Best Samsung laptops in 2024

The best Samsung laptops are sleek, high-performing machines that work seamlessly with Samsung Galaxy series phones. Samsung has arguably conquered the smartphone market, even with Apple as its fierce competitor. Building off that success, the South Korea-based tech giant has taken on a new market: laptops.

Samsung has released a slew of new Windows PCs and Chromebooks in recent years, but only a few found a place on our best Samsung laptops list. In our opinion, the best Samsung laptops are powerful, offer sufficient battery life, and have extra "oomph" other laptop brands don't over. In Samsung's case, that "oomph" is the company's magical S Pen — and yes, some laptops come equipped with this beloved stylus.

CES 2024 is on the way, and with new chips coming from all the major chipmakers, we're expecting at the very least some powerful refreshes for laptops like the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro and the Samsung Galaxy Book 3.

The Quick List

Best Samsung Laptop Overall

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.

Best Samsung 2-in-1 Laptop

The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 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.

 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. There are a few downsides, however. The first is that the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 doesn't come with a silo for the S Pen. And at 7 hours and 46 minutes, the battery life could definitely be better. But if you're looking for a solid 2-in-1 from Samsung, you can't do much better than the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360. 

See our full Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review.

Best sub-$1,000 Samsung Laptop

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.

Best Samsung Chromebook

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 to Choose the Best Samsung Laptop

Do you have an intensive daily workload that requires a lot of RAM? Are you a photo editor who needs oodles of local storage? If you've been contemplating a Samsung laptop, you'll need to consider your computing needs first.

Here are some timely tips from Editor-in-Chief Sherri L. Smith to help you choose the best system to fit your lifestyle.

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 generally 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.)

Form factor: 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 at 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 14 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 in terms of good baseline performance: a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 1080p screen.

How We Test the Best Samsung Laptops

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 4.3 and 5.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests. 

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Dirt 3 benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 10 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise. 

These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming. 

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on. 

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it. 

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.