South Korean tech giant Samsung is one of the biggest and best tech brands in the world, known for producing some of the smartest and most powerful top-tier tech from smartphones to TVs, fridges to tablets, and laptops. Their mobile devices and laptops fill a diverse range of roles and can easily go head-to-head with Apple's best and brightest.
The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro aims to blend a sleek design with ultra-portability, but is it really powerful enough to be useful on the go, and will this be enough to stand out in the competitive light of the higher end laptop market?
I’ve been using the Galaxy Book for about two weeks for both work and play and here’s what I’ve learned.
As an Intel Evo certified device, the Galaxy Book is part of a new fleet of sleek yet powerful laptops, utilising the very latest 12th Gen Intel chips and integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics.
Laptops that meet Intel’s exacting standards and are in the third edition have been further refined, giving it decent specs that should handle any simple tasks thrown at it.
Firstly, the Book2 Pro is stunning, with a minimal design on the outside, a white underside and a white keyboard.
On the bottom are some small vents and some stands to leave the device at a slant, allowing more efficient cooling and preventing the laptop from sliding around.
Its top outer case is metal and comes with an attractive matte finish, available in graphite or silver. I looked at the silver/white version.
Measuring 19.98cm x 30.44cm and only 1.12 cm thick, it's very compact and astoundingly thin. It's also easy to hold while on the move and even to grip one-handed, fitting easily in most backpacks.
It's incredibly light at only 868g which has made it my laptop of choice for working on as it's so easy to travel with. It's also well-built and moderately solid - it's very well put together and not at all cheap or frail in any way.
The Galaxy Book has a neat backlit chiclet keyboard, and although there isn't much travel it still felt surprisingly comfortable to type on. The hinge is enough to keep it in place but not difficult to move.
The touchpad is spacious and responsive without feeling too weak and clicky, it's made of glass which made it feel durable and solid, and gestures were really sensitive too.
One of the biggest highlights of the Galaxy Book 2 is its incredible 13.3” Super-AMOLED display, which is bright and crystal clear. Colours look vivid and stunning even when outdoors in the sunshine - just be warned it is very glossy which can cause some glare in very bright light.
This display is perfect for watching films and gaming, and was just a pleasure to use.
I would have appreciated a higher resolution - maybe not a 4K at this size, but a 1440p option would have been nice.
It supports HDR 500, meaning your darks are sharp and you get a very clean looking contrasty display with a wide range of colours represented. This may not sound like much, but when placed next to a standard display the difference is night and day.
The bezels are very thin on the top and sides but there is still a slight chin on the bottom, which isn't a deal-breaker although is still a mild annoyance.
There is no touch support on this screen which I don't feel is a big deal, however what does disappoint me is that the beautiful display only supports a 60Hz refresh rate when a 90 or 120 would have really gone a long way on this device.
On the top bezel, there is a discreet 1080p resolution camera which is more than adequate enough for meetings and actually looks pretty good.
Using two AKG stereo speakers and supporting Dolby Atmos, the sound quality was excellent pushing out a maximum of four Watts. This isn't very loud but on a train, in a busy park, or in a crowded office I could still clearly hear my audio and notifications.
There are a few minor variations in specs but the version I looked at was the 12th Gen Core i5 1240P Processor using twelve cores clocked at 1.7 GHz with its four performance cores able to clock 4.4 GHz.
The combination of the 12 Gen Intel Processor plus the fast LPDDR5 means this is an agile machine that handled multitasking like a dream, making it great for procrastinators, or those who like doing lots at once.
It scored a very impressive Geekbench score of 1438 for Single-core and 6984 for multi-core, making it faster than the standard ultrabook.
It did, however, outperform the Macbook Air and the mighty Apple M1 chip, which is actually really impressive, although they are due for an upgrade very soon.
That 256 GB NVMe SSD is fast and responsive and makes rendering and load times pretty quick.
The 256 GB capacity is fine for moderate-sized games, retro games, work and browsing the internet, but will obviously struggle with editing large video files, especially 4K footage, or will be eaten up by much larger modern games.
For graphics, the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro is working with the Intel Integrated Iris Xe instead of the brand new Intel Arc Graphics.
This means it can handle some games on lower to mid-level settings and while I couldn't play Doom or Deathloop, it could handle simply RPG and Strategy titles with ease, like Dota 2, XCom2, Frostpunk and Two Point Hospital.
Performance was great for writing, watching videos, recording and editing podcasts, light photo editing, and minor video editing, however, it's not a machine built for heavy video editing (especially 4K files), editing large amounts of RAW photos or trying to use as a dedicated gaming machine.
For such a compact laptop it has a decent number of ports with Thunderbolt 4, a full-sized HDMI port, USB-C and thankfully a standard USB-A 3.2 port as well, which is great for connecting most standard accessories.
In addition, there's also a 3.5mm jack for headphones as well as a very useful Micro SD port. This allows you to expand your memory capacity or easily transfer files from your phone and other devices.
As for wireless connectivity, the Galaxy Book2 Pro supports Wi-Fi 6E giving you fast downloads and webpage load times, and Bluetooth v5.1 for quick and simple connectivity with your accessories like headphones, mice and others.
Utilising a huge 63W battery gives the Galaxy book around 21 hours of video playback and 9 hours on just a 30 mins charge. It'll easily last all day, making it a great device to work from while travelling.
The charger supplied is a 65 Watt, USB Type-C universal fast charger that can also be used with supported phones, and makes it even more useful to Samsung mobile users.
A fingerprint scanner is included for extra security, located discreetly on the power button, which was fast and accurate and also gave me some peace of mind.
It comes preinstalled with Windows 11 as well as some built-in Samsung apps but it's not too intrusive and some are quite handy especially if you already own other Samsung devices.
The Galaxy Book2 Pro pairs effortlessly with Samsung devices using an app called Samsung Flow. This connects your phone to the laptop via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
You can then share files such as videos pictures and documents with the laptop, as well as see and reply to your phone notifications on screen and, best of all, control your phone's screen via the laptop.
I connected to my Samsung Galaxy S20 and suddenly started to receive all my notifications on the laptop. I was able to reply to texts which was easier, and kept me connected to friends and family as well as a few workgroups while I was working.
You can even use a Samsung Tab 8 as an extra screen for when you really need that second display.
Verdict 4/5
The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro is simply one of the most gorgeous and easy to carry laptops I’ve ever used, but more than that it's a stylish, reliable and incredibly versatile all-rounder and would make a fantastic device for a student, someone who travels a lot, or anyone who wants to keep their productivity up on the go.
My only real issues are that considering this is the 'Pro' model, there are just a few things that I would want that would elevate this laptop to the next level, such as a higher resolution display and 120Hz frame rate supported. I'd also like to see it carry one of the new Arc graphics chips, and a slightly more powerful cooling solution.
This isn't a gaming laptop and while it can handle less demanding and older titles, it's not the powerhouse required for many modern games.
It’s a quintessential Samsung product, with its sleek design, bold screen and some really handy features including its perfect integration with the Samsung ecosystem. Surprisingly, it doesn't cost the Earth.
The 3rd generation Evo certification ensures that the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro is one of the best ultrabooks around and with such a compact and lightweight body it means the Galaxy Book2 Pro is the ultimate travel companion.
The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro is available now for £850 from Amazon, Currys and the Samsung website
