Getting started with the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra

Samsung unveiled the highly anticipated Galaxy S23 series smartphones earlier this month at the Galaxy Unpacked event alongside Galaxy Book3 series laptops including Galaxy Book3 360, Galaxy Book3 Pro, Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 and the Galaxy Book3 Ultra. The Galaxy Book3 Ultra is the flagship of the line and we had the chance to spend some quality time with it at the Samsung Opera House in Bangalore, India. So here are some impressions of Samsung’s most ambitious laptop to date.

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

The cover of the Galaxy Book3 Ultra sports the Samsung logo placed in an off-center position, which is not uncommon these days, but some might prefer the centered placement.

Samsung didn’t let us check the underside of the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, but you can expect vents to help airflow and rubber pads 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 one HDMI 2.0 port on the left, with the USB-3.2 Type-A port, microSD card slot, and 3.5mm audio combo jack on the right

Open the lid of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra and you will see the 16-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X display with a resolution of 2880 x 1800 pixels and an aspect ratio of 16:10. It has a brightness of 500 nits for HDR content (400 nits typical) and an Adaptive Refresh Rate of 120Hz (48-120Hz), which will change depending on the content on screen, although you have the option of keep it capped at 60 FPS.

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

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra’s 16″ display is surrounded by slim bezels, with a 1080p webcam on top

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra’s hinge felt solid, but how well it retains its long-term stability is something only time can tell.

We also have the Island Type keyboard on the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra with a 3-level backlight and a power button in its upper right corner along with the in-display fingerprint reader. We typed a few lines during the event and found the keyboard pleasant to type on. However, detailed testing is needed to determine the keyboard’s quality in everyday use.

The Galaxy Book3 Ultra’s keyboard also has a dedicated number pad, which is nice to see on sleek laptops. We asked Samsung if they plan to introduce an integrated LED-lit numeric keypad that 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 number pad still provides the best experience, so don’t expect an integrated solution like Asus’s on Samsung’s laptops anytime soon.

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

Speaking of hardware, the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra comes with the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H or Core i9-13900H processor 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 LPDDR5 RAM and 1TB SSD (PCIe) on board, but some regions also have the option 16 GB of RAM and 512 SSDs of storage.

The laptop runs Windows 11 out of the box and packs a 76Wh (73.8Wh / 4,757mAh) battery, which can be charged via the included 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, two “studio-grade” mics, Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1.

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is available in a single Core i9/32GB/1TB/RTX4070 configuration in India for INR 281,990 ($3,415/€3,190), which in Europe is priced at INR 3,699. € ($3,960/INR 326,890), while the Core i7 model with 16GB RAM, 512GB storage and RTX4050 costs €2,799 ($2,995/INR 247,360). No matter where you buy the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, you’ll only get one color option – Graphite.

You can read our Galaxy Book3 series announcement coverage here to learn more about the other laptops in the line.