Latest news with #CoreUltra5
Mint
03-07-2025
- Mint
Samsung Galaxy Book5 Pro: A laptop for Android loyalists who secretly desire Apple's ecosystem play
Is this you, an Android loyalist with all the trappings of one—an Android phone and tablet, a Wear OS smartwatch, maybe even a Google TV, but with a Windows PC? If you've caught yourself casting furtive glances at Apple's ecosystem of devices and how they all work better together, but are simply too invested, financially or ideologically, to the Android/ Windows combo, you'll want to see how tightly integrated Samsung's phones are with their laptops, something I found out much to my delight when I tested the new Galaxy Book5 Pro ( ₹1,31,990 for the Core Ultra 5, 16GB RAM and 512 GB storage unit reviewed). Straight out of the box, the Book5 Pro is among the sleekest and best put together laptops one has seen in recent times. Sporting a sleek matte-finish all-aluminum design in a premium graphite grey color, the 14-inch Book5 Pro variant weighs in at just 1.23kg, and despite being a mere 11.6mm thick, it feels sturdy and avoids any signs of keyboard deck flex and screen wobble and is weighted down enough so you can open the lid one handed. Design details Courtesy a wedge-shaped profile that reminds one of the MacBook Air of yore, the Book5 Pro manages to pack in a full complement of ports, from a full-sized HDMI 2.1 port, a micro-SD card slot, and a USB-A 3.2 port to a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports on the left edge. Inside, the full-sized chiclet-style backlit keyboard is quiet, comfortably spaced although somewhat shallow in key travel, and the capacious glass trackpad is smooth and excellent for Windows gestures. For what it's worth, there's a larger 16-inch model with a bigger screen, a bigger battery and a numpad on the keyboard. Yet, that screen is quite something else. On the 14-inch variant I tested, the 16:10 aspect ratio, 2880 x 1800-pixel AMOLED is nothing short of gorgeous, with excellent contrast and deep blacks, HDR modes, and 120% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut that would put a smile on video editors and cinema buffs alike. Plus, an anti-reflective coating that's a savior in brightly lit offices. The native 120Hz refresh rate is expectedly smooth, and since it's dynamic, it can crank down to 48Hz for power savings, depending on the content on the screen. Touch responsiveness is excellent, comparable to modern smartphones, and super handy if you want to quickly scroll through a document, annotate a PDF or zoom into maps. No pen input here, which you can find on the 360-degree variant. Watching your favorite OTT series is a serious treat on the Book5 Pro—the screen is aided by a quad-speaker system with Dolby Atmos, the latter delivering full and clear audio, if a little held back on thump. Under the hood Under the hood is a now-familiar Lunar Lake series of Intel chips which have previously impressed with their performance-battery life balance. On the Book5 Pro, there's a power-sipping Core Ultra 5 226V chip (four performance + four efficiency cores) paired with 16GB of fast LPDDR5X memory soldered-on and a snappy 512GB NVMe solid state drive. The overall package is fast enough for demanding multitasking—several windows of altogether too many Chrome tabs alongside editing RAW files in Adobe Lightroom, in my instance. Performance remains consistent over time and thermals are well managed, even under moderate loads over the whole day. The integrated Intel Arc graphics aren't meant to replace a dedicated graphics card, but they handle casual gaming and short video edits just fine, and definitely a step above previous generation integrated graphics. All this while running the best performance-oriented battery plan, while away from a power outlet. Across several days of use, one saw between 11 and 13 hours of mixed use—browsing, word processing and spreadsheets, Zoom/Teams calls, the odd short video edit and some wind down at the end of the day on Netflix—with about 15% left in the tank. The bundled 65W USB-C charger is about the same size as a largish smartphone charger, and it charges the laptop to a little under 45% in 30 minutes—even if you have to carry a charge for an overnight trip, at least you're not lugging a large power adaptor around (bonus: it can even charge your Samsung smartphone or tablet as well). Ecosystem play So, about that ecosystem play. Used on its own, the Book5 Pro does well to compete in the AI PC market, with its onboard NPU (neural processing unit) coming in handy in practical Galaxy AI applications like real-time captioning and on-device translation, or cleaning up old photos via Photo Remaster, or the equivalent of circle to search (AI Select) for anything you see on the screen. Of course, this is alongside the usual Copilot+ features like Cocreator, AI summarization, seen on other Lunar Lake laptops. Where it really shines is if you have an accompanying Galaxy smartphone or tablet, which you can link to the laptop by signing into the same Samsung account. Once connected, you can easily share files between both devices, use your phone's higher quality front facing camera as a laptop webcam, control your phone/tablet's interface and apps directly from your laptop's keyboard and mouse, and even extend your laptop's display to a Samsung tablet for an on-the-go second screen. Each one of these features work reliably, and while these are all features one has seen on MacBooks/iPhones/iPads previously, the fact that Samsung went ahead and integrated its portfolio this much into a Windows laptop deserves some praise. It gets very close to matching the seamlessness one experiences on Apple devices, and that's a win for the Book5 Pro. Verdict There's a lot to love about the Galaxy Book5 Pro—a gorgeous AMOLED display, good battery life and a useful set of AI capabilities on top of Windows' Copilot+ skills, all packed into a reliable, practical and take-everywhere design. Paired with other Samsung devices that you may already have in your life, it offers a rather unique offering in the world of Windows laptops.
Tom's Guide
21-06-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Forget Prime Day! I found 7 AI back to school laptop deals starting from $649
Not everyone needs an AI laptop, but if you're in the market for a new machine there are many benefits to purchasing one. For example, AI laptops are great with power efficiency, so it means you can spend more time using cloud-based chatbots like ChatGPT without zapping your machine's battery life. AI laptops also boast great spec sheets, so they're a terrific investment if you want a machine that'll last you a few years. Now that back to school laptop sales have gone live, some of the best AI laptops we've tested are now on sale. My favorite sale comes from Best Buy. For a limited time, Best Buy has AI laptops on sale from $549. The sale includes machines from Lenovo, Asus, HP, Samsung, and more. These machines are all great for school, casual gaming, and everything in between. Below are the best deals I recommend as back to school season kicks off. (For more deals, check out our guide to this week's Best Buy coupon codes). This monster of an ultraportable packs plenty of performance and power efficiency, thanks to that Core Ultra 5 chipset — all inside a slim and sleek aluminum chassis with a gorgeous 16-inch 2K display. Trust me when I say if you're in the market for a Windows laptop, this is an amazing one to buy. You also get 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The Lenovo Yoga 7 converts between laptop and tablet mode, with a 14-inch 2K display that can reach up to 600 nits of brightness. This model comes configured with an AMD Ryzen AI 300 CPU, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD storage. Plus, this is one portable device weighing in at 3 lbs. If you're looking for fast performance, long-lasting battery life and excellent visuals for a fair price — the Swift 14 AI is a smart pick. This configuration packs a 14-inch 2.5K touchscreen display with 120Hz refresh rate, Snapdragon X Elite CPU, 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD. This is one of the best Copilot+ PC deals available! This 15.6-inch laptop features a Snapdragon X Plus CPU for impressive performance and power efficiency, complemented by 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. It's all topped off with its gorgeous 1080p display. MSI has done an incredible job packing the power of Intel Lunar Lake and an incredible 32GB of RAM into a super lightweight, compact design. This 13-inch laptop is a portable powerhouse that many professionals should flock to. It features a 13.3-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED display, Core Ultra 7-155H CPU, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, and Intel Arc graphics. This svelte PC packs enough style to make Mac fans jealous. Under the hood you'll find a Ryzen AI 9 365 CPU, 24GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. We especially like the 14-inch 2880 x 1800 OLED display with 120Hz refresh rate. Save big on this Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptop, which packs improved battery efficiency and top-tier AI processing. In addition to its powerful CPU, this XPS 13 configuration is also equipped with 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 13.4-inch OLED 3K display. In our Dell XPS 13 2024 review, we praised this laptop's amazing 19+ hours of battery life.
