Samsung Galaxy Book Pro

In my university days I had a Samsung laptop that at the time was the thinnest one I'd ever seen. I recall how I was always impressed with how light it was, and I remember thinking that I would always try to stick with this trend (if only for the sake of my spine). In the years that followed, I failed miserably; Dell, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba, all with enough weight to sink a small ship. Still, the dream of the ultra-thin never died...

Every so often I take a look at the second-hand laptop market to see if anything takes my fancy, specifically anything different from the usual day-to-day hardware. As luck would have it, I spotted something to help keep the dream alive :-) A Samsung laptop that is ridiculously thin while having enough power to make it great for travelling. What could go wrong??

Building a slim laptop isn't an easy feat, at least, building a slim laptop that doesn't buckle when the wind looks at it the wrong way isn't. Compared to the heavyweights of today it is incredibly thin, measuring less than a centimetre (excluding the rubber feet). It genuinely takes me back to the (ill-fated) Macbook, which at the time I absolutely loved, right until the mainboard started developing issues (that turned out to be a commmon issue). As someone who used to travel the world on a frequent basis, you genuinely notice the difference when you switch to a lighter laptop (it cannot be overstated).

Of course, using the laptop as-is just wouldn't cut it, so it was time for some modifications... First on the list, replacing the thermal compound (a large amount of it). My initial testing of the device illustrated very clearly that it was struggling to cool itself, which given it has a decent-sized heatpipe and an clear fan, was somewhat unexpected. Upon removing the heatpipe it became obvious just how much thermal compound had been used (excessive and then some), and that it likely wasn't top-tier either. One thermal grizzly PTM switch later and the fan was significantly quieter (and the temperatures lower). This isn't to say the fan doesn't ramp up to full volume when you push the laptop, but its significantly better than before.

Next was the SSD, which while fully functional and at full health, was both smaller than desired and also slower. Switching to a Crucial P310 took it from 256GB to 1TB, while also improving the read/write performance (noticeable on both Linux and Windows, more on that later). While the slot size is limited (as are the PCIe lanes), its more than adequate for what I have in mind.

With the new SSD comes a Windows reinstall. While a migration might have been tempting, not on a 2nd-hand laptop where you don't know what's been installed / hidden on it. Thankfully it also acted as a backup for the driver madness that would subsequently occur. Windows reinstalled fine, however support for just about everything was missing, and turned out to be headache in the making.

While Samsung has an app (from the Windows Marketplace) you can use to install compatible drivers, annoyingly it doesn't work over a VPN. There is no indication of it being blocked, only that it states there are no applicable drivers for your device. You can't download the drivers manually outside of the app either, which subsequently resulted in trying to find compatible drivers from elsewhere (tip: don't do this). After 3 days of frustration, I tried using the app over a different internet connection whereby it burst into life and offered up both drivers and firmware updates. The most frustrating of which was the Intel Management Engine driver, which it turns out is required if you want to use the trackpad (the more you know).

With Windows finally reinstalled and looking good it was time to approach the fun that is multi-booting. Ubuntu was next to be installed, which as expected both installed successfully and upset Bitlocker. One recovery key later and the system was able to boot both with Secure Boot enabled / encryption for all partitions. Performance of Ubuntu was as expected (fast!), and most things appeared to work (the fingerprint reader is still problematic at time of writing).

Next on the OS list was Kali, which as it turns out isn't supported under Secure Boot. Tweaking Grub to chainload an unsigned version of itself didn't work (at least not well enough to boot Kali), and trying to self-sign the kernel/modules is about as much fun as pulling teeth. Sadly this part was somewhat dead from the start, hopefully they manage to get SB compatibility sorted at a later date.

The final OS I wanted to install was Bazzite, in the hope of having a slim/clean version of Steam to play the occasional lightweight game while travelling. Sadly the installer had other issues, as it really isn't a fan of dual-booting (they have an open GitHub issue for what I ran into). While Steam is working under Ubuntu, I would have liked the dedicated OS for it (as the laptop only has 8GB RAM).

From a usability perspective it's good, with the screen looking great (no surprise considering its from Samsung), the trackpad having good recognition (not the best / not the worst), and performance for day-to-day tasks being more than adequate. WiFi coverage / speed is also more than ample for travel, and the included LTE modem in theory should also help (if I ever put a SIM card in, tethering has become the norm now). The keyboard has good travel despite how thin the device is, however there is keyboard flex which after a while can be annoying. Battery life also seems quite good, though it does depend on what OS is being used / what I'm doing.

The graphics are interesting, in that its an Intel Xe card rather than an AMD / nVidia dedicated GPU. While I do have a lot of respect for Intel GPU's (especially their newer ones), the graphical glitches on some games are somewhat entertaining / frustrating. Exhibit 1 is a pic of Stardew Valley when running in fullscreen mode. This is with the latest graphics drivers (including those directly from Intel), showing that something clearly isn't right. That said, most games run without issue which is something positive.

Overall I really like the laptop and its my new travel companion. It's slim, lightweight, capable, takes USB-C charging, and was cheap enough not to worry if it gets damaged. If I could wave a magic wand and make changes to it I would definitely increase the memory to 16GB (Windows really does consume it, even after using an OS slimmer), and I'd improve the rigidity of chassis. Other than that, it's a really nice piece of kit that I hope to use for many years to come.