Samsung Galaxy Book3 360 13 test: an attractive ultra-compact and 2-in-1 Oled PC

The Galaxy Book3 360 is an attractive PC in anodized aluminum, just 13 mm thick. The table is marred by a very thick lower screen border, which is no longer really up to date and brings the occupancy rate to only 79.5%. In 2023, it’s a bit of a shame, especially since we find this problem throughout the range. The screen is mounted on hinges and you can therefore use this PC in tablet mode or as a tent to view content.

A Samsung S-Pen stylus is also provided, convenient for taking handwritten notes, drawing or working with graphics applications. A good point, because remember, some competitors sell the stylus as an option. The touchpad is fluid, but sinks a little too much under pressure. The keyboard is efficient and its backlighting is adjustable to four levels. We notice in the upper right corner a fingerprint reader to quickly unlock the PC, but it will not be possible to do the same with the webcam, which is not Windows Hello compatible.

Its quality is correct, but the image is already a bit noisy in bright light. And when the lighting conditions are more difficult, the scene deteriorates greatly. The connectors are quite complete for such a thin 13-inch model. We discover on the left an HDMI port, a USB-C port and a Thunderbolt 4 port. On the right side there is a USB-A port, a microSD card reader and a mini-jack socket. Bluetooth 5.2 and Wi-Fi 6E are on board for state-of-the-art wireless connectivity.

To open the PC, it is necessary to remove its rubber feet. An easy operation since no glue is installed. Once the four Phillips screws have been removed, it is possible to change the M.2 SSD and the battery, but the rest is soldered down and the scalability is therefore limited.

Despite a very thin chassis and the presence of a single fan, the temperature is rather well managed by the computer since we noted a hot spot at 39.1 ° C in the center of the keyboard under CineBench. The PC remains silent, even in this advanced case: we noted 36.9 dB (A) at 50 cm from the screen. Samsung may have deliberately throttled the processor to prevent it from overheating, but that’s what we’re going to judge now.

For this Galaxy Book3 360, the manufacturer has selected an Intel Core i7-1360P processor with four high-performance cores and eight efficient cores, clocked at a maximum of 5 GHz. It is backed by 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD.

With a CPU index of 100, this processor unfortunately only has a Core i7 in name. It thus offers around 20% less performance than the same i7-1360P of the 15-inch Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 that we tested, no doubt because of the even more restricted chassis of our 13-inch model. It is obviously far from the Core i7-12700H installed in thicker PCs. In the end, it turned out to be barely more powerful than the small Core i5-1230U of the latest Dell XPS 13 that we also tested.

Samsung has therefore clamped the thermal envelope of the processor to prevent it from overheating. This is an advantage for working quietly in the office, but it shows in terms of performance…

The result is disappointing, it’s true, but remember that in fact, the Galaxy Book3 360 is intended for office automation and that the processor will be more than enough for that. On the other hand, you won’t really be able to get into very resource-intensive tasks unless you are patient.

Finally, a quick word on the SSD which has been quite efficient, especially in reading with an average of 4.9 GB / s, and a little less in writing with 3.7 GB / s.

In this 13-inch format and with dimensions of 30.4 x 20.2 cm, the Galaxy Book3 360 13 is easily transportable. With a weight of 1.1 kg, it finally feels little in a backpack. In addition, its charger block is extremely compact and weighs only 160 g. In short, it is perfect for nomads.

In terms of autonomy, the PC did quite well since it lasted 8 h 34 min in video playback on Netflix via the Chrome browser, screen set to 200 cd / m², Bluetooth deactivated and headphones connected. That’s better than many PCs released recently, which were impacted by the increased power consumption of 12th and 13th generation Intel processors, but still far from Apple MacBooks and their M1 and M2 chips.