Samsung is quite popular with its phones and smart home products, such as air conditioners, refrigerators, televisions, and more. The South Korean tech giant is now shifting a part of its focus to the laptop segment. The company recently unveiled a range of Galaxy Books targeted at students, video editors, and regular users in India. The one I have been using for the past week is the Galaxy Book 2 Pro, which is primarily targeted at general users like most of us.
Samsung India offers three models under the Galaxy Book 2 Pro lineup:
-First, Galaxy Book 2 Pro with Intel Core i5 processor and 13.3-inch display at Rs 1,06,990
-Second, Galaxy Book 2 Pro with Intel Core i7 processor and 13.3-inch display at Rs 1,14,990
-Third, Galaxy Book 2 Pro with Intel Core i7 processor and 13.3-inch display at Rs 1,24,990.
The one I have been using for slightly over a month now is the Galaxy Book 2 Pro with an Intel Core i7 processor and 13.3-inch display, priced at Rs 1,14,990, which is almost as much as the price of the MacBook Air M2. The newly launched MacBook Air M2 starts at Rs 1,19,900 and goes up to Rs 1,49,900. At India Today Tech, we used the MacBook Air M1 and, as mentioned in the full review, found it to be a fantastic machine for general users. It costs Rs 99,900 in India. Though we haven’t used the new M2-powered MacBook Air yet, on paper it definitely looks way more powerful than the M1.
The questions that arise at this point is: should you spend over a lakh on the Galaxy Book 2 Pro or go for MacBook Air M1 for a slightly cheaper price? Or should you wait for the MacBook Air M1 set for release later this month? Let’s find these answers in this review.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro review: Design and build
The Galaxy Book 2 Pro offers a minimalist design and that’s one of the highlights of this machine. Unlike most millennials, I am not really a fan of chunky laptops with over-the-top design but the Galaxy Book 2 Pro is definitely not like one of them. In fact, if you have ever used a Surface laptop, you feel this laptop from Samsung sort of takes some design inspiration from Microsoft. Even though Samsung has kept the design quite minimal, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro gets the basics right. It incorporates the required ports including — 1 HDMI, 1 Thunderbolt 4, 1 USB Type-C, 1 USB3.2, microSD Multi-media card reader, and 1 headphone out. The hinge also feels quite smooth, which makes folding and unfolding the laptop quite easy.
The Galaxy Book 2 Pro is entirely made of metal and feels quite premium, which is exactly what we expect from a laptop at this price point. One of the best things about the Galaxy Book 2 Pro is its weight, which is just 870 kilograms. Despite being made of metal and offering a great build, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro is light enough to be carried anywhere, especially when you are out for a trip. It gets quite inconvenient to carry heavy laptops and their battery on the go. With the Galaxy Book 2 Pro, I traveled to several places and the bag didn’t feel heavy at all. In fact, the form factor is such that it was easy for me to place the laptop on the tray table to watch movies during the flight.
Besides the simple and lightweight form factor, I also liked the keyboard of the Galaxy Book 2 Pro. I used the laptop to write thousands of words and it was quite comfortable. However, the silver colour does get dirty often and I had to clean it with microfiber almost every other day. So, the keyboard is laid out neatly and is easy to read with white backlighting. Unlike most Windows laptops and even the MacBook Air M1, the keys of the Galaxy Book do not bulge out and yet it is quite comfortable to type on this one for long hours. I wrote several reviews on this one and at no point did I find it uncomfortable to type. The power button also incorporates the fingerprint sensor but takes some time to unlock the screen. In fact, for me, most of the time, the sensor unlocked the screen after 2-3 attempts, so mostly I had to type the password to unlock the screen. I wish there was Face recognition support.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro review: Display
Samsung offers top-notch screen performance on most of its phones and the company has continued the same with its Galaxy Book 2 Pro laptop. The machine I am using offers a 13.3-inch AMOLED display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and a refresh rate of 60hz. Although it’s disappointing to see a laptop of this price not offering a higher refresh rate, in real-life usage the screen still seems vibrant and bright enough in almost all lighting conditions. Again, similar to Samsung phones, the auto-brightness mode keeps adjusting the brightness level as per the situation around you.
Overall, in most situations, the screen of the Galaxy Book 2 Pro is adequately bright and vibrant, also colours look quite good. I do miss the touchscreen functionality in this one.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro review: Performance
Specs first: The Galaxy Book 2 Pro is powered by 12th generation Intel Core i7-1260P coupled with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD storage. The laptop comes preloaded with Windows 11 out of the box with a few Samsung apps.
Keeping aside the geeky bit, overall, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro offers decent performance and can smoothly handle day-to-day tasks well. Notably, the Book 2 Pro is not an offering for gamers, so such users can skip this one.
I used the Book 2 Pro primarily for my office work, which includes lots of writing on Google docs, chatting over WhatsApp Web, sending emails, and lots of browsing on Chrome. I also used the machine to edit photos on Photoshop and Pixlr, both of which worked quite well. Overall, the laptop kind of handled my day-to-day tasks quite well, except sometimes the laptop froze and I had to restart it. But this happened occasionally, possibly because I had too many tabs open and was finishing multiple tasks at a time.
If you are an average user, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro may not disappoint you in terms of performance. It is also good to see that the laptop never warmed up even under heavy usage. However, I do wish the audio quality was slightly better. I compared the MacBook Air M1 and the Galaxy Book 2 Pro side by side and the latter is not even close to the MacBook in terms of audio performance.
On the software front, the laptop runs Windows 11 out of the box like any other new Windows laptop these days. Samsung has added some additional apps: Notes, Gallery, among others, especially for Samsung mobile users, who wish to experience everything they do on their phone on a bigger screen. The Galaxy Book’s interface is inspired by One UI and most Samsung phone users will find it easier to get adjusted to the software. While Samsung users will find the software familiar, even non-Samsung users like me, the software was quite easy and simple to use.
While overall performance feels quite decent, the battery is somewhere that requires tuning. Even with the power saver mode turned on, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro was able to last for around 7 hours on a single charge. The laptop comes bundled with a 63W USB C charging adapter, which takes little more than an hour to charge the laptop completely.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro review: Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro gets most of it right with just a few areas for improvement. The device offers a crazy good display experience, decent day-to-day performance, a clean user interface, and a simple and classy design. The best bit, of course, is the weight. The Book 2 Pro is an extremely well-balanced design and just so easy to carry on the go. That said, there are areas like the audio and the battery, where the laptop sort of falls flat.
So, if you are looking for a laptop that is sleek, lightweight, and offers a great display and decent overall performance, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro is a good option only if you have the money to spend. I personally believe if Samsung had priced this one slightly on the lower side, it would have been easier to recommend the Galaxy Book 2 to people looking for a laptop for average work. The Galaxy Book 2 Pro is definitely not for gamers.
If you do have a budget of around 1 lakh, the MacBook Air M1 appears to be a better option in my opinion, but that’s only if consumers are used to the macOS interface or can get used to it. In comparison, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro running on Windows 11 with few customisations is much easier to use.
— ENDS —
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro review
Pros
- Lightweight
- Minimal design
- Great display
