Gadget of the Month

Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 | Bill Ramsey & Phillip Hampton

We have been in the market for a new laptop and have spent quite a lot of time trying to decide which one to purchase. There are a lot of new incredible laptops that have been released recently including new models from the Microsoft Surface line, Apple MacBook line, Lenovo Thinkpad line, and Dell Latitude line, to name a few. We started our search by stipulating that whichever laptop we purchased had to be lightweight (preferably 3 lbs. or less); Microsoft Windows-based; Intel Core i-7 processor; long battery life; and convertible from a laptop to a tablet. We recognize that there are very good options that do not meet all these requirements; but these were the standards that we wanted for our new laptop.

Our search was aided somewhat by Intel, the company that makes many of the processor chips found in computers. Beginning in 2020, Intel created the Intel EvoM label which any laptop can carry, regardless of manufacturer, if the laptop meets some minimum requirements that Intel considers important for a business-class laptop. Some of those requirements overlapped with our wish list, so we narrowed down our search to laptops that were designated as Evo compliant.

Phil has always been a fan of Samsung phones; but up till now we had never purchased a Samsung brand PC or laptop. Our search for a new laptop ended when we found the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360, which became our first Samsung computer purchase. For starters, the Galaxy Book laptop convertible carries the Evo label, which means it already has many of the requirements that we were looking for in a laptop. We opted for the 15” display model (there is also a 13” display model).

There were a few unique features about the Galaxy Book Pro 360 that really stood out to us in the selection process. Samsung, of course, is known for their stunning AMOLED displays on their high-end phone models. They have replicated this very rich display on the Galaxy Book Pro laptop. The full HD 15” display on our laptop is bright and the colors are very rich. Also, the Galaxy Book Pro 360 is a 2-in-1 convertible. The screen can rotate a full 360 degrees to lay flat on the other side of the keyboard. Even in this tablet mode, the device is very thin and very comfortable to work with. The laptop also comes with a Samsung S-Pen for writing on the screen. We use it quite frequently to sign and annotate documents and to take notes; and it works very well. We wish the laptop had a designated slot to store the pen when not in use. It will attach magnetically to the back of the display panel; but we tend to store it separately in our backpack so that it will not get lost accidentally.

The laptop itself is very light, tipping the scales are right at 3 lbs. The 15” display provides enough room for a separate number keypad on the keyboard, which is one of the reasons we went with the larger display screen. The keyboard itself, while spacious enough, is just an ok keyboard in terms of tactile response. We wish the keys on the keyboard had a little more depth to them; but maybe we’re just being a little too picky. The touchpad on the keyboard panel is huge; but (and again we are probably being overly picky) the touchpad surface is so smooth that our finger tends to move too quickly while selecting items on the screen. The feel of the touchpad has taken some getting used to.

While Samsung advertises a 20-hour battery life, we haven’t verified that our model actually gets that performance. We are, however, able to unplug the laptop in the morning; take it with us to the office or court; use it all day long for general office work (and a little bit of leisure) on a single charge. All-day battery life is very important to us because we hate having to scramble in the middle of the day to find an outlet to recharge our laptop.

Being that Samsung is the manufacturer, you would expect there to be tight integration features between the laptop and any other Samsung products. There is a Quick Share feature that allows you to share content very easily between the laptop and your Samsung phone. The Samsung Flow app also lets you share your phone screen directly to your laptop screen. There are further integrations for Samsung’s earbuds Galaxy Buds and the Galaxy Watch, which we have not used. The bottom line is that the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 is a great laptop regardless of what other smart devices you may own; but, if you own Samsung devices, the nice integration is an even stronger incentive for getting this laptop.

So, we are very pleased with our recent laptop purchase. As of right now, our new Galaxy Book Pro 360 is scratching all our itches. But we are anxiously awaiting the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show coming up in January in Vegas. We can’t promise we won’t be back in buying mode after the first of the year.

-Bill & Phil n

ca’s Judicial Hero. It centers on three of his many dissents in the U.S. Supreme Court: • Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 U.S. 537 (1896) – lone dissent; • Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905); and • Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S. 3 (1883) – lone dissent.

These dissents operate within the system. They are rightly called “an appeal to the next generation of jurists”; or better, “beacons to escape from the maze of tainted opinions laid down by the court’s majority.” And, with time, they succeeded and became law.

1. Lochner (1905). The Supreme Court held that a state law barring bakers from working more than 60 hours a week violated the 14th Amendment’s due process clause because it interfered with the bakers’ “freedom to contract.” Justice Harlan’s dissent focused on deference to the state legislature’s reasonable concern for the health and safety of its people, and “the inequality of bargaining power between workers and their employers” that forced employees to work excessive hours under health-harming conditions or lose their jobs.2

Over 30 years later, amidst the Great Depression, Justice Harlan’s analysis was used in cases upholding wage and hour laws and other protective labor legislation.

2. Civil Rights Cases (1883). Five consolidated cases challenged the constitutionality of The Civil Rights Act of 1875 that prohibited racial discrimination by hotels, theaters, transportation facilities, etc., when providing public accommodations. Concluding that Congress has limited powers to regulate private behavior, the Supreme Court held the Civil Rights Act unconstitutional. The 13th Amendment’s prohibition on slavery was held inapplicable to this discrimination because the majority decided “[i]t would be running the slavery argument into the ground to make it apply to every act of discrimination which a person may see fit to make as to” entertainment, transportation, or business dealings.3 The 14th Amendment was found unavailable because it applied only to government action.

Justice Harlan, the lone dissenter, argued that the 13th and 14th Amendments should be interpreted broadly to cover places like hotels and theaters that serve a public function. And that to enforce the 13th Amendment, Congress is to “enact laws to protect that people against the deprivation, on account of their race, of any civil rights enjoyed by other freemen in the same State.”4 Under the 14th Amendment, Justice Harlan asked what “rights, privileges, or immunities” did the grant of State citizenship provide? And he answered with at least one: “exemption from race discrimination in respect of any civil right belonging to citizens of the white race in the same State.”5 To the majority’s argument that a man emerging from slavery must at some point become a “mere citizen, and cease to be the special favorite of the laws,” Harlan replied “It is, I submit, scarcely just to say that the colored race has been the special favorite of the laws. The statute of 1875, now adjudged to be unconstitutional,” is for the benefit of all citizens and secures to the colored race “nothing more,” than “what had already been done in every State of the Union for the white race.”6

It took 80 years, but Harlan’s rationale prevailed. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in public accommodations, pursuant to the 13th Amendment.

3. Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). A Louisiana law required railroad companies to provide separate cars for Black and white people but Homer Plessy, who was 7/8 white, refused to leave a whites-only railway car. The Court upheld the constitutionality of the state law as a “mere legal distinction” and a “reasonable” separation of the two races.7 Justice Harlan’s lone dissent argued that “There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful.” He chided the majority noting that “It is therefore to be regretted that this high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is competent for a state to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of race.”8

The rationale of Harlan’s dissent took over 50 years to become the law. In Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, 347 U.S. 483 (1954), the Court held that “in the field of public education the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”9 In cases that followed Brown, the Court affirmed the unconstitutionality of state laws requiring segregation in other areas of life.

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