Samsung's Galaxy laptop series has added a 14-inch Chromebook to its lineup, the Galaxy Chromebook Go; a more expensive model with LTE support will be available in the near future, but Samsung has yet to reveal pricing or release date. [because Samsung has been on a tear in the laptop business this year, impressing us with quality 2021 releases like the $550 Galaxy Chromebook 2 and the $1,299 Galaxy Book Pro 360 2-in-1.

But at $299, the new Galaxy Chromebook Go is a much cheaper piece of kit (in every sense of the word) and may have a hard time competing with the best Chromebooks on the market. But if you're looking for an affordable new Chromebook with less than impressive specs, it may be more than enough to meet your needs.

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go is built with fairly modest components, which makes sense given its sub-$500 price. It weighs 3.2 pounds and has a 14-inch display with a native resolution of 1,366 x 768 pixels.

The Chromebook Go has an Intel Celeron N4500 CPU, 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM, 32GB of eMMC storage, and runs Chrome OS. It doesn't have a lot of power or storage capacity, but since it is a Chromebook, web apps and online storage are its primary uses.

Ports include two USB-C ports, a headphone/microphone jack, and a microSD card reader. This Wi-Fi model of the Chromebook Go supports Bluetooth v 5.1 and Wi-Fi 6. The built-in 720p webcam won't help you look your best on video calls, but at $299, it's hard to expect a high-definition camera.

Samsung claims the Chromebook Go's battery will last up to 12 hours on a single charge, but that would be a bit optimistic. Hands-on battery tests with other Galaxy laptops have reliably shown that the battery will last several hours less than the advertised maximum duration.

With an MSRP of $299, the Galaxy Chromebook Go is one of the cheapest laptops Samsung sells, and that is reflected in the contents. As you can see from the specs laid out above, this Chromebook probably won't blow you away with its speed or wow you with its display quality.

That last bit is especially hard to swallow because Samsung has done such a great job of impressing us with the quality of the Chromebook's display. The original Samsung Galaxy Chromebook had a phenomenal 4K screen (and proportionally shorter battery life), but the Galaxy Chromebook 2's 1080p QLED display is still gorgeous, and dropping the 4K screen has made the notebook PC's battery life to a reasonable level.

Still, both of these Chromebooks cost over $500, so if you want a cheap, durable Chromebook that you don't mind too much if it gets scratched or broken, it's less ideal than the new Galaxy Chromebook Go.

If you are looking for something affordable, there are potentially better alternatives that are just as good (or cheaper) than the $299 Chromebook Go. Samsung itself sells the $229 Chromebook 4, a similarly spec'd Chromebook with a slightly weaker CPU and smaller 11.6-inch screen.

And if you prefer a Chrome tablet with a detachable keyboard, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet is $50 cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook, although the CPU is weaker and the 10.1-inch display is much smaller, higher resolution (1920 x 1200 pixels) than the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Go.

Of course, we'll have to wait until we get a chance to do hands-on testing of the Galaxy Chromebook Go to provide a full review, but based on specs alone, it's clear that the Go is a solid, affordable Chromebook. However, there are many competing Chromebooks under $300, and it does not appear that the Chromebook Go offers anything special that would make it stand out from the crowd.

That will change once the LTE model is released. That's because the option to get online wherever service is available would greatly improve the utility of the Galaxy Chromebook Go. Of course, the asking price could also go up significantly.