Samsung has released a new line of Galaxy Book models for 2023, with the Galaxy Book 3 Pro, the Galaxy Book Pro 360 and this, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra. The new model treads new ground for Samsung, looking to push into a new space for its computing line-up.
The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra sits at the top of the new family, offering a similar design to the rest of the family, with a thin and light build. It’s a 16-inch laptop however, so it’s never going to be that light - and it does end up being slightly heavier and thicker than the 16-inch version of the Galaxy Book 3 Pro - it weighs 1.79kg and is 16.9mm thick at the fattest point.
It comes in one colour - the Graphite seen here - and the reason we’re not giving it the hands-on treatment, is because we weren’t allowed to touch it. That’s because of restrictions on this model - and the thing that makes it different to the other Galaxy Book 3 Pro models, is the hardware. The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra comes with 13-gen Intel Core i7/i9 with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 or 4050 GPU. The other models in the line-up use integrated graphics, so it’s the move to a discrete GPU that really sets this laptop apart. It will be available with 16 or 32GB RAM and 512GB or 1TB SSD.
There’s a 16-inch display with a 2880 x 1800 pixel resolution, supporting 120Hz and in our eyes-on session with the laptop it was showing a demo loop so we couldn’t judge the performance, although it reportedly hits 500 nit peak brightness from the AMOLED 2X display. There’s no support for touch, however.
The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra otherwise has a full keyboard with a number pad on the right, as well as a huge trackpad. We’ve not been able to test the performance of either of these things because we weren’t allowed to physically touch the machine. However, we noticed that there’s some flex in the centre of the keyboard on the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 16-inch, so we’re hoping that’s not replicated in the Ultra.
In terms of connectivity, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra offers a 3.5mm headphone connection, USB-A, microSD, HDMI 2.1 and two USB-C supporting Thunderbolt 4. The USB-C is also used for charging, meaning you can use one charger for all your Samsung devices. The Ultra will come with a 100W charger.
The Ultra is also equipped with AKG speakers (which we’ve not sampled) offering Dolby Atmos and there’s a 1080p camera above the display.
But one of the things that Samsung is keen to talk about is the software. This isn’t just a Windows 11 laptop, there is software support to make the Galaxy Book integrate with your other Samsung devices better. That includes Multi Control and Second Screen, so you can drag and drop to other devices or use your Galaxy Tab as a second display - and all wirelessly.
There are other convenience features to tap into your Galaxy phone, like the option for instant hotspot, accessing recent websites you’ve visited on your phone, as well as being able to send Expert RAW files from your Galaxy S23 Ultra to your Galaxy Book so you can process them on the big screen.
Then we come to the price. The Samsung Galaxy 3 Ultra starts at £2,449, with pre-orders opening on 14 February - how romantic - with general availability from 22 February.
That price puts it in the same range as the new MacBook Pro with M2 Pro. Exactly how these laptops compare will likely be the subject of many debates online.
