Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 review: an exquisite convertible laptop with a bit too much noise

Samsung Galaxy Book5 360: Two-minute review

The Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 is a 15.6-inch convertible laptop, featuring a fully rotatable lid for tablet-style use.

It has a remarkably slender form, thanks to its ultra-thin profile. However, while the Galaxy Book5 360 is light for a laptop, it’s still a little too weighty to be used as a tablet comfortably for extended sessions.

From a build quality perspective, the Galaxy Book5 360 is engineered as well as the best laptops around. Every material and component feels premium, including the lid hinge which operates flawlessly, offering plenty of stability without being hard to move. The port selection is good as well, although a few placements are a little inconvenient.

The Galaxy Book5 360 doesn’t suffer from bloatware as other laptops can, and the preinstalled Samsung apps are useful in the main. These include a capable note-taking app and Air Command, which features useful shortcuts to compliment S-Pen functionality. There’s also AI Select for drawing and searching sections of the screen.

On the issue of performance, the Galaxy Book5 360 handles productivity and entertainment workloads with aplomb, and is capable of streaming ultra high definition content with relative ease.

The vivid display is a real boon in this regard too, as it renders images sharply and with plenty of vibrancy. However, it is overly prone to reflections, especially when displaying darker colors, as well as appearing slightly washed out at other times, although these are minor drawbacks that fail to ruin the experience.

The Galaxy Book5 360 can also handle gaming too, although it doesn’t always offer the smoothest experience in this regard. More of an issue is the fan noise generated even under fairly tame workloads, as I found out when downloading a sizable game file.

Fortunately, this noise isn’t too disruptive, and is mercifully muffled somewhat, owing to the vents being placed underneath the Galaxy Book5 360; but lift it up and it gets louder. On a positive note, it at least remained relatively cool.

I did find that the Galaxy Book5 360 excelled when it came to typing, thanks to the exquisite feel of the keys, which are satisfyingly damped and very responsive. They’re also generously spaced, which is all the more impressive given a number pad is present. The trackpad is equally brilliant, offering silky smooth and accurate swipes.

Samsung’s S Pen is included with the Galaxy Book5 360, and works well on the touchscreen, tracking accurately and quickly. However, there is a slight dragging sensation as you use it on the touchscreen, which might deter keen illustrators, but I found it acceptable for general writing and drawing. It’s also a shame there’s nowhere to store it.

The Galaxy Book5 360 is certainly a capable and exceptionally designed 2-in-1 laptop, and stands up well to the competition. It might lack the formidable performance of some of its rivals, but it’s still powerful enough for most needs, and while it’s not exactly cheap, it’s still priced competitively.

If you’re after another excellent convertible laptop, the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 is the best in this regard, while the Microsoft Surface 7 is the best overall laptop in our view. Both have similar price tags to the Galaxy Book5 360, and perform excellently in most areas too.

Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 review: Price and availability

• Starts from $1,349.99 / £1,249 (about AU$2,148)
• Available now in grey
• Middle of the market

The Galaxy Book5 360 starts from $1,349.99 / £1,249 (about AU$2,148) and is available with a grey finish only. It’s configurable with 256GB, 215GB, or 1TB of storage, Intel Ultra 5 or Ultra 7 processors, and 130V or 140V 8GB Intel Arc GPUs, although all get 16GB of RAM, a 15.6-inch display, and come with Samsung’s S Pen stylus. There’s also a Pro version, which also has a larger 16-inch screen.

For a 2-in-1 laptop, the Galaxy Book5 360 is well-priced considering the quality on offer. It locks horns with some of the best Windows laptops on the market, such as the new Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, which we think is the best Windows laptop overall right now. This laptop also has a touchscreen, but it isn’t convertible like the Galaxy Book5 360. It also uses an ARM processor, so beware certain apps aren’t optimized or even compatible with this architecture yet.

If you’re looking for one of the best 2-in-1 laptops, then the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 takes the crown in this sector. We found its performance excellent, while the battery life seriously impressed us. The Surface Pro 11 also uses an ARM processor, though. Base models are cheaper than the Galaxy Book5 360, but prices are more closely aligned when comparing like-for-like configurations.

Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 review: Specs

Here are the specs for the Samsung Galaxy Book5 360:

Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 review: Design

• Phenomenal build quality
• Light, but still heavy for tablet use
• Free from bloatware

The Galaxy Book5 360 makes a terrific first impression. It’s extremely thin with no superfluous bulges, adopting completely flat planes on all its sides. It’s reminiscent of the best MacBook Pro models in this regard, which is high praise indeed.

It’s also quite light, which is exactly what you want in a convertible laptop. However, it’s still not as light as the best tablets or even the new Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M4), meaning it’s probably too cumbersome to be used as a tablet for the majority of the time.

All of its materials look and feel premium, and the hinge mechanism fulfils the brief of being smooth yet stable. Both joints have a small footprint and so avoid getting in the way when the Galaxy Book5 360 is folded back completely.

The screen takes up most of its allotted real estate, thanks to the very thin bezels which join seamlessly with the display itself. Again, it’s another indication that the Galaxy Book5 360 is constructed to the highest standards. And despite this slender design, the Galaxy Book5 360 still manages to fit in a 2MP, 1080p camera.

Port selection is sufficient too: on the right you’ll find a USB-A port, a microSD slot, and a 3.5mm audio jack. On the left are two USB-C ports, which use the Thunderbolt 4 protocol and can be used for charging the Galaxy Book5 360. However, it’s a shame these aren’t split across both sides, as this would’ve made plugging in the Galaxy Book5 360 more convenient if you’re restricted on your outlet placement.

The HDMI port is also on the left, and comes before the two USB-C ports, while the 3.5mm audio jack is the furthest of the three ports on the right, which again I find inconvenient, given that a headphone cable will have to cross over other connections on that side.

The Galaxy Book5 360 features a full-size keyboard with a number pad, something I personally welcome given its advantages for productivity purposes. It also includes a Microsoft CoPilot key, for quickly bringing up the brand’s AI tool. The trackpad is large and offset to the left slightly, and feels just as premium as the rest of the Galaxy Book5 360.

My one complaint from a design standpoint is the lack of storage for the S Pen; it can’t attach magnetically to the body, as is the case with the best iPad models, for instance, and there’s no slot or clip for it either.

The Galaxy Book5 360 is mercifully free from bloatware, and the included Samsung apps justify their inclusion. Samsung Notes is easy and intuitive to use with plenty of helpful S Pen-related functions, while Samsung Studio is available for editing video content.

There’s also AI Select, which recognizes images and text you draw around and searches for the selection via Microsoft Bing. It has its uses, but as with most AI-related features, results can vary – sometimes quite wildly.

Another convenient app is Air Command, which summons a pop-up menu with useful shortcuts for the S Pen (this menu can also be opened by clicking the S Pen’s button, although this didn’t always seem to work for me). There are shortcuts creating a note and Smart Select, which works similarly to the Windows Snipping Tool, allowing you to drag a box to screenshot portions of the screen, which you can then overlay with text or drawings, as well as share it with others.

Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 review: Performance

• Capable for common tasks
• Great typing experience
• Multitasking not the best

The Galaxy Book5 360 is a capable performer on the whole, although it isn’t spectacularly fast. Basic tasking is taken in its stride, but slowdowns are common when too multitasking – even when multiple browser tabs are open, it can suffer, which is a surprise given its 16GB of RAM.

It can easily handle common productivity workloads, such as word processing and spreadsheet creation, and when it comes to entertainment, the Galaxy Book5 360 is more than capable of streaming ultra-HD content without breaking a sweat; for instance, I managed to watch 4K videos on YouTube without any issue.

Thanks to its Intel Arc GPU, the Galaxy Book5 360 is endowed with some credible gaming prowess too, even when playing some AAA titles. For example, I managed to play Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced at 1080p with a mixture of medium and high graphic settings, albeit not at a consistent 60 frames-per-second and with frequent micro-stutters. However, it was still perfectly playable enough to enjoy the experience, and will likely suffice for more casual players.

The more egregious aspect of running demanding workloads on the Galaxy Book5 360 is the noise it generates in the process. The fans whirred constantly and quite intensely while I played; and more worryingly, this noise also persisted when downloading the game itself, which shouldn’t have been too onerous a task to warrant the fan speed.

Thankfully, the noise is somewhat muffled thanks to the underside vent placement. and in neither case did the Galaxy Book5 360 become unduly hot; there was a mere warming confined to a small area underneath.

The Galaxy Book5 360 excels more when it comes to typing. The keys feel tactile yet light, and are a joy to use thanks to their damped feel and responsive nature. They’re also spaced out nicely – a very impressive feat considering there’s a number pad squeezed in here too, as these can severely compromise ergonomics on laptop keyboards in my experience.

A number pad is also extremely useful from a productivity standpoint, so combining this with its great typing experience means the Galaxy Book5 360 rivals some of the best laptops for writers.

The touchpad is exceptionally smooth and responsive too, making for effortless navigation. The large surface area also helps in this regard, and thankfully I made no accidental swipes or clicks when resting part of my hand on it while typing.

The AMOLED display is another highlight of the Galaxy Book5 360, with its 1080p resolution providing a much sharper image that I was expecting, rivalling laptops with higher pixel counts. 4K content is rendered with plenty of vibrancy, although darker scenes are prone to generating reflections.

Thankfully, this isn’t too disruptive, and the Galaxy Book5 360 does a commendable job of preventing bright lights in the room from dominating the image completely. However, content can look a little washed out at times, and the Galaxy Book5 360 is still best used in environments with optimum lighting.

The touchscreen is accurate and responsive when used with fingers or the S Pen. The latter also tracks very well, although the screen does grip a little too much when drawing. Professional illustrators might lament this fact the most, but those who merely like to doodle and write notes by hand should find the S Pen’s performance perfectly acceptable – although its button is quite awkward to use, owing to its placement and flush design.

Samsung Galaxy Book5 360 review: Battery life

• Long lifespan
• Outlasts key rivals
• Fast to charge

The Galaxy Book5 360 has a 68.1Wh battery, which Samsung claims can last up to a staggering 31 hours. When I ran our test video on a continuous loop until it depleted, the Galaxy Book5 360 lasted 20 hours and 30 minutes – considerably short of the brand’s claims, but still a very impressive performance nonetheless.

It trounces many of its rivals, including the aforementioned Microsoft Surface 7, which only managed just over 10 hours, as well as the Surface Pro 11, which gave up the ghost after 14 hours and 33 minutes.

Samsung also claims the Galaxy Book5 360 is quick to charge, and it’s correct: I managed to get it from empty to full in just over 90 minutes, using the included charger and USB-C cable.

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Book5 360?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if… 

Samsung Galaxy Book5 360: Also consider

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Book5 360

• Tested for one week
• Performed variety of tasks
• Laptop testing experience

I tested the Galaxy Book5 360 for about a week, during which time I used it for all kinds of tasks. I edited documents and spreadsheets, and used Google Chrome for browsing, sometimes with multiple tabs open to test performance further.

I also streamed 4K content on YouTube, and played Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced to test its gaming potential. I used the included S Pen for writing and drawing in Samsung’s various creative apps.

I have been using laptops for decades, for both work and entertainment. I also have previous experience reviewing various devices, including other Windows models and Chromebooks.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed: March 2025