. That includes a 10 percent boost on the standard Speedometer 2.0 benchmark (which measures the responsiveness of web applications) and a 15 percent speed bump on the Kraken 1.1 benchmark, which measures performance on operations such as audio processing and image filtering. The V2 was just 7 percent below the average score on the similarly high-end JetStream 1.1 benchmark, though it still managed to beat out all challengers save the HP Chromebook x2.
Battery
The only major weakness of the Chromebook Plus V2 is its battery. At 5 hours and 45 minutes of run time, the system was by far the worst in this roundup, dying more than two hours quicker than the next worst.
Conclusion
The upscale features of the Samsung Chromebook Plus V2 may make it too much for younger children, but more responsible users — particularly those who need graphics and higher-end performance — may find it just right for $400. Other than its lackluster battery life, the Plus V2 lacks major negatives, as far as this class of notebook goes.
