Samsung Galaxy Book 10.6 – Performance

The Galaxy Book 10.6 is for light work only. Despite the great stylus, you won’t be doing your big 3D work projects on this device, although you may be able to crack on with drawing workloads. With just 4GB of RAM, you’ll need to be careful about how many projects you have open at once.

The processor is from Intel’s Core m3 line, which means it’s an exceptionally low-power, dual-core chip that runs at a very low base clock speed of just 1GHz. However, it’s capable of boosting up to 2.6GHz for short periods, which means in moderate use such as opening web pages and programs, you won’t notice much of a difference.

Related: Intel Core M explained

The real performance limiter appears to be the slow flash storage that Samsung has chosen to use. When the low-capacity RAM shunts programs and web pages over to the storage drive, it takes an age to retrieve it, compounding the lack of memory. It’s not a show-stopper, but if you’re a heavy user and plan on using this as your primary machine, you might consider stepping up to the 12-inch model with its more powerful processor, 8GB of RAM and more generous storage. As a secondary, on-the-road machine or for lighter users, it will be fine.

The Galaxy Book 10.6 runs silently, so you don’t have to worry about irritating fellow library-goers, if that’s where you spend your time.

Samsung Galaxy Book 10.6 – Battery life

I found battery life on the Galaxy Book was a very mixed bag. With intensive use with loads of tabs open, it could drain in less than five hours, which was disappointing. Trusted’s easy PowerMark benchmark saw a slightly better result of eight hours, but it’s still far from an all-day worker. Not everybody will be bothered by this, but it’s far from a selling point and short of Samsung’s nine-hour claim.

Related: Best laptops

Should I buy the Samsung Galaxy Book 10.6?

For £650, the Galaxy Book is a great device for people who want a note-taking tablet that can also be used like a laptop. It’s good-value, too, coming equipped with a good screen, folio keyboard and an excellent stylus, it’s the complete package in terms of practicality.

There are downsides, though, and whether you’ll be able to put up with them depends on your use case. Performance won’t suit heavy multi-taskers, and battery life for anything but light use is mediocre at best. It’s also no good as a Netflix binge machine due to its poor speakers.

Your alternatives include the incredible 10.5-inch iPad Pro (which comes in at a much higher price with a keyboard and Pencil) and the Lenovo Miix 510, which is bigger and heavier, but also manages better battery life and a more powerful processor.

If you accept its limitations, the Galaxy Book is good value, and brings the joys of a reasonably powerful 2-in-1 to an attractive price point.

Verdict

A solid 2-in-1 for avid notetakers.

Trusted Score