I ordered this 15.6″ Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro laptop for my wife in December 2023 to replace her previous Samsung Galaxy Book Pro laptop (link). Unfortunately, a full cup of tea was spilled directly on her old laptop which resulted in the somewhat acrid smell of shorting electronics, followed by a rapid transformation into an expensive paperweight. I spent several days drying out the laptop and trying to bring it back from the dead, but to no avail.
The newer model 15.6″ Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro is very similar in appearance to the original model, weighing in at 2.58lb, with the same dimensions of 13.99″ x 8.89″ x 0.52″, although the chassis color is graphite (basically black) instead of ‘mystic blue’.
The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro runs with an improved CPU, the Intel i7-1260P, which has 12 total cores consisting of 4 performance-cores and 8 efficient-cores, with max turbo frequency of 4.7GHz. The previous model was a quad core with 8 threads. Again this newer model laptop features Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics, albeit with a slightly higher clock speed of 1.4GHz. The laptop came with 16GB of LPDDR5 ram @ 5200MHz, a 512GB NVMe drive, and an improved 1080p FHD cam, and Windows 11 Home o/s as default.
The display is again 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.
Input/output ports are unchanged; 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. The battery is also the same as the previous model; 68Wh charged via a 65W USB type-C adapter. The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro is too thin for an RJ45 ethernet port, but has a speedy Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+) wireless connection (in combo with Bluetooth v5.1). A USB-C to RJ45 adapter can be used if there is only wired connections available.
Like the earlier model, the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro has a fingerprint reader for quick access from the signin/lock screen, and a full keyboard with separate number pad, which is definitely a bonus over the 13.3″ model.
Overall, the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro is an excellent laptop with a nice performance bump over the previous model, with very low weight and high performance for excellent all-round usage. Here’s a few pictures, mostly sourced from Amazon.
