Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro review: A premium portable, but does it earn its ‘Pro’ name?

I was excited when the latest Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro landed on my doorstep to review, but its price creates a certain expectation, and its competition is as fierce as ever. Would I be impressed again?

There’s a lot to love about the Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Features like the touchscreen AMOLED display are as outstanding as I’ve come to expect from Samsung, and the 3.44-pound chassis is delightfully light for a 16-inch laptop. Gaming and graphics performance gets a noticeable bump from the newer Intel Arc integrated graphics. And finally, Samsung also gives you a double helping of AI with its own Galaxy AI stacked on top of Microsoft Copilot+.

However, a few drawbacks will keep the Galaxy Book 5 Pro from taking a top spot in our best laptops guide: The multitasking performance from the Intel Lunar Lake processor isn’t as snappy as I’d hope. While your mileage may vary regarding the limited keyboard key travel, the webcam and lack of facial recognition for Windows Hello login are nothing but disappointing.

Starting at $1,449, the Galaxy Book 5 Pro falls squarely in the premium laptop range, so the expectations are high, and the competition from other laptops in this category is ferocious. However, not everyone shares the same priorities on laptops, so let’s look closer at the Galaxy Book 5 Pro.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Specs and benchmarks

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Price and configurations

I reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro with an Intel Core Ultra 7 256V processor, an Intel Arc 140V GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 16-inch, 2880 x 1800 AMOLED touchscreen display. This is the mid-tier configuration for the 16-inch model, and it’s available for $1,649 directly from Samsung. At the time of publication, if you have a laptop from most major brands to trade in, you can get up to $500 off, though more common situations will see you get about $300. These enhanced trade-in values are only good for a limited time on new Samsung laptops.

As is typically the case with Samsung, you have limited configuration options. For example, dropping to a 512GB SSD will save you $200 ($1,449), and upgrading to 32GB of RAM while keeping the 1TB SSD will cost an additional $100 ($1,749) compared to our review unit.

The $200 premium for the 1TB SSD is an outlandish upcharge. I recommend sticking to the base model or jumping to the top configuration for the best value. If you don’t have a trade-in or the Galaxy Book 5 Pro isn’t on sale, it’s a premium-priced product. If it’s more than your budget will allow, look at our best Ultrabooks and 16-inch laptops, which include some more affordable choices.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Design

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro features a dark grey, traditional minimalist laptop design. Without the prismatic Samsung logo on the lid, you would be hard-pressed to differentiate it from at least a dozen other laptops on the market at a glance.

That may sound like a criticism, but it’s hard to argue that Samsung shouldn’t stick with a familiar design that people are used to. It just works.. The laptop is relatively thin and lightweight, and the beveled edge on the bottom means it's comfortable in your lap if a desk isn’t handy. If the exterior color bores you, consider picking up a laptop skin to liven things up.

On the inside, the display has fairly minimal bezels at the top and sides, but the bottom bezel is thicker than seems warranted. I have no doubt there are engineering or cost reasons why it wasn’t done, but Samsung could have shaved another half inch off the bottom bezel and the bottom of the laptop itself.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro is impressively light at 3.44 pounds, but not quite as thin as expected at 14 x 9.93 x 0.5 inches. Here’s how that compares to some of its rivals:

• HP Spectre x360 16 (2024): 4.3 pounds, 12.3 x 8.8 x 0.44 inches
• MacBook Air 15-inch M3: 3.3 pounds, 13.4 x 9.35 x 0.45 inches
• Asus ProArt P16 (2024): 4.08 pounds, 13.97 x 9.72 x 0.59 inches

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Ports

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The Galaxy Book 5 Pro should satisfy most people, although I wish there had been one change to its arrangement.

• 2 x Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Type-C
• 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
• 1 x HDMI 2.1
• 1 x headphone mic/jack
• 1 x microSD card slot

While you can quibble about whether it’s preferable to have a full-size SD card slot over a microSD, the one change I would have liked is having a Thunderbolt 4 port on both sides of the laptop for greater charging flexibility. Instead, Samsung stuck them both on the left side, so particularly when on the go, you may find yourself stretching the cord around the back of your laptop to charge.

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro offers a good-enough port array for a non-gaming laptop, but if you need more ports, our best USB Type-C hubs or best laptop docking stations guides can help.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Battery life

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro, which debuted last fall, is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V “Lunar Lake” processor, a chipset focusing on efficiency, which is good news for battery life.

Samsung put a 76.1Wh battery in the Galaxy Book 5 Pro, likely to maintain the light size and weight compared to many of its 16-inch competitors that are carrying a 99.9Wh battery inside. However, the trade-off was likely worth it, as you should still have no trouble making it through a typical day with this laptop. My standard workday has me juggling dozens of Chrome tabs, Photoshop, Asana, and Slack. Even at full brightness, I have battery life to spare at the end of the workday.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves surfing a set group of websites with video and static images while the display is set at 150 nits of brightness, the Galaxy Book 5 Pro lasted 12 hours and 25 minutes. That’s not enough for it to challenge for a spot among our laptops with the best battery life, but it holds up well against its nearest competitors.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Security and durability

For the privacy-conscious, the Galaxy Book 5 Pro offers the typical array of Windows 11 security features and a discrete security chip that is part of the Samsung Knox platform to ensure your laptop’s safety from a chip level.

You have a fingerprint scanner on the power button for secure sign-in, but I miss facial recognition for Windows Hello login. I’m surprised Samsung still hasn’t integrated Windows Hello login into its laptops, the company has vast experience with it on the mobile side with its Samsung Galaxy phones. However, the fingerprint reader is reliable and quick, so it’s not something that I would let sway my purchasing decision.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro doesn’t boast specific durability testing ratings, such as the common MIL-STD 810. Still, the chassis feels sturdy despite the laptop's thin profile, and there is no noticeable flexing or bending. An outright drop onto a hard surface likely won’t be kind to the aluminum chassis, but it should hold up fine to typical usage with the occasional bump and scrape in your laptop bag.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Display

The Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro features a 16-inch, WQXGA+ (2880 x 1800) touchscreen AMOLED display. Samsung is renowned for its displays, so it was no surprise to see the colors positively popping off the screen when I powered the Book 5 Pro on.

Obviously, this is most advantageous when watching videos. I watched the new 2025 Superman trailer to gauge how well it reproduced the much brighter version of Superman gracing the theaters this summer. The classic blue and red suit stood out prominently against the snowy backdrop, but what I noticed even more was how well the Galaxy Book handled gradients. In darker scenes, I could see an awkward blending of colors on my other monitors, while the Galaxy Book made it all seamless.

Brightness was similarly strong, with an average of 381 nits, which holds up well against anything but direct sunlight. I worked directly against a window at a local coffee shop on a sunny day (a rare thing in Wisconsin in February), and I never had any issues seeing the display.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Keyboard and touchpad

The Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro gives you an expansive touchpad and a full-size keyboard with a number pad, making full use of the larger chassis afforded a 16-inch laptop.

However, the thin chassis dictates that the key travel is limited, meaning you can’t depress the keys very far. This can be an issue when it comes to accuracy, which in turn can slow down your typing speed. I ran into this while testing on 10fastfingers.com, only reaching 82 words per minute with 97% accuracy. That’s below my average 88 words per minute at 99% accuracy. I’m sure this would improve over weeks and months with the Book 5 Pro, but if a great typing experience is of paramount importance to you, I’d recommend looking at our best laptops for writers to find better alternatives.

The massive touchpad measures 4.4 x 6.1 inches, offering smooth navigation and a satisfying click. This is about as large a canvas as you can ask for Windows 11 gestures, so you’ll have no trouble with even four-finger swipes. Depending on your needs, you may still want to invest in one of the best wireless mice, but this is as good a trackpad experience as you’ll find.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Audio

The bottom-firing speakers on the Galaxy Book 5 Pro are loud and deliver reasonable audio quality, but the best computer speakers will blow them away. Listening to my typical playlist of Creative Writing Scores, the swelling instrumentals easily filled my small office, but the soundscape is limited, so don’t expect to feel immersed in your audio with these speakers alone.

Whether you enjoy bass-heavy music, a more three-dimensional audio experience, or are regularly in shared environments, investing in wireless headphones will pay dividends for your ears.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Performance and heat

An Intel Lunar Lake processor powers Samsung’s Galaxy Book 5 Pro, precisely the Intel Core Ultra 7 256V. After reviewing several laptops with the chipset, we know what to expect from Lunar Lake since it debuted in 2024. Performance takes a backseat to battery life. That doesn’t mean you can’t churn through tasks with it. I spent days using the Galaxy Book 5 Pro and could carry out my work, but there are some caveats.

The primary trade-off with Lunar Lake is reduced multi-core performance compared to its competitors. This predominantly impacts more complex apps, like Photoshop, or if you juggle numerous apps simultaneously. I’m guilty of both, so Lunar Lake isn’t an ideal fit for me, but if you focus on one app at a time or largely web browsing and productivity apps, you’ll never experience any slowdowns. I loaded up my typical array of a dozen Google Chrome tabs in two windows without stuttering or dropped frames. However, piling on five tabs of YouTube videos playing at 1080p while playing YouTube Music created some stuttering.

If you have more aggressive performance needs for tasks like content creation, consider one of the best laptops for Photoshop or video editing. I want to be clear: it’s not that the Galaxy Book 5 Pro can’t do these tasks, so if it's only an occasional thing for you, then you’ll be fine, but there are comparably priced and even cheaper alternatives that are better suited to that sort of work.

Beyond battery life, the other positive impact of its power-sipping processor is that the Galaxy Book 5 Pro keeps its cool; the hottest temperature our lab testers recorded following a 15-minute video test was 86.8 degrees Fahrenheit, significantly below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Gaming and graphics

While integrated graphics are improving, you will not mistake the Galaxy Book 5 Pro for one of the best gaming laptops or cheap gaming laptops. Unless your gaming consists largely of emulators, indies, or AAA titles from several years ago, this isn’t the laptop for your gaming needs.

It performed well in the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark, managing 61 frames per second. To put that in perspective, that expansion debuted in February 2019, so if you have a Steam Library consisting of titles from the turn of the decade, the Book 5 Pro could knock the dust off those, but don’t expect much more.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: AI features

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro gets two dollops of AI with Samsung’s own Galaxy AI adding to the Copilot+ PC suite of AI features from Microsoft.

AI adoption is rising, but even if it’s not part of your workflow, it’s worth looking at some features. It’s a safe bet that you won’t use all of them, but it’s equally safe to bet that there’s at least one or two that could save you time, whether this laptop is for work or personal use.

First, look at Samsung’s Galaxy AI features, which are exclusive to Samsung laptops. For photographers, Photo Remaster uses Galaxy AI to clean up blurry photos you may have considered lost. AI Select is another Galaxy AI feature that makes searching the web quicker and easier with an AI-powered search triggered by selecting text, images, or QR codes.

Copilot+ features continue to expand, but you currently have features like Recall that can help you find anything you’ve seen or done on your laptop. Cocreator is Microsoft’s image-generation tool, allowing you to make custom images with just a text prompt. Windows Studio Effects augment your laptop's webcam, while gamers may appreciate Automatic Super Resolution boosting their frame rates without sacrificing visual fidelity.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Webcam

Run, don’t walk to pick up one of the best webcams if you are buying the Galaxy Book 5 Pro and need to appear on video calls regularly. Even in my office, where I have extensive control over the lighting conditions, the image looked grainy and somewhat blurry. None of the various AI features were able to improve on this, although I will say the blur detection is remarkably good, but the fact that I’m a little blurry too kind of ruins the effect.

If you never do video calls or it’s a rarity, then this will be a nonissue for you, but if you make regular video appearances and want to look your best, you’ll need to invest in an external webcam.

Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro: Software and warranty

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro comes with Windows 11 Home, which is the typical array of bundled Windows software — Samsung heaps quite a few apps on top, 19 by my count. The good news is that most of them are pretty small, and you can uninstall them if you aren’t going to make use of them.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro has a typical one-year warranty, but it can be extended with Samsung Care+ or Samsung Care+: Extended Warranty, starting at $99.

Bottom line

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro is a solid laptop with plenty to recommend, but there are just a few too many weaknesses for a laptop at its price point. There’s no question that the Samsung name carries some weight, and if you are deep in the Samsung ecosystem, that changes your value proposition, but for most people, there are better alternatives.

This is partly due to the highs for the Book 5 Pro not being sufficient to tip back the scales against its negatives. The display is bright and vivid, but not overwhelmingly, with options like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x beating it on both counts for much less. Twelve hours and twenty-five minutes of battery life is enough, but not near the top of the charts in 2025, where numerous laptops go to 15 hours and beyond. The added Galaxy AI features are potentially interesting, but the best AI PCs share the same features as Copilot+ PCs.

Now, the negatives aren’t that bad. Performance doesn’t match the strongest alternatives, but for most typical tasks, it’s snappy. The keyboard is not my favorite, but I would adjust to it over time. The webcam is the only indefensible piece to me, but not everyone uses their webcam.

Now, using Samsung’s trade-in deal or finding the Galaxy Book 5 Pro on sale will change the equation. At under $1,200, it would compete against very different competition than its full $1,449-$1,749 price tag. But at full price, I recommend you skip the Galaxy Book 5 Pro and peruse our best laptops page for some of our top-rated alternatives.