Samsung held its first event of the year in San Francisco, Cali. on Feb. 1 where the tech giant announced three new Galaxy S23 smartphones and several new Windows 11 laptops that are part of the Galaxy Book 3 lineup.
After Samsung’s Unpacked keynote, I was able to spend some time going hands on with a few of Samsung’s (SSNLF) newest laptops, including the shiny, spec-heavy Galaxy Book3 Ultra.
These all sport Windows 11 and will start shipping in just a couple of weeks. The Galaxy Book 3 Pro starts at $1,219, the 2-in-1 Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 starts at $1,449, while the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra--the first Ultra branded laptop from the smartphone giant--starts at $2,199.
The Book3 Pro and Book3 Pro 360 are available to pre-order now and will arrive on Feb. 17, while preorders for the Book3 Ultra will arrive a few days later, on Feb. 22.
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Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra
After arriving in the demo area, I immediately worked my way to the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra’s table. My first thought of seeing the 16-inch 3K AMOLED display of the Ultra was Whoa!. The screen is bright and vibrant, and is going to be a dream to edit videos and photos or game on, especially with its 120Hz refresh rate.
As a byproduct of its 16-inch display, it’s a large laptop with a big overall footprint, but that also means there’s enough room on the keyboard for a small number pad and—this is true of all three Book3 models I touched —a huge trackpad. A trackpad of that size is to be great for dragging and dropping documents from app to app, or even using the multi screen experience between a Galaxy Tab, Galaxy phone and Galaxy Book 3 Samsung demonstrated.
Internally, the Book 3 Ultra will come with a few different confirmation options. You can pick between a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 or i9 processor, 16GB or 32GB of memory, up to 1TB of storage and, perhaps most intriguing, you can pick between a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 or 4070 Laptop GPU.
The latter provides the Ultra with enough graphics processing chops to be used as a dedicated video and photo editing machine or even gaming PC. Yes, it’s that powerful.
Related: Samsung’s Galaxy S23 Ultra Sharpens Its Focus On Photography
You’ll pay for that performance, with builds starting at $2,199 though. If you pre-order, you’ll get 1TB of storage for the price of the 512GB model. You can order the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra now with delivery later this month.
Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360
Next, I stopped by the table where Samsung’s latest 2-in-1 laptop, the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360. The entire Book 3 line has the same core design, but what sets the Pro 360 apart from the standard Book 3 Pro and Book 3 Ultra is that it has a 360-degree hinge and a 16-inch 3K AMOLED touchscreen that also works with Samsung’s S Pen.
That means you can rotate the screen back and use it as a tablet, either with your fingers to tap and swipe your way through Windows 11 or with Samsung’s infamous stylus for writing notes or drawing.
There wasn’t an S Pen available for me to try on the screen in the hands-on space, but it was very responsive to touch and the screen looked every bit as good as the Ultra’s. Inside the Book3 Pro 360 is Intel’s 13th Gen Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory and 512GB or 1TB of storage.
If you pre-order the Galaxy Book3 Pro 360, you’ll get the higher end configuration of 16GB of memory and 1TB of storage for the same $1,449 price as the 512GB build. After the preorder window, which runs until Feb. 17, you’ll pay $1,899 for the extra storage.
Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro
Finally, I took a few minutes to look over the Galaxy Book 3 Pro, the laptop that’s designed for everyday computing tasks at home, school, or even the office.
Unlike the Book 3 Ultra and Book 3 Pro 360, there were two different sizes of the Book3 Pro display— a 14-inch and 16-inch—each with a 3K AMOLED display.
As a side note, how crazy is it that all of the Pro laptops Samsung announced today have 3K AMOLED displays? More of this from all Windows laptop partners, please.
But I digress.
In a lot of ways, the Book 3 Pro and the Book 3 Ultra looked identical in design. Unless someone specifically told me what to look for, I don’t think I’d be able to tell them apart at first glance.
They both have the same giant-sized trackpad, gorgeous display, and a limited selection of ports on either side (same goes for the Book 3 Pro 360). More specifically, on the right side there’s a microSD card reader, a USB 3.2 Type-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. On the left side there’s an HDMI port and two Thunderbolt 4 ports.
Internally, the Book 3 Pro is equipped with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory and either 512GB or 1TB of storage. Like with the rest of Samsung’s preorder promotions, if you order a Book 3 Pro before Feb. 17, you’ll get the higher storage amount for free.
Standard pricing for the 14-inch variant is $1,219 for the 512GB model or $1,649 for the 1TB model. You’re looking at $1,319 for 512GB or $1,749 for the 1TB 16-inch model, all of which are available to preorder right now.
Prices are accurate and items in stock at time of publishing.
