Are you looking for the best Samsung laptops? You've come to the right place! Samsung has arguably conquered with smartphone market, even with Apple as its fierce competitor. With its success with its Galaxy S series phones, the South Korea-based tech giant likely decided it was time to take on a new market: laptops.
Samsung rolled out a slew of Windows PCs and Chromebooks in recent years, but only a few landed on our best Samsung laptops list. In our opinion, the best Samsung laptops are powerful, offer sufficient battery life, and have an extra oomph that other laptop brands don't over. The "oomph" is Samsung's case is the S Pen — and yes, some laptops come equipped with the beloved stylus.
What is the best Samsung laptop?
The best Samsung laptop is the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 15. Its stunning electric-blue chassis blew us out of the water and stood out in a sea of dreary grays, blacks and whites. Of course, there's more aspects of the Galaxy Book Flex 15 that makes it Samsung's most applause-worthy laptop.
The Galaxy Book Flex 15 has a shockingly long battery life of nearly 16 hours. Most laptops of its ilk last no more than 10 hours, so when we saw how power-efficient the Galaxy Book Flex 15, we were blown away. The Galaxy Book Flex 15 is also a record setter; it was packed with the world's first QLED display, a power-saving screen tech that outputs ultra-high brightness without depleting too much battery juice.
It also has a touchpad that doubles as a wireless charging pad. Amazing, huh? Finally, to top it all off, the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 15 comes equipped with an S Pen, making it an excellent choice for content creators and digital artists.
The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 15 sports the world's first QLED display, which means you'll get to feast your eyes on a color-rich, super-bright screen -- and you won't have to sacrifice too much battery power to get it. In fact, when we tested the gorgeous royal-blue Flex 15 in our lab, the laptop gave us a whopping 15 hours of battery life. Ah, we no longer have to imagine a world where we can spend all day on our 2-in-1 without having to worry about battery life; Samsung's made it possible.
Another draw of this amazing Samsung 2-in-1 is its built-in S pen as well as its touchpad, which has the ability to charge Qi-compatible devices. One downside of the laptop, though, is its shortened Shift key, which will take some time to get used to.
See our full Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 15 review.
The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 is, hands down, the best 2-in-1 laptop you can get from the Korean-based tech brand. When we reviewed the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360, we were blown away by its amazingly thin-and-light form factor. On top of that, for those who love watching Netflix, Hulu, HBO Max (or any other streaming app) on their laptops, they'll appreciate the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360's colorful, bright and vivid display.
To top it all off, its battery life is phenomenal, offering nearly 12 hours of battery life on a charge. It's a convertible, which means it can transform into a number of different modes, including tent mode and tablet mode. In tablet mode, you can use the included S Pen to sketch and draw to your heart's desire. The only downside is that the Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 doesn't come with a silo for the S Pen.
See our full Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 review.
If you're seeking a general-purpose laptop that won't break the bank, but you want to purchase a Samsung-branded laptop, the Galaxy Book (2021) is an ideal choice. It impressed us with its speedy performance, thanks to its ultra-fast Intel 11th Gen performance. It also as a sleek and slim design, making it easy to carry around in any bag while you're commuting from A to B. And most importantly, the Galaxy Book has a wide variety of ports, so you'll have a good mix of legacy and modern I/O options. Whether you need USB-C, USB-A, or HDMI 2.0, the Galaxy Book has got you covered.
Keep in mind, though, that it is a sub-$1,000 laptop, so this means that it comes with some trade offs, including a mediocre display.
See our full Samsung Galaxy Book (2021) review.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 is for anyone seeking a Chrome OS device with a fire-engine red chassis. Trust me; bright-colored laptops are damn-near rare in the laptop market. Of course, a pretty-looking chassis isn't the only thing the Galaxy Chromebook 2 has going for it. As it turns out, the Galaxy Chromebook 2 is the world's first Chromebook with a QLED display. To keep it short and sweet, a QLED display delivers vivid colors and brightness to the screen in a more energy-efficient manner (e.g. it's less of a battery drain).
The Galaxy Chromebook 2 is also a 2-in-1, so you can convert it into several different postures, including tent mode and tablet mode. There is a downside, though. It's not compatible with the S Pen!
See our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook 2 review.
How we test laptops
When we review laptops in our labs, we simulate tests that mimic the real world that tell us how well the laptop will perform at work, home and school. While we use a number of industry standard benchmarks, including Geekbench (tests for overall performance) and 3DMark (tests for graphics).
To test battery life, we use our in-house Laptop Mag Battery test, which surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system taps out. We also dive into gaming benchmarks, file-transfer speed analysis, and video-transcoding rates.
To determine display quality, we use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and sRGB color gamut reproduction while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.
How to find the best Samsung
If you've been contemplating buying a Samsung laptop, you need to consider your needs. Do you have intensive workload that require a lot more RAM? Are you a photo editor who needs a great deal of storage?
Here is a guide, put together by our Editor-in-Chief Sherri L. Smith, that will help you choose the best Asus system for you.
Budget: What you get for the money.
You can find good cheap Windows laptops and high-quality Chromebooks for under $500. However, better mainstream laptops usually cost more than $700 and premium Ultrabooks can run over $1,000. The best gaming laptops can cost $2.000 and up, but you can play the latest titles at decent frame rates on gaming laptops under $1,000.
Screen Size: 12 to 14 inches for Portability
Knowing a laptop's screen size tells you a lot about its portability overall. If you want to use your computer on your lap or carry it around a lot, go for one with a 12, 13 or 14-inch display. If you want to use the computer on tables and desks and won't carry it around much, a 15-inch model may give you more value. Some gaming rigs, media machines and workstations even have 17 or 18-inch screens, but those are hardest to carry.
2-in-1 or Clamshell?
More and more of today's laptops are 2-in-1s with screens that either bend back 360 degrees or detach so you can use them as tablets. If you like the idea of using your laptop in slate mode for drawing, media consumption or just using it standing up, a 2-in-1 could be for you. However, you can often get better features or a lower price by going with a traditional clamshell-style laptop.
Battery Life: 8+ Hours for Portability
Unless you only plan to use your laptop on your desk, battery life matters. Even within the home or office, having plenty of juice enables you to work on the couch or at the conference table, without being chained to the nearest outlet. For the best portability, we recommend getting a laptop that lasted over 8 hours on the Laptop Mag Battery Test. The longest-lasting laptops survive for over 10 hours.
Specs: 1080p / Core i5 / 8GB Are Best Bets
You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but here are the key components to think about. If you just want really good mainstream performance, go for a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 1080p screen.