Galaxy Book 3 Pro vs. 16-inch Pro and Ultra: A Comparison after Getting Your Hands on a Galaxy Tab Laptop

Although it is known for its phones, the company’s laptops are equally as good. The wide range of slim, attractive and versatile designs in the Galaxy Book series has always impressed us, so it is no surprise thatSamsung is bringing a powerful new member to the family.

That all sounds promising, but with starting prices ranging from $1,450 for the Pro to a whopping $2,400 for the Ultra, these premium PCs don’t come cheap. wondering if they’re worth the cost? We’ll have to properly test Samsung’s latest notebooks to see how they stack up to the best laptops, but here’s what we think after some early hands-on time.

TheGalaxy Book 3 Pro will be available in both 14 and 16 inch versions and will cost $1,450. The 16-inch Book 3 Ultra will cost you at least $2,400 and comes only in Graphite, but the same colors as the 16-inch Book 3 Pro 360.

The Book 3 Pro is one of only a few laptops that include ausb-a connection, which is especially useful if you use a lot of older accessories. You’ll also get the typical duo of USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, as well as an HDMI port and microSD card slot. The 360’s keyboard was responsive but a bit shallow for my liking; I had a much better time typing on the standard Pro and Ultra. I really like the fact that the S Pen can be attached to the laptop with a magnetic strip, but it is not ideal to have a secure place for it in the notebook.

If you own a recent Galaxy Tab tablet, you can take advantage of Multi Control (which lets you navigate your laptop and tablet from the same trackpad and keyboard) as well as Second Screen, which turns your tablet into a secondary monitor for your PC. I was fortunate enough to try out the former when I first got my hands on the book last month, and found it to be very useful for things like having different websites open on different screens.

The Samsung Book 3 Pro 360: A Slim Adapter for Gaming on a MacBook Pro, Notebook 5G, or MacBook Air M2

The Book 3 Pro 360 is an impressive 0.5 inches thin and feels very light at 3.7 pounds; despite its wide frame, I had no issues carrying it from room to room as I went about my day. My review unit looked nice enough in grayish Graphite (there’s also a more alluring Beige model), but be warned — this thing is a fingerprint magnet.

Since you don’t want to carry a cloth with you when you go for a walk, you can just leave your adapter at home. When it comes to connecting to the internet, most laptop makers are happy to only supply two ports, but thesamsung book 3 pro is more generous at this time. On top of the usual Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports (for most modern accessories, chargers and displays), you get a microSD card slot, an HDMI 1.4 port for TVs and older monitors, a headphone jack and a USB-A port — the latter of which was missing from last year’s Book 2 Pro 360. I always appreciate when a laptop includes a USB-A connection for my older peripherals, and I give Samsung props for cramming one into a notebook this slim.

The limitations of this device are predictable. But if you’re looking for a MacBook Pro–like device that opens up the world of gaming to you, it’s well worth your consideration.

This laptop takes eight hours to be prepared for a full day on the road and lasts much longer on on and off use. The latest 14-inch MacBook Pro and Surface Laptop 5 have the same run time though we got more endurance out of the newer Surface Pro 9 5G version which lasted 11 hours and 43 minutes.

The Book 3 Pro 360’s 1080p webcam isn’t the best I’ve used (that title goes to the MacBook Air M2), but I found it to be reliable for my usual video calls. As an extra perk, there’s a Studio Mode toolbar that pops up every time your camera is active, letting you do things like blur your background, apply various effects to your face and enable Auto Framing so you always stay in the shot. These features mostly worked fine, though Auto Framing isn’t quite as smooth as Apple’s similar Center Stage tech, and the app’s HDR filter didn’t seem to do anything to enhance how I looked.

I’ll give the Book 3 Pro 360 props for being one of the few 2-in-1 laptops to include a stylus. There’s just one problem: There’s no secure place to store it. The S Pen can attach magnetically to the laptop’s lid, which is fine for when it’s sitting on your desk but less than ideal for when you’re on the go and don’t want the stylus to suddenly fall off in your bag (or onto the floor of a crowded café). The Surface Pro-9 requires you to buy a keyboard and stylus separately, but Microsoft also has a way of storing your Surface Pen that folds up.

Book 3 Pro 360 did not always have a smooth ride despite its fast raw performance and plethora of software. After updating Windows I noticed less issues after trying to get things working, but some basic programs crashed multiple times and I had to restart. But the bugs I ran into weren’t terribly frequent — I was much more let down by just how messy Samsung’s preloaded software is.

As previously mentioned, there are more than a dozen preinstalled Samsung apps, and using them often results in a glut of disparate windows clogging up your screen. When you click on a feature, such as SmartThings orSamsung Flow, you are taken to a page that takes you to a new window where you can use it. And while Samsung’s laptop paired instantly to my Galaxy Buds, I had to install what was basically an emulated version of the Android Galaxy Buds app to adjust things like active noise cancellation and sound profile. Quick Share let me beam photos from my Galaxy phone to my Galaxy Book, but it took longer than, say, AirDropping content between Apple devices.

It all feels very disjointed and sloppy, and while the perks are there for Samsung users, the implementation is a far cry from the tight, seamless integration you’ll enjoy as an iPhone user on a MacBook.

If you are familiar with theGalaxy Book range, you won’t be surprised by the Ultra. The same, but bigger, metal body and elegant look is what the Koreans have come up with. The thicker device features a 16-inch 3K Dynamic AMOLED 2X panel, a bright and rich display that brings the added benefit of a 120-Hz refresh rate.

Don’t let the big screen fool you—it’s an immensely portable machine, comfortably more so than its 16-inch MacBook Pro rival. They are similarly sized, but the Ultra weighs almost a pound less than the M2 Max version of Apple’s machine, at 3.9 pounds (1.8 kilograms). Beyond needing a bag big enough to stow it, this is definitely a laptop that can be ferried between work and home.

A combination of a chip and card makes for a powerful team-up. My $3,000 review model features the RTX 4070, 32-GB RAM, and 1-TB SSD. The cheapest version has 512-byte sd and features an I7-13700H 16-bit memory, with an RTX 4050. You will not be able to get a 32 gigabytes model in the UK, and only 16 gigabytes.

The picture is more cheerful for creatives. Samsung’s highest-spec Ultra is just pipped by the MacBook Pro when comparing their performance in Adobe Premiere Pro. This laptop isn’t as strong as the M2 Max, but it’s still a good alternative for creators doing demanding editing work, as it is more than capable, but it needs power for its full capabilities. Using this laptop unplugged sees a huge dip in performance.