Galaxy Book 5 Pro review: Best of Samsung, Microsoft, Intel rolled into one

With AMOLED display, strong performance, long battery life, and an expanding suite of AI features, the Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro ranks among the best Windows-based laptops currently available

Samsung has begun integrating its suite of artificial intelligence (AI) features into its Intel-powered Windows PCs. Case in point is the recently launched Galaxy Book 5 Pro, certified under Intel's Evo platform and equipped with the first wave of Galaxy AI features for laptops, alongside Microsoft’s Copilot Plus platform. With this combination, the Galaxy Book 5 Pro presents the best of Intel, Microsoft, and Samsung. But does it qualify as the best Windows-based PC? Let us explore:

 

Design

 

The Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro (14-inch review unit) features a premium metallic chassis and a lightweight build, aligned with the Intel Evo platform's form factor requirements. Samsung's build quality stands out, particularly in its resistance to fingerprint smudges—preserving the metallic finish over time better than most, including Apple.

 

 

The laptop adopts a wedge-shaped profile—tapering towards the front and thicker at the rear. While this design became prominent with Apple’s MacBook Air, which moved to a flatter design in 2023 with the M2 iteration, its inclusion here is both nostalgic and practical. From a functionality perspective, the wedge design allows for the inclusion of mainstream ports such as a full-sized HDMI and a USB-A port—features that are becoming increasingly rare in thin and light laptops.

 

Display and Audio

 

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro has a 14-inch 3K resolution Dynamic AMOLED 2X touchscreen (review unit). The 8-bit panel supports an adaptive refresh rate, dynamically switching between 48Hz, 60Hz, and 120Hz depending on content requirements, optimising battery consumption. While not natively compliant with high dynamic range (HDR), it supports HDR streaming and features always-on HDR. Samsung has also implemented an adaptive colour tone feature, akin to Apple’s True Tone, which adjusts the display’s hues based on ambient lighting conditions.

Features aside, the display is a highlight. It is vivid, bright, and boasts a productivity-oriented 16:10 aspect ratio, offering more vertical space. Touch functionality adds convenience, especially with Samsung’s AI features such as AI Select—a Windows PC variant of Google's Circle to Search on Android—enabled via Microsoft Edge. It allows one-click information extraction and web search from any selected screen area.

 

One limitation, however, is the restricted hinge movement—the display does not open a full 180 degrees, which is unexpected for a touchscreen laptop.

 

The audio system features four speakers with Dolby Atmos support for spatial sound. The speakers offer clear, well-balanced output with decent loudness. However, audio lacks richness at maximum volume. For the best experience, volume levels of 70–80 per cent are recommended. Additionally, Dolby Atmos is supported on wired audio accessories, but not wirelessly.

 

Camera and Microphones

 

The laptop sports a 2MP front-facing camera with support for 1080p full-HD video. While it lacks hardware-based features like Windows Hello facial recognition or contextual enhancements, it complies with Microsoft's Copilot Plus requirements. As a result, it offers features such as auto-framing (to keep the user centred), background blur (with options for standard and portrait bokeh effects), and eye contact correction.

 

The camera is sufficient for everyday use, though not exceptional—images appear soft, and quality degrades noticeably in low-light conditions. While Copilot Plus features improve the experience, they are imperfect. Background blur occasionally struggles with subject separation, and the eye contact feature appears slightly unnatural and in need of refinement.

 

The dual microphones positioned above the camera deliver surprisingly effective noise suppression, particularly beneficial in outdoor environments such as cafes and shared workspaces.

 

Keyboard and Touchpad

 

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro features a full-size, backlit keyboard with function keys offering secondary roles—such as brightness and volume adjustment, camera shutter toggle – and a dedicated Copilot assistant key. A separate key incorporates a fingerprint sensor for biometric authentication via Windows Hello, Passkeys, and more.

Key spacing is optimal, and key travel provides tactile feedback without excessive noise.

 

The touchpad is moderately sized, supporting gesture controls as offered by Windows 11. While suitable for general use, the presence of defined left- and right-click zones may be inconvenient for users accustomed to pressure-sensitive touchpads that support haptic feedback and force clicks with greater precision.

 

Software

 

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro boots Windows 11 Home with integrated Microsoft Copilot Plus and Samsung’s Galaxy AI features. It comes preloaded with a lifetime licence for Microsoft Office 2024, offering access to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Unlike Samsung's Android devices, which are heavily customised, this device offers a mostly unaltered Windows experience.

 

Microsoft’s Copilot Plus features are integrated at the system level. However, Samsung’s Galaxy AI features are delivered via proprietary apps, resulting in certain overlaps. For instance, both native Windows and Samsung settings apps are present, each offering control over similar parameters such as display, sound, battery, and performance. While this may initially cause confusion, it becomes manageable with regular use.

 

Samsung’s ecosystem integration allows seamless synchronisation of settings, Wi-Fi credentials, connected earbuds, and supports clipboard sharing across devices—provided users are signed in with the same Samsung account. In terms of ease and functionality, this ecosystem rivals Apple’s in many respects.

 

AI features

 

AI functionality on the Galaxy Book 5 Pro includes features from both Microsoft and Samsung. While Microsoft’s Copilot Plus capabilities are standard across compatible devices, Samsung’s Galaxy AI offerings provide a point of differentiation.

 

Beyond AI Select, the Galaxy Book 5 Pro includes Photo Remaster (for image enhancement) and Object Eraser (to remove unwanted elements)—both accessible via the Samsung Gallery app. With the touchscreen, these tools are intuitive and efficient to use.

 

However, the range of Galaxy AI features on the laptop is narrower than on Samsung smartphones. Useful capabilities such as audio transcription, text summarisation, webpage extraction, and writing assistance are absent. While some of these are partially addressed by Microsoft’s Copilot, the integration lacks cohesion and feels disjointed.

 

Performance

 

Powered by Intel Core Ultra 5 (Lunar Lake), with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD (as per the review unit), the Galaxy Book 5 Pro delivers a full-fledged Windows 11 experience with full compatibility for Copilot Plus features—originally exclusive to ARM64-based PCs with Qualcomm processors.

 

In performance terms, the Galaxy Book 5 Pro competes strongly with Qualcomm-based alternatives and offers comparable, if not superior, power efficiency. It handles daily tasks effortlessly and supports demanding workloads, such as multimedia editing, without performance dips—provided it remains plugged in. On battery, performance drops are noticeable, though enabling high-performance mode mitigates the impact to some extent.

 

Battery

 

The Galaxy Book 5 Pro is powered by a 63.1Wh battery and supports 65W USB-C fast charging. A compatible adaptor and cable are included in the package. Battery life is commendable for a Windows device, rivalling Qualcomm-powered PCs, though it does not match the longevity of Apple MacBooks. With moderate usage, a full charge comfortably provides over 15 hours of operation—impressive for a Windows machine.

 

Verdict

 

At Rs 149,900 onwards, the Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro offers the best from three leading technology companies: Samsung, Microsoft, and Intel. With a high-quality display, strong performance, long battery life, and an expanding suite of AI features, it is well-positioned among the best Windows-based AI laptops currently available. While there is scope for refinement in camera quality, software integration, and AI feature set, the overall experience remains positive and well-balanced.

 

 

 

 

 

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