In terms of build quality, Samsung succeeds with a sleek design, an anodized aluminum chassis and impeccable finishes. Be careful, the hood retains a lot of fingerprints. As the name of the PC suggests, its hinges rotate 360°, allowing it to be used as a display stand or a touch pad. With this model, a stylus (S Pen) is also provided, which is very appreciable when other brands sell theirs separately.
Efficient and sensitive to pressure, it has the advantage of not having to be recharged since it does not have a Bluetooth connection, and consumes almost no energy. However, its functionalities are very limited and the side button is only used in drawing applications, in order to use the eraser in particular. Magnetized, it sticks easily to the cover of the computer.
The touchpad is very fluid, but sinks a bit too much under pressure at the front; as for the keyboard, it prides itself on good responsiveness, although the finesse of the keys is a bit confusing at first. The backlight is powerful and adjustable on four levels and a fingerprint reader acting as an on/off button is located at the top right of the keyboard, which is very practical for unlocking the computer quickly. Not having an infrared module, the webcam cannot offer this functionality of Windows Hello.
PC keyboard with fingerprint reader.
This films in 1080p, a good thing in theory, but the image quality is frankly average, very noisy even when the light is sufficient. In the dark, the result is – as always – much worse.
On the connector side, the PC is so thin that Samsung has only integrated three USB-C ports: a Thunderbolt 4, a microSD card reader and a mini-jack socket. It will therefore be necessary to obtain a hub to add USB-A or HDMI in particular. The wifi is in 6E, the latest and fastest standard, and the Bluetooth in 5.1.
Connectivity is limited by the finesse of the PC.
The four Phillips-head chassis screws are hidden under rubber feet. Unlike other manufacturers who glue the feet of their PCs, Samsung had the good idea of installing removable models, which are really practical for accessing the components. If the RAM is soldered, we can however change the M.2 SSD, simply covered with an adhesive, as well as the battery fixed by a few screws.
The good idea of removable feet.
The ventilation blows from time to time, especially when using demanding software, but remains very light: we found barely 33 dB under Cinebench. The single fan therefore rotates quite slowly, but coupled with the thinness of the chassis, this leads to significant heating of the computer. Above the keyboard, the metal is raised to 44°C, while the center of the keyboard exceeds 39°C. Nothing dangerous of course, and this is only valid in case of intensive use.
The PC heats up on the top of the keyboard in particular.
Our test model is equipped with a 1TB SSD (even if the retail version caps out at 512GB), 16GB of DDR5 RAM and the brand new Intel Core i7-1260P processor that we are testing for the first time. Clocked at 3.4 GHz and 4.7 GHz turbo, it incorporates the Alder Lake generation hybrid architecture with 12 cores in total: four performance cores and eight efficient cores.
It scored a performance rating of 91, higher than the Core i7-1165G7 found in many ultrabooks, but ultimately on par with an AMD Ryzen 5600U. More than enough for office automation and most tasks, but nothing dazzling. The chip also seems not to express itself completely, other laptops equipped with the same processor being for example 18% faster – we are thinking in particular of the Asus ZenBook Oled 14.
This is explained by the choice of a fairly limited thermal envelope (TDP) in the present case: if it is 28 W, we notice that during long treatments (more than 28 s), the TDP is confined to 20 W only, which is not the case with the Asus. Samsung has therefore deliberately restricted the processor so that it does not heat up too much, which is understandable in a particularly thin chassis. An assumed choice.
We also tested the SSD, which achieved 2.3 GB/s sequential read and 1.2 GB/s write. Nothing terrific. Finally, a word about the capabilities of the iGPU: it allowed us to play Diablo III graphics on « high » at 26 fps and at Overwatch set to low quality at 37 fps. Something to have fun with old titles or indie games that are not very greedy, but not much more.
We have rarely seen a computer so thin (barely 11.5 mm) and so light. Its 1.04 kg is barely felt in a backpack, and its charger does not really weigh down the whole thing: with 163 g on the scale, this is also one of the lightest and most compact blocks that we were able to test. From this point of view, the PC is a model of compactness for those who need to carry their computer regularly.
The charger is particularly compact.
Question autonomy, it lasted 7 h 20 min in video playback on Netflix, screen set to 200 cd / m2, headphones plugged in and volume at 50%, Bluetooth deactivated. This result is a little disappointing for a 13.3-inch model, the fault of a battery of only 63 Wh (probably to save space in the chassis) and the increased consumption of 12th generation Intel processors.
Strong points
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Neat finishes.
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Versatility of the 2-in-1 format.
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Ultra-compact and lightweight.
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OLED panel.
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Tiny charger.
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Quiet.
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Stylus provided.
Weak points
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Processor performance throttled.
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Slab prone to reflections.
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Heating at the top of the keyboard.
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Average autonomy.
Conclusion
How does grading work?
With its Galaxy Book2 Pro 360, Samsung is returning to the laptop market with a bang. This 13-inch version convertible into a tablet is a model of lightness and versatility, even if the performance is not completely there. The S Pen stylus is included and we appreciate the well-calibrated Oled screen of the PC, but the somewhat weak autonomy makes it miss the highest step of the podium. The computer will therefore delight mobile users, but not necessarily those who need high performance.
- Construction
- Performance
- Screen
- Audio
- Mobility / Autonomy