Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 15.6” Review: The Best Samsung PC Yet | eWEEK (2023)

Earlier this month at Galaxy Unpacked 2021, Samsung launched its new Windows PCs, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro and Galaxy Book Pro 360.

The new Samsung Galaxy Books were a much-anticipated addition to Samsung’s PC lineup. It’s an excellent time for Samsung to launch these new notebooks as it continues to build out a seamless and continuous experience across its smartphone, PC, tablets, and peripheral ecosystem. The PC is a big part of the continuous experience and can serve as an IoT hub for other devices. I spent three days using the Galaxy Book Pro 360 as my primary device for productivity, and below are my thoughts.

System configuration

Samsung sent me a loaner Galaxy Book Pro 360 system to test out on my productivity use case. I opted for the 15.6″ variant because screen real estate matters a lot to me. My test unit came in the Mystic Navy color pattern, but there is also a Mystic Bronze color. I also received a signature S Pen to top off the package, which is included, not optional. My system came with an i7-1165G7 processor, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. The Galaxy Book systems were supposed to support LTE and 5G, but early production systems will not support it. I am told that LTE and 5G support will roll out in the second half of the year. My system configuration is available on Samsung.com pre-order for $1499 currently. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 starts at $1,299 with a Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

(Video) Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 Review - Best Windows Laptop For Most 🤔

Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 15.6” Review: The Best Samsung PC Yet | eWEEK (2)

The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 features a remarkably thin design.

First impressions

Right out of the box, I can’t help but notice how thin this system is. When I think of a 15″ notebook, my mind gravitates towards a 15″ workstation-style laptop that is quite heavy, but I sacrifice weight to maximizing my productivity. With the Galaxy Book Pro 360 15.6″, I don’t feel like I have to carry around a clunker to get 15″ of screen real estate. While the system was in my backpack, I felt like I was carrying around a 13″ thin and light notebook. It’s worth mentioning that the Galaxy Book Pros are also the thinnest 13″ and 15″ Intel EVO certified designs. That’s an excellent accomplishment for Samsung as it has made the systems thinner and lighter without sacrificing performance or battery life. Thin and light

do come with trade-offs. There aren’t any HDMI or USB-A ports, but there is always a workaround. I used a USB-C to HDMI cable to connect to an external 24″ display. When I opened the system lid I was received by an aggressive McAfee popup and I also immediately say an Amazon and Booking link. I don’t like seeing these on a $1,500+ premium system, but I suspect that Samsung will likely remove them with next generation.

Mystic Navy is a unique color approach, and it gives off a very premium feel. Its honestly one of my favorite color options that I have used on a notebook. I noticed that the outside of the display lid held on to fingerprints in some instances, but it wasn’t a huge issue for me.

(Video) Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 Unboxing!

AMOLED touch display

When I opened the lid, I noticed that the AMOLED display was extremely thin and easy to open. Even though the display is 1,920 x 1,080 resolution, it still looks decently sharp and can put off much brightness. There was a bit of graininess on the display because of the lower resolution and large display size with text. A 3K or 4K panel would have been nice, but I am sure battery life would have suffered as a result. Most will be OK with 1920 x 1080 with entertainment content until 4K video content becomes more widely available. I was worried that the thin display wouldn’t hold up the much heavier base when used as a 2-in-1, but I didn’t have any issues in tablet mode. The 360 hinge was easy to rotate over, and I used it several times as a 2-in-1 while streaming long-form video content on YouTube.

I did get the opportunity to try out the S Pen with this system in PC mode and tablet mode, and it performed flawlessly. I used the Pen to sign a few documents, but primarily for scrolling through web pages and switching through applications. The S Pen will connect to the top of the external display via a magnet, but if you plan to keep the system in your backpack, I recommend storing the S Pen separately. The S Pen worked with my S21 Ultra 5G smartphone which was really cool.

One of my favorite display features is the adaptive color you can enable in the display settings. After an entire workday, eye strain can be a big issue for me. I wrote this blog late in the evening, and once the

system detected a lighting change, it increased the adaptive color strength. The adaptive color strength made the display much easier to look at without having to strain my eyes.

Performance

I was happy to see that Samsung beefed this system up with some great hardware solutions. My review system came with the latest 11th Gen Core i7-1165G7 processor. This processor is great for productivity workloads which mirrors my use case. My typical use case includes using a lot of different applications simultaneously. A typical day for me looks like running 10+ Microsoft Edge tabs, video conferencing on Teams, Skype, Zoom and Webex, use G-Suite (now Workspace) collaboration apps to stay in touch with my team of analysts, manipulating data in Excel, and building presentations in PowerPoint. None of these workloads operating alone will tax a system, but together they can often cause lag and stutters and chew through RAM.

(Video) Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro Hands-On Review

The Galaxy Book Pro 360 ran all of my workloads with ease and showed no signs of slowing down. I don’t believe that this system will be a monster for content creation workloads, but for productivity, it is excellent. In terms of video streaming performance, the history content that I watched on YouTube looked sharp. One thing I did notice is that the speakers are on the bottom of the system’s base. I have gotten used to having them on either side of the keyboard, and it was a bit harder to get clean audio compared to other notebooks I have used. I assume Samsung couldn’t place the speakers on the keyboard side because it included a full number pad on the keyboard. Either way, it wasn’t a bad experience using the external speakers.

Ports & I/O

Samsung did a great job given its thickness (or should I say “thinness”) packing many I/O solutions in this system, including 2 USB-C ports, 1 Thunderbolt 4 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD reader. With the addition of Thunderbolt 4, you will be able to transfer data up to 2x faster than you can with traditional USB-C ports. Thunderbolt 4 would be particularly useful for users moving lots of data from their portable hard drives and SD cards to their PC or the cloud. And, of course, users can add an external GPU if they want more heavy-duty gaming. As content continues to scale in resolution doubling your data transfer speeds will be helpful.

The only issue you may encounter with the ports is the lack of legacy USB-A or HMDI. You may be stuck using an adapter in the meantime, but oh well. The PC ecosystem continues to move forward with USB-

C and Thunderbolt, and Samsung future-proofed themselves by providing the latest and greatest I/O solutions.

Keyboard

The backlit Pro keyboard on the Galaxy Book Pro 360 was great to use. I typed this entire 2,000+ word article on the Pro keyboard, and I had no issues with it at all. The keys are buttery smooth and provide a good bit of travel. Samsung was able to fit a full number pad on the right side of the keyboard; although it is a tight squeeze, it’s there. And it’s great for spreadsheets. Samsung did a great job perfecting the mechanics of this keyboard, and as a result, it is a joy to type on. The 1mm of key travel may seem shallow, but I suspect that anyone that spends a lot of time typing will enjoy this keyboard. To access the quick keys users will have to use keys in combination with the FN button which is typically more of an enterprise function. I’m hoping Samsung reverses this in the future so users don’t have to press the “Fn” key. The trackpad on the system is also large and was responsive throughout my usage.

(Video) Galaxy Book Pro 1 Month Review: Why its the BEST W10 Ultrabook!

Apart from Windows Hello biometric login, there is a fingerprint reader on the keyboard as well. It’s integrated into the power button on the top right of the keyboard. I set it up in under a minute even, and it was accessible to log in with my thumbprint. I typically prefer Windows Hello, but the options are always great.

Battery life

Samsung claimed that these new Galaxy Book Pro systems would give users up to 21 hours of battery life of general use on a single charge. I typically take any OEM battery claim with a grain of salt as they are usually based on synthetic mobile mark scores. Although I didn’t get the 21 hours advertised, I consistently got 14 to 15 hours of battery life on a single charge while taking the system through my productivity use case.

While Samsung did catch some flak for the lower resolution 1920 x 1080 display, I am confident that this is one of the key contributors to the long battery life on this system. The system also supports 65W fast charging. I tried this out at the end of one of my workdays. I charged the system for around 30 minutes and got several hours of battery life in return.

Samsung apps and integration

Something Samsung has put much time into is making sure the entire ecosystem of Galaxy devices work together cohesively. With that in mind, Samsung wants to have its Galaxy tablets, smartphones, PCs, and peripherals to have access to new applications, including SmartThings, Connect, Quick Share, Samsung Notes, Samsung Gallery, and Galaxy Book Smart Switch. It would have helped if Samsung branded each application as a Samsung app instead of naming some “Samsung Notes” and others “Quick Share.” Nonetheless, the new apps should make switching between Galaxy devices more seamless abd more seamless interactions between Samsung PCs, smartphones, and tablets. One potential pain point is that each application will require you to log in before the first use as a single sign-on isn’t supported. I can see this is good for security, but I’d like a single sign-on option to sync Photos, Notes, and more after I log into the Galaxy Book Experience. I’d love to this added to the initial OOBE.

The application that I used the most was the Samsung Notes app. It was easy for me to jot notes into the app on my Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G and then access them later on my Galaxy Book Pro 360. The automatic syncing feature allows the user to switch between devices easily. I also utilized the Quick Share application quite a bit. All I had to do was select the photo or video I wanted to share, click the share button on my Galaxy S21 Ultra 5G, and select my Galaxy Book Pro 360. Sharing large files that were shot on my Galaxy phone and quickly sending them to my Galaxy Book is excellent. It sure beats uploading the files to the cloud and then having to download them onto my PC.

(Video) The BEST laptop display I have ever seen!!! - Samsung Galaxy Book Pro

Some users may be confused with having two options for certain tasks and will have to choose between Microsoft and Samsung apps. Most Android users are already faced with this and have to choose between Google or Samsung apps so it won’t be as difficult for them. I think the more challenging app selections will be between search (Windows Search vs Samsung Quick Search), photos (Windows Photo vs Samsung Gallery), and notes (Microsoft OneNote vs Samsung Notes). Most every other Samsung app is additive to the experience.

Wrapping up

The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 feels like the beginning of a more profound commitment to the PC platform from Samsung. As Samsung builds on the continuous experience from one Samsung device to the next, I see the PC platform playing a big part in that as the IoT hub. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 feels like a big step forward for Samsung in the PC space with an ultrathin and light design, powerful hardware, and long battery life.

If Samsung continues to deepen its partnerships with Intel and Microsoft, I can see an improved path for the continuous device experience between tablet, laptop, and smartphone. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 is undoubtedly the best Samsung PC I have ever used. Great job, Samsung.

FAQs

Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 15.6” Review: The Best Samsung PC Yet | eWEEK? ›

The only difference is that the Galaxy Book 3 Pro clamshell model comes in 14 and 16-inch sizes while the others are only 16 inches. And, of course, the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is a convertible laptop, so the screen supports touch input and the S Pen.

What is the difference between Galaxy Book Pro and Pro 360? ›

The only difference is that the Galaxy Book 3 Pro clamshell model comes in 14 and 16-inch sizes while the others are only 16 inches. And, of course, the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is a convertible laptop, so the screen supports touch input and the S Pen.

Are Samsung Galaxy books worth it? ›

If you're looking for a reliable laptop with enough power to get through a day's work, the Galaxy Book is certainly up to the task. In our testing, it performed nearly as well as the Dell XPS 15.

How long does the Galaxy Book Pro 360 last? ›

The Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 lasted for 11 hours and 59 minutes on the Tom's Guide battery life test, which tasks the laptop with surfing the web over Wi-Fi with the screen set to 150 nits of brightness. This is less than the previous iteration's impressive 13 and a half hours of tested battery life.

Which is the latest Samsung Galaxy book? ›

The Galaxy Book, Galaxy Book Pro, and Galaxy Book Pro 360 were released in May 2021 and were Samsung's most powerful laptops at the time. The Galaxy Book is the entry model within this series and packs in a powerful 11th Gen Intel® Core™ processor, Intel® Iris Xe Graphics* and striking 15.6-inch LCD Full HD screen.

Does Galaxy Book Pro come with Microsoft Office? ›

Your new PC doesn't have Microsoft 365—yet. Add to your purchase and get exclusive savings on Word, Excel, and more.

Is 8GB RAM enough for Galaxy Book Pro 360? ›

While 8GB of memory might be enough for general use, it's low for a premium model now. Especially since the RAM is soldered on and can't be added to later. HP's Spectre x360 16 -- another excellent premium two-in-one -- starts with 16GB. For future performance headroom, get the 16GB configuration if you can.

Who are the competitors of Samsung Galaxy Pro 360? ›

A major competitor for the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 is the HP Spectre x360 16. That convertible 2-in-1 also sports a 16-inch 16:10 OLED display, albeit a higher-resolution 4K + version.

What is the price of Galaxy Book Pro 360 15 inch? ›

Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 15 Laptop (Core i7 12th Gen/16 GB/512 GB SSD/Windows 11) PRICE IN INDIA. Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 15 Laptop (Core i7 12th Gen/16 GB/512 GB SSD/Windows 11) price in India starts from Rs. 124,990.

Which Samsung series is best selling? ›

Best Samsung Mobile Phones in India
  1. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G. 8.8. Score. Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra 5G. ...
  2. Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G. 8.3. Score. Samsung Galaxy S21 FE 5G. ...
  3. Samsung Galaxy A73 5G. 7.8. Score. ...
  4. Samsung Galaxy M53 5G. Score. Samsung Galaxy M53 5G. ...
  5. Samsung Galaxy S22 Plus 5G. 8.7. Score. ...
  6. Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 5G. 8.5. Score.
Apr 11, 2023

Which Samsung series is best and why? ›

Best Samsung phone: At a glance
  • Best Samsung flagship: Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra.
  • Best budget Samsung phone: Samsung Galaxy A21s.
  • Best folding Samsung phone: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4.
  • Best-value Samsung phone: Samsung Galaxy A53 5G.
Mar 9, 2023

Which Galaxy series is better? ›

Although the Samsung M series lineup is budget-oriented, its brand trust still comes with Samsung's brand. However, the Samsung A series Smartphone is Samsung's old lineup known for its premium touch features and build quality. In addition, those who want to buy a superior Samsung should go with the A-series.

How long will a Samsung laptop last? ›

Most experts estimate a laptop's lifespan to be three to five years. It may survive longer than that, but its utility will be limited as the components become less capable of running advanced applications.

How long do Galaxy books last? ›

Long battery life matched with solid performance
Battery life (hours:minutes)
Galaxy Book 2 Pro 36011:11
Galaxy Book Pro 36011:20
Microsoft Surface Pro 87:05
MacBook Pro (14-inch)6:36
Apr 11, 2022

When did the Galaxy Book Pro 360 come out? ›

Unlike last year's high-end convertible laptop from Samsung, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 comes in just one screen size variant. You can pre-order the laptop now, and it will be available starting February 17, 2023.

What is the difference between a Galaxy Book and a laptop? ›

The Galaxy Book Go differs from the usual cheap Windows notebooks in that it uses a Qualcomm ARM chipset rather than the more usual Intel Celeron or – God forbid – Atom CPUs.

What is the next Samsung Galaxy Book Pro? ›

Samsung will reportedly unveil the next Galaxy Book series during its Unpacked launch event on 1 February 2023.

What is included with Galaxy Book Pro 360? ›

Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360. S Pen. 65W power adapter. USB Type-C to USB Type-C cable.

Does the Galaxy Book come with word? ›

Your new PC doesn't have Microsoft 365—yet. Add to your purchase and get exclusive savings on Word, Excel, and more.
...
Samsung Galaxy Book Go Wi-Fi 14 Laptop.
Screen size14-in Full HD LED display (1920 x 1080)
BluetoothBluetooth 5.0
Dimensions12.75 x 8.85 x 0.59 in (323.85 x 224.79 x 14.99 mm)
Weight3.06 lbs (1.39 kg)
ColorSilver
14 more rows

Can you put a SIM card in a Galaxy Book Pro 360? ›

Insert SIM into your Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 5G Windows 11. Before you can use mobile data on your laptop, you need to insert your SIM. Find the opener for the card holder.

Does Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 have a camera? ›

Snap high-quality photos and videos using the camera features on your Galaxy Book, Galaxy Book2, Galaxy Book S, Galaxy Book Pro, Galaxy Book Pro 360, and Galaxy Book Flex2.

Can the Galaxy Book Pro 360 be upgraded? ›

A: Answer: No, you can't. All Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 15 (2021) models have a soldered memory and there is no additional RAM slot for expansion. Since you can't change or add additional RAM after you buy, you want to make sure you buy the configuration with a right amount of memory at the initial purchase.

What is the difference between Galaxy Book2 Pro and Galaxy Book2 Pro 360? ›

Both laptops come with undeniably powerful processors and great features. The biggest difference between the two is that the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 comes with a convertible touchscreen display. So which laptop is best for you comes down to how you're planning to use it.

Does Galaxy Book Pro 360 include a S Pen? ›

Unlike other Galaxy laptops, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is a touchscreen convertible and comes with an S Pen in the box. Though it has a button, the S Pen isn't Bluetooth like other S Pens on Samsung Galaxy phones.

Does the Galaxy Book Pro 360 have a pen? ›

The S Pen and other exclusive features on the Galaxy Book Pro 360. That's right, the Galaxy Book Pro 360 comes with its very own S Pen, allowing you to write on the screen. To make things even better, the 360 has a 2-in-1 design, so you can fold it over to use it like a tablet.

When was Galaxy Book Pro 360 released? ›

Unlike last year's high-end convertible laptop from Samsung, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 comes in just one screen size variant. You can pre-order the laptop now, and it will be available starting February 17, 2023. However, availability may vary depending on the country.

Videos

1. Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 Unboxing!
(Tim Schofield)
2. One Month Later with 2023 Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360
(Ben G Kaiser)
3. Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 Review
(MobileTechReview)
4. Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 Unboxing!
(Tim Schofield)
5. Galaxy Book 3 360 vs Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 | What Are Differences 2023?
(Critical Tech)
6. Samsung Galaxy Book3 360 | Unboxing
(Microsoft ExpertZone North America)
Top Articles
Latest Posts
Article information

Author: Fredrick Kertzmann

Last Updated: 06/22/2023

Views: 5900

Rating: 4.6 / 5 (66 voted)

Reviews: 89% of readers found this page helpful

Author information

Name: Fredrick Kertzmann

Birthday: 2000-04-29

Address: Apt. 203 613 Huels Gateway, Ralphtown, LA 40204

Phone: +2135150832870

Job: Regional Design Producer

Hobby: Nordic skating, Lacemaking, Mountain biking, Rowing, Gardening, Water sports, role-playing games

Introduction: My name is Fredrick Kertzmann, I am a gleaming, encouraging, inexpensive, thankful, tender, quaint, precious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.