Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review

The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 (starting at $1,399/£1,399, $1,899 as tested) is the latest iteration of Samsung’s 2-in-1 laptop for pros. The Windows 11 machine is large but light, featuring a gorgeous 16-inch AMOLED display and a spacious keyboard. Its 13th gen Intel Core CPU makes it fast enough to handle multiple open windows, and its Samsung Multi Control feature lets you connect to Galaxy phones and tablets.

Interoperability with Samsung devices may not mean much to some folks, especially if they’re not invested in the Samsung ecosystem. The slew of Samsung apps that come preloaded on the laptop might be nothing more than bloatware to some users. But if you’re already using the company’s electronics, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 could be a great complementary device.

I had extensive hands-on time with the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 and found it as capable as its predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 — which was my favorite laptop of 2022. The new model retains the large display, thin design, and roomy keyboard I loved about last year's laptop, though its battery life has taken a hit. But is the new Galaxy Book Pro 360 worth the upgrade?

In this Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review, I’ll detail what this new 2-in-1 laptop has to offer and if it’s right for you. Will this device land on our best 2-in-1 laptops list? Read on to find out.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Price and configuration 

• Starts at $1,399
• Samsung S Pen included

The entry-level Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 has a starting price of $1,399. This configuration has a 16-inch AMOLED display with 3K (2,880 x 1,800) resolution, a 16:10 aspect ratio and a 120Hz refresh rate. It sports a 13th gen Intel Core i5 CPU, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage.

The top-end model has the same 16-inch display and packs an Intel Core i7 processor, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. All configurations come with the Samsung S Pen stylus.

Our $1,899 review unit has the aforementioned 16-inch display, Intel Core i7 CPU, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Specs 

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Design 

• Lightweight design
• Easy to carry around 

Like its predecessor, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is a convertible 2-in-1 laptop. That means you can use it as a traditional laptop or as a tablet. The latter mode should be useful for creatives, especially since the notebook comes with the S Pen stylus. Placing the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 in tent mode is ideal for watching streaming content.

The notebook is large but relatively light at 13.9 x 9.9 x 0.5 inches and 3.7 pounds. One of the reasons I was a fan of the previous model was because it was so thin and light. I’m glad the latest model retains this aspect.

In terms of style, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is a relatively modest-looking device that won’t look out of place among some of the best laptops.

Its all-aluminum build makes the notebook feel durable and premium. This premium look holds true for both laptop and tent mode. It's a device that doesn't feel out of place wherever you use it, whether that's at a cafe or your office. It's an overall elegant machine.

You can get the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 in either Graphite or Beige. The Graphite finish of our review gives the laptop an air of sophistication and is my preferred color option. Beige looks good too, but I prefer electronics with darker colors. Aside from a small Samsung logo on the lid, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is basically just a big black slab, which I think is perfectly fine.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Display 

• Gorgeous AMOLED display
• Great for streaming content

The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360’s 16-inch 3K (2,880 x 1,800) AMOLED display with its 16:10 aspect ratio and 120Hz is perfectly suited for both work and play. But how does it fare in our display testing?

Per our brightness test, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360's display reached an average of 380.6 nits of brightness. This is lower than Samsung’s advertised 400 nits of brightness, but not terribly far off. It’s a tad brighter than the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 (373 nits) but dimmer than both the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 (431.6 nits) and MacBook Pro 14-inch 2023 (441 nits).

We pointed our colorimeter at the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360’s screen and found it achieves 120.1% of the sRGB color gamut and 85.2% of the more demanding DCI-P3 color space (the closer to 100%, the better). In contrast, the Surface Pro 9's achieves 106.1% of the sRGB color gamut and 75.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, while the MacBook Pro 14-inch achieves 118.5% and 84.% in those respective tests.

In the Delta-E test, where lower numbers point to more accurate displays, Samsung’s convertible scored 0.2 just like the Surface Pro 9.

Overall, I found the display bright and colorful in my own usage. This is evident in The Mandalorian season 3 trailer. Colors are vibrant but not overly so. All the small details in the alien environments are also clearly visible and distinct. If you’re going to watch streaming content on this device, you’re likely going to have an enjoyable experience.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Keyboard and touchpad 

• Spacious keyboard
• Responsive touchpad 

I enjoyed typing on the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360’s keyboard and I’m happy to report that this is the case with its successor.

Writing the majority of this review on the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360’s roomy keyboard was effortless. It has one of the best keyboards of any laptop I've reviewed. The keys deliver a satisfying amount of resistance, even for someone like me who prefers the best mechanical keyboards. The ability to adjust the backlight to adapt to ambient lighting conditions is also a plus.

The large touchpad feels smooth to use and is very responsive. It always succeeded in accurately reading all of my swipes and gestures. The touchpad is as intuitive and easy to use as the keyboard.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Ports 

• Generous number of ports
• Includes HDMI and USB-A ports 

The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 has a generous number of ports. This includes one HDMI, two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C, one USB-A, a microSD card slot and a headphone/mic jack.

It’s commendable that Samsung included a USB-A port. Many ultra-thin notebooks like the MacBook Air M2 and the upcoming HP Dragonfly Pro have done away with USB-A. But the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 proves you can include at least one USB-A on a svelte laptop.

This HDMI port is another useful port to have since it allows you to connect Samsung’s device to an external monitor without the need for an adapter or USB hub.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Performance 

• Similar performance to its predecessor
• Not great for playing games locally

The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 packs a 13th gen Intel Core CPU. Because of that, it delivers solid performance for everyday computing. During my own testing, I had upwards of twenty open tabs while running YouTube. Though the notebook started to run hotter, open web pages didn't start lagging when I switched between them.

The fact that I can have so many open tabs with a video running speaks well of this laptop's performance. But how did it do in our official testing?

On Geekbench 5.4, which measures overall CPU performance, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 scored 1,782 on the single-core portion of the test and 8,250 on the multi-core. (It scored 1,789 and 8,292 (respectively) on Geekbench 5.5.) These values are close to the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360, which scored 1,719 and 9,043 on those respective tests.

How do these numbers compare to the competition? The Surface Pro 9 scored 1,633 and 8,541, respectively, on Geekbench 5.4. The MacBook Pro 14-inch scored 1,953 on the single-core portion and 12,154 on the multi-core test. Overall, Samsung’s device does respectively in terms of performance.

The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p using Handbrake in 7 minutes and 59 seconds. This Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 and Surface Pro 9 both took 9 minutes and 34 seconds to complete the same task. The Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 7 is glacially slow compared to both devices (12:18).

Since the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 relies on Intel Iris Xe graphics instead of a discrete graphics card, you’re going to have a rough time playing games locally on the device.

Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm averaged a passable 33 frames per second at 1080p and an underwhelming 25 fps at 1800p. The Surface Pro 9, which also utilizes Intel Iris Xe graphics, averaged 24 frames per second. If you want to play video games on this device, I suggest streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming or GeForce Now.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Webcam 

• Sharp 1080p webcam
• Good color accuracy

I wasn’t impressed with the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360’s mediocre 1080p webcam, so I’m happy to see that its successor’s webcam has been improved — even if the quality still isn't the best it could be.

I tested the webcam at our office and found the image was somewhat washed out and a tad grainy. The image quality isn't terrible, and as I said, it's much better than the previous model's webcam. But despite the improvements, I was still disappointed by the overall image quality.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Audio 

• Clear audio quality
• Lacks bass

The Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 quad speakers deliver solid audio. Everything from highs, lows and mids come through crystal clear. The sound never gets muddled, even with the volume cranked all the way up. With that said, the bass sounded too thin for my tastes.

The speakers are ideal for listening to podcasts and conversational content. MKBHD’s video review of the Mac Mini 2 and his Waveform podcast both sounded great. Unfortunately, listening to music is a disappointment. Iron Maiden’s Senjutsu album wasn't as punchy due to the all-but-non-existent bass. But lack of bass aside, the soaring vocals and grand guitar solos were nice and clear.

But if you can’t stand how the speakers sound, you can always use your favorite pair of the best headphones. 

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Battery life and heat 

• Disappointing battery life
• Doesn’t get too hot

The Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 lasted for a solid 12 hours in our battery test. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 has a considerably shorter battery life.

We conducted three separate battery life tests, which tasked the laptop with continuously surfing the web over Wi-Fi with the screen set to 150 nits of brightness. On average, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 lasted for 7 hours and 46 minutes. This is an abysmal average on its own, but when compared to its predecessor which lasted four hours longer, it's horrendous.

Aside from the Intel Core CPU, there is no difference between the new laptop and its last-gen iteration. We can't blame the AMOLED display since the Book 2 Pro 360 also had one. Our tester believes the CPU is the likely culprit, though Samsung's built-in apps could also be affecting battery life. I'm inclined to agree with our tester's opinion.

In our standard heat test, which involves running a heat gun over a device after streaming 15 minutes of full HD video on it, we found the hottest point to be on the center underside of the 2-in-1, which peaked at 92.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

We generally consider temperatures over 95 degrees as being uncomfortable. Since the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360’s hottest point doesn’t exceed that temperate, it should be fine to keep the device on your lap for extended periods.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Samsung Multi Control 

Like the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra and the other new Galaxy Book 3 laptops, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 has the Samsung Multi Control feature. This lets you control your Galaxy smartphone with the laptop’s keyboard and touchpad. It also enables you to copy, paste or drag and drop files between devices. The Second Screen feature turns Galaxy tablets into an additional monitor.

I tried Multi Control with the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra and found it worked fairly well. I moved the laptop's cursor over to the phone's screen (and vice versa) is weird at first, but you'll acclimate quickly. This feature is a good way of quickly dragging photos to your laptop if you need to edit them, for example.

I also tried the Second Screen feature with the Samsung Galaxy S8 Ultra. The tablet's enormous display makes for a fantastic secondary screen, though you're free to use Second Screen with any compatible Galaxy tablet.

Outside of Multi Control, there are other interconnectivity options available. For example, you can get calls and texts from your phone and laptop via the Microsoft Phone Link app. With the Phone Link app, you can access Android apps installed on your mobile device on the laptop.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review: Verdict 

The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is close to being a great 2-in-1 convertible laptop. It has reliable performance for everyday work and is light enough to comfortably carry around. The device also serves as a decent Windows tablet thanks to its responsive touchscreen. Its biggest failing, and it is indeed a huge one, is the atrocious battery life — which is borderline unacceptable for a non-gaming laptop.

Middling battery life aside, deciding whether or not you want the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 arguably comes down to how invested you are in the Samsung ecosystem. Multi Control and features meant to work in tandem with other Samsung devices are a major selling point. However, if you own one of the best iPhones or the best iPads, you won't be able to utilize this laptop's Samsung-specific features.

On its own, the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is a solid device. But if you're looking for an alternative convertible option, the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 7 is a fantastic choice. And even though it's now a generation old, you could still opt for the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 since it has similar performance to the newest version but better battery life. And if you're willing to spend more for a machine with superb battery life, the new MacBook Pro 14-inch is a viable option.