Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360: Samsung’s Latest 2-in-1 Laptop Provides Users With Power And Options

Samsung’s latest Galaxy Book lineup of laptops has arrived and while there’s nothing revolutionary here, there’s still a lot to like. We tested the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360, but, aside from the flipping touchscreen, the hardware is the same in the non-360 Galaxy Book3 Pro. So, it’s a matter of deciding if you want to spend a bit extra for a laptop with a touchscreen that can transform into a large tablet.

Sporting Windows 11 Home Edition and the 13th gen Intel Core i7-1360P CPU, which seems to be the chip of choice across various laptop manufacturers lately, the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 offers plenty of power for work and play. 16GB RAM and either 512GB or 1TB storage come standard. The real star is the gorgeous 16-inch 3K 2880×1800 AMOLED screen. The display is the major difference between the non-Pro and Pro Galaxy Book3 models and everything looked great on it. It’s bright, sharp, fast, and has terrific colors.

That large screen also gives the overall laptop enough space for a number pad, which is a nice perk of the more full-size portables. Taking advantage of the size, Samsung also significantly increased the size of the touchpad as well. In fact, it might be a little too big for some users, although it worked well for my hands.

The overall size of the laptop could be the biggest deterrent for the 360. At just about 14-inch x 10-inch and a half-inch thick, and weighing 3.66 lbs, it’s not for those looking for a particularly small, lightweight solution. The regular Galaxy Book 3 360 offers a 13.3-inch screen as well. Since the whole gimmick with the 360 is that you can flip the screen to make it a tablet display instead, it’s worth considering if you actually want a 16-inch tablet. That’s incredibly large by any standard and we can’t help but wonder how useful a feature it will be for most users.

Granted, the 360 comes stocked with the S Pen, which helps turn that sizeable real estate into an excellent art studio. We weren’t blown away by the overall build quality of the S Pen, especially compared to the much more sturdy Apple Pen. In contrast, Samsung’s pen feels more cheaply built. It functions well though, but could be easy to lose. The pen’s built-in magnet only seemed to stick to one part of the laptop and only when it was open.

Since this is a Samsung device and they love to add their own spin on things, there are some perks for users already into Samsung’s ecosystem. You can do extra things like use a Galaxy Tab as a second screen and more easily copy and paste photos and data from your mobile device to the laptop. Microsoft also has built in linking abilities for Android phones in general that let you link your phone, use mobile apps on the laptop (including text messaging), and easily share internet connections from your phone.

For things that still use cords, the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 offers two USB-C Thunderbolt ports and an HDMI 1.4 port on the left side and a microSD slot, one larger USB Type-A port, and a headphone jack on the other. We really would have preferred USB-C ports on both sides, if only to make it possible to charge from either side.

The Galaxy Book3 does include a fast USB-C charger capable of rapidly charging the battery in less than an hour in our tests. Though they claim a maximum battery life of up to 19 hours, we’re not sure what circumstances would give you that kind of life. In our general usage and especially when doing hardware-intensive things like gaming, we found 7-8 hours to be the norm.

While we’re on the topic of gaming, the Intel stock graphics hardware isn’t terrible. To get an actual gaming-rig level, you’d have to go up to the more expensive Galaxy Book3 Ultra, which stocks high-end NVIDIA 3D acceleration for about $700 more. We tested a variety of games from Steam and Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass and the 360 Pro proved very capable of having a good time at lower, but not terrible graphic levels.

The Galaxy Book3’s price points are a moving target as we write this. The list price of $1700 for the Pro 360 seems high, but Samsung is currently selling it at a much more reasonable $1200 and the regular Book3 and Pro versions are even cheaper. This puts them in a much better position against competitors like Acer’s excellent Spin series of laptops. For those who want something smaller, the regular, non-flipping version offer smaller screens but otherwise identical hardware. If you don’t mind the size, the Pro 360 is an excellent desktop alternative with plenty of bells and whistles.