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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom the Tech Chap, and there must be a good billion or so laptops like
00:20this to choose from.
00:21Your premium, thin and light, ultra-portable laptop that costs between like a thousand
00:26and fifteen hundred quid or so.
00:28You've got your Dell XPSs, your MacBook Airs and Pros, even the LG Gram series.
00:32This is the 16, which I'll come back to later.
00:35So the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro has its work cut out to really stand out and convince you
00:41to drop about twelve hundred pounds to buy it.
00:44The good news, though, is that this does have a couple of tricks up its sleeve.
00:48And actually, while it's not perfect, I do have a couple of issues with it, actually.
00:52This is one of my favorite laptops of the year so far.
00:56But does that mean you should actually buy it?
00:58Well, let's find out.
00:59And if you do enjoy this video and want to see more from me, a cheeky little like and
01:02subscribe would be lovely.
01:05Cheers.
01:07So I had a brief hands-on with the Pro a few weeks back, along with its siblings, the much
01:11more affordable standard Galaxy Book and the flipping Pro 360.
01:15But I think it's this guy, the Pro, that I've been most excited to get in for a proper
01:19review.
01:20I'll tell you what, though, I'd forgotten just how ridiculously thin and light this
01:24thing is.
01:26It's a 15.6 inch laptop.
01:27It weighs just over one kilogram, so about 2.3 pounds, which is insane.
01:32And of course, there's also the smaller 13 inch version, which weighs even less.
01:35And it gets even more interesting because the LG Gram 16, while still holding the title
01:40for the world's lightest 16 inch laptop, very specifically 16 inch, the 15.6 inch Galaxy
01:47Book Pro weighs 100 grams less.
01:50I'm really, really impressed by this.
01:51I think the design is an absolute standout.
01:54Samsung have nailed it.
01:55And my only wish in terms of the design, well, the screen really, would be for a 16 by 10
02:01aspect ratio.
02:02I think 16 by 9 is looking a little bit old fashioned these days.
02:05If they'd just been able to reduce this chin, make the screen 16 by 10, it would have been
02:09almost perfect, I think.
02:10So that's one sort of subjective criticism, although some people may prefer that.
02:15So this design paired with this gorgeous AMOLED screen, which is also impressively color accurate.
02:21This is a genuinely lovely laptop and travel companion.
02:26But while I think the design and the screen are the sort of standout headline features,
02:30we're actually getting a pretty good all around spec with this as well.
02:32We're getting the latest 11th gen Intel processors, either an i5 or an i7, along with 16 gigs
02:38of RAM and 512 storage.
02:40So pretty nicely specced.
02:41And also, as you can see from this little sticker down here, it takes the Intel Evo
02:45certification branding.
02:47You can see it's just click the YouTube video there.
02:51Intel's Evo.
02:52So it's basically passed all their tests and guarantees you a certain level of performance.
02:58And Samsung is pitching these as all about portability with connectivity.
03:02So we're getting the latest Wi-Fi 6E, although you'll need a compatible router with that.
03:06Thunderbolt 4, quick share if you want to share files with your Galaxy phone, and also
03:10a second screen option if you've got a Galaxy Tab S7 or S7+.
03:15So if you are in the Galaxy ecosystem, then you are getting some extra benefits.
03:19And also the 13 inch version of this gets 4G LTE support, although not 5G weirdly, but
03:24not the 15 inch, which is a bit disappointing.
03:27So I've been using this for a little over a week now and performance is snappy and responsive.
03:31It just breezes through pretty much everything you'd want to do on it.
03:34And while of course we're not getting a dedicated graphics card, we do get Intel's onboard
03:39Iris Xe graphics, which are about twice as fast as the previous 10th gen processors.
03:45And you can get away with playing some fairly demanding games, if you don't mind dropping
03:48the resolution or the graphics settings a little bit.
03:51Take Rainbow Six Siege, I just about scraped 60 FPS with low settings at 1080p and with
03:57high settings at 720.
03:59In Fortnite at 1080p with medium settings, I just about got 60 FPS, but really I had
04:05to drop to low to avoid the huge frame drops.
04:08I think 720p with medium settings was the most consistently smooth way to play.
04:14So you can get away with a bit of light to moderate gaming on this, although I think
04:17realistically most of you guys probably wouldn't be looking to play games on this if you were
04:21going to buy it.
04:22This is going to be great for students or as like a home slash work laptop or just a
04:26travel companion, given how thin and light this thing is, or even as a bit of a creator's
04:30tool.
04:31I was actually able to comfortably edit some light 4K video on this, not your fancy 10
04:36bit 422 stuff that I can shoot on this.
04:38They wouldn't really deal with that, although you probably just use proxies.
04:41But if you're just taking 4K video shots on your phone, then Premiere Pro or DaVinci
04:46will easily be able to handle it.
04:48Although I think 1080p video is really where this is at.
04:50Or indeed a bit of Lightroom, Photoshop, general everyday stuff.
04:54There's nothing really about this in terms of the specs that makes it stand out compared
04:57to the other Ultrabook competition.
04:59They're still the same 11th gen low 15 watt power chips with the integrated graphics,
05:05but still more than capable for 95% of what most of us would use it for.
05:10I was actually surprised just how good the sound quality was.
05:14It's clear.
05:15It gets pretty loud and has more punch than you'd expect, given the fact it has downward
05:18facing speakers.
05:20What I will say, though, is that as someone coming from regularly using the MacBook Pro
05:24and MacBook Air with the M1 chip, you do notice the fans were up on this opening a few Chrome
05:30tabs or doing some light sort of Lightroom editing.
05:34You do hear them were up.
05:35It's not particularly loud, but it's noticeable.
05:38And also it can get quite warm, even when I was just downloading some games to test
05:42on here.
05:43I could feel it get quite warm underneath, not uncomfortably so on the keyboard.
05:46So none of these are a deal breaker.
05:48Just to make you aware, you can hear the fan and it can get a bit warm under load.
05:52Although if you are worried about the fan noise, what you can actually do is dive into
05:56the settings and change the fan speed to match the ambient sounds around you.
06:01So if you're in a coffee shop and you're doing something, whatever it is on your laptop,
06:05then you can adjust it and keep it to a lower level, although, of course, that will then
06:09restrict performance.
06:10I'll tell you what, though, battery life on this thing is excellent.
06:14I got about 11 hours from this as I was writing my review and using Chrome for my notes, and
06:19that was with 75% screen brightness and using the better battery setting.
06:23So this will comfortably get you through a full workday and maybe even a little bit more
06:26depending on how you use it.
06:28And the other good thing is it charges reasonably quickly because we've got the bundled 65-watt
06:32chargers.
06:33Do you hear that?
06:34Just out of the blue, I wasn't even doing anything.
06:38It stopped now.
06:39Periodically, you'll just hear a whoo, but not the end of the world.
06:44Going back to the design for a second, and personally, I think this thing looks great,
06:49especially with the slim bezels and this large precision trackpad.
06:52Samsung calls this Mystic Silver, although I'm going to rename it mostly white because
06:57really it's just the top of the lid that's actually silver, although the blue version
07:00is a consistent color.
07:03Around the sides, we get two USB-C's, one with the latest Thunderbolt 4, which is great
07:07to see, plus a full-size HDMI.
07:09And on the other side, we get USB 3.2 type A's, a 3.5mm jack, and a microSD card reader.
07:15Actually, just quickly, you know how I mentioned the big trackpad earlier?
07:19It's lovely to use.
07:20Don't get me wrong.
07:21It's got a really smooth, glossy surface, lovely, very, very big.
07:25It fills up this entire palm rest, and it's nice and responsive.
07:28It's Microsoft Precision Drivers, but it has one of the loudest clicks.
07:36Your friends might want to kill you if you bring this out and use it like that in front
07:39of them.
07:40In other news, the power button doubles as a fingerprint reader, and you can see on this
07:4415-inch model, we have this full numpad as well, which is nice, and a very comfortable
07:48white backlit chiclet keyboard.
07:51No complaints there.
07:52And this is being shot on the webcam, both the audio and the video.
07:56It's not terrible.
07:57It's 720p, but it is a little bit noisy.
08:00I'm quite smooth as well, which I guess is not a bad thing.
08:03And also, you'll see there's a bit of screen wobble there, actually, so don't want to make
08:07you feel dizzy.
08:08So, 720p, 1 megapixel, it's in a good location at least, so yeah, that's the webcam.
08:15So far, so good then, but I think I've left the best till last.
08:18I think.
08:19Maybe.
08:20It's the AMOLED screen, of course.
08:21There are not many AMOLED or OLED screens on the market.
08:24You've got a few options from Razer and Dell.
08:27And being self-emissive, i.e. having no LED backlight, means the blacks are actually black.
08:33There's no backlight bleed or blooming like certain iPad Pros, for example, and colors
08:38look much punchier than on a regular LCD screen.
08:41And particularly, HDR movies and photos look fantastic on this, and it supports the VESA
08:46DisplayHDR500 standard for high dynamic range, which means this can peak at up to 500 nits
08:52of brightness, which is pretty good for an OLED.
08:55But just as importantly is color accuracy, especially if you're editing or color correcting.
09:00And Samsung claims 120% coverage of the very demanding DCI-P3 color gamut, although with
09:06the tools I've got here, I could only measure 98% DCI-P3, although that's still very, very
09:12impressive.
09:13And even better actually, you can switch from the P3 to the sRGB to the Adobe RGB color
09:18gamuts in the display settings for the best results based on what you're working with
09:21and if you want to cater to one particular standard, which is not something you see very
09:25often.
09:26It's a really nice feature.
09:27It is full HD though, so 1080p, which is fine and the standard really for a 15-inch laptop
09:32like this.
09:33I suppose maybe a 4K option would have been nice, like we do on the Dell XPSs.
09:37You can go 1080p or 4K, depending on how you want to use it and also what your battery
09:42life is because of course going for the high res destroys your performance and your battery.
09:48So should you buy one?
09:49Well, yeah, I think so.
09:51I think for £1,200 for the entry-level spec, pay a little bit more for the i5 and more
09:55RAM and more storage, you know, you know the drill.
09:58I think this is a terrific laptop.
10:00You get that thin and light portability of an LG Gram.
10:03You get an AMOLED screen, which is not very common at all, which really does make it stand
10:08out.
10:09It's got top-notch performance and doesn't cost an absolute fortune.
10:12Oh, and really good battery life as well.
10:14Yes, it's got a loud clicky trackpad.
10:17The webcam is average and it can get a bit warm and the fan can heat up a little bit
10:21as well.
10:22And maybe a 16 by 10 screen would have been nice aspect ratio.
10:25But other than that, there's not a whole lot to criticize here.
10:29So if you are after a ultra-portable thin, light, premium laptop, which I think a lot
10:34of people are to be fair, then I would definitely give the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro a serious
10:40look.
10:41I think this is a terrific laptop.
10:42I'll leave a link below if you do want to check it out.
10:43And also, I think only about 12% of you beautiful viewers are actually subscribed.
10:48Most of you just watch and then bugger off, which is fine.
10:51But you know, come join the Tech Chat family.
10:53So hit that subscribe button.
10:55Thank you so much for watching, guys.
10:56I'll see you next time right here on the Tech Chat.