I use laptops for work and personal reasons and I’m typically switching between Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms for various use cases. In the past I’ve had a desktop system I used for Linux, an iMac for Mac needs, and a Macbook Pro and Windows laptop for other needs. Yes, that’s a lot of “things”.
Over the last few weeks I looked at options to consolidate all my systems down to 2. The new M1 Pro based Macbook Pro lineup gave me a system that according to benchmarks would run laps around my 3 year old maxed out iMac. I’ve not seen anything yet to suggest the benchmarks were wrong. The new Macbook Pro 14″ is amazingly faster.
However, I also travel (a lot) and the new M1 Macbook Pro is… beefy. This is the largest Macbook I’ve ever owned and it’s HEAVY and thicker than any previous system I owned. I almost returned it until I realize how much desk real estate I would not need by getting rid of the iMac.
That left me with a Macbook Pro laptop that replaced my aging Macbook Pro and my iMac, but would not be ideal for travel.
So I needed something light to travel with. Ideally for work reasons I wanted something that could easily run Linux on the hardware and not having to run it in virtual machines. Light and easy to run Linux requirements ruled out any Apple laptop. I also like to be able to do gaming on Windows which requires some high end specs and resources.
Light, top end specs, Linux compatible… the search was going to be complicated.
The Windows laptop ecosystem is … massive. There are so many options it can make your head spin. I was able to filter down to “light” by looking at ultrabook reviews and seeing who was making light options and what model range they offered. All the top brands claim to have ultrabooks – but I quickly found some ultrabooks are more ultra than others. Any laptop that claimed gaming specs was also … beefy. Some gaming laptops are now more than 5lbs or 2.5kg.
After researching dozens of laptop options, I was most intrigued by the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro. The 13″ laptop model claimed to be “ultra light”. I checked the specs to fact check that… The 13″ laptop weighs just 1.9lbs or 0.87kg! That’s insanely light weight. In fact I’ve never owned a laptop that light. It also has an amazing screen, a very nice keyboard, there’s an Intel Core i7 option, they offer an option in white, and … oh… it’s only offered with 8GB of unified memory. That won’t do for performance or gaming needs. I would need something with at least 16GB of memory.
In the Samsung specs I saw there was a 16GB memory option – that would work. I then noticed there’s only an option for 16GB if you configure the 15″ laptop with the Core i7 processor. The 15″ screen would be a nice upgrade for visual purposes – and with the Samsung screen with a no bezel layout, it doesn’t make the laptop huge. The 15″ laptop weighs just slightly more at 2lbs or 1kg. That’s even more insane!
The only downsides left I could see with this system were:
1) The GPU (Intel Iris Xe) is pretty low power for gaming purposes. For example, the latest release of Halo Infinite would not even run at the lowest settings with it.
2) The SSD was maxed out at 512GB. After a little research I discovered the 15″ laptop has an extra M.2 NVMe slot.
I went to my local computer store to see one in person. Was it really that light? What does 2lbs/1kg even feel like? Well, it’s insanely light. It feels lighter than my iPad Air. But what struck me most seeing it in person – that screen! The 15″ AMOLED screen is just … beautiful.
I bought the system because… I had a plan. I could overcome both of my issues. I don’t need the gaming options when I travel, so I could overcome the video card shortcomings at home by using an eGPU connected via the Thunderbolt 4 port. The Razer Core X Chroma is a great eGPU enclosure with Thunderbolt 3 for an input, and with the Chroma model you also get an integrated USB hub (and RGB lighting) as well. I purchased a MSI GeForce RTX 3070 card from my local computer store which fit snugly into the enclosure. That hardest part of this entire setup was finding a RTX 3000 series card.
I was able to buy a 2TB Samsung 980 Pro SSD card and upgrade the storage on the laptop. Upgrading is an easy process of basically peeling off the plastic bottom of the laptop and inserting the card. I also opted to remove the (very slow) storage that was shipped with the laptop. My benchmark of the read/write results showed the Samsung 980 Pro was about 100% faster across the board compared to the basic 512GB mini SSD chip the laptop shipped with.
So now I have a Core i7 laptop, with a RTX 3070 video card for games and processing video, a 2TB internal storage drive, and the system weighs 2lbs/1kg. The laptop has bluetooth and can connect to an Xbox game controller. The screen is beautiful and has HDMI so I can connect it into my 32″ 4k monitor.
And best of all – the Linux compatibility is better than any laptop I’ve ever owned. I use a dual boot setup. I’ve not had to edit a single file to get any part of the system to work. Using the latest Ubuntu, screen brightness buttons, sound, wifi, hibernate… everything just … works. The ONLY part that does not work is the fingerprint security login – but I never expected that to work with the state of Linux biometric support. I will say – this laptop flies in Linux – compile times shred the aging desktop I replaced and I was blown away by the performance.
So the ultimate ultrabook to start 2022 off is absolutely without a doubt the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 15″. After a few weeks of use I can confidently say this is a great system (with the SSD upgrade) that also has a ton of expandability and options through its great offering of Thunderbolt, USB, and HDMI ports. It runs Windows 11 and Linux flawlessly and with the SSD expansion has a massive amount of very fast storage available.
In the end my desk is now down to 2 laptops. A Macbook Pro 14″ and a Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 15″ offer me everything I need and both easily connect to my 32″ external 4k monitor.
