Samsung Notebook 9 Pro (15-inch) review – CNET

Anyone thinking of getting into the laptop business should consider one piece of advice. Take at least one product in your lineup and call it the Pro model.

It’s an idea that’s worked well for years. Apple has the MacBook Pro, which helped define the “pro” computer. Microsoft has the Surface Pro, which remains the king of the tablet PCs, and now Samsung has a higher-end version of it’s excellent Notebook 9 series, called the Notebook 9 Pro.

We recently reviewed the 15-inch non-Pro version of the Notebook 9, and in truth those two models are very similar. Both cost around the same, within $100 or so, both combine Intel Core i7 processors with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. Both have decent 1,920×1,080-pixel displays (although one could argue a 15-inch premium laptop deserves a higher screen resolution), and both include low-end discrete graphics. The Notebook 9 has an Nvidia 940MX, while the Notebook 9 Pro has an AMD Radeon 540.

The biggest differences are that the non-Pro model is much lighter (2.6 pounds or 1.1 kilogram vs. 4.8 pounds or 2.1kg), and the Pro version has a touch display, a 360-degree hinge for folding the screen back into tablet mode and a built-in stylus. For $1,299, that’s a pretty feature-packed laptop. Samsung doesn’t currently offer its Windows laptops in the UK or Australia, but that works out to around £1,075 or AU$1,765.

A slimmer stylus

The stylus is the same S-Pen model found in Samsung’s phones and tablets. It’s shorter and slimmer than some of the pen tools used by other PC makers, but it also slips right into a slot on the front lip of the laptop. 

When you pull it out, an on-screen memo of Samsung inking tools pops up. Microsoft’s Surface products, in contrast, clip the stylus into the side of the display, which is not as secure or as easy to fit into a slim laptop bag. 

The S-Pen is passive, so it’s not going to be as full-featured the Apple Pencil or Microsoft Pen, but for note-taking and sketching, I liked it. One big advantage of a passive stylus is that you never have to worry about whether it’s charged up or has batteries.

Of course, the most common user interface tools you’ll probably use are the touchpad and keyboard. The keyboard design here skips a separate numberpad (still found on many 15-inch laptops), but leaves extra space for the arrow keys and a separate column for page-up, page-down and other navigation keys. The touchpad is large, but not a big as on the 15-inch MacBook Pro.