Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra hands-on

2023-12-01

Samsung unveiled the much-awaited Galaxy S23 series smartphones earlier this month at the Galaxy Unpacked event alongside the 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 in the lineup and we had the chance to spend some quality time with it at the Samsung Opera House in Bengaluru, India so here are some impressions of Samsung"s most ambitious laptop yet.

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is 16.5mm thick and weighs 1.79 kg. It has a sleek design and comes in a full aluminum frame. The overall build is nice, just like the finish on the laptop"s lid, which extends to the area around the keyboard. However the lid is quickly smudged so keeping it in its pristine form requires regular wiping.

The Galaxy Book3 Ultra"s lid sports the Samsung logo placed in an off-center position, which isn"t uncommon these days, but some might like the centered placement better.

Samsung didn"t let us check the bottom side of the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, but you can expect some vents there to facilitate airflow and rubber cushions to provide grip to the laptop.

That said, on the left side of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is the HDMI 2.0 port, joined by two USB-C Thunderbolt 4.0 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 USB-C Thunderbolt 4.0 ports and an 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 Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra"s lid, and you see the 16" Dynamic AMOLED 2X screen of 2,880x1,800-pixel resolution and 16:10 aspect ratio. It has a brightness of 500 nits for HDR content (400 nits typical) and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate (48-120Hz), which will change depending on the content on the screen. Although you do have the option to keep it capped at 60 FPS.

The display also has 120% DCI-P3 color volume, and it"s surrounded by slim, non-plasticky bezels with a 1080p web camera mounted on the top one, accompanied by a blue-colored indicator that lights up when the camera is in use.

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra"s 16" screen is surrounded by slim bezels, with a 1080p web camera on the top one

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra"s hinge felt sturdy, but how it retains its stability in the long run 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 its top-right corner with the fingerprint scanner embedded. We typed a few lines at the event and found the keyboard good to type on. However, detailed testing is required to determine the quality of the keyboard in daily usage.

The Galaxy Book3 Ultra"s keyboard also has a dedicated numpad, which is nice to see on sleek laptops. We asked Samsung if they plan on introducing an integrated LED-illuminated numeric keypad we saw on the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED Space Edition, and the Korean conglomerate"s product team told us that the brand believes that an actual, physical numpad still offers the best experience, so don"t expect an integrated solution like Asus" on Samsung"s laptops any soon.

That said, the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra"s non-glossy trackpad was nicely responsive, and its massive size ensures you have enough room to perform gestures for different purposes.

Talking about the hardware, the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra comes with Intel"s 13th Gen Core i7-13700H or Core i9-13900H CPU and NVIDIA"s GeForce RTX 4050 or 4070 GPU 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 of LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB SSD (PCIe) onboard, but some regions also have the option of 16GB RAM and 512 SSD storage.

The laptop runs Windows 11 out of the box and packs a 76Wh battery (73.8Wh/4,757mAh rated), which can be charged through the bundled 100W USB-C power adapter.

The rest of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra"s highlights include a quad-speaker system (Woofer Max 5Wx2, Tweeter 2Wx2) tuned with AKG and Dolby Atmos, "studio quality" dual mics, Wi-Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.1.

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra comes in a single Core i9/32GB/1TB/RTX4070 configuration in India priced at INR281,990 ($3,415/€3,190), which, in Europe, is priced at €3,699 ($3,960/INR326,890), 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 will get only one color option - Graphite.