This is the new Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro, a slim and powerful laptop that I’ve been using HEAVILY for the past few days to see if I can switch to this from my MacBook Pro. So this is my review of the Galaxy Book 5 Pro and we are going to answer the question of will I make this my everyday laptop?
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Disclosure - not sponsored, not gifted, just borrowed. No editorial privileges so I obviously will cover both pros and cons in this video.
HARDWARE
Very impressively slim! I absolutely love the design here!
Not a 360 laptop, which I like. It feels more solid and premium, plus I literally never invert my laptops 360 degrees.
Almost no screen wobble
ONE FINGER OPEN TEST
Fingerprint sensor on power button is nice but interestingly no Windows Hello face detection
120Hz Dynamic AMOLED 2X display - 16” or 14” models. I am borrowing the 16 but honestly, I much prefer 14” - I think better tech in smaller packages is always nice
Unfortunately only a 3k display
16:10 display - I love it!
Super thin bezels - chin on the bottom is nice
Anti-reflective display
Comes in two colors - grey and silver
Pretty fingerprint resistant
The touch screen is awesome - something Mac doesn’t have and I don’t miss until I use it elsewhere
Very shallow key travel - honestly, I am not one to be picky about keyboards, but I dislike this one
Keyboard backlights are nice though!
Trackpad is huge but not haptic - I think I could get used to it. Not too bad but if this is competing with the MacBook, consider making this haptic
I am happy to see a numpad, but this one is way too condensed
The positive here is that the numbers are very reachable via my pinky when typing so if you need numbers in passwords or whatever, they’re easier to reach than the top row numbers
PORTS
I appreciate having a USB-A port for printers and security keys
WHY ONLY 2 USB-C and only on the left side??! What if I want to charge on the right?
3.5mm port is appreciated
BATTERY TEST -
Claimed up to 25/21 hrs battery on the 16/14” models
normal work starting at 10:54
So far so good - 1:32pm and 71% battery (3:38 / 218 minutes = 29%) ~12.5 hrs
55% at 2:44 (290 min, 45%) ~11 hrs
GEEKBENCH SCORE
Intel Ultra 7 chip, 16GB RAM,
Practical test - exporting a video in 4k vs on my M1 Max MacBook Pro from Oct 2021 (3.5 yrs ago)
ECOSYSTEM
Samsung Galaxy Book Experience app is nice - it is subtle so this works well without a Samsung account and even better with one
FAN NOISE TEST
SPEAKER TEST
Honestly, better than I expected considering you can’t see the speakers on top but not loud at all - it’s a slim laptop with a numpad so I am not surprised.
WEBCAM TEST
UI EXPERIENCE
I have to say, unlike most other Windows laptops, this one comes with surprisingly minimal bloatware! (unless you consider samsung apps to be bloatware)
McAffee is the only one, but it hasn’t given me any popups yet. I would love to see this without that antivirus crap but hey if it is not intrusive and distracting, whatever.
I had my mouse freeze a few times, but fortunately, I can just tap on the screen to resolve it
Tons and tons of upsells for Microsoft Office 365, XBox crap, and OneDrive
It started off with a very long update - 10:00 until 10:30
I forgot that numlock seems to always be enabled by default
Windows has some nice widgets on the side
I like a lot about Windows and their file management as well as the window and application management. For example, the taskbar feels much more usable on Windows than Mac. File Explorer is far superior to Finder, especially for things like showing recently used folders on the left.
I love the concept of AI select, as it is one of my favorite features on Android, but this is Bing based and not Google. Trust me, that makes a big difference. Like check this out - (circle mic on JRE podcast)
Conclusion - Will this replace my macbook?