I ordered the 15.6″ Samsung Galaxy Book Pro in ‘mystic blue’ for my wife in January 2022 as a replacement for her dying Lenovo LaVie which she had been using for over 6 years. Again, the intended use was general internet and media; this was not going to be used as a gaming machine, at least not for any games that demanded high graphic performance. The primary requirement was that it had to be as lightweight as possible, much like the Lenovo it was replacing. The Galaxy Book Pro weighs in at 2.5lb, which is amazing for a 15.6″ laptop. The Galaxy Book Pro is ultra-thin, with a thickness of just half an inch (actual dimensions 13.99″ x 8.89″ x 0.52″). There is also a 13.3″ version of this laptop, but we went with the 15.6″ for a bit more desktop real estate, particularly with the weight still being so low at this size.
The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro runs on an Intel i7-1165G7 quad core CPU with a max turbo frequency of 4.7GHz, which is very fast for a laptop of this type. There is no dedicated GPU, graphics instead running from the Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, with a decent 1.3GHz frequency. The laptop came with 16GB of ram at 2400MHz, a 512GB NVMe drive, and Windows 11 Home o/s as default.
The display is a very sharp 15.6″ FHD AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode) panel at 1920 x 1080 resolution. Because of its precise contrast and intense black pixels, AMOLED technology provides better picture quality; it gives superb brightness as well as colors that are sharper and more vivid. The panel also includes a 720p HD cam, which serves its purpose adequately.
Input/output ports are adequate although somewhat limited due to the slimness of the laptop. Inputs include an HDMI port, Thunderbolt 4 port, a USB Type-C port, USB 3.2 port, a microSD card reader, and of course a headphone out/mic-in combo. Charging is via a 65W adapter with a USB-C connector, so a dedicated charging port is not required. The 68Wh battery life is very good, being able to run about 12 hours of casual use from full charge, of course ymmv depending what you are doing. The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro is too thin for an RJ45 ethernet port, but has a speedy Wi-Fi 6 (Gig+) wireless connection (in combo with Bluetooth 5.1). A USB-C to RJ45 adapter can achieve the same thing if there is only wired connections available.
A nice feature of the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro is that it has a fingerprint reader for quick access from the signin/lock screen. The laptop also has a full keyboard with separate number pad, which is definitely a bonus over the 13.3″ model.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro is an excellent laptop, with very low weight and high performance for excellent all-round usage, and my wife is very happy with it (this is her current laptop as of the date of this post). Here’s a few pictures, mostly sourced from Amazon.
