Samsung showed off the much-anticipated Galaxy S23 series of smartphones and the Galaxy Book 3 series of laptops at the Galaxy Unpacked event earlier this month. The Galaxy Book 3 360, Galaxy Book 3 Pro, Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, and Galaxy Book 3 Ultra are all part of the Galaxy Book3 series. It is the best of the bunch, and we got to spend some time with it at the Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru. Here are our thoughts on Samsung’s most ambitious laptop yet.
Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra: Description
The thickness of the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is 16.5 mm, and it weighs 1.79 kg. It looks sleek and comes with a frame made of aluminum. The finish on the top of the laptop is nice, and it goes all the way down to where the keyboard is. But the lid gets dirty quickly, so it needs to be wiped down often to stay clean. The Samsung logo is off-center on the Galaxy Book3 Ultra’s lid. This isn’t unusual these days, but some people might like it better if it was in the middle.
Samsung wouldn’t let us look at the bottom of the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, but it should have some vents to help air flow and rubber pads to help you hold it. The HDMI 2.0 port, two USB-C Thunderbolt 4.0 ports, and a charging indicator are all on the left side of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra. The USB-3.2 Type-A port, a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack are on the right side.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Colorful, vibrant 16-inch AMOLED display
- Lightweight design
- Roomy keyboard
- The latest Intel and Nvidia components
Cons
- Could be too expensive for some folks
Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra: Specifications
| Display | 16-inch 3K AMOLED (2,880 x 1,800, 16:10) with 120Hz |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-13700H or i9-13900H |
| Graphics | Nvidia RTX GeForce 4050 or 4070 |
| RAM/storage | 16/32GB RAM with 512GB/1TB |
| Battery | 76Wh (up to 17 hours) |
| Dimensions | 13.99 x 9.86 x 0.65 inches |
Samsung Galaxy Book 3: Design
Like many laptops today, the Galaxy Book3 Ultra is all black and has clean lines and a simple design. It doesn’t look like anything special, but that doesn’t make it an ugly laptop by any means. It has a quiet, understated beauty that makes it a good fit for any computing environment.
It’s not as thin as the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360, which is only 0.49 inches thick, and it’s quite a bit heavier at 3.95 pounds compared to 3.3 pounds. But the Galaxy Book3 Ultra is a good size compared to other laptops in its class, like the Dell XPS 15 and the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5. It has thin, modern display bezels on the top and sides, but the bottom chin is a bit thick. Even so, it fits in a chassis small enough for a 16-inch laptop.
The aluminum chassis feels pretty solid and doesn’t bend or twist at all, but the lid can be bent a little. It’s not as well made as the Dell XPS 15 or the Apple MacBook Pro 16, but it still feels like a high-end product. The lid can be opened with one hand, but it moves a bit as you use it. That could be made a little bit better.
Samsung Galaxy Book 3: Display
Samsung is best at making displays that are bright and clear, and the 16-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel on the Book 3 Ultra shows this. With a crisp 2880 x 1800 resolution, an adaptive refresh rate of 120Hz, and a 16:10 aspect ratio, this monitor will help you get more done.
A high-resolution trailer showed me how beautiful this panel is. It’s like a flash flood of colour that explodes off the screen, making it a real beauty for work and games. We won’t know for sure what we think of the Ultra until we test it in our lab, but for now, I can say with confidence that you’ll love this display.
Keyboard and Touchboard
The keyboard on this big laptop is just as big. Even though I have big hands, I found this keyboard easy to move around and type on. I don’t like laptop keyboards very much, which is why I use a real keyboard and mouse with my laptop. But this device’s membrane keys were easy to type on and gave a good amount of resistance when pressed.
Also, the touchpad is pretty big. It’s about the same size as the touchpads on the Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 and the 16-inch MacBook Pro from 2021. It was easy to use, and all my swipes and movements worked. Even if you like to use a traditional mouse, the touchpad works as it should.
Samsung Galaxy Book 3: Sound quality
We weren’t able to test out the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra’s audio features, but it seems like both you and the people you’re on a video call with should be able to hear well. Samsung says that the quad-speaker system has “clear high notes and a rich bass sound.”
This last point is especially interesting to me because I don’t like how thin the bass sounds on most laptops. The microphones on the notebook are said to use AI to cancel out background noise while picking up your voice. Most modern laptops have this feature, which should make conferencing with other people easier.
Samsung Galaxy Book 3: Performance
This is my favourite part, but I’m also frustrated because I can’t test it properly. On the CPU side, you can choose between a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 or i9, both of which run on a 45W TDP and have more raw power than their cheaper siblings. You can choose between an RTX 4050 GPU or an RTX 4070 GPU, which shows that Samsung is serious.
You can choose between 16 or 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and you can store up to a 1TB PCIe SSD with an extra expansion slot. All of this sounds like it could be a beast that can compete with the new M2 Pro MacBook Pro, but we won’t make any judgements until we’ve benchmarked them.
Price and availability
The base model of the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, which has an Intel Core i7 CPU, an RTX 4050 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage, costs $2,399. It costs $2,799 to upgrade to an Intel Core i9 CPU with an RTX 4070 GPU, 32GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.
If you pre-order at Samsung.com, you’ll get a $200 discount and a free upgrade to the next level of storage. In the UK, the starting price for the base model is £2,499. We’d have to wait until we knew more about how strong the system is before we could decide where the best price-performance ratio is.
Final Words
Even though I’ve only spent a short amount of time with the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, I can tell it has the potential to be the best laptop Samsung has ever made. With a beautiful 16-inch screen, elegant design, and powerful parts, it seems like a clear winner, especially for those who are already part of Samsung’s ecosystem.
FAQs
Which Samsung Galaxy book is better?
With 13th-generation Intel Core H-series processors and Nvidia RTX graphics, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is the most powerful device in the Galaxy Book line.
Is the Samsung book good for students?
The Samsung Galaxy Book 2 Pro 360 is a great choice for college students because it is a great piece of engineering. Even so, it is amazing to have a 15.6-inch AMOLED screen on a 2-in-1 laptop that weighs only 3.1 pounds and is perfect for college students.
