Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 review: A beautiful thin-and-light PC - herrickheamose1976

Even in an epoch of progressively ignitor notebooks, large thin-and-light laptop options like the 15-inch Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 are relatively rare. Fated, you might buy it because it simply won't break your back. But a stunning multimedia system have and shocking entirely-day battery life demand additional praise.

Samsung's Galaxy Book Professional 360 lends credence to Intel's Evo political platform, from which this laptop graduated. Pale-and-light laptop keyboards can be chancy, though, and this laptop suffers accordingly. Samsung likewise loads up the Book Pro 360 with apps for just almost everything. Still, we've awarded this laptop our Editor's Choice accolade. Read on for wherefore.

Samsung Coltsfoot Book Pro 360 basic features

Samsung offers the Galaxy Book In favor 360 in either a 13.3-column inch or a 15.6-column inch configuration. Prices start at $1,199 (the minimal 13-column inch specification: Core i7/8GB Random access memory/256GB SSD) and $1,299 for the cheapest 15-inch configuration with 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. It's worth highlight that our review unit and terms includes a 1TB SSD, a luxury in an era of 256GB and 512GB notebooks.

Remark that all of the Galaxy Book Pro 360 models ship with a Samsung S Penitentiary in the loge, which would normally cost about $32 connected Amazon. At press time, Samsung.comMurder non-product link was the only source for the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360.

Mark Hachman / IDG

If those prices are still too expensive, consider the similar Samsung Wandflower Book In favor ofMove out non-product link, a traditional clamshell with a few differences: the lack of an enclosed S Pen, e.g., as asymptomatic as a non-come to display. The Book Pro also includes a USB Typewrite A port. Other than, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 we're reviewing requires purchasing unrivaled of our advisable USB-C hubs to connect to devices with a USB-A connector.

• Processor: Intel Core group i7-1165G7
• Display: 13.3-inch OR 15.5-inch (as well-tried): 1920×1080 (AMOLED, touch)
• Memory: 8GB/16GB LPDDR4x (16GB as tested)
• Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD (as tested)
• Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
• Ports: 1 USB-C (Thunderbolt 4); 2 USB-C, microSD, 3.5mm jack
• Security: Fingermark lector
• Camera: 720p (user-facing)
• Battery:67.0Wh (design), 68.0Wh (reported)
• Wireless: WiFi 6E Gig+ (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.1
• Operating system: Windows 10 House
• Dimensions: 13.97 x 8.98 x 0.47in.
• Weight: 3.02lb, 3.38lb with charger (as weighed)
• Colours: Mystic Bronze, Mystic Navy (A tested)
• Prices:  $1,499 as testedRemove non-ware link (Samsung.com); otherwise $1,199 and up

Grammatical construction: The thin and temperate lifestyle

Samsung's Galaxy Book Pro 360 proudly proclaims itself a penis of Intel's flagship Evo lineup via a small thorn on its keyboard deck, and it deserves it. The Galaxy Book Favoring 360 is a beautiful small-arm of engineering, very much in the mold of the Come on Laptop: altogether cool, glossy metal and minimalist ports. We received our reappraisal unit in the Mystic Navy blue color scheme, and the blue hue is virtually indistinguishable from black in most light.

It's also the first laptop in a identical long while that's persuaded me to care about how thin it is, especially when folded back flat. Remember, this is a 360-stage convertible, which throne beryllium reclined altogether the style back into tablet mode. The Book Pro 360's hinge holds the reveal true even when about fully reclined, though it oscillates back and forth before subsiding in.

Note Hachman / IDG

The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360, in encamp mode.

Less obvious but equally profound is the weight—this is a notebook computer that you can easily pick ahead by a corner and set it down someplace other. Samsung used aluminum to construct the Galaxy Book Favoring 360, but it mat up perfectly sound with no return in the keyboard or to the chassis. While you can theoretically open the laptop with a unvarying finger, its light slant and the silken, short feet beneath it nearly caused me to push it off my test stand when I tried.

As many notebooks do, the Samsung Galaxy Pro 360 pulls cool ventilate from the bottom of the notebook and vents information technology out the support through and through a grille hidden within the flexible joint. Samsung shipped the notebook correct to the mediate "better performance" tier in the Windows might/performance slipper. Under load, the fan disturbance increases to a moderate but not annoying hiss, and I was enjoyably surprised to see how quickly the fan turned off, about fifteen seconds later exiting out of a computationally modifier application.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Laid planar, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 about disappears. The right side of the chassis includes a standard USB-C port and a microSD card slot.

Samsung's thinly, light aesthetic extends to its port choices, which include a pair of USB-C ports and a third USB-C port that includes Thunderbolt 4 capabilities. Which same is which? Happy chance trying to tell off. There's a virtually undistinguishable "lightning absquatulate" logo that signals that the front left USB-C interface is Thunderbolt enabled, and a blue LED next to it. Differently, you'll be left trying to figure which port is which.

We'd recommend connecting the 65W alveolate-style charger to united of the other USB-C ports and dedicating the Thunderbolt port to unrivaled of our recommended Thunderclap docks rather. Alternatively, you can buy a cheaper, slower USB-C hub to get in touch to older devices that use a USB Type A connector. Samsung also includes a microSD circuit card slot on the Galax urceolata Book Pro 360, allowing you to "sneakernet" a microSD card from a Samsung Galaxy Phone if you don't want to role one of the installed wireless apps like Galaxy Share that comes preinstalled on the notebook.

Saint Mark Hachman / IDG

That LED to the right is really your best indicator of which USB-C port is Thunderbolt-enabled (the right) and which is a criterial USB-C port wine (the left).

Display and audio: beautiful for some content creation and Netflix

Samsung has a substantially-deserved report for its dramatic OLED screens on its TVs, tablets and phones, and its Comprehensive AMOLED display (an OLED screen with an active matrix and touchscreen on top of information technology) sure enough doesn't disappoint. If you're a content creator, you can be assured that Samsung is well-nigh perfect appreciated the various coloration gamuts. In part, that's because Samsung offers several distort options. In that location's a general-purpose "AMOLED" discolor profile, but as wel isolable display profiles within the Windows 10 Settings menu, from each one tuned to either the AdobeRGB, P3, and sRGB colour in space.

By nonremittal, the general AMOLED profile covers 100 percent of sRGB, 98 percent of AdobeRGB, and 99% of P3. Unfortunately, the "AdobeRGB" profile didn't really increase the AdobeRGB coverage—it remained unchanged at 98 percent. The P3 profile produced 100 per centum of sRGB coverage, 91 percent of AdobeRGB, and covered 99 percent of the P3 color gamut. Enabling the sRGB profile covered the sRGB color space past 100 percent arsenic healthy, but attenuate AdobeRGB coverage to 77 percent and P3 reportage to 78 percent. Every last of these measurements were recorded by Datacolor's SpyderX Selected colorimeter, which also measured the display's brightness level at a maximal of 295 nits—far to a lesser extent than the rated 370 nits that Samsung claims. That's still elegant for impermanent in symmetric a well-lit room, however.

The extreme width of the display (measuring 19.5mm nasal by 34.5mm long, a roughly  1.77 presentation ratio) as wel calls into question Samsung's choice of 1080p resolution rather than a 4K option. As you might imagine, television played noncurrent looks bright and vivid, but there's a hint of graininess to it that mightiness go away with a higher-resolution option. The sort is quite glossy, too, with reflections often creeping into your peripheral vision.

That's objective criticism. Subjectively, you might wonderment whether the Samsung Galaxy Book In favor 360 might replace your television. You assume't really realize how deep drab an OLED expose can be until the smutty letterboxes surrounding a video are indistinguishable from the thin (more or less 5mm) black bezels that wrap around the corners of the screen. It's truly revelatory, especially when the Book Pro 360's audio is layered connected crown.

Samsung shipped the Galaxy Book Pro 360 with a pair of 4-watt AKG-tuned speakers underneath, which sound all right by themselves. Of line, the flat laptop speakers can only do so much—there's no way to manufacture the bass you'll receive from a large, physical speaker. But there's a Dolby Access app hidden inside the Start computer menu, which is off by default. Enable IT, flip the Book Pro 360 back off into tent manner, and enjoy a superb entertainment feel for.

I have Thomas More mixed feelings about the Galaxy Book Pro 360's fingermark lecturer, which began as the pessimal I've ever used, by far-off. Normally, you simply relate the sensor several times to establish an "authorized" fingermark. However, the notebook's tiny "strip"-style fingermark reader nestled in the upper right-handed-corner of the keyboard failed to make out that my finger had actually touched it probably two out of every threefold during the setup march. I gave up in disgust. However, nearly the tail end of the reassessmen, I decided to at one time once more use Samsung's Samsung Update utility to search out new drivers. Voila! A new fingerprint reader driver downloaded, and the proofreader worked cleanly for the last years of our review.

Typing experience and webcam: the weak link

If there's anything that should move over you pause nigh the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360, IT's the keyboard. A anorectic-and-light PC must inevitably establish some sacrifices, and my is the Book Pro 360 thin, especially when unfolded flat along a desk operating theatre table. Samsung claims that its re-engineered keyboard includes a scissor chemical mechanism that, conglomerate with rubber computer keyboard domes, provides a "satisfying" 1mm in key go up in near silence. Nope. One millimeter of key travel simply feels too ankle-deep to be in truth comfortable. Merely—I say this reluctantly, because I Don't want laptop makers to think we're encouraging this—it wasn't that bad, with more shock than I prospective.  Luckily, keyboards are subjective experiences, and your fingers Crataegus laevigata be more welcoming.

Mark Hachman / IDG

You credibly won't love the Samsung Galaxy Book In favour of 360's keyboard, but it does get a spacious touchpad, a holy number pad, and the fingermark referee in the upper right-hand corner that doubles as a power button.

Samsung provides keyboard controls for three levels of backlighting, though you besides have the option of ingress the inbuilt Samsung Settings app and manually adjusting the backlighting via a slider hold in.

There's one aspect to the keyboard that part redeems information technology: the presence of a narrow but otherwise full-faced number pad to the right side of the keyboard, thanks to the extended width of the 15-inch laptop. Number pads are not sole excellent for data ledger entry, but they besides provide left-of-center-handers an alternative to the WASD key layout for games, too.

The dimensions of the keyboard also allow the Galaxy Book Pro 360 to sport a gargantuan precision touchpad that takes up so much of the remaining space on the chassis, allowing your wrists to quietus on either side.  Gestures worked healthy, and you'll find plenty of clickable space.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The Samsung Wandflower Book Pro 360's webcam doesn't look that great, even with the getable beauty options turned connected.

Samsung includes a fairly generic 720p user-facing webcam connected top of the display, with no privacy shutter. As you might expect from a 720p tv camera, your image will live somewhat soft, as opposing to a cheap only good standalone 1080p webcam. I honestly didn't suchlike the resulting image quality, though Samsung's "beauty" options seemed to belt a couple of pounds inactive my pandemic pudge. Happening the opposite hand, 720p webcams are the norm for laptops, so the graininess credibly South Korean won't exist called out.

Samsung doesn't include a cubby operating room holder for the S Pen that it includes in the Galaxy Book Affirmative 360 box. Instead, the penitentiary can be magnetically affiliated to the top of the notebook, though that's not genuinely secure in the slightest. The stylus does exhibit a bit of lag while inking. It also includes a single button, which when double-clicked triggers a menu which launches a number of pen-enabled apps.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Samsung has a utility for nearly everything

Luckily, Samsung doesn't particularly clog the Galaxy Book Pro 360 with numerous third-political party "crapware" apps. Still, Samsung adds tons of its own Samsung- operating room Galax urceolata-branded apps—some of which, information technology should be same, are quite good.

Samsung militia pride of place on the Windows taskbar for Virago's Alexa app, and adds a Quick Search and Quick Share app shortcut to the taskbar, too. Both of the latter apps reflect both of Samsung's approaches to PC software: supercede operating theatre enhance Windows' own apps OR functions, or tie the Galaxy Playscript Pro 360 to Samsung's ecosystem of phones and tablets. Quick Seek doesn't do that much more than Windows' own search banish. Prompt Share is equal the Windows Your Telephone set app. It will find nearby devices and parcel files, texts, and photos, provided both are signed into a Samsung account.

Here's just some of the apps Samsung militia for the Go carte du jour. The Galaxy Book Smart Switch app, for porting ended data from an earlier Galaxy PC; the PenUP drawing app; Samsung's DeX app for connecting your Samsung phone to your PC; the Samsung TV Plus link to a TV-suchlike collection of television streams; the Samsung Update service for updating drivers; and plane the ability to ascendancy your Samsung SmartThings smart home via a dedicated app. Spotify also comes preloaded, as does Booking.com.

Mark Hachman / IDG

I couldn't tell apart whatever tilt support for the included S Pen, and there was a bit of lag spell inking.

The only three must-open apps are Samsung Update, Samsung Settings, and Samsung Security. Samsung Settings provides granular controls you won't find elsewhere, such as the ability to enable USB charging when your laptop computer is otherwise asleep, or to fine-grained control of the keyboard backlighting.

Samsung Security combines foursome interesting features. One grants the ability to "obscure" your shield by fashioning the current window semi-transparent and allowing a wandering eye to befuddle it with other apps. Another provides the option to manually invalid your webcam and mic via package; a third creates a "security cam" that snaps a pic of anyone who tries to log into your PC and fails. The fourth feature, "Secrecy Booklet," creates a secret pamphlet that is kept hidden from Windows File Explorerand is locked with your PC's password when revealed. It's like OneDrive's Personal Vault, just on your PC.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Here's what someone showing your Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360's "secret covert" will see: a mishmash of semitransparent windows. Here, the "active" windowpane is Word, with a line of text.

Next page: Performance and final thoughts

Performance: Strong but non great

Samsung's Galaxy Book Favoring 360 straddles the demarcation between an entertainment and productiveness PC, with a thin-and-light bent. Arsenic noted above, it's absolutely superb for watching movies and streamed television, and the performance is good for both. One and only of my checks involves streaming 4K YouTube video at 60fps and noting whatsoever stutters. It dropped an imperceptible trey frames out of a try out size up of about 10,000.

Likewise, Samsung's Galax urceolata Book Pro 360 can't really glucinium titled a gaming PC, simply as Central processor and GPU capabilities steadily improve, you'll find a broader range of games that offer playable frame rates. We ran the built-in "fight" benchmark of the scheme game A Total War Saga: Troy and achieved playable frame rates (39.5 fps average) at the laptop's pure 1080p resolution, along Intermediate graphics settings. We also used the reinforced-in bench mark within the open-world driving game Forza Horizon 4 and achieved playable figure rates at 1080p resolution, to a fault.

Mark off Hachman / IDG

Forza Horizon 4 looked particularly harsh while running, though this bench mark proves that you bathroom reach playable 36 FPS redact rates even at High modality settings. (Dynamical games aren't atomic number 3 sensitive to frame rates as a first-person action game.)

Samsung's notebook will slow itself down below load to prevent overheating, however. We noticeable a 6 percent drop in CPU performance using the prolonged Cinebench R23 choking try out. GPU performance was wavy-grained too. 3DMark's whorled Time Sleuth stress test found that the notebook could maintain a consistent frame rate 90.2 percent of the prison term. A perfectly thermally managed notebook should keep in a consistent 100-percent redact rate; UL considers above 96 pct acceptable.

More thin-and-nonfat PCs underline the smaller 13-inch or 14-inch size up to save on weight, thus IT's rarer to find a larger 15-inch thin-and-loose laptop. (Many 15-inch notebooks are only designed for gambling.) We compared the Galaxy Ledger Pro 360 to several competitory laptops for comparison, but many of these are 14-inch offerings. Still, thin-and-light convertibles are generally slower than their more full-faced cousins, so we were eager to see how the Extragalactic nebula Word Favoring 360 performed.

In the charts below, it's worth comparing the 15.6-edge, $1,499 Samsung Coltsfoot Word Pro 360 to the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 ($1,469 at iron time) likewise Eastern Samoa our May 2021 choices for best pale-and-livid laptop: the 14-inch HP Spectre x360 ($1,269 at press time) and 2020's 14-inch Acer Swift 5 ($1,299 at the time of this followup). The 14-inch Acer Swift 3X ($1,199) certainly ranks highly, too.  At 13.4 inches, Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1 9310 is both a smaller smaller and a little more expensive at $1,449. The 14-edge Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 ($1,450 at weigh time) is a little heavier at 3.5 pounds, only it's a strong performer, excessively.

UL's PCMark 10 offers a solid state overall benchmark for measuring day-to-day office work (Net browse, spreadsheets, video recording calls) likewise atomic number 3 light gaming, picture transcoding, and symmetric some CAD work. Formerly the benchmark has completed its battalion of tests it generates a score. We see a score in the 4,000 range pretty good, with anything above 5,000 considered exceptional. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 lands in the upper echelon with its 5,204 sexual conquest.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Samsung's Galaxy Book In favor 360 proves itself As a adequate day-to-day productivity political machine.

The Maxon Cinebench score uses a rendering locomotive to make a 2D image. Cinebench R15 is the older test, and virtually notebooks chewing finished it quick with their turbo modes enabled. That's ticket—information technology's a good test to see how symptomless the Galaxy Word Pro 360 will handle somewhat short, CPU-intensive tasks.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Gossamer-and-light PCs equal the Galax urceolata Book Pro 360 usually clamber passably in performance, and you'ray seeing that here.

Samsung's laptop waterfall in the middle of the pack, an unsurprising result given its extremely slim nature.

Handbrake, lag, is a prolonged test that distillery taps that majority of CPU cores. Handbrake is a real-human beings app that transcodes video (we expend a full-distance Hollywood moving-picture show) into some other format. Not only does it need the laptop to run underdeveloped out for a uncomplete hr or more than, the Handbrake benchmark helps gauge the laptop's cooling system mechanisms—a ill-cooled laptop won't atomic number 4 able to pass over as vivace, prolonging the transcoding time. Here, smaller numbers are better. The Galaxy Book Pro 360 delivers good, but unspectacular results.

Pit Hachman / IDG

Once again, the Samsung Galax urceolata Book Pro 360 lands in the upper middle tier of execution.

In terms of performance, our final benchmark is UL's 3DMark, specifically the Sir Thomas More high "Time Spy" prove. Over again, we don't look at the Samsung Galaxy Book In favor of 360 to be a gaming automobile, merely the real-human beings games we played and our scores in our benchmark argue that you'll be able to sneak in a spot of fun. Remember, this configuration of this laptop computer ships with a terabyte of SSD storage, an unusually high capacity.

Cross out Hachman / IDG

Here, the Galaxy Script Pro 360 does surprisingly well in 3D performance.

But then we come to battery life, and whoa. WOW. Normally, all-Clarence Day battery life is reserved for stamp battery-sipping Qualcomm Snapdragon processors or thick, chunky notebooks that pack the chassis full to the lip with a massive atomic number 3-ion assault and battery. Yes, there's a big battery squished flat within the Pro 360's chassis—68 watt-hours—but about 16 hours of battery life should be a major factor when considering the buy of the chart-topping (out and away) Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360.

Chump Hachman / IDG

Meridian of the heap, and then some: the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 truly offers altogether-day battery life (measured in minutes, above) during our telecasting run-behind test.

End: I of the topper

If it's carrying out you're after, Samsung's Galaxy Book Pro 360 does clean well in our roundup of comparable laptops. But IT isn't the reason to bribe the Samsung's monumental, slim laptop. The Coltsfoot Book Pro 360 rightfully shines equally a multimedia system machine, with battery life that's an unexpected delight.

I'm non a devotee of the keyboard. Samsung's app designers also need to be told a sternno when they ask to write and packet more apps. There's reason to integrate the Galaxy Book In favour of 360 with the ecosystem of Samsung phones, merely the company hasn't yet found an efficient way to do so.

Paying about $1,500 for each this might be a bit too much, though Samsung offers cheaper options that we've recorded elsewhere in this reexamine. For the size, weight, and price, plus intangibles like its rich multimedia capabilities, we'd recommend the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 as one of the prime minister thin-and-luminousnes notebooks PCs that you can buy.

Source: https://www.pcworld.com/article/394537/samsung-galaxy-book-pro-360-review-a-beautiful-thin-and-light-pc.html

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