Samsung has announced a new variant of the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 convertible. A model that was already available with Intel’s twelfth-generation Core processors and now mounts a Qualcomm SoC, allowing it to break the autonomy record in a laptop with a whopping from 35 hours video playback.
The Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 maintains its convertible format with a 360-degree hinge system and the possibility of various modes of use, including laptop and tablet. It is compatible with Samsung S-Pen stylus working on a multi-touch screen with Super panel 13.3-inch AMOLED, native FHD resolution, support for HDR and a high brightness level (500 nits) to be able to handle it in any lighting condition. Its premium chassis looks great, and the convertible is as light (1.04kg) as it is slim (11.5mm).
The great novelty compared to the current model comes from its processor. For the 2023 model, Samsung has gone with the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chipset. It’s the fastest Qualcomm has for PCs, but we’ll have to wait. Let’s see if it measures up against Intel or AMD x86 CPUs. The chip maker says it should be fast enough to close the gap by offering 85% better CPU and 60% better graphics performance than the previous version.
It also remains to be seen how the Windows 11 operating system that it preinstalls works, since on other laptops that use this same SoC (such as Lenovo’s ThinkPad X13s) Windows applications that are not optimized to run natively on ARM they are terribly slow. It’s a workhorse that Microsoft and its partners have to fix if they want to take on Apple on the ARM platform.
If in performance there are doubts, in connectivity it must be said that this Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 is outstanding, with native support for networks 5G, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. Another of its advantages will be autonomy. Samsung estimates its video playback capacity at 35 hours. In the real world it will be somewhat less, but certainly we can’t recall another laptop with this battery life.
The Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 (2023) will debut in South Korea for 1,493 dollars to change and we will have more details of the international launch on January 16. An attractive model, there is no doubt, although we have reservations about that ARM+Windows union that until now has not made the grade (in performance) and for this reason we continue to see a better option in the current variant with an Intel processor.
