Some of you may not be aware, but Samsung offers a whole series of Windows laptops with the Galaxy Book moniker. The latest version of this hardware, featuring the Galaxy Book6, Book6 Pro, and Book6 Ultra, was released just last month. However, it now appears that at least a few things aren"t going according to the South Korean company"s plans, and it is pivoting away from Windows 11.
A report from SamMobile claims that Samsung is working on Galaxy Book laptops that run on Android 17-based OneUI 9 rather than Windows 11. This is a particularly major change, because the Galaxy Book series has been reserved for Windows hardware up until now, just like its Galaxy Chromebook brand is powered by ChromeOS.
The reasons behind this move are not officially known, but the report insinuates that it could improve UX consistency across Samsung"s broad range of hardware offerings, most of which is based on Android.
Samsung is apparently working on three Android 17-based notebooks, just like the current series of Galaxy Book6 laptops. The flagship variant"s design is said to be very sleek, but Samsung may make further changes to challenge the MacBook Neo before details are locked down. Of course, a laptop running Android will also bring along all the other goodies, such as Galaxy AI capabilities and a refined version of Samsung DeX.
It"s unknown when Samsung will announce these laptops, but speculation points towards the end of the year, considering Google is set to unveil Android 17 and its I/O conference next month.
Although the report doesn"t explicitly say that Samsung won"t be releasing Windows 11-based Galaxy Books, this seems likely because it would just confuse the branding further. That said, the possibility that Samsung is ditching Windows 11 in favor of Android 17 on a laptop form factor may come as a blow to Microsoft and its reputation in this area.
It indicates that Samsung"s multi-year experiment in the Windows laptop space has not been very successful, and that it"s more likely that customers will gravitate more towards the Android branding rather than Windows 11. Microsoft is hard at work trying to fix Windows 11 through its ongoing K2 initiative, but it seems like time may run out for the company when it comes to Samsung"s Galaxy Books.