Look around for laptop recommendations and Samsung isn’t the first name that would pop into your mind. Yet, the third generation Book 3 Pro 360 is a remarkably mature product that belies Samsung’s somewhat recent re-entry in the space, and if you’re someone who rocks a Galaxy smartphone, this is hands down a strong contender… here’s why. It’s a mouthful of a name but at its core, the Book 3 Pro 360 is a 16-inch laptop that can bend all the way backwards on its rotating hinge into a tablet-style device.
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Prop it up in tent mode as a standalone display for watching a movie or fold it into a tablet for sketching and note-taking with the included S Pen stylus — you get the picture. All this flexibility doesn’t come at the expense of portability and at 12.8 mm/1.66 kg, it’s impressively sleek and light for a premium 16-inch laptop, yet without a trace of flex or give in the chassis or the lid. And there’s no scrimping on ports either — two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, an HDMI port, a headphone jack, a microSD card slot and surprise, surprise, a USB Type-A port as well — so there’s no need to carry around a USB-C dongle.
What’s odd is that there’s no silo to stow away the included S Pen. The large screen affords the Book 3 Pro 360 a keyboard with a numpad on the side and an expansive touchpad, although I’d have much preferred slightly better key travel on the chiclet-style keys. That display, though. Samsung products are known for having great screens, and the Book 3 Pro 360 cements that reputation. Sample this — the 16-inch AMOLED display has a 3K (2800x1800 pixel) resolution, which lets everything from everyday web browsing to a Netflix documentary shine on that vivid and punchy display.
The 16:10 aspect ratio allows for more screen real estate for productivity applications and the 120Hz refresh rate keeps everything pleasingly fluid. If anything, the brightness levels are a tad lower than one would have liked, especially if you’re operating in bright, outdoor environs. The AKGtuned quad-speaker system with Dolby Atmos support works well with the mid and high tones but lacks depth, expectedly so for a thin laptop. Armed with the latest 13th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and 16GB of memory/1TB of storage, the laptop is best suited for productivity needs, image editing and sketching and of course, media consumption.
Just don’t expect the integrated Intel Xe graphics to handle heavy games or complex 4K video edits and you should be fine. Samsung amps up the Windows 11 experience with a bunch of Samsung apps, to sync notes, auto-connect your Galaxy Buds, control your Samsung tablet from the laptop and use the tablet as a second screen — super seamless if you’re already heavily invested into the Samsung ecosystem, less so if you’re not. The bigger, higher resolution display and powerful internals take a toll on the battery life, topping out at around seven hours of use.
There’s a lot to like about the Book 3 Pro 360 portability, a spectacular display (with S Pen support), abundant ports, and enough power for day-to-day tasks, plus the bonus of working well with your existing Samsung devices… all at a premium yet not unreasonably high price. Rating: 8/10 Price: `1,79,990 (as tested)
The writer is a tech columnist and commentator and tweets @2shar