The top of Samsung’s new 2023 laptop lineup is the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra: a powerful 16-inch machine that takes aim squarely at Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro for creatives and gamers.
A laptop called the Ultra obviously isn’t cheap, coming in at £2,449 ($2,200), which is about the same price as Windows 11 rivals from Dell and Razer, but slightly cheaper than Apple’s best machines.
The Ultra looks a lot like Samsung’s other minimalist Galaxy Book laptops of the past few years, only bigger, in contrast to the frequently garish gaming PCs. It’s surprisingly thin and light for a 16-inch laptop, at 1.78kg, which isn’t much heavier than much smaller machines and much lighter than most of the competition.
The star of the show is the simply stunning 16-inch 3K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It’s one of the best displays I’ve ever seen, with inky blacks, incredible contrast, and accurate colors that practically pop out of the picture. screen. Its peak brightness of around 500 nits for HDR content is handily beaten by the searing brightness of the LCD-based MacBook Pro, but in line with OLED competitors and certainly bright enough to look good.
Below the screen is a good, big keyboard, with a solid typing experience and a fingerprint reader on the power button. Players may want more feedback, but for writing it was great. It has a decent but not class-leading 1080p webcam with various tricks like auto-panning and blur effects at the top of the screen. The microphones are very good, and the four-speaker array is pretty immersive for a laptop.
Specifications
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Screen: 16-inch 3K AMOLED 2880 x 1800 (120 Hz; 201 PPI)
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Processor: Intel Core i7-13700H or i9-13900H (13th generation)
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Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX4050 (6 GB) or 4070 (8 GB) laptop GPU
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RAM: 16 or 32GB
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Storage: 512GB or 1TB
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OS: Home Windows 11
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Camera: 1080P
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Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, USB-A, 2x Thunderbolt 4, headphones, microSD, HDMI2.0
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Dimensions: 355.4×250.4×16.5mm
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Weight: 1.79kg
two stage power
The Ultra is available in a small selection of configurations that vary by country, including models with an Intel Core i7-13700H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX4050 graphics card, or a Core i9-13900H and RTX4070 at the higher end as tested. Note that a model with 32GB of RAM or more isn’t available in the UK, which may be a deal breaker for some.
As you’d expect for the hardware, the Ultra is an extremely powerful machine, keeping pace with Apple’s best laptops and gaming rigs in a variety of tests. It is capable of producing high frame rates in a variety of demanding games at 1080p resolution at high graphics settings, which look fantastic on the glorious screen. However, the base of the laptop gets pretty hot, so I wouldn’t use it for gaming on a lap. It also handles complex image and video editing, transcoding, and other demanding tasks with the aplomb for creative applications.
But its full power is only available when it’s plugged in and set to high performance mode. That’s typical of the type of PC hardware it packs inside, but not the case for Apple’s competitor.
Even at full speed, the Ultra’s fans manage to avoid being too loud compared to some hair-dryer-like laptops. In more mundane day-to-day productivity work, it runs essentially silent, which is much appreciated.
Battery life for productivity is pretty average, lasting about seven hours with a balanced workload of browsing, video calling, and typing, which isn’t enough for a day’s work. It holds up better than the competition under heavy loads, lasting a mere three hours when pushed. A full charge takes about 75 minutes using the included 100W power adapter.
Sustainability
Samsung does not provide an expected life for the battery, but it should last more than 500 full charge cycles with at least 80% of its original capacity.
the laptop is usually repairable the price depends on each case, but cannot be updated. The notebook contains recycled plastic in its casing. Samsung offers exchange and recycling systems for some old devices. The public company annual sustainability reports but not impact assessments for individual products.
Windows 11 + Samsung
The Ultra runs Windows 11 out of the box, but comes pre-installed with a wide range of Samsung apps and tools. In general, it worked smoothly and without any problems. I removed McAfee Free Trial and several other unwanted apps.
Many of the 22 included Samsung apps you may never use and can safely uninstall them. But some, like the quick settings tool, are very useful and allow you to change system settings, performance modes, display modes and other parts quickly and easily.
About half of them are designed to link and sync content across other Samsung devices, which is useful if you also have a modern Galaxy phone or any of the company’s accessories like headphones. For example, you can control a Samsung phone using the keyboard and mouse on the laptop.
Some of the other tools, like the Intel Connectivity Performance Suite, give you much more control over the hardware inside the laptop, which is welcome given this is a power user machine.
Price
The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra starts at £2,449 ($2199.99) with an Intel Core i7, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU. The Core i9 version with GeForce RTX 4070 costs £3,049.
For comparison, the equivalent Razer Blade 16 starts at £2,699the Dell XPS 15 in £3,099the Alienware m16 in £2,149and Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro in £2,699.
Verdict
The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is the first Samsung laptop to truly compete on the same level as Apple’s big MacBook Pro, its arch-rival, delivering the raw power, build quality, and stunning display creatives and gamers alike need. .
It’s a thoroughly impressive machine, offering the ability to seamlessly switch between simple productivity work, serious photo and video editing, and then double as a proper gaming rig at the end of the day, all without looking out of place. There are few machines that do that so successfully and in such a light and compact body for a 16-inch laptop.
The huge trackpad is great and the keyboard is really good for typing, but gamers might want a little more feedback. It is very expensive, even if competitively priced for this type of machine. Could use more battery productivity.
For those looking for a Windows alternative to a 16-inch MacBook Pro for creative work or a more subtle gaming PC that they can take to the office when needed, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is right up there with the best available.
Advantages: impressive 16-inch OLED screen, powerful selection of the best Intel and Nvidia chips, huge trackpad, good typing keyboard, subtle design, good speakers and microphones, decent webcam, compact and light for a workstation.
Cons: expensive no 32gb ram uk option only HDMI2.0 max performance only available when plugged in productivity battery life a bit short design may be too professional for a gaming laptop.
