Samsung’s new Galaxy Book3 Extremely is essentially the most highly effective laptop computer Samsung has ever unveiled, and addresses a content-creation market that the corporate hasn’t broached earlier than. However right here’s the actually fascinating information: You’ll discover one of many Extremely’s most engaging options—a shocking 3K, 120Hz, OLED show—on each the cheaper Galaxy Book3 Professional and Galaxy Book3 Professional 360.
For years, Samsung’s Galaxy E-book laptops have usually been synonymous with three phrases: skinny, gentle, and OLED. However with increasingly more manufacturers deploying OLED screens in their laptops, Samsung is now leaning more durable into its personal OLED bona fides and thus now we have the Galaxy Book3 Extremely, Professional, and 360 laptops, plus a Galaxy E-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 prematurely of their launch and our first impressions are that they stay as much as the hype.
Samsung will ship the 16-inch Galaxy Book3 Extremely for between $2,199.99 and $2,799.99 on Feb. 24. The 16-inch Galaxy Book3 Professional 360 goes for $1,699.99 and ships on Feb. 17. Samsung’s most reasonably priced variations can be 14- and 16-inch Galaxy Book3 Professional 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 can be obtainable in both 13.3-inch or 15.5-inch show choices, however solely in a 1080p show choice.
Lovely OLEDs, high to backside
Whereas the Galaxy Book3 Extremely stands out because the flagship of the group, it’s Samsung’s lovely new OLED show that basically sells all three laptops. OLED shows trump extra pedestrian LCD shows by providing richer, extra spectacular colours, together with absolute blacks that seem, nicely, completely black. However Samsung’s new show tech goes past what it’s possible you’ll 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 hanging. However that’s not all: The brand new AMOLED 2X panels can filter out nearly all the blue gentle 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 Show certification for the assured discount of blue gentle. However that’s all spec discuss. What it is advisable know is the brand new OLED show is solely beautiful and ought to be simpler in your eyes.
Samsung’s new OLED runs at as much as 120Hz, a efficiency enchancment that can ship smoother inking and mousing, and permit for top frames-per-second gaming on the Galaxy Book3 Extremely (which boasts essentially the most highly effective GPU of the lineup). The brand new Galaxy Book3 household show is rated for 500 nits of output utilizing HDR, 400 nits with out.
The brand new OLED show employs an odd 16:10 show ratio of 2880×1800 pixels. This gives an improve previous a 1440p show with out fairly touching the 3840×2160 decision that characterizes a 4K show. It’s value noting that the Galaxy Book2 Pro series options 1080p, 60Hz panels. Thus the soar to the Book3 is a major improve simply on primary 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 beautiful OLED screens. This holds true for the most recent fashions and the wow-factor of Samsung’s OLEDs is stronger than ever. In a single 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 tender glow throughout the picture. That was contrasted with the pristine, unsullied blackness of its personal OLED—a giant profit for video editors.
And for individuals who are delicate to blue gentle, the brand new Galaxy E-book would possibly imply customers can work longer hours with out triggering a migraine. That could possibly be an actual plus for creators in addition to anybody who makes use of her laptop computer for primary productiveness work.
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Extremely, designed for creators
The 16-inch Galaxy E-book Extremely contradicts a few of what makes a Galaxy E-book a Galaxy E-book as a result of at 16.5 mm thick, it’s received 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. Thoughts 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 Extremely not solely contains the choice of both a Thirteenth-gen Core i7 or i9, however extra importantly, you may select between an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 or 4070 laptop computer GPU. Whereas these are on the low finish of the brand new GeForce RTX 4-series mobile GPUs that Nvidia launched at CES, the corporate does declare they’ll ship higher efficiency than the present GeForce 3080 cell GPUs (although we don’t know if that elements in Nvidia’s frame-rate-easing DLSS 3 expertise).
The Book3 Extremely reminiscence choices embrace 16GB or 32GB of LPDDR5, and you’ll select between 512GB or 1TB of PCIe storage. Samsung says there’s an extra growth slot for an extra SSD.
The big, vast display screen accommodates an additional island of quantity keys to the far proper. However the show physique itself continues to be skinny, which has historically meant that Samsung has foregone the usage of a Home windows Hiya 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 cushty typing expertise, and some experimental phrases in Notepad confirmed they’re nonetheless surprisingly usable.
Mark Hachman / IDG
One key distinction between the Galaxy Book3 Extremely and the remainder of the Galaxy Book3 lineup is within the Extremely’s devoted HDMI 2.0 port, which helps sufficient bandwidth to show 4K video and 60 frames per second on an exterior show. Each the Galaxy E-book 3 Professional and Professional 360 embrace 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 Extremely is designed for content material creation, and the Book3 Professional and Professional 360 are destined for easier duties. Regardless, there’s a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports on all three Book3 fashions.
Lastly, I’ve to name out Samsung’s completely huge touchpad. It won’t have been completely clickable all the way in which to the highest in my transient hands-on, however make no mistake: It’s huge.
Samsung doesn’t skimp on the Book3 Professional and Professional 360
The Galaxy Book3 Professional and Professional 360 are Samsung’s extra conventional laptops and let’s face it, these are the fashions most individuals will purchase.
An enormous distinction in value—$1,399 for the 16-inch Professional versus a minimum of $2,199 for the Book3 Extremely—makes the Professional a lovely alternative by comparability. The Professional’s small $100 pricing delta between its two choices, the 14- and the 16-inch, can also be intriguing. The Professional 360, in contrast, 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 optionally available 5G functionality for on-the-go connectivity.
Mark Hachman / IDG
In any other case, the Galaxy Book3 Professional and Professional 360 are remarkably much like their gaudier cousin, the Extremely. For one, they provide an identical show tech, solely differing in dimension. (The Galaxy Book3 Professional 360 is obtainable in only a single 16-inch configuration.) You may as well get the Professional and Professional 360 in the identical reminiscence and storage quantities because the Extremely, together with a smaller 8GB RAM/256GB SSD choice that helps hold pricing extra reasonably priced. Samsung additionally gives an an identical port configuration, with two Thunderbolt 4 ports and an HDMI port choice.
On paper, the 2 Professional fashions additionally differ little or no of their beginning value. They do differ pretty considerably of their weight, nevertheless. The 16-inch weighs nearly a pound greater than the 14-inch, a svelte 2.42 kilos.
The Professional and Professional 360 fashions are supplied in each Graphite and Beige whereas the Extremely ships solely within the Graphite colour scheme.
The Galaxy Book3 Professional 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. Sadly, 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 E-book 360.
Mark Hachman / IDG
Beneath we’ve summarized the specs of all three Galaxy Book3 laptops:
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Extremely specs:
- Processor: Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7/i9
- Show: 16-inch (2,880×1800), 120Hz AMOLED 2X, 400 nits, 120% DCI-P3 colour quantity
- Reminiscence: 16GB/32GB LPDDR5
- Storage: 512GB/1TB SSD (1TB as examined) plus growth slot
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050/4070 Laptop computer GPU
- Ports: 2 Thunderbolt 4, USB Sort-A, HDMI 2.0, microSD, Headphone/Mic
- Safety: Fingerprint reader
- Digicam: 1080p (user-facing)
- Battery: 76Wh
- Wi-fi: Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), 802.11 ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.1
- Audio: KG Quad Speaker (two 5W woofers, two 2W tweeters), Sensible Amp, Dolby Atmos
- Working system: Home windows 11
- Dimensions: 14.00 x 9.85 x 0.65in. (16.5mm)
- Weight: 3.99lbs (rated)
- Colours: Graphite
- Costs: starting at $2,199-$2,799
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Professional specs:
- Processor: Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7/i9
- Show: 14-inch/16-inch: (2,880×1800), 120Hz AMOLED 2X, 400 nits, 120% DCI-P3 colour quantity
- Reminiscence: 8GB/16GB/32GB LPDDR5
- Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD (1TB as examined) plus growth slot
- Graphics: Iris Xe
- Ports: 2 Thunderbolt 4, USB Sort-A, HDMI 2.0, microSD, Headphone/Mic
- Safety: Fingerprint reader
- Digicam: 1080p (user-facing)
- Battery: 63Wh/76Wh
- Wi-fi: Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), 802.11 ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.1
- Audio: KG Quad Speaker (two 5W woofers, two 2W tweeters), Sensible Amp, Dolby Atmos
- Working system: Home 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)
- Colours: Graphite, Beige
- Costs: starting at $1,449.99
Samsung Galaxy Book3 Professional 360 specs:
- Processor: Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7/i9
- Show: 16-inch: (2,880×1800), 120Hz AMOLED 2X, 400 nits, 120% DCI-P3 colour quantity
- Reminiscence: 8GB/16GB/32GB LPDDR5
- Storage: 256GB/512GB/1TB SSD (1TB as examined) plus growth slot
- Graphics: Iris Xe
- Ports: 2 Thunderbolt 4, USB Sort-A , HDMI 2.0, microSD, Headphone/Mic
- Safety: Fingerprint reader
- Digicam: 1080p (user-facing)
- Battery: 63Wh/76Wh
- Wi-fi: Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), 802.11 ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.1; 5G Sub6 optionally available
- Audio: KG Quad Speaker (two 5W woofers, two 2W tweeters), Sensible Amp, Dolby Atmos
- Working system: Home windows 11
- Dimensions: 12.30 x 9.92 x 0.50in. (12.8mm)
- Weight: 3.7lbs (rated)
- Colours: Graphite, Beige
- Costs: starting at $1,899
Samsung Galaxy Book3 360 specs:
- Processor: Thirteenth-gen Intel Core i7-1360P
- Show: 13.3-inch/15.6-inch: (1920×1080)
- Reminiscence: 16GB LPDDR5
- Storage: 512GB/1TB SSD (1TB as examined) plus growth slot
- Graphics: Iris Xe
- Ports: 1 Thunderbolt 4, 1 USB-C, 1USB Sort-A , HDMI 2.0, microSD, Headphone/Mic
- Safety: Fingerprint reader
- Digicam: 1080p (user-facing)
- Battery: 61/68Wh
- Wi-fi: Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), 802.11 ax 2×2, Bluetooth 5.1
- Audio: Two 2W audio system, Dolby Atmos
- Working system: Home 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)
- Colours: Graphite
- Costs: starting at $1,299
Correction: A Samsung consultant gave us incorrect pricing data earlier than launch. Samsung additionally introduced the Galaxy Book3 360 at press time. This story was up to date at 12:07 PM to replicate these modifications.