The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 is the successor to last year’s Galaxy Book Pro 360, an excellent ultraportable that remains one of the best laptops you can buy.
Samsung’s new model for 2022 looks a lot like the old one, but that’s hardly a bad thing — the Galaxy Book Pro 360 is a svelte 2-in-1 that’s easy to carry and sports a beautiful 1080p AMOLED touchscreen. However, the new Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 does make some significant improvements over its predecessor, including an upgraded 1080p webcam and the latest Intel Alder Lake laptop CPUs.
With just those two improvements, this laptop looks set to address every complaint we had with the original model. But there’s more to this new Samsung 2-in-1 than those upgrades; here’s everything we know so far about the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360: Specs
| Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 13.3-inch | Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 15.6-inch | |
| Price | $1,249 | TBA |
| Display | 13.3-inch Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) 120Hz touchscreen | 15.6-inch Super AMOLED (1920 x 1080) 120Hz touchscreen |
| CPU | Intel 12th Gen Core i5/i7 | Intel 12th Gen Core i5/i7 |
| GPU | Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics | Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics |
| RAM | 8GB/16GB/32GB LPDDR5 | 8GB/16GB/32GB LPDDR5 |
| Storage | 256GB – 1TB PCIe SSD | 256GB – 1TB PCIe SSD |
| Ports | Thunderbolt4 (1), USB-C (2), headphone/mic, microSD | Thunderbolt4 (1), USB-C (2), headphone, microSD |
| Webcan | 1080p FHD webcam | 1080p FHD webcam |
| Size | 11.9 x 7.9 x 0.45 inches | 13.9 x 8.9 x 0.46 inches |
| Weight | 2.29 lbs | 3.1 lbs |
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360: Price and release date
The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 will become available for pre-order March 18 ahead of its April 1 availability at retail, at a starting price of $1,249 for the 13-inch model. Samsung hasn’t confirmed a starting price for the larger version, but given that the difference was about $100 between the two sizes of the original Galaxy Book Pro 360, it’s likely we’ll see a similar increase that ought to put the starting price of the 15-inch model somewhere around $1,349-$1,399.
You can order either size Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 in silver, graphite, or burgundy color schemes. Note that Samsung’s S Pen stylus is included, which is a nice touch.
Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360: Design
The design of the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 is almost identical to that of its predecessor. Again, that’s hardly a bad thing: The original Galaxy Book Pro 360 was thin and light, with a beautiful display framed by nice thin bezels.
The same appears to be true of the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360, which is nearly exactly the same size as the original Galaxy Book Pro 360 but a few ounces lighter. The new Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 is a convertible like its predecessor, meaning you can fold the display all the way back to lay flat against the bottom of the laptop, turning it into a giant tablet. There’s also a spot on the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 where the S Pen stylus will magnetically attach for easy access.
Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360: Display
The original Galaxy Book Pro 360 had a beautiful 1080p AMOLED touchscreen, and its successor appears to have basically the same display.
The Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 comes with either a 13.3-inch or 15.6-inch Super AMOLED 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) 120Hz touchscreen. The “Super” part is just a Samsung branding buzzword that basically means its an AMOLED with touch functionality, but in my experience it still looks pretty super in person. That’s due in part to the fact that AMOLED displays can render more vibrant colors, inkier blacks, and better contrasts than non-OLED displays.
Our only big complaint about the original Galaxy Book Pro 360 was that the screen was a little dim (264.4 nits of average brightness, based on our testing) compared to most premium laptops. The 2022 model looks set to address that, as Samsung claims the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 should be able to achieve 370 nits of brightness, or even higher with HDR content.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360: Ports
Like its predecessor, Samsung’s Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 doesn’t give you a plethora of ports to work with — but it does give you more than many competing ultraportables, which tend to shave off as many ports as possible (sometimes even a headphone jack) in the name of a thinner, lighter laptop.
To wit, the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 sports 3 USB-C ports (one of which is also Thunderbolt 4), a microSD card reader, and a headphone/mic jack. The charger is USB-C as well, so you have the freedom to plug it in on either side of the laptop.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360: Performance
These laptops will ship with 12th Gen Intel Core i5/i7 CPUs and 8 to 32GB of RAM, which should ensure they’re speedy little Windows laptops.
This is a meaningful upgrade over last year’s model, which is good because the original Galaxy Book Pro 360 delivered solid but unimpressive performance, lagging behind the competition. However, that model topped out at an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU and 16GB of RAM.
This year’s model can be configured with twice as much RAM if you’re willing to pay for it, and the fact that it now has Intel’s latest Alder Lake CPUs is a big deal because they’re built on a hybrid architecture that’s very similar to Apple’s incredible M1 chips. In fact, Intel’s latest laptop chips deliver power to rival Apple’s M1 Max in our performance tests, so we have high hopes for how well the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 will perform in the same tests.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360: Webcam
The grainy 720p webcam built into the original Galaxy Book Pro 360 was one of its worst features, which is why it’s so exciting that the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 will come with an upgraded 1080p webcam that should deliver much better image quality.
In addition to capturing better images, the 1080p FHD webcam in the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 will have wider viewing angles (87-degree field of view vs. 77-degree FOV on 2021 Galaxy Book Pros) than last year’s models. Also, there’s a new Auto Framing feature that automatically adjusts the frame during a video call to keep you centered, even if you move around. It sounds very similar to the Center Stage feature Apple introduced with its 2021 iPad Pros, and we like that simple trick so much that we named it one of the iPad Pro 2021’s best new features.
Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360: Battery life
Samsung claims the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 can last for up to 21 hours on a full battery, which is better than the 16 hours Samsung advertised on last year’s model.
While it didn’t last quite that long in our in-house battery test (which tasks the laptop with endlessly surfing the web over Wi-Fi with its screen set to a brightness level of 150 nits), the original Galaxy Book Pro 360 did last an impressive 13 and a half hours before running out of juice.
If this year’s model can last that long or longer, it’ll easily be one of the longer-lasting Windows laptops on the market. There’s good reason to think it will, too, as Intel’s new chips are supposed to be more power-efficient than ever.
Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360: Outlook
Barring any surprises come review time, the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 looks poised to be one of the best Windows 2-in-1s we see this year.
The original was one of our favorite laptops of 2021, and its successor looks to be fixing all of the big problems we had with the original Galaxy Book Pro 360. The only clear downside right now is the increased price .
It’s hardly a dealbreaker, but we’ll have to wait until we get one in for review to see whether the upgrades feel worth the extra cost. Stay tuned!
