While the Samsung Galaxy Pro 15 offers a lot of nifty pop in a tiny package, we can’t help but feel the company that they intended to mimic (Apple) did it better than they did. Don’t get us wrong, the Galaxy Pro 15 is good, but it’s missing some key ingredients…
Review unit specs:
- 11th Gen i7 CPU
- 16GB DDR4 (soldered on)
- 1TB m.2 PCIe Storage
- 15.6″ AMOLED 370nit FHD Non-Touch Display
LCD
By far the most disappointing thing with the Samsung Galaxy Pro 15. It’s a 15.6″ FHD, Non-Touch, HDR, Adaptive Color, display. It’s bright, its colorful, but it’s FUZZY! This is because it uses Samsung’s Pentile architecture, which was at first created for their phones. The result is a display that’s fuzzy, has a red-ish like haze, and is fatiguing to look at for long periods of time when looking at text or graphics. Samsung claims they did this for reliability – we feel it was a huge mistake considering Apple’s displays are nearly perfect to work with for long periods of times.
Speakers
“Sound by AKG”. Don’t be proud of this. Loud enough for a Podcast or movie, but limited by their Lows for any kind of decent audio reproduction. They don’t distort too bad and are usable but if you’re an audiophile, you’ll want a nice set of headphones. They are mediocre at best.
Keyboard / Trackpad
Fantastic, both of them. The keyboard is precise and sports full size keys with a numpad. They are smooth, comfortable, tactile, responsive, and have a back light as well for those dark rooms or airplanes. Trackpad too is great. Multi gesture, spacious, and doesn’t ghost too bad. The click is firm, maybe too firm for some people, but is otherwise a solid trackpad.
I/O
- Thunderbolt 4
- USB-C with USB-C charging.
- Full size HDMI
- NO ethernet
- 1x USB 2.0 port
Features
Wifi 6, Bluetooth 5, Windows Hello Finger Print reader, a 720p webcam (which is awful), back-lit keyboard, and an HDR display. Feature-wise they packed things pretty well. Like the new 2022 Honda Civic any features this laptop is missing will either go forgotten or ignore beacuse it has just about everything you need… except a good display.
Mobility
Super thin. Almost unbelievably so, and super light as well. It’s made of an aluminum chassis that isn’t as robust feeling as Apple’s but is nonetheless a premium feeling material. We feel like it will hold up to moderate abuse fairly well. Battery life was questionable, however. Other reviewers sported 10 hours of battery life, though we could never get past 8 hours in our tests.
Notes
Samsung’s customer support is a little questionable and they offer nothing in terms of drivers or BIOS updates on their website. Users are left with Windows Updates as being your principal source of updates on the machine. This undoubtedly makes things convenient while using the computer, though if you ever had to “service” the machine, it could be a pain.
Benchmark
25/ 89 / 24 according to UserBenchmark. It’s fast, it’s peppy, and it boots quick as well. For everyday use, productivity tasks, even light audio editing we don’t think you’ll want for more speed or power. The only thing you may not want to tackle is heavy gaming or 4K / RAW video editing.
Who’s it for?
Mobile Audio Editor, Podcaster, Journalist, Student, Accountant.
Who’s it not for?
Heavy gamers, heavy video editors.
Conclusion
It’s a great computer, and we think those who buy it will like it, though for our money, we’d rather have a MacBook Air for a lightweight traveler, or a MacBook Pro for a powerhouse – we don’t think most people will miss the 2″ lost screen real estate. This is must more a competitor for the MacBook Air and less of a “Pro” machine.
