The Galaxy Book range has been renewed with models such as the standard model, the Pro model, and the Pro 360 model, but they are joined by another very special member: the Galaxy Book Odyssey.
This laptop departs a bit from the rest of the family and becomes more ambitious in a very specific section: gaming, especially because they have NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3000 series graphics.
Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey specifications
| Galaxy Book Odyssey | |
|---|---|
| Screen | TFT LCD, 15.6 inches Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) |
| Processor | Intel Core 11th Gen. (i5, i7) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Max-QNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti Max-Q |
| RAM | 8, 16, 32 GB DDR4x |
| Storage | Up to 1TB NVMe SSD |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+), Bluetooth 5.1 |
| Ports | 2 x USB-C3 x USB-A (USB 3.2) 1x HDMI1 x RJ-45 (Gigabit Ethernet) Micro SD card reader Headphones |
| Battery | 83 Wh 135W adapter |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home / Pro |
| Dimensions and Weight | 356.6 x 229.1 x 17.7 mm1.85 kg |
| Others | Fingerprint reader on power button 720p webcam (does not support Windows Hello) |
| Price | From $ 1,399 |
A bulky design
The components that integrate this equipment also make the dimensions grow to ensure perfect cooling of all of them, but here Samsung has certainly wanted to go with room for maneuver because this is a laptop that does not seem to aspire to be particularly thin or light.
We have a thickness of 17.7 mm, not high but perhaps yes when talking about modest gaming performance. The weight of 1.85 kg is also somewhat high for a device that seems to resort to this ambition in the field of video games to proposing a somewhat bulky format.
There is, however, an argument that explains part of these dimensions and weight: its 83 Wh battery, which is undoubtedly good news for working and even prolonged gaming on these devices. The 135 W adapter also ensures the fast charging of this high-capacity battery.
That design is marked by the Odyssey family logo on the top case. The sides are very well populated with connection ports, although curiously the two USB-C ports are on the left side: perhaps it would have been a good idea to provide one on each side of the laptop.
This design also highlights a very welcome option: access to memory and storage expansion thanks to the slots provided for this purpose.
Despite this gaming focus, the keyboard does not have the traditional backlighting typical of this type of equipment, and Samsung seems to want to hide this personality in more sober equipment than usual when it comes to targeting the gaming sector, albeit in modest terms.
The Odyssey likes to game (a little)
Samsung has been pushing its Odyssey range for some time now with a clear focus on gamers, and now it is taking the Galaxy Book into this field with a proposal that is quite modest for the most ambitious gamers, but which may be interesting for more casual gamers.
This is noticeable in various aspects of this configuration: the 15.6″ screen does not have high refresh rates, but it could not take advantage of them either because the most relevant component of this bet, the graphics card, is decent but not spectacular.
The leap here is to the lower end of NVIDIA’s RTX 3000. We can opt for the RTX 3050 or the slightly better RTX 3050 Ti. They are certainly solvent graphics to enjoy video games in this resolution without problems (taking care of the visual detail settings), but they are not GPUs that are going to throw spectacular frame rates per second.
Even so, the bet is decent when combined with 11th generation Intel Core processors (which already offered joy in themselves with their Intel Iris Xe) and with memory configurations that reach 32 GB of RAM.
We are therefore faced with a proposal that is somewhere between a work laptop and one dedicated to gaming. In the first case, it seems clear that we will have before us a good proposal: in the second case the limitations are clear if you are demanding gamers, and the approach is to offer an option that is certainly more solvent than those of equipment that only have integrated GPUs.
Price and availability of the Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey
Samsung indicates that the Samsung Galaxy Book Odyssey will be available from August in certain markets.
The price of this device will start at $1,399.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means that I may receive a commission if you make a purchase using these links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.