Samsung sells a lot of laptops, but the Galaxy Book lineup is the company’s premium lineup. Alongside the Galaxy S23 and S23 Ultra, Samsung revealed the Galaxy Book 3 series, with a bunch of models to choose from.
First up is the Galaxy Book 3 Pro (pictured above), available in either 14 or 16-inch sizes, both with AMOLED screens and refresh rates of up to 120 Hz. Samsung didn’t specify which processor it uses, but previous leaks pointed to the Intel Core i5-1340P, which is a new 13th-gen CPU with 4 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores. There haven’t been any high-profile laptops using that chip yet, so we’ll have to wait and see how daily usage turns out. It will be sold with 8 to 32 GB of RAM, and 256 GB to 1 TB of internal storage.
Next is the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360, which is a 2-in-1 convertible laptop version of the Galaxy Book 3 Pro. It’s only available in a single 16-inch size, with a 120 Hz 3K (2880×1800) AMOLED screen, an unspecified 13th gen Intel Core i5 or Core i7, 8 to 32 GB RAM, and 256 GB to 1 TB of storage. There’s an integrated S Pen for writing, as well as a fingerprint reader on the power key.
The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is, as you might guess from the name, the most premium laptop in Samsung’s lineup. It has a 16-inch AMOLED screen with a 120 Hz refresh rate, and according to leaks (again, Samsung wouldn’t say), there’s a Intel Core i7-13700H CPU powering the whole show. That chip has the same 8 efficiency cores as the i5 in the Galaxy Book Pro, but with 2 more performance cores and a faster max turbo clock of 5 GHz. Like the CPU in the Pro model, this hasn’t been used in any mainstream laptops yet, so we don’t really know how it will perform in real life. The laptop also has a dedicated graphics card — the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 6 GB — so it can handle more GPU-demanding workloads and some games. Samsung will sell a more expensive variant with a Core i9-13900H, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD, and RTX 4070.
The new laptops look impressive, but it might still be a tough sell to anyone who doesn’t explicitly need Windows. Apple’s MacBook lineup is still unrivaled in performance-per-watt, thanks to the M1 and M2 chips leap-frogging Intel and AMD’s laptop processors. It’s hard to compete with laptops that offer similar levels of performance at similar price points, but don’t need fans running as often (or ever, in the case of the MacBook Air), and have much better battery life.
Pricing for the Galaxy Book 3 Pro will start at $1,449.99, the Pro 360 will start at $1,899.99, and the Ultra will start at $2,399.99. That’s not too different than pricing for other premium laptops — both the Dell XPS 13 Plus and 13″ MacBook Pro start at $1,299 — but it’s not clear if Samsung’s options can stand out from the crowd. There’s also no entry-level option, like Apple has with the M1 MacBook Air, which is usually available for $800-900. Availability starts on February 17, and you can head over to Samsung’s website to learn more.
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