Samsung unveiled the much-anticipated Galaxy S23 series smartphones earlier this month at the Galaxy Unpacked event alongside Galaxy Book3 series laptops, including the Galaxy Book3 360, Galaxy Book3 Pro, Galaxy Book3 Pro 360, and Galaxy Book3 Ultra. The Galaxy Book3 Ultra is the flagship of the range and we had the chance to spend some time with it at the Samsung Opera House in Bangalore, India, so here are some impressions of Samsung’s most ambitious laptop yet.
The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is 16.5 mm thick and weighs 1.79 kg. It has an elegant design and comes in a full aluminum frame. The overall build is nice, just like the finish on the laptop lid, which extends to the area around the keyboard. However, the lid stains quickly, so keeping it in its pristine shape requires regular cleaning.
The lid of the Galaxy Book3 Ultra sports the Samsung logo placed in an off-center position, which is not uncommon these days, but some may prefer the centered placement.
Samsung didn’t let us check the underside of the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, but you can expect some vents there to facilitate airflow and rubber cushions to provide grip for the laptop.
That said, on the left side of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is the HDMI 2.0 port, joined by two Thunderbolt 4.0 USB-C ports and a charging indicator, and on the right is the USB-3.2 Type-A port flanked by a microSD card slot and a 3.5mm audio combo jack.
Two Thunderbolt 4.0 USB-C ports and one HDMI 2.0 port on the left, with the USB-3.2 Type-A port, a microSD card slot, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack on the right
Open the lid of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra and you will see the 16″ Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen with a resolution of 2,880×1,800 pixels and a 16:10 aspect ratio. It has a brightness of 500 nits for HDR content (400 nits typical) and a frequency of 120Hz (48-120Hz) adaptive refresh, which will change depending on the content on the screen, although you have the option to keep it limited to 60 FPS.
The display also has a DCI-P3 color volume of 120% and is surrounded by thin, non-plasticky bezels with a top-mounted 1080p webcam accompanied by a blue color indicator that illuminates when the camera is in use.
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra’s 16″ screen is surrounded by thin bezels, with a 1080p webcam on top
The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra’s hinge felt sturdy, but how it maintains its stability over the long term is something only time can tell.
We also have the Island Type keyboard on the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra with 3-level backlighting and a power button in the upper right corner with the built-in fingerprint scanner. We typed a few lines during the event and found the keyboard good to type on. However, detailed tests are required to determine the quality of the keyboard in daily use.
The Galaxy Book3 Ultra’s keyboard also has a dedicated number pad, which is nice to see on sleek laptops. We asked Samsung if they have any plans to introduce an integrated LED-lit numeric keypad that we saw on the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition, and the Korean conglomerate’s product team told us that the brand believes a real physical numpad would still offers the best experience, so don’t expect an Asus-like integrated solution on Samsung laptops anytime soon.
That said, the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra’s non-glossy trackpad was well responsive and its massive size ensures enough space to perform gestures for different purposes.
Talking about the hardware, the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra comes with the 13th generation Intel Core i7-13700H or Core i9-13900H CPU and GeForce RTX 4050 or 4070 GPU from NVIDIA depending on the region. For example, in India, Samsung only offers the Galaxy Book3 Ultra with Core i9 CPU and RTX 4070 GPU. It has 32GB LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB SSD (PCIe) on board, but some regions also have the option of 16GB of RAM and 512 SSDs of storage.
The laptop runs Windows 11 out of the box and packs a 76Wh battery (nominal 73.8Wh/4,757mAh), which can be charged via the supplied 100W USB-C power adapter.
The rest of the highlights of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra include a four-speaker system (Woofer Max 5Wx2, Tweeter 2Wx2) tuned with AKG and Dolby Atmos, dual “studio-quality” microphones, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1.
The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is available in a single Core i9/32GB/1TB/RTX4070 configuration in India priced at ₹281,990 ($3,415/€3,190), which, in Europe, is priced at ₹3,699 ($3,960 /INR 326,890), while the Core i7 model with 16GB RAM, 512GB storage and RTX4050 costs €2,799 ($2,995/INR247,360). Regardless of where you buy the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, you’ll only get one color option: graphite.
You can read our coverage of the Galaxy Book3 series announcement here to learn more about the other laptops in the range.
Start a new Thread