Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 Hands-On: MacBook Air Killer?

I've fallen into this crazy rabbit hole trying to find the best windows computer for most people because not all of you want a mac not all of you edit video and you also want another good alternative to a functional ecosystem should I say now the problem is that windows is complicated mainly because there's just so much variety and each company has its own approach to value they're either really cheap and compromised or the premium sector is split between gaming computers and Ultrabook's. Once you pick that you then realize that the starting price that got you to click is bs because the computer is only worth it if you spend MacBook kind of money now the reason why I did this research is because after my hands-on experience with the Samsung's galaxy book pro 360 what struck me most was just how balanced the offer was for the price aside from like one or two examples that I found from HP which I could review later I looked at Microsoft dell and others only to realize that in almost everything this might just be the best bang for the buck windows computer you can buy it's not perfect of course but the tricks that make it unique might just be enough to win you over 

Let's dive into our review Samsung's approach to laptops is almost as daring as its approach to smartphones while most companies are doing the bare minimum to keep the cost down it's crazy just how much sami is able to cram on a computer for that same price tag last year's galaxy book flex had a far better QLED display for example brought an s pen through in some thunderbolt love and even a track pad that could reverse charge your she-enabled devices its only problem at the time was that it launched before the pandemic really hit so the price wasn't really a sensitive topic at the time as it is today for this year even if this book pro 360 is a bit more conservative it follows on a couple of fan favorites to start the design and build of this computer is crazy 6000 series aluminum and a very sharp footprint allow this 15 inch model to be almost as light as a MacBook air and making the 13-inch MacBook pro look bad with far less footprint it's one of those products you just have to hold to believe now selections are also made simple two size options for each of the two variants with colors depending on your selection with me clearly being a mystic bronze kind of guy now the pro is for those who care more about price than features but it's also interesting that no matter how high you configure the pro 360 the price is still lower than most for context.

If I compare this higher tier review unit to similar specifications on a MacBook air the galaxy is less expensive and provides more features and yet there's still more to this package three usb-c ports with one of this being thunderbolt 4 micro SD expansion which is better than nothing and these new 11th generation intel chips already have me believing that I can trust that company again my buddy David Kogan from the unlocker spent some of his real world test testing and proving that you can edit a video with this machine which says a lot about intel's xc graphics and the whole Evo certification I wouldn't say that you'll get the 20 hours of advertised endurance but a solid work day of moderate to heavy use in my testing and by the way my use of windows computers is based mostly on productivity software which I feel this computer handles pretty well no lag or stutter in more than a week of testing and I can't really say that I heard the fans kicking in that much even with multiple chrome tabs open though more on software in a bit now this is also one of my favorite keyboards like ever it's backlit sure has all the shortcuts that I care about including a new privacy key to disable the camera and the microphone and a pretty accurate fingerprint scanner baked into the power button 

Now what makes it special is that even if Samsung doesn't really mention anything different about these scissor switches they're kind of surreal because they're so silent that they feel more responsive than they actually sound  at first i was also a tad reluctant in grabbing the larger model because I always get confused with numeric keypads but this trackpad saves the day see Samsung placed it asymmetrically in order to match the text keys and avoid accidental touches and then if you match that with its significant size and accuracy in gestures and really the combo just feels right and then there's the display at this price there's just no way you can get an Amoled panel with this amount of color and contrast ratio and then Samsung also adopted some of the technology from the hinge in the z-fold 2 lineup in order to avoid the wobble that we got with previous iterations it follows on last year's design language where bezels are minimal in at least three of the four corners and we've got the 720p webcam where it's supposed to be now honoring its 360 name yes you can morph this form factor into a tent for movies or as a tablet in order to take advantage of its s pen support and sure a lot of laptops at this price have some sort of stylus support but the Wacom digitizer on this panel is second to none with the Microsoft surface only getting close to its feel and accuracy it is included in the box and now larger for added ergonomics and sure you lose the silo to tuck it away and I wouldn't recommend the magnets built into the lid but I'll take that any day because of its added grip 

Now another reason this computer is special is because it truly is a galaxy book meaning if you're already in the Samsung ecosystem this is the computer you should get windows 10 is jam packed with Samsung software that helps this laptop talk with your galaxy phones or even accessories like your galaxy buds from a desktop version of Samsung notes to decks on a more logical screen think of this as the larger galaxy note that you always wanted but with the advantage that you can even extend the display if you own a compatible galaxy tablet it's not free of bloat sadly with unwanted titles like MacAfee and booking.com but that's an easy problem to uninstall but alright don't worry as much as there's a lot to love this is not a fanboy piece by now you know that I'll point out what things could improve about this product and there are a couple of things that I'm mixed about the first is that I would recommend that you pick the 13-inch model mainly because of the resolution on the panel both sizes are 1080p but at 58 inches this is already borderline pixelated I'll forgive full HD because it's Amoled at this price but on a large panel pixel density is key if you'd like to reduce the scale of the operating system and multitask better and I know some have complained about brightness but at 370 nits it's pretty much MacBook air territory which I found to be good enough for my use now if anything i would complain about the bottom bezel because I know you will now second is that for all the punch this display provides it's marred by the speakers they've got all certifications galore like akg tuning and Dolby Atmos but they lack the depth that I've come to expect from Samsung the best way to understand how it's possible that the flagships of two I honestly would have given up all that numeric keypad on the side if it would make the speaker's front firing and last but not least is that I wish palm rejection was better and this is not like wacom so it could just be a problem with my specific unit because I don't remember ever having that issue with the galaxy book flex or any other galaxy note sort of type of product from 

Samsung so I'll keep you posted in the comments in case a software update improves it to conclude yes I know there's a lot of choice when it comes to a good windows computer yes I know most have a touch screen that supports some sort of a stylus\ and might cost a bit less money than this machine now the question is how many of these have an Amoled panel at that price how many of these include wacom support which is best in class how many offer a design that's hard to compete with and best of all how many can say that they support your smartphone ecosystem and help you get more out of combining them together I'd even say that apple struggles when trying to compete with this package at least from a features for the price perspective it is definitely not the perfect machine and I'm sure that some of you will argue with my assessment but I seriously feel that this is one of the best windows laptops that you can buy in this premium price bracket even if others get pretty close once you spec them up I think ecosystems alone are a very important deal today and very few computers or even companies get this as right as Samsung is doing with the galaxy book pro 360. I really have no problem in recommending it now let us know if you agree with my assessment in the comments down below.