A premium desktop replacement laptop for pro creators
Samsung recently released several new laptops, like the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360, to cover a range of prices, and the Galaxy Book3 Ultra (starts at $2,399.99, as tested) sits at the top of the pile. Aimed at professionals and content creators, the Book3 Ultra is a slick get-up, a slim and portable design with a gorgeous 16-inch AMOLED display, long battery life, and 13th Gen Intel Core H Series processing with Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics. This laptop’s performance is impressive but takes a bit too much coin to earn it. While that’s expected for laptops in this class, an alternative like the HP Envy 16 is much less expensive with a lower starting price and comparable power. If you have both the need for a media editing laptop, and the budget for a premium laptop (and maybe a Samsung phone to complement it), you’ll find a lot to like about the Book3 Ultra. Just know that options both cheaper and gutsier are out there.One Luxe Galaxy Design
This review isn’t my first opportunity to check out the Book3 Ultra. We published hands-on impressions from a preview event about a month prior to its original announcement, so I began fairly familiar with the design here. What I liked about it then has not changed: This machine is slick and super thin for a 16-inch laptop.
The metal design and quality build immediately put it up there with top-end competition like the 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro. In fact, the Book3 Ultra is thinner and lighter than every laptop we’ve compared it with here. It measures 0.64 by 13.9 by 9.8 inches and weighs 3.9 pounds, remaining plenty portable for what can be a powerful laptop. But I’ll get to that power later.
Most 16-inch machines are heavier, like the HP Envy 16 (5.1 pounds), the MacBook Pro (4.8 pounds), the Dell Inspiron 16 Plus (4.5 pounds), and even the 15-inch Dell XPS 15 OLED (4.3 pounds). We’ll see if trimming down this much costs the Book3 Ultra in performance further down.
Despite the slim frame, the connectivity is still decent. Laptops this slim (especially smaller ones) are increasingly dropping all but USB Type-C ports, sometimes even including the headphone jack. Here, you still find a USB Type-A port, an HDMI connection, a microSD card slot, and a headphone jack alongside two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C) ports, which are also used for charging. The laptop also features a full HD webcam, though I found the camera quality to be underwhelming, easily blown out by bright lighting and not especially sharp.
Samsung’s keyboard and touchpad are less remarkable, but they’re still overall suitable for regular use. You won’t feel a lot of key travel, so typing is just a so-so experience, but it is serviceable, and this keyboard manages to squeeze in a number pad—something we’ve seen lacking on some other 16-inchers. The Book3 Ultra also joins in on the trend of larger touchpads with an especially roomy one, which tracks and pans smoothly.
The screen size doesn’t overly inflate the chassis footprint, so we can celebrate the fact that this is a big and beautiful display with no reservations. This is an AMOLED screen in a 16:10 aspect ratio, with a super-sharp 3K resolution (2,880 by 1,800 pixels) and a 120Hz refresh rate. The latter feature is useful for a variety of visual workloads as well as gaming, and the screen is also DisplayHDR True Black 500 certified.
The fact that this screen is sharp, bright, and vibrant should be no surprise if you have enjoyed Samsung’s AMOLED displays on its flagship Galaxy phones, either. Speaking of which, this laptop works with Samsung Galaxy smartphones in some helpful ways.Expand Your Workflow: Galaxy Phone Integration
To underscore the travel-friendly nature of the Book3 Ultra, Samsung developed deep integration with its Galaxy phones. This is meant to appeal to the mobile power user, and it realistically aims to replicate the synergy Apple customers enjoy between their Macs and iPhones.
In order to test this, Samsung included a Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra in the box for our review purposes. Setup is pretty easy (you scan a QR code), and from there, you’ll find a number of compatibility features available to you. Multi Control allows you to drag, drop, copy, and paste items between your phone and Galaxy tablets, as well as share a keyboard and mouse between the devices. You can also use a Samsung tablet as a second display for your laptop, which is actually helpful.
