 The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is one of the brightest, fiercest, and reddest Chromebooks you'll be able to buy this year. Its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, was pretty expensive for a Chromebook starting at $999. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2, starting at just $549, isn't so much a sequel to the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook as it is a more affordable alternative. The coolest thing about this Chromebook is the hardware. It has a 13.3 inch 1920 x 1080 screen. It's also the first Chromebook ever to have a QLED panel. The screen was crisp and clear. I really enjoyed watching videos on it. All the colors looked really nice and I could see a lot of little details that I don't always notice on other screens. I didn't get to use this device outside or in a coffee shop or in any of the many places besides an office space that you might use this device. So we'll have a better sense of how bright it gets and how useful it is when we've had a chance to do a full review. In terms of ports, you have two USB-C ports and one microSD multimedia card reader. That's not like a huge port selection, but I'm really happy to see an SD card and the two USB-C should be useful for peripherals as well. Also, just to note, there's no fingerprint sensor or other biometric authentication. Password only. The most noticeable feature is the color. Like the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 comes in Fiesta red, as well as a much more boring mercury gray. You won't notice this Chromebook. It's very, very red. It's also quite portable, though it's noticeably thicker and heavier than the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook. At 2.71 pounds, it is a little bit heavy to hold in one hand for long periods of time. Now, it is a two-in-one, so it can fold all the way around and be a tablet if need be. The hinge is really sturdy and I didn't notice any screen wobble while I was typing on the keyboard, which is nice. On the flip side, that means that opening the device is a little bit difficult. You have to use two hands, so it's not the type of thing you can just flick open and closed. There's a touchscreen, which is pretty fast and responsive. The finish is smooth, but though the Chromebook is made of aluminum, it feels plasticky when you're holding it, especially compared to the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook. The keys on the keyboard also feel plasticky. They are backlit, though, and the backlighting looks really nice. Overall, it felt pretty good to type on. I didn't make too many errors and it wasn't really loud enough to be distracting to people around me. The speaker system contains two 1.5-watt speakers, and Samsung told us it gets 178% louder than a normal amplifier. I thought it sounded pretty good. Even with volume at 50-40%, I had no trouble hearing the videos I was watching, even while people were talking around me. That's pretty impressive, especially for downward-firing speakers. We'll have a much better idea of how all the audio sounds once we've been able to do a full review of this device. It starts with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. You can bump that up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. That model costs $699. You can select a 10th-gen Intel Core i3 or an Intel Celeron processor. There's a lot to like, but at this price point, you are making some sacrifices as well. And there are a couple handy features that the $999 Galaxy Chromebook had that this Chromebook had to skip. One is the built-in stylus. The Galaxy Chromebook 2 doesn't have a stylus built into its chassis, though you can purchase one separately and it is compatible. There's also no front-facing camera, so you can't flip it around and take quick pictures like you could with the Galaxy Chromebook. It has a lower-power processor as well, though a Core i3 should be just fine for running Chrome OS. Lastly, the screen is a bit of a downgrade. So the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook had a 4K AMOLED screen that was absolutely gorgeous. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 has a QLED 1920x1080 screen. That said, the screen still looks pretty good. I didn't notice any color imperfections or anything that would make me not want to use it. The big question mark when it comes to the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is battery life. So Samsung estimates that this Chromebook will get 14 hours of battery life. For context, with the Galaxy Chromebook, I got about four. It was bad enough to keep me from recommending it to people, despite all the other great things about it. Battery life is an important selling feature for many of the best Chromebooks on the market. So this one will need to be a significant step up from its predecessor to compete at this price point. There's reason for hope, though. The Galaxy Chromebook 2 has a lower-powered processor than the Galaxy Chromebook and a lower-resolution screen. So I'm optimistic that we'll see more battery life, though how much more is still a big question mark. The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 comes out sometime in the first quarter of this year, and it starts at $549. It's not exactly cheap for a Chromebook, but it's a world away from the first Galaxy Chromebook, which started at $999. For the past few years, companies like Samsung and Google have really been trying to make a premium Chromebook. That is, a Chromebook that appeals to users who really like Chrome OS and like the simplicity of it and like the automatic updates, but also want a really nice device. And that's something that hasn't been available for a really long time in the history of Chrome OS. I think that if the Galaxy Chromebook 2 holds up to the 14-hour battery life estimate that Samsung gave us, it could be a great value for its $549 price point. But that's a big if. It's going to be a weird CES this year, but technically CES 2021 is right around the corner. It's happening next week. So keep an eye on theBirds.com for all the newest laptops that are coming out and all kinds of other cool tech.