At Mobile World Congress 2022 in Barcelona, Samsung showcased their new Galaxy Book 2 Pro series, a flagship lineup of ultraportable Windows laptops featuring the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 with S Pen functionality and Galaxy Book 2 Pro with (or without) 5G. Both are available in 13.3-inch and 15.6-inch sizes; they look great and have some exciting features. To learn more about these laptops, read this brief presentation based on our hands-on experience at MWC:
Excellent specs, certified through Intel’s Evo program
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Pro 360 are built on Intel’s Evo platform, which means that they offer a high degree of performance, a battery life of up to 21 hours (according to Samsung), and super-fast Wi-Fi 6E connectivity. In addition, both laptops feature the latest 12th Gen Intel Core mobile processors (both Core i7 and Core i5), 8, 16, or 32 GB of DDR5 RAM, Samsung SSDs with a capacity of 256, 512, or 1 TB, and Intel Iris Xe Graphics.
The Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 that we photographed at MWC 2022 had an Intel Core i5-1240P with four performance cores, eight efficient cores, 32 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD. All the units displayed felt super fast during our couple of minutes of use.
The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Pro 360 are available in graphite (or black), silver, and burgundy colors (only the Pro 360), and they’re super thin (varying between 11.5 mm and 11.9 mm). They’re also super light, with a weight that varies between 0.87 kg and 1.41 kg, depending on the variant you choose.
The Galaxy Book 2 Pro screen uses an AMOLED panel at Full HD resolution, without touch support. On the other hand, the Galaxy 2 Pro 360 has a Super AMOLED panel, with a maximum brightness of 500 nits, HDR support, support for touch, and an S pen included in the box. In addition, as you can see in the picture below, it’s a convertible device, so you can comfortably use it as a tablet too, not just a laptop.
The ports on the Galaxy Book 2 Pro include one Thunderbolt 4, one USB Type-C, one USB 3.2, one HDMI, a microSD card, a headphone jack, and an optional nano SIM slot for the 5G variant.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 sports three USB-C ports (one of which is also Thunderbolt 4), a microSD card reader, and a headphone/mic jack. Unfortunately, there’s no HDMI port and no 5G version. Both models are charged through USB Type-C, and they have a 65W adapter.
These laptops have a 2.1 Megapixel camera that can record 1080p videos, useful for video conferencing and remote work. Unfortunately, the webcam doesn’t have Windows Hello support for face unlock, but you can authenticate easily through the power button on the laptop that doubles as a fingerprint reader.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Pro 360 support Samsung-specific connectivity features, like Single Sign-on, Smart Switch (makes it easy to transfer data, photos, settings between PCs), and support for SmartThings. Another addition is Multi Control, which allows you to use a Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 as a secondary screen, alongside a Galaxy Book 2 Pro or Pro 360.
These laptops will have prices starting at $1,049.99 and $1,249.99 respectively, and they are going to be available in stores around April 1st with preorders beginning on March 18th.
What do you think about the new Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Pro 360?
We very much enjoyed our brief hands-on experience with the new Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro and Pro 360 laptops. They’re excellent devices with promising specs, and we’re curious to review them when they become available. They seem to hit the right balance between portability and performance. Before closing this presentation, tell us your opinions about these laptops: are they contenders for the best Windows laptop of the year award?