Customer Ratings & Reviews

all the best features for a laptop, performes great

I would like to start this by stating upfront that it is rare for me to write a review of anything online, which is somewhat ironic since I certainly value the opinions of others when I’m in the market for a new product. Something really has to leave a lasting impression with me to incentivize a review—and this is one of those rarities. After a month of use, I am thoroughly enjoying my Samsung Notebook 9 Pro. However, it has been quite an experience to get to this point. My 9 year old Gateway laptop died back in April, and I have spent a number of months testing out a handful of 15 inch 2 in 1’s. My research actually started back in December with the ASUS Zenbook Pro UX501VW, HP Spectre x360 (2016), and ASUS Q534UX. Compared to my Gateway, all three of these machines were substantial upgrades. Yet, all three had enough drawbacks that I decided to return all of them. The ASUS Zenbook Pro was the only laptop that was not a 2 in 1, it was too large and heavy for my liking, and I was ultimately disappointed in the subpar display quality. The other ASUS had the most storage space of any computer that I have tested. However, I was not that impressed by its build quality as the screen and body of the laptop were noticeably off kilter when closed or in tablet mode. My favorite of the three was the first version of the HP Spectre x360. It was thin and light, yet had a very good build quality. Ultimately though, the lackluster pentile display and lack of discrete graphics were deciding factors against this otherwise fine computer. I would end up regretting the decision to return the HP as my Gateway laptop suddenly bit the dust in April. At that time, I was already eyeing the new HP Spectre x360 (2017) and was just waiting for Best Buy to put the device on sale. Having access to a desktop computer, I was able to put off ordering the HP until Memorial Day for $100 off. The Lenovo Yoga 720 15” had just come out featuring the first quad core processor on a 2 in 1, so I ordered that one as well for $250 off. I compared both 2 in 1’s for the next few weeks, but was ultimately swayed against keeping either of them. The build quality of the HP was outstanding. It was truly a beautiful device. However, it turned out to be a bit heftier than I wanted, and it frequently got hotter than any of the other laptops I had previously purchased. The Lenovo Yoga 720 was also a great computer. While the build quality and screen quality were not quite to the standard of the HP, the fact that it was the first quad core 2 in 1 with Nvidia GTX 1050 graphics ultimately won me over. It also didn’t seem to get as warm as the HP. However, the wireless network card and my broadband gateway modem/router just would not get along. Disappointed, I decided to return both the HP and Lenovo given their respective drawbacks. Undeterred, I decided to give the Lenovo another try and ordered a second unit. After a couple weeks of trouble-free operation with the second Lenovo, I felt that I had finally landed on the computer that would get me through at least the next 5 years. However, I started to notice a number of reviews on Best Buy’s website about a mysterious black bar appearing at the top of several UHD units. This prompted a Google search of the problem which led me to a forum on Lenovo’s support page where several users with the same unit were experiencing the black bar in addition to screen flickering issues (which mine had). The more I read, the more obvious it became that it was just a matter of time before my unit would develop the same issue—and it was not clear as to how Lenovo was going to handle the problem at the time. Even though I really wanted to keep the Yoga 720, I ultimately decided that I did not want to spend that much money given the likelihood that I would end up having to send the unit in for repair within the 1 year warranty period. Completely bummed out and increasingly desperate for a new computer, I decided to give the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro a try in early August, even though I was not too thrilled that it only has a 256 GB hard drive. Even though unboxing the unit was not as glitzy of an experience as with the HP and Lenovo, it was love at first sight once I had the Samsung in my hands! The build quality is absolutely amazing. There is absolutely nothing out of place! The lid and keyboard are all perfectly aligned when closed and in tablet mode. In my opinion, the fit and finish of the Samsung are above and beyond anything else I have tried over the past several months. I was also quite pleased by the size and weight of the Samsung. I had tested out smaller 13.3 and 14 inch 2 in 1’s in the store, but because my eyesight is not the best in the world, I had decided that I would be most satisfied with a 15 inch display. Most are 15.6”, but Samsung smartly designed the Notebook 9 Pro with a 15.0” display, which ultimately allowed them to undercut the competition in size and weight. The Samsung is noticeably thinner and lighter than any of its competitors while not sacrificing on build quality. Also a delight is the 1920x1080 FHD display. While not UHD like the HP and Lenovo, Samsung’s display is every bit as sharp, with vivid, accurate color representation. Its display is brighter than both the HP and Lenovo, and that doesn’t take into account the outdoor mode which allows the Samsung display to brighten substantially more outdoors. The touchscreen is also the best of any of the devices that I have tried. I experienced a fair amount of friction when using Lenovo’s touchscreen, while the HP was a smoother experience. However, it didn’t even come close to the buttery smooth feel of the Samsung. I also agree with other reviewers of the Samsung who liked the touchpad experience and the snappy nature of the keyboard with decent travel for such a thin notebook. Unlike the Lenovo, the Samsung also has a microSD card slot and HDMI output port—features that some 2 in 1’s like the Lenovo are doing without. It also features 2 USB 3.0 ports, and while it does not have Thunderbolt 3, it does have one USB Type C port. This port can be used to charge the notebook with another power adapter, or to charge another device (like a cell phone) using the Notebook 9’s battery. Speaking of the battery, I am typically averaging 7-8 hours on a charge with multi-tabbed browsing, office productivity programs, email, and some video streaming mixed in. However, it has ranged as low as 6 hours with more intensive activities to as high as 10-11 hours with low demand applications. The battery consistently charges from 10% to 100% in about 1 hour and 45 minutes, which is exceptionally fast compared with the other devices. I am also pleased with the boost in performance that the dedicated 2GB AMD Radeon 540 graphics card provides—especially when editing photos and videos. That said, I am not a gamer. My understanding is that the Samsung should allow for at least some light gaming at reduced settings. However, hardcore gaming enthusiasts would probably be better served by a more powerful device. The three-tiered backlighting for the keyboard is also a nice touch compared to two levels for the Lenovo and the on/off approach of the HP. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity have thus far been flawless. Facial recognition via Windows Hello also works well and allows for quick logins. About the only cons that I can find on this computer (and they are minor) include the hard drive storage space (256 GB) and the sound quality from the speakers. While it would be nice to have something larger than 256 GB, it’s something I really don’t need. Plus, I already have a 1 TB external drive that provides plenty of extra storage if I need it. While the speakers are admittedly just average, I also recognize that none of the computers I tested truly had what I would call great sound quality. This is something easily remedied by a good pair of headphones or Bluetooth speakers. While it would have been ideal to wait until Samsung upgraded their lineup to Intel’s recently announced 8th generation Core i7 quad core processors, I ultimately decided to keep the Samsung Notebook 9 Pro out of necessity because I have no idea how long it will take for this upgrade to take place. Plus, I really don’t need the extra processing power for how I typically use the computer. Overall, I am extremely pleased with my Samsung Notebook 9 Pro. In a heartbeat, I would recommend it to anyone in the market for a mid to high end 2 in 1 notebook/tablet. I am so impressed by it that I am now eyeing the Samsung Galaxy line for my next smartphone purchase. I would also like to commend Best Buy for going out of their way to accommodate me over the past several months. When it comes to computers, Amazon doesn't even come close to Best Buy when it comes to selection, price, and service. Plus, Best Buy provided a price match a couple of weeks ago when they put the Samsung on sale for $100 off. Thanks Best Buy!

I will be bringing the computer in to see if I can get an exchange. Two days ago it started not wanting to start up. Yesterday a reset was required to get it to work. 10 minutes later the screen went black and will not boot up. Very unhappy for the price.

Extremely good value for the price. I've been pretty happy with this purchase as a replacement to my old XPS. Pros: -The display is the best I've seen on a laptop even at only Full HD. It's not 4k but the color and brightness are as good as it gets -Great, consistent performance -Awesome keyboard -USB C charging Needs Improvement: -Battery life (I'm getting 5-6 hours on full brightness while browsing and streaming content) -Bottom facing speakers are loud enough but could be better

So many features packed in here including tablet mode and an Spen. Bought it on sale for about $1k. The screen is peerless. Keyboard layout great, unlike some manufacturers who do dumb things like put a power button where the delete button usually exists, or make it annoying to use the Home/Pg Up/Pg Dn/End keys. Samsung puts these keys in a 1 key-width column on the far right of the keyboard, in logical order. Home on top, End on bottom, sandwiching Pg Up and Pg Dn in between. Brilliant. If you work on text alot and make frequent use of these keys, this Samsung is the only keyboard for you. Unless you like hitting the power button accidentally when trying to delete something. Instead of doing 4K on a 15.6in diag laptop screen, which is dumb (enjoy your terrible battery life), Samsung uses a juiced 1080p screen. If you go into outdoor mode, your screen maxes out the brightness while still being able to clearly see colors and shades of gray. Just amazing. No ethernet jack. Wireless better be good if they left out the wired networking... and yea, wireless performance is top tier too. Keyboard is amazing too. If you type a lot then you'll appreciate the slightly springy keys. The travel length is probably the same as most other chiclet style laptop keyboards, but there is a bit of springy resistance that makes it just a bit heavier (force required to actuate the key) to depress. It feels pretty good. Sometimes laptop keys are so light, there is no tactile feedback, and you end up with accidents like double keypresses, or hitting an adjacent key.

Unable to perform text editing or typing without continually hitting the mouse pad. Friends n family experienced same problem. Geek squad unable to find any good option, such as turn off pad while typing. Talked to Samsung support who also had no option to fix the problem. Extremely frustrating. Forced to exchange for another brand. Avoid this purchase. Extremely bad oversight and clearly no contextual design effort was used for this product.

everything is flawless. gorgeous screen, color, saturation. i was debating btw lenovo yoga x1 2gen with this one but decided to go for samsung since it is 15.6 inch vs 14 inch from yoga. only thing that is kinda disappointing is the battery life. it gives you about 5 hrs of browsing + watching youtube little bit. other than that, pen is working smooth as butter and it is good laptop to buy. also it supports usb-c charges so you can charge with your phone charger from anywhere so that is convenient for me to do it, instead of carrying big chunk of ac adapter that it came with it. if you are even getting lenovo x1 2gen with oled display you get about 5-6 hrs. which is similar to this samsung but i think that one has better picture display. i guess it all matters if you have more budget to spend which is about 1000$ difference and on top of that if you dont care about 14 inch vs 15.6 inch.

I simply would not buy this again because the battery life sucks!!!

This is a wonderful computer if you're looking for something lightweight, powerful, and sleek. It has a very streamlined chassis and is so fun to use as a tablet. It doesn't run games very well (they overheat) but it does handle heavy photo editing, digital painting, and so far it;s been doing well with video edits.

Less than one year of use(light use) and the battery has gone. I have to use it as a desktop, plugged or the notebook turns off.

I test drove a Spectre "15," Dell XPS "15," and the new MacBook Pro "15" with the touch bar, and none can compare to this beautifully engineered masterpiece by Samsung. Now, nothing against HP they make a fine computer but it seems that Samsung really payed serious attention to detail to when they designed this computer. The track pad is very Mac like, in fact the pinch to zoom is actually smoother than The Macs, yes that's correct, than the Macs! The dual band wifi (which Apple lacks) is strong, and the port combination is fantastic. The S pen tucked underneath the laptop is really cool and the pen itself works effortlessly and flawlessly, the best pen support of any machine out there, yet. The screen is 1080p but really pops with sharp detail. The nicest 1080p screen I've ever seen on a laptop. It even rivals most 4K screens I've seen which let's be honest, is difficult to discern between the two. The SSD is blazing fast, load up was around 7 seconds, and windows hello on this machine works more reliably than the other Windows machines I've used. The keyboard is amongst the best I've typed on and unlike Apple, no gimmicky touch bar to drain your battery and freeze on you. Not to mention affect your typing experience. The Radeon Pro graphics chip is nice, a cut above the Nividia 940 GTX and the i7 can handle almost anything you throw at it. It has 16 GB of DDR4 ram which is a step up from Apples outdated DDR3 and 2GB of DDR5 on the graphics card. The computer is dead quite when doing most basic task. Even when I pushed it with a few games it was quite. Very impressive Samsung! There was another guy on here who mentioned that the battery only lasted him 5-6 hours. Now, I'm not sure how he uses his computer or what settings he has his computer at but I am averaging over 12 hours just doing basic task like web browsing and office. When I YouTube and browse the web I was seeing between 9-10 hours with the screen at 40% and the keyboard light switched off. With it on and the screen set to "recommend" I was seeing around 7 1/2 to 8. I'd imagine if you are doing more intensive task like photo shop and cad you'll average around 6-7. This is perhaps the finest laptop I've owned especially given the price point. I've yet to have an issue with it and quality is out of this world superb. I want to say the shell is a magnesium like what you'll see with the Mac. They feel almost the same. This one feels much lighter, especially for a "15." I would recommend this superb masterpiece to everyone who is in the market for a new laptop. For the money you can't beat it. It far exceeded my expectations. Samsung has really stepped their game up and Apple better watch out. This is coming from a life long Apple user. But since Jobs died Apple has lost their way. Overpriced machines with outdated equipment and lack of innovation. I will never buy another Mac again. Apple bricked their machines and made them impossible to upgrade. I am a tech enthusiast and take my advise, this computer beats the new Macs by a mile, and they are more affordable and just as reliable, If not more. This is a true gem.

For the size and quality of the laptop, it's a great value. For a convertible, one thing I looked for was when in tablet mode, does stay shut? I came from having a yoga 2 pro which had a very solid closure when in tablet mode. Tried the 720 and Flex 5 and both, when holding in tablet mode on the hinge, the screen is loose. Perhaps personal preference. This one didn't do it, neither is the 910 yoga but I can't afford that one and it doesn't come with dedicated graphics. Worked out a few querks: disable auto brigtness, which is a common issue on windows 10. Trying to figure out how to disable the 'volume' warning currently. Pro -light and sleek for a laptop for it's price point and size (15 inch screen) -battery life lasted all day of work, watched a movie, and then charged at ngiht -screen size -comes with a digital pen and storage for it! Con -speakers are super soft...you'll need headphones watching a movie -too sleek? I feel like it's going to slip out of my hands when it's closed -geek squard certified didn't mean a thing. I powered on the laptop and it has the previous person's files and settings... I had to reset myself to bypass his/her settings.

THE BEST LAPTOP, BEST CONVERTIBLE. IT TOOK ME 2 months to decide which laptop I wanted. It was between the Lenovo Yoga 910 4 k screen and this. The Lenovo sets you back another 200 dollars and gives you a small 13.9 screen just like the 13 inch HP spectre.The built quality of Samsung is amazing! it even puts Apples over priced machines to shame! The lenovo yoga 910 is awesome but it heats up and is noisy and its shift button is squashed in to make space. It seems delicate and consists of different company parts so is the HP spectre. In the 3 big boys Samsung takes it! even though the other 2 have 4 k screen does not matter. The S pen and the apps in this are amazing! Very responsive! If any Apple user is reading this and making a face! get over it! leave the apple for the kids! Apple died along with Steve Jobs! Samsung is a beauty! even the chrome book is rated in the best laptops and its a chrome booK!

Great computer witg exception of battery will die within 5 years

Let me start by saying this was the easiest computer I've ever set up, period. Connected flawlessly to all my Bluetooth devices and my Dell dock running two (2) 2K monitors. Drives monitors without any lag or delay what so ever. The build quality is the part where it does not beat out the new MBP's but does match the build quality It even has a outdoor mode for the display which enables outdoor viewing like no other notebook I've used. And I have tried most available. I just retired my new Lenovo Yoga 720 15 running 7th gen quad core processor and Nvidia video card. This machine does not take a back seat to the Lenovo in all daily tasks. Have not done any gaming so I cannot comment on how this machine compares. This display is not a 4K like some of the machines selling today yet still satisfies as well. Key board is a pleasure to type on with minimal noise. Track pad is a close match to the always famous MacBook's for sure. The include and integrated stylus is a plus so you can use as tablet and is years ahead of even Microsoft line of Laptops and tablets. This one is a no brainer get in to BB and pick one up and save yourself a thousand compared to the al mighty MBP.

Before purchasing this computer, I tried buying two laptops through Amazon. The first was a processing beast, the Acer Predator, but it only had a 2-hour battery life. The second was complete junk, the Lenovo Yoga 710. I was so disappointed by this laptop that came to me through Beach Camera via Amazon that I opened up a Best Buy account and, after reading hundreds of reviews, chose this laptop. I'm so glad I did! This laptop is slim, beautiful, and works fantastically straight out of the box. It has all of the features I'm looking for: good optics, touchscreen, it's convertible, it has a discrete graphics card, an SSD hard drive (it's super-fast!) and it has tons of memory. The battery life is great for a non-Mac, between 4 and 6 hours, depending on whether I"m watching streaming television or word processing. The convertible aspect is important to me because I teach, and I like to show videos and other digital content to students in my office and in the classroom, and it's easier and looks nicer when I can tent the screen. One AWESOME feature of this computer is the face recognition software--except in very, very, dim conditions, it works really well and unlocks the screen without my having to touch anything! The only slight critique I'd make about this laptop is that the keyboard, while perfectly organized, isn't my favorite to type on. There's no problem with it, I just don't love the feeling as I do on other laptops. But after the nonsense of the Lenovo Yoga keyboard (look up the issues with the shift key and space bar, if you'd like to be entertained), it's a dream! As a side note, if you're like me and you're torn between buying through Amazon or Best Buy (I'm not generally a Best Buy customer), I would hands down tell you to stop utilizing Amazon. First of all, they try to claim you cannot return laptops if the box is opened without paying a 10 or 15% re-stocking fee (despite this, both of my returns were accepted, because I was sold unusable computers). Second, they don't have the stock themselves, so they're utilizing third-party sellers that stock laptops that were likely returned and returned and returned. Since Best Buy stocks this merchandise and allows returns, it's a no-brainer. They have my business from now on!

This is the best 15 inch 2-in-1 laptop anyone could ever ask for! The built-in S Pen works magnificently, the graphics are great, and it is very light and portable. I have been using it nonstop for the past 1.5 months for medical school and it truly has been exceeding my expectations. The new Bash on Ubuntu on Windows has actually exceeded my expectations as well, so the Linux/OS feel is here as well, just customize it to your liking :) This is the best computer purchase I have ever made and will be sticking to the Samsung 2-in-1 Pro line in the future if they maintain or even improve on this high quality product! Great work on this one!

The laptop is expensive for the given configuration and it's display is not 4k and has poor 141 ppi density. Moreover the battery don't last long as per industry standards and speakers are tinny which lacks bass and loudness. Overall mediocre laptop. For this price range there are plenty of premium devices available from Lenovo, HP & Dell

This laptop is a beast on all accords. First off, the battery life is great. I've had consistent tests of all day mixed usage (real world usage, so Facebook scrolling and commenting, 1080p video viewing, online shopping, etc). I bought this to replace an old mid-2010 MacBook pro that lasted me through college but couldn't handle Adobe Creative Cloud. This machine handles it very well, and when coupled with a USB-C external hard drive, does a lot more!

I'm graduated student. This is one of the best equipped lap-top as I had researched. I'm fully satisfied with this lap top not only in the software(function) but also in the hardware. Especially, it's price in the Best Buy is reasonable. I truthfully recommend this lap top to anyone considering to buy excellent lap top. Thanks!