Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro long-term review: a replacement for my MacBook Pro?

Since 2018, I have used a MacBook as a self-employed person, and for two years a MacBook Pro. Since I have used a Samsung Galaxy smartphone instead of an iPhone since last year, I wondered whether the new Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro might be more interesting for me. Samsung was kind enough to provide me with a Galaxy Book 3 Pro with 16 GB of RAM and a 16-inch AMOLED display as a loaner.

Why I want to move away from the MacBook

The MacBooks with M1 and M2 are extremely powerful. In my daily work, though, I run into limits with Office applications:

• In Excel for Mac, I can’t merge the data from several Excel files into one file at the same time, as you can on Windows.
• OneNote has far fewer features on the Mac and is hardly integrated with other Office applications.
• Outlook has problems with multiple Exchange accounts, especially in combination with Teams. I need that combination every day.
• Power BI doesn’t exist.

That is why I already had the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360. It solved my problems, but was too slow for video editing. That is the mammoth task for any processor, because you work with very large files.

Design and ports

The 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Pro is a decent bit larger than my 13-inch Galaxy Book 2 Pro. The trackpad has become much larger, but no longer sits centered under the keyboard, it is offset to the left. I haven’t warmed to that, because I have a little Monk inside me and like everything symmetrical.

The exterior design is very positive. The hinges disappear into the body, so the back is continuous like on the MacBook. The device is only 12.8 mm thick and the 16-inch model weighs 1.7 kg, which is surprisingly light. Apple is the market leader in making tech devices look high-quality and elegant. Samsung apparently can do that now too.

I think it’s a shame that in Germany there is currently only the anthracite device. The case is matte, but attracts fingerprints terribly fast. On a few websites, I saw that a beige version could be coming soon. I hope that isn’t a hoax.

There are plenty of ports:

• HDMI
• two USB-C
• another USB port
• microSD multicard reader
• headphone jack

The fingerprint scanner works quickly and reliably, a clear improvement over the predecessor.

Switching from the MacBook

The switch wasn’t difficult. I copied all my data over with an external hard drive. All the important applications exist for Mac and Windows, and the Office suite runs better on Windows anyway. I was able to export my bookmarks from Safari and import them into Chrome without a problem. I had imagined it would be more complicated.

Link to Windows and other features

I was thrilled by the features that Windows offers in collaboration with Samsung. For me, Link to Windows is a total game changer. You mirror your Android smartphone on the laptop and control it completely from there, including all apps. Files can be moved back and forth without picking up the smartphone. Conversely, I can control the smartphone with the Galaxy Book’s mouse and keyboard.

I painfully miss that at Apple. There is iCloud for syncing notes, photos and documents, and you can take phone calls on the MacBook. But mirroring the iPhone on the Mac and operating all apps from there isn’t possible.

Speakers, performance and fan

• Speakers: On the Galaxy Book 2 Pro they were abysmal, on the Galaxy Book 3 Pro they are worlds better. Fortunately, that was fixed.
• Performance: With the new version of the Intel Evo i7 processor, the device is really strong. When editing my videos, I finally have the performance I’m used to from the MacBook.
• Fan: It still kicks in relatively quickly, for example when you just open a Word document. In the settings, you can reduce the fan noise, but then CPU performance drops. For light tasks, that is perfectly fine. For video editing, it is a crutch. Samsung still has room to improve here.

Verdict

The Galaxy Book 3 Pro was a loaner, and unfortunately I had to give it back. What remains is the realization that with the new series, this notebook can definitely keep up with the MacBook. It is packed with useful features like Link to Windows or, on the 360-degree models, the built-in S Pen. I miss all of that on my MacBook, which I had to switch back to with a heavy heart. As soon as the beige version of the Galaxy Book 3 is available, I will replace my MacBook completely.