Samsung Galaxy Book review

Samsung has been making good tablets for years, but it’s a market that Apple continues to dominate. Some of the best android tablets on the market have struggled to convince the tech buying public that they are worth the money.

Therefore it’s no surprise that Samsung has used MWC 2017 to update its flagship Android tablet, the Galaxy Tab S3, but also rebrand and update its high-end Windows 2-in-1 tablet computer. Enter the Galaxy Book.

Samsung has made a 10.6in and a 12in tablet to make up the Galaxy Book range. We went hands on with the larger of the two at MWC. Here’s our Samsung Galaxy Book review.

See also: Samsung announces the Galaxy Book, its answer to the iPad Pro and Surface Pro

Samsung Galaxy Book review: UK price and availability

At the time of writing the release date for the Galaxy Book is unconfirmed, though the Android Galaxy Tab S3 will be available from 31 March right here.

We expect the Galaxy Book to ship around April though, and will likely cost, for the 12in, in the region of the £849 launch RRP of the Galaxy TabPro S that it replaces.

Samsung Galaxy Book review: Design and build

It was never really in doubt that Samsung would make a good looking bit of kit. The Galaxy Book is every bit as premium as you’d expect from the company that designed the Galaxy S7 edge, and visually slides easily into its line-up.

This might have proven a tad easier for Samsung seeing as this wasn’t designed out of thin air. It’s a clear and pleasing improvement on the TabPro S, a device let down by the keyboard case. It was too flimsy meaning the tablet would often flop over while typing.

Then, typing itself was a drag as the design placed the keys too close together, making for a frustrating experience. Thankfully the Galaxy Book’s (included) keyboard is miles better. The slightly concave keys are spaced much more like you’d expect on a laptop and helps the 2-in-1 feel like one. They are also backlit, which was sorely missed on the TabPro S.

The kickstand can be adjusted into two positions and is very sturdy. We rattled out some sentences on a unit and it all worked together excellently. The keyboard has a Pogo connector akin to the iPad Pro’s. This means it needs no charge, and auto pairs with the tablet as soon as the two are docked.

Tablets like this are normally let down by their keyboards (iPad Pro) but others are triumphs because of it (Surface Pro 4). Luckily the Galaxy Book falls into the latter category.

A clue to its laptop pretensions is the rear camera and logo placement – both central when held landscape. The silver metallic back is only broken by said camera, while the front side bezel is a business-like black. You can choose between a white or black keyboard though.

When held landscape, the bottom edge has the pogo connectors and is ridged to allow it to sit in the keyboard dock. The left side has a speaker and SIM slot (on the LTE model), the right another speaker and the very welcome two USB-C ports. The top edge has the simple power and volume keys.

Also in the box is Samsung’s S Pen, the ongoing device you can also use with its Note range of phones. It’s either silver or black depending on the colour of keyboard, and completes a very attractive 2-in-1 package that folds away. Yes, it’s still more annoying than just using a laptop. But if you like this form factor, the Galaxy Book is up there with the best.

Samsung Galaxy Book review: Features and specifications

The 12in model measures 291.3×199.8×7.4mm and weighs 754g. That’s an impressive weight for a machine that has a fanless but powerful 7th gen Intel Core i5 Dual Core 3.1GHz CPU inside.

Obviously it’s a bit heavier with the keyboard cover attached, but it’s still a pleasing weight. It has a superior Super AMOLED FHD display with an incredible 2160×1440 resolution that looks as good as it sounds (the 10.6in model only has a TFT display with 1920×1280).

You’ll also get your pick of Wi-Fi only or full LTE models.

The specs we were given show that there are two versions of the 12in Galaxy Book: one with 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD, and then one with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD. As well as no pricing information, it’s unclear whether these options will be regionalised or whether you’ll get to pick between the two. Hopefully the latter, though expect the price to be eye wateringly high for the 8GB RAM version, a la the Surface Pro’s tiered pricing.

In fact, here’s our head to head comparison of the Surface Pro 4 and the Galaxy Book.

If you plumped for the smaller SSD though you can still expand up to 256GB with the microSD card slot. The whole unit charged via USB-C and the bundled fast charger.

The rear facing camera is 13Mp and can record video in Full HD at 30fps, while the 5Mp[ front facing lens will be more than adequate for long Skype sessions.

It’s all the specs that you’d expect, Kaby Lake and all. It just does depend a lot on how much it turns out to cost, because we’re probably looking at a high-end tablet that a lot of people won’t be able to justify paying for.

Samsung Galaxy Book review: Software

Windows 10 runs as you’d expect on the Galaxy Book, and is best when used with the keyboard docked. The trackpad on keyboard cases is a necessity, but space restriction means they are always a tad small and on the 12in Galaxy Book it takes a few swipes to go from the left to the right of the screen. But that’s what you get with hybrids.

Everything works like it does on a desktop or laptop, except for when you unclip the keyboard and go into tablet mode. Windows is tricky to use with just touch controls, so you also have the option to enter tablet mode, which is designed to be easier to use and navigate like you might on an Android tablet.

However, even though it’s a good idea, it’s still a bit clumsily executed, and we can imagine most users using the keyboard to find that all important Netflix video rather than prodding about a full operating system with your finger.

The 12in i5 will be more than up to the task of powering all but the most intense of multitaskers. It will certainly fare better than the Core m3 chip in the 10.6in model.

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Second Oculus Software Update (1.12) Is Out, Improves Tracking, Introduces New Features

Oculus rolled out version 1.12 of the Oculus software. The new build addresses tracking issues that version 1.11 introduced, improves the user experience, and adds an audio mirroring option.

Oculus launched the Touch controllers in early December to mixed customer reactions. In my review of Oculus’s motion controllers, I noted that the tracking may have actually been a little too robust for my taste. In my experience, the sensors picked up every nuanced movement of my hands, and I noticed the controllers lose tracking only when they were out of view of both cameras.

My experience with Touch is positive, but my experience is not universal, though. Shortly after the launch of the Touch controllers, reports of poor tracking started popping up in the Oculus support forums and the Oculus subrReddit.

Oculus said it would address the tracking problem in January, but the company pushed the release into February for quality control purposes. The company delayed the driver release, but it didn’t push back the plans for the February driver. Oculus committed to two drivers in the shortest month of the year.

The January update addresses the tracking issues, but it caused other problems. Some Touch owners that didn’t have any trouble before started reporting issues to Oculus. Oculus Version 1.12 should address those new problems.

The latest version of Oculus Software also adds improved support for Unreal Engine and Unity, and it introduces a couple of new features. You can now flag spam reviews that you find in the Oculus Store to help Oculus keep the store clean.

I’m especially fond of the other two additions to the Oculus platform: When you install some games through the Oculus Store, you must click the game’s icon to finalize the installation–which you can’t do from inside the headset. Mercifully, Oculus version 1.12 allows you to complete the install from within the VR environment. Just be sure to launch Oculus Home with administrator privileges.

The final addition to the Oculus platform is a feature that Valve offered on day one. You can now mirror the audio signal that goes to the headset so that spectators can hear what’s going on. This feature is invaluable when you want to share your Rift experiences with a group of people.

The Oculus 1.12 client update is now live. If your install isn’t already up to date, you should receive it soon. For the complete list of changes, see the release notes on the Oculus forums.

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Microsoft Office 365

Our Verdict

Office 365 is a simple and cost-effective way to get a powerful range of cloud Office services plus access to regular new features in desktop Office 2016. Microsoft is doing well in terms of making useful improvements on a regular basis, although some fresh tools are basic and some changes are a step backwards. Smaller companies will appreciate the reliability and the simple interface, but there are powerful options for larger firms too.

[Editor’s Note: What immediately follows is a rundown of the latest developments and features Microsoft has added to Office 365 since this review was last updated.]

February 2017

  • Microsoft has updated Visio Pro for Office 365 with a database reverse engineering tool that allows you to easily create a visual representation directly from source data.
  • Office 365 benefited from the introduction of a security analytics tool which rates your current security configuration, and makes suggestions on possible improvements.
  • The Office team announced that the OneNote REST API now supports application-level permissions.
  • Excel got new features based on Power Query technology, including support for the percentage data type, along with a new OLE DB connector.
  • Microsoft released Office Training Roadmaps which help businesses keep track of training programmes for the various productivity apps.

January 2017

  • Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection got several new features for tighter email security, namely URL Detonation and Dynamic Delivery.
  • Microsoft graced Office 365 with a new Setup section on the navigation menu, which provides convenient and easy access to all setup-related settings in one location.
  • Office 365 was crowned king of all productivity apps by Okta, outdoing second-place Salesforce.com by a factor of 1.3 to 1 as 2016 came to a close.
  • Microsoft brought in a raft of new courses from LinkedIn Learning to the Office Training Centre, with over 20 offerings on working with Word and PowerPoint.
  • StaffHub, a nifty new app which allows for the management of shifts for deskless workers, became available for Office 365 users with a K1, E1, E3 or E5 plan.

December 2016

  • A new OneDrive for Business admin centre began rolling out to release customers, with general availability promised for early 2017.
  • Microsoft laid out its grand vision of how the firm intends to integrate Teams (its Slack rival) with Microsoft Planner so working across the two is a seamless affair.
  • Microsoft made the Accessibility Checker more easily found across all Office 365 apps, and introduced automated alternate text descriptions in Word and PowerPoint.
  • An official guide on the ‘preferred deployment practices’ for Office 365 ProPlus was released, including advice on preparing the ground, and maintenance afterwards.
  • New statistics emerged from data protection firm Bitglass showing that Office 365 is twice as popular as Google’s G Suite.

November 2016

  • Office 365 users got the benefit of real-time co-authoring in PowerPoint, as well as in the Word app.
  • Office Lens received a couple of new features, including the full integration of Immersive Reader, and a new tool called Frame Guide to help the visually impaired.
  • Outlook Customer Manager arrived in Office 365, enabling businesses to track and manage – and hopefully grow – their customer relationships.
  • Microsoft reintroduced Access, its heavyweight database software, to Office 365 Business and Business Premium customers.
  • Microsoft officially took the wraps off Teams, the firm’s Slack rival that leverages the whole gamut of Office 365’s apps and services.

October 2016

  • Excel 2016 got new features based on Power Query tech, including an improved web connector and enhanced Query Editor, as well as Query Parameters support.
  • Microsoft introduced the ability to create (and collaborate on) Office documents from within a Yammer group.
  • In an earnings report, Microsoft announced Office 365 user numbers: 85 million active commercial users, and 24 million consumers.
  • A batch of new apps were revealed for Office, including an app for invoicing, and tracking expenses, along with one for keeping tabs on your business’ web presence.

September 2016

If you want to see older news and developments pertaining to Office 365, then check out the Archives page at the end of this review.

Otherwise, now move on to Page 2 for our full review and detailed look at what Office 365 offers, and how it can help you become more productive.

Darren Allan contributed to this article

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Contributor

Mary (Twitter, Google+, website) started her career at Future Publishing, saw the AOL meltdown first hand the first time around when she ran the AOL UK computing channel, and she’s been a freelance tech writer for over a decade. She’s used every version of Windows and Office released, and every smartphone too, but she’s still looking for the perfect tablet. Yes, she really does have USB earrings.

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[Daily Deal] Save 45% on the Mpow Universal Bike Mount Holder

The Mpow Universal Bike Mount Holder can be fitted on any bike, motorcycle or scooter with a handlebar of 1.1″. No tools are required with just a screw on the flipper and it’s designed with a one-button released function. It’s suitable for any smartphone of up to 5.7″. For extra security the clamp automatically adjusts to grip the device that holds in place firmly thanks to a strong adjustable non-slip clamp with silicone band straps. Get the Mpow Universal Bike Mount Holder for just £8.29.

You may also be interested in the following offers

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Save more than 50% on the Epson WF-2750DWF All-in-One Printer and get an extra £15 off

Amazon has a great offer on the Epson WF-2750DWF All-in-One Printer. Save 40% and get if for £59.99 with free delivery in the UK. You can also claim £15 cash-back within 30 days of purchase. The WF-2750DWF is an All-in-One printer with double-sided printing, scan, copy and fax. It features USB, Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi Direct and Ethernet. Using the LCD screen you can send scans to online cloud storage accounts or share them in an email. Also with individual ink cartridges you only need to replace the colour used.

£49.99 for the Blu Studio G HD 4G-LTE

This affordable 4G dual SIM smartphone has a 5-inch screen with HD resolution (720 x 1280 pixels), a quad core MediaTek processor and 1GB of RAM. It also packs a 5MP camera with autofocus at the back, and a 2MP camera at the front. Get the Blu Studio G HD 4G-LTE today for just £49.99 with free delivery in the UK.

Save 43% on the Sennheiser PC 320

This gaming headset has been developed to provide you with great audio and wearing comfort thanks to the Sennheiser-patented CircleFlex system. It ensures that the ear pads can swivel around their base and instantly adjust to your ears and head. Also the headset features an over-the-ear, open-acoustic design that ensures that air flows through to prevent sweat. Volume control are integrated on the ear cup for quick access and the microphone features noise cancelling as well as a smart mute function, which you activate simply by raising the boom arm. Get the Sennheiser PC 320 for £40 with free delivery in the UK.

Get the Veho M7 Bluetooth speaker for £69.99

With its retro design, the Veho M7 is a Bluetooth speaker to stream music from your smartphone or your computer. The dual acoustic drivers are coupled with two 10W speakers and the rechargeable battery delivers 10 hours of music. The Veho M7 is IPX4 rated meaning that it’s protected against dust and water. It also features a USB port to serve as a powerbank to charge your smartphone. Get the Veho M7 Wireless Speaker for £69.99 on eBay.

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Intel H270 Motherboard Price List

Intel’s H270 chipset offers increased connectivity and support for faster memory and storage devices. Here is a list of all H270 motherboard’s currently available.

Intel’s H270 Chipset

Intel’s new H270 chipset was released alongside the company’s new Kaby Lake processors and it offers several improvements over its predecessor. Compared to H170, H2700 supports faster RAM clocked at 2400MHz and is compatible with Intel Optane storage devices. H270 also has eight additional HSIO lanes and four extra PCI-E 3.0 lanes than H170. This helps to boost the total number of storage devices and other peripherals that can be used simultaneously.  Intel released its 200-series chipsets, offering mild improvements compared to their 100-series counterparts.

MORE: Best Motherboards

MORE: How To Choose A Motherboard

MORE: All Motherboard Content

Intel Consumer Chipsets

Chipset X99 Z270 Z170 H270 H170 B250 B150
CPU PCI-E 3.0 Config Support 1 x 16 or 2 x 16 or 2 x 16 + 1 x 8 or 5 x 8 1 x 16 or 2 x 8 or 1 x 8 + 2 x 4 1 x 16 or 2 x 8 or 1 x 8 + 2 x 4 1 x 16 1 x 16 1 x 16 1 x 16
Chipset PCI-E Support 8 PCI-E 2.0 24 PCI-E 3.0 20 PCI-E 3.0 20 PCI-E 3.0 16 PCI-E 3.0 12 PCI-E 3.0 8 PCI-E 3.0
Maximum HSIO Lanes 18 30 26 30 22 25 18
Memory Channels/ DIMMs per Channel 4/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2 2/2
DMI 2.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0 3.0
CPU Overclocking Support ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗
RAID Support 0/1/5/10 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✗ ✗
SATA 3.0 Ports 10 6 6 6 6 6 6
Intel Optane Support ✗ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✗ ✓ ✗
USB 2.0 Support (USB 3.0) 14 (6) 14 (10) 14 (10) 14 (8) 14 (8) 12 (6) 12 (6)
Independent Display Support N/A 3 3 3 3 3 3

MORE: Intel Z270 Motherboard Price List

MORE: Intel Z170 Motherboard Price List

MORE: Intel H170 Motherboard Price List

MORE: Intel H110 Motherboard Price List

MORE: Intel B150 Motherboard Price List

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Three steps to make managing passwords easier

Passwords are a necessary inconvenience. Yes, they’re a pain to create and manage, but vital for keeping your accounts and devices secure. It might seem we’re approaching the death of the password with the rise of biometric authentication and other such tech; but no single security method is foolproof. For the foreseeable future, expect to rely on a combination of techniques, including passwords.

And, really, passwords don’t have to be a pain. In fact, managing your passwords can be downright easy, or at least easier than you think.

Create strong passwords

There are a number of suggestions for how to create passwords, but the basic idea is that it be hard to guess. To be clear, we’re not trying to keep your neighbor from guessing it, but a computer running through dictionaries of common passwords.

That means no common words or phrases, and passwords that use a mixture of letters, numbers, and symbols are most desirable. Some services don’t allow the use of symbols, so be on the lookout for those restrictions. As for length, the standard suggestion is eight characters minimum, but 10 or more is even better.

The easiest way to create strong, randomized passwords is to use a password manager such as 1Password, LastPass, or Dashlane. All three of these services can create new passwords for you of varying length and complexity. Plus, a computer program is much better at remembering all of your complex passwords than you could ever be.

Whatever you do, don’t use any of the passwords listed here.

You’re probably wondering what’s so easy about creating a variety of random passwords that are hard to remember, but this is the first step. When you have hard-to-guess passwords (combined with the next step), things get a lot simpler since you can be reasonably confident your passwords are secure.

Stop changing your passwords so frequently

Common wisdom these days is that changing your passwords regularly can do more harm than good. That’s largely because people tend to pick poor replacement passwords that are easy to guess.

VROIS VPN

VROIS is a young VPN which, at first glance, seems to offer a simple, appealing service. There are 25 locations, no bandwidth or transfer limits, plus you get port forwarding support and five simultaneous connections, all for a reasonable $5.99 per single month (£4.80, AU$7.80), $4.99 per month (£4, AU$6.50) over a full year. Sounds great, until you start to browse the website, and problems begin to appear.

The base Connect plan says it offers 25 servers, for instance, and a $9.99 per month (around £8, AU$13) Pro plan claims 50 servers – but it doesn’t say where these are. 

The Network page mentions 35+ servers in 24 countries, and provides a list of ‘our server locations’. But this is only 22 items long, includes one location twice (London) and covers just 15 countries.

This page also displays a ‘load’ value for each server, reassuringly low at 5% to 47%. Except these figures seem to be hard-coded into the page. They didn’t change during testing, ever, and checking the page in Google’s cache showed exactly the same figures.

We gave up on the servers and started to look elsewhere, but the confusion continued. We tried clicking the ‘Download on the App Store’ and ‘Get it on Google Play’ buttons to check out the mobile apps, but neither of them took us to those respective app stores. A Google search helped us locate the Android client, but the service doesn’t actually have its own iOS app (you must use OpenVPN).

None of this was inspiring much confidence in VROIS, and as customers we’d be running away at this point. But this is a review – so onward we pressed…

Privacy

VROIS is very clear about its logging policy: ‘No logs ever’. The service doesn’t log your online activity, so has nothing to hand over to the authorities even if it’s asked.

Just about every VPN service makes the same claim, so we also look for information on session logging. Some companies record your connect and disconnect times, bandwidth used, incoming and outgoing IP addresses and more. Often they’ll spell out some details on this in the small print, but VROIS doesn’t mention the issue at all.

What the privacy policy does include is a lengthy list of personal information VROIS might collect: “Your name, address, telephone number, fax number, email address, dates of service provided, types of service provided, payment history, manner of payment, amount of payments, date of payments, and credit card or other payment information.”

This sounded unusual, so we checked for the same list on Google and found this and some other clauses in the VROIS privacy policy were identical to a policy page from PSEUDiO – the company behind TotalVPN.

Was the company borrowing its small print from other web pages? We quickly found another example. The VROIS terms of service page has an unusual typo in a reference to an ‘acceptable user policy’, and Googling for the surrounding text found just one identical match: the terms of service for Incognito VPN.

Looking more closely, we found the PSEUDiO and Incognito pages contained working links to an email opt-out page, a contact email address, an ‘acceptable use policy’, but the VROIS versions were all broken (web links pointed at vrois.com, the contact email address was legal@.com). It looks like VROIS has built at least some of its policy pages by copying and pasting text from elsewhere, but never finished the job.

Whatever the explanation for all this, it wasn’t inspiring any confidence. So far, VROIS was giving us far more reasons to run away than sign up.

Performance

Creating a VROIS account looked like it should be a simple matter. Choose a plan, a payment provider, enter our name and email address – it’s a completely standard procedure we’ve done thousands of times before.

But as ever with VROIS, there were unexpected issues. We chose PayPal, approved the purchase, but the VROIS site displayed a ‘payment cancelled’ message. An email arrived from PayPal moments later detailing the purchase, so this simply wasn’t true, but our VROIS account didn’t recognise the payment.

Time to test the support system. VROIS supports live chat, but it would take any agent time to check our payment details, so we created a new support ticket with our PayPal references. At least, VROIS claims to have a ‘ticket’ system, but we weren’t given a number, or emailed a copy, and there was no way to view our ticket’s status later. Whatever the truth, the company seemed not to care that they’d taken our money without providing anything, and 12 hours later nothing had happened.

VROIS provides a limited free service anyway, so we decided to try this out. The service offers one Android app of its own, and very basic setup instructions for Windows, iOS, OS X and DD-WRT routers.

We clicked the Windows button and followed the directions to download and set up the standard OpenVPN client. It was good to finally have a list of 30 servers, even if they were named in just about the most jumbled and confusing way possible: there were cities, countries, places (Silicon Valley, Lake Elsinore), and Texas appeared four times (Texas, Texas 3, Dallas, Houston). Throw in an assortment of typos (Sweeden, Morroco) and the company somehow lowered the professionalism bar even further.

Surprisingly, once we got connected, performance was better than average in our tests*. We connected from the UK to various European servers and our download speeds were almost always above 30Mbps. Chicago wasn’t as impressive at 18Mbps, but even Singapore gave us 10-15Mbps.

And yet, even here there were complications, as we found some servers didn’t appear to be in their ‘official’ location. The Vietnam server was reportedly in Singapore, for instance. We could live with that – geolocation isn’t always exact – but when the Russian server gave us a French IP, and logging on to Ohio and Morocco both gave us a Dutch address, we realised something was wrong. Again…

Final verdict

VROIS just might have a reasonable core network, but the service around it is so poor, so inept, and so unprofessional that we’re struggling to care. Try the free Android app, maybe, but please don’t give VROIS your money.

*Our testing included evaluating general performance (browsing, streaming video). We also used speedtest.net to measure latency, upload and download speeds, and then tested immediately again with the VPN turned off, to check for any difference (over several rounds of testing). We then compared these results to other VPN services we’ve reviewed. Of course, do note that VPN performance is difficult to measure as there are so many variables.

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