Samsung Notebook 7 is essentially a MacBook Pro with more ports

Samsung has a couple of new laptops out: The Notebook 7 13”, the Notebook 7 15” and the Notebook 7 Force. The first two are your run-of-the-mill business laptops, which look very much like Apple’s MacBook Pro, while the 7 Force has an all-black design, is a bit more powerful and aims at creators. 

While copying Apple design and improving on certain shortcomings can be a good tactic (see Huawei’s MateBook X), you’ll want to take a good look at these laptop’s specs before you buy one. 

Here’s the thing: Even though they’re fairly similar, these three laptops have some key differences which might make them a great or not-so-great purchase, depending on your needs and wants. 

Both the 13-inch and the 15-inch Notebook 7 come with a solid assortment of ports — a USB-C port, two USB-A 3.0 ports, an HDMI port and a microSD slot. They’ve got Intel’s 8th-gen Core processors, Intel UHD graphics (the 15-inch model can also be had with the Nvidia GeForce MX250 graphics chip) and up to 16GB of RAM, as well as up to a 512GB SSD. They’ve got a fingerprint sensor and stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos support, and a 55Wh battery. Finally, both come with an LCD screen with a 1,920×1,080 pixel resolution. 

And while they generally look just like Apple laptops, down to the black, rubbery keys, you’ll notice certain differences; for example, the Notebook 7 15” has a full-sized keyboard with numeric keys on the side, something that the 15-inch MacBook Pro doesn’t have. Not everyone will like the de-centered track pad, though.

To me, this spec sheet reads great for the 13-incher — it’s basically a Windows-based, 13-inch MacBook Pro with more ports. 

But the 15-inch Notebook 7 doesn’t sound so great on paper. The full HD resolution won’t cut it for some users (especially with many laptops these days coming with 4K screens), the battery could be bigger, and I bet some users will pine for a newer Intel processor and more RAM. 

This, ideally, would be where the Samsung Notebook 7 Force takes over, as it has a dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 graphics chip, up to 24GB of RAM, and an additional LAN port. But that laptop has an even smaller, 43Wh battery, and also maxes out at full HD resolution and Intel’s 8th-gen Core chip — hardly ideal for professionals. 

The price for the 13-incher starts at $999; the 15-inch variant starts at $1,099 and the Notebook 7 Force starts at $1,499. 

The Notebook 7 and Notebook 7 Force will first launch in Korea and Hong Kong, followed by the U.S. and Brazil “later in 2019.” The Notebook 7 will also be available in China.