Samsung reveals Galaxy Book3 laptops: OLED beauty meets content-creator beast

Samsung’s new Galaxy Book3 Ultra is probably the most highly effective laptop computer Samsung has ever unveiled, and addresses a content-creation market that the corporate hasn’t broached earlier than. But right here’s the actually fascinating information: You’ll discover one of many Ultra’s most engaging options—a surprising 3K, 120Hz, OLED show—on each the cheaper Galaxy Book3 Pro and Galaxy Book3 Pro 360.

For years, Samsung’s Galaxy Book laptops have sometimes been synonymous with three phrases: skinny, mild, and OLED. But with an increasing number of producers deploying OLED screens of their laptops, Samsung is now leaning more durable into its personal OLED bona fides and thus now we have the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, Pro, and 360 laptops, plus a Galaxy Book 360 introduced at launch. All save the Galaxy Book3 360 function a “3K” OLED show, together with upgrades each in image high quality and efficiency.

We had an opportunity to go hands-on with the primary three machines upfront of their launch and our first impressions are that they reside as much as the hype.

Samsung will ship the 16-inch Galaxy Book3 Ultra for between $2,199.99 and $2,799.99 on Feb. 24. The 16-inch Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 goes for $1,699.99 and ships on Feb. 17. Samsung’s most reasonably priced variations shall be 14- and 16-inch Galaxy Book3 Pro fashions, promoting for $1,449.99 and up on Feb. 17. All of those new Book3 laptops earn Intel’s Evo premium pocket book badge in case you’re questioning.

Samsung additionally added a fourth household, the Galaxy Book3 360, which they introduced at launch. That laptop computer shall be out there in both 13.3-inch or 15.5-inch show choices, however solely in a 1080p show choice.

Beautiful OLEDs, high to backside

While the Galaxy Book3 Ultra stands out because the flagship of the group, it’s Samsung’s lovely new OLED show that actually sells all three laptops. OLED shows trump extra pedestrian LCD shows by providing richer, extra spectacular colours, together with absolute blacks that seem, effectively, completely black. But Samsung’s new show tech goes past what you might already learn about OLED laptop computer screens.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The tech that Samsung calls Dynamic AMOLED 2X helps 120 p.c of the DCI-P3 colour gamut and the colour response is visually placing. But that’s not all: The new AMOLED 2X panels can filter out virtually all the blue mild they produce, with no obvious lack of colour constancy, Samsung says. The show can also be VESA ClearMR and DisplayHDR TRUE BLACK 500 licensed and has acquired SGS Eye Care Display certification for the assured discount of blue mild. But that’s all spec speak. What it’s worthwhile to know is the brand new OLED show is just attractive and needs to be simpler in your eyes.

Samsung’s new OLED runs at as much as 120Hz, a efficiency enchancment that may ship smoother inking and mousing, and permit for top frames-per-second gaming on the Galaxy Book3 Ultra (which boasts probably the most highly effective GPU of the lineup). The new Galaxy Book3 household show is rated for 500 nits of output utilizing HDR, 400 nits with out.

The new OLED show employs an odd 16:10 show ratio of 2880×1800 pixels. This supplies an improve previous a 1440p show with out fairly touching the 3840×2160 decision that characterizes a 4K show. It’s price noting that the Galaxy Book2 Pro collection options 1080p, 60Hz panels. Thus the leap to the Book3 is a major improve simply on fundamental show specs alone.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Samsung’s Galaxy Books have all the time been a pleasure to view content material on because of their attractive OLED screens. This holds true for the most recent fashions and the wow-factor of Samsung’s OLEDs is stronger than ever. In one tech demo designed to show the prevalence of its new show tech, Samsung demonstrated how the only backlight utilized in an LCD display screen imbues even darkish scenes with a “halo” impact, with a gentle glow throughout the picture. That was contrasted with the pristine, unsullied blackness of its personal OLED—an enormous profit for video editors.

And for individuals who are delicate to blue mild, the brand new Galaxy Book would possibly imply customers can work longer hours with out triggering a migraine. That might be an actual plus for creators in addition to anybody who makes use of her laptop computer for fundamental productiveness work.

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra, designed for creators

The 16-inch Galaxy Book Ultra contradicts a few of what makes a Galaxy Book a Galaxy Book as a result of at 16.5 mm thick, it’s acquired the girth of a extra conventional laptop computer. It’s the hefty weight, although—3.9 kilos—that feels just like the “creator-class” pocket book that it truly is. You’ll have the ability to drop it in a laptop computer bag or backpack, however the weight feels noticeable within the hand. Mind you, it’s not chunky like a gaming laptop computer. It’s only a bit thicker than most laptops and noticeably thicker than the opposite Galaxy Book3 fashions.

Mark Hachman / IDG

The Book3 Ultra not solely contains the choice of both a Thirteenth-gen Core i7 or i9, however extra importantly, you possibly can select between an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 or 4070 laptop computer GPU. While these are on the low finish of the brand new GeForce RTX 4-series cellular GPUs that Nvidia launched at CES, the corporate does declare they’ll ship higher efficiency than the present GeForce 3080 cellular GPUs (although we don’t know if that elements in Nvidia’s frame-rate-easing DLSS 3 expertise).

The Book3 Ultra reminiscence choices embody 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5, and you may select between 512GB or 1TB of PCIe storage. Samsung says there’s an extra growth slot for an extra SSD.

The giant, large display screen accommodates an additional island of quantity keys to the far proper. But the show physique itself continues to be skinny, which has historically meant that Samsung has foregone using a Windows Hello depth digital camera in favor of an embedded fingerprint reader. Sadly, that’s nonetheless the case. Samsung’s keyboards have all the time deftly walked the road between being shallow whereas nonetheless offering a snug typing expertise, and some experimental phrases in Notepad confirmed they’re nonetheless surprisingly usable.

Mark Hachman / IDG

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One key distinction between the Galaxy Book3 Ultra and the remainder of the Galaxy Book3 lineup is within the Ultra’s devoted HDMI 2.0 port, which helps sufficient bandwidth to show 4K video and 60 frames per second on an exterior show. Both the Galaxy Book 3 Pro and Pro 360 embody an HDMI 1.4 port, which helps 4K video at 24 frames per second on an exterior show. So that is but extra proof that the Book3 Ultra is designed for content material creation, and the Book3 Pro and Pro 360 are destined for less complicated duties. Regardless, there’s a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports on all three Book3 fashions.

Finally, I’ve to name out Samsung’s completely huge touchpad. It may not have been completely clickable all the way in which to the highest in my temporary hands-on, however make no mistake: It’s huge.

Samsung doesn’t skimp on the Book3 Pro and Pro 360

The Galaxy Book3 Pro and Pro 360 are Samsung’s extra conventional laptops and let’s face it, these are the fashions most individuals will purchase.

A large distinction in worth—$1,399 for the 16-inch Pro versus no less than $2,199 for the Book3 Ultra—makes the Pro a gorgeous alternative by comparability. The Pro’s small $100 pricing delta between its two choices, the 14- and the 16-inch, can also be intriguing. The Pro 360, against this, gives three issues that the opposite Galaxy Book3 fashions don’t: a 360-degree convertible type issue, an built-in S Pen contained in the field, and non-compulsory 5G functionality for on-the-go connectivity.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Otherwise, the Galaxy Book3 Pro and Pro 360 are remarkably much like their gaudier cousin, the Ultra. For one, they provide similar show tech, solely differing in measurement. (The Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 is obtainable in only a single 16-inch configuration.) You may also get the Pro and Pro 360 in the identical reminiscence and storage quantities because the Ultra, together with a smaller 8GB RAM/256GB SSD choice that helps preserve pricing extra reasonably priced. Samsung additionally gives an similar port configuration, with two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an HDMI port choice.

On paper, the 2 Pro fashions additionally differ little or no of their beginning worth. They do differ pretty considerably of their weight, nonetheless. The 16-inch weighs virtually a pound greater than the 14-inch, a svelte 2.42 kilos.

The Pro and Pro 360 fashions are provided in each Graphite and Beige whereas the Ultra ships solely within the Graphite colour scheme.

The Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 ships the S Pen in-box, although it have to be saved individually relatively than in a holster. We didn’t have a lot time to check it, however we confirmed that the pen inks as anticipated. Unfortunately, we weren’t in a position to take a look at for ink judder.

We didn’t have an opportunity to check out the Galaxy Book 360.

Mark Hachman / IDG

Below we’ve summarized the specs of all three Galaxy Book3 laptops:

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra specs:

• Processor: Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7/i9
• Display: 16-inch (2,880×1800), 120Hz AMOLED 2X, 400 nits, 120% DCI-P3 colour quantity
• Memory: 16GB/32GB LPDDR5
• Storage: 512GB/1TB SSD (1TB as examined) plus growth slot
• Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050/4070 Laptop GPU
• Ports: 2 Thunderbolt 4, USB Type-A, HDMI 2.0, microSD, Headphone/Mic
• Security: Fingerprint reader
• Camera: 1080p (user-facing)
• Battery: 76Wh
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), 802.11 ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.1
• Audio: KG Quad Speaker (two 5W woofers, two 2W tweeters), Smart Amp, Dolby Atmos
• Operating system: Windows 11
• Dimensions:  14.00 x 9.85 x 0.65in. (16.5mm)
• Weight: 3.99lbs (rated)
• Colors: Graphite
• Prices:  starting at $2,199-$2,799

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro specs:

• Processor: Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7/i9
• Display: 14-inch/16-inch: (2,880×1800), 120Hz AMOLED 2X, 400 nits, 120% DCI-P3 colour quantity
• Memory: 8GB/16GB/32GB LPDDR5
• Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD (1TB as examined) plus growth slot
• Graphics: Iris Xe
• Ports: 2 Thunderbolt 4, USB Type-A, HDMI 2.0, microSD, Headphone/Mic
• Security: Fingerprint reader
• Camera: 1080p (user-facing)
• Battery: 63Wh/76Wh
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), 802.11 ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.1
• Audio: KG Quad Speaker (two 5W woofers, two 2W tweeters), Smart Amp, Dolby Atmos
• Operating system: Windows 11
• Dimensions:  12.30 x 8.81 x 0.44in. / 14.00 x 9.85 x 0.50in. (12.5mm)
• Weight: 2.42lbs/3.4lbs (rated)
• Colors: Graphite, Beige
• Prices:  starting at $1,449.99

Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 specs:

• Processor: Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7/i9
• Display: 16-inch: (2,880×1800), 120Hz AMOLED 2X, 400 nits, 120% DCI-P3 colour quantity
• Memory: 8GB/16GB/32GB LPDDR5
• Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD (1TB as examined) plus growth slot
• Graphics: Iris Xe
• Ports: 2 Thunderbolt 4, USB Type-A , HDMI 2.0, microSD, Headphone/Mic
• Security: Fingerprint reader
• Camera: 1080p (user-facing)
• Battery: 63Wh/76Wh
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), 802.11 ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.1; 5G Sub6 non-compulsory
• Audio: KG Quad Speaker (two 5W woofers, two 2W tweeters), Smart Amp, Dolby Atmos
• Operating system: Windows 11
• Dimensions:  12.30 x 9.92 x 0.50in. (12.8mm)
• Weight: 3.7lbs (rated)
• Colors: Graphite, Beige
• Prices:  starting at $1,899

Samsung Galaxy Book3 360 specs:

• Processor: Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7-1360P
• Display: 13.3-inch/15.6-inch: (1920×1080)
• Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
• Storage: 512GB/1TB SSD (1TB as examined) plus growth slot
• Graphics: Iris Xe
• Ports: 1 Thunderbolt 4, 1 USB-C, 1USB Type-A , HDMI 2.0, microSD, Headphone/Mic
• Security: Fingerprint reader
• Camera: 1080p (user-facing)
• Battery: 61/68Wh
• Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), 802.11 ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.1
• Audio: Two 2W audio system, Dolby Atmos
• Operating system: Windows 11
• Dimensions:  11.98 x 7.95x 0.51in. / 13.99 x 8.98 x 0.54in.
• 14.00 x 9.85 x 0.65in. (16.5mm)
• Weight: 2.56/3.22lbs (rated)
• Colors: Graphite
• Prices:  starting at $1,299

Correction: A Samsung consultant gave us incorrect pricing info earlier than launch. Samsung additionally introduced the Galaxy Book3 360 at press time. This story was up to date at 12:07 PM to mirror these adjustments.