00:04Gorgeous designed, thin, lightweight, with a stunning screen and some of the most powerful
00:10components you can buy right now. This laptop is excellent. That's our verdict of the Samsung
00:15Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, which finally proves Samsung knows how to beat Apple's MacBooks. It won't come
00:22cheap, but if you're interested in picking this laptop up, check the links in the description
00:26below for the best prices available. The Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, as the name suggests,
00:35is the highest-end model in the new range and starts at $2,449.99 for the model that comes
00:43with
00:43an NVIDIA RTX 5060 GPU and 1TB of storage. That's expensive for a laptop, very expensive. It makes
00:51the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch with an M5 from last year seem like an absolute bargain at just $15
00:58.99.
00:58And while you can argue that the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is a much more powerful machine,
01:03mainly thanks to its high-end CPU, discrete GPU, and more RAM, if you're making a product that's
01:08more expensive, then you'll need to justify the extra cash. Samsung does a solid job,
01:14though it's not a clear-cut victor in the Apple vs Samsung feud.
01:21As with previous Galaxy Book laptops, the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is a great-looking product,
01:27with a sleek, understated design in silver that is reminiscent of Apple's Intel-based MacBook Pros,
01:33which landed before the switch to M series processors several years ago. And this won't be
01:38the last time I'll mention the Book 6 Ultra's similarities to a MacBook. Stay tuned for plenty more.
01:43Unlike the Galaxy Book 6 Pro and Galaxy Book 6, which came in both 14-inch and 16-inch sizes,
01:49the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra only comes in the larger 16-inch size. While this can be a downside if
01:55portability is your primary concern when buying a new laptop, Samsung has managed to make this large
02:00screen device feel thin and relatively light. It weighs up to 1.9kg based on your specs choices,
02:06and at 15.4mm, it's slightly thinner than the 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro, despite its larger
02:13screen and discrete GPU. Although, because this is a 16-inch laptop, the overall footprint is larger
02:18than the Apple rival. Yet, despite the thin design, there's a decent selection of ports, including two
02:24Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a standard USB Type-A port, HDMI 2.1, and an SD card reader. Thankfully,
02:32Samsung's decision to drop the headphone jack from its smartphones hasn't yet made it to its laptop
02:37division, as the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra also comes with a port for plugging in headsets and microphones.
02:43The USB-C format nerds amongst you, there's at least one I'm sure, let me know in the comments,
02:48will have noticed the two USB-C ports use Thunderbolt 4 rather than the newer and faster
02:53Thunderbolt 5 architecture. This is certainly frustrating, as the laptop is therefore missing
02:58out on some of the latest tech, but it's worth noting that its main competitor, that M5 MacBook Pro
03:04I keep mentioning, also only has Thunderbolt 4 ports. The slight disappointments continue with
03:09the keyboard. It's decent, but the keys can feel rather shallow, though they are somewhat responsive
03:14and comfortable to use, which is a plus, and there's a dedicated fingerprint scanner button on
03:19the top right of the keyboard that allows for biometric scanning when trying to log in and access
03:24Windows 11 tools like the controversial recall feature. The main design appeal of the Galaxy Book 6
03:30Ultra, however, is its screen. Samsung is known for using excellent screens for its devices,
03:35especially TVs and smartphones, and the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra continues that tradition. The 16-inch
03:40touchscreen that comes with a sharp 2880 by 1800 resolution and AMOLED screen technology that results
03:47in an incredibly vibrant and detailed image quality. That, combined with a variable refresh rate of up to
03:53120Hz, makes Windows 11, its apps, and pretty much any media you play on the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra look
03:59absolutely fantastic. As well as the excellent OLED screen, which offers beautifully dark blacks,
04:05high contrast, and vibrant colors, the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra comes with six Dolby Atmos speakers,
04:10with four force-canceling woofers, and two tweeters, which also allows the laptop to handle both deep
04:16basses and high details. It can reach loud volumes without the audio distorting, and there are no annoying
04:22vibrations thanks to the speaker design. We'll throw the full specs options up on the screen for you now,
04:30and you can find a link to our written review with all the details in the description below,
04:35but the base model comes with an Intel Core Ultra 7 Series 3 CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 GPU,
04:4332GB of RAM,
04:441TB of storage, and the ports and AMOLED display I covered in the design section. All for $2449.99.
04:53Coming with Intel's latest and very impressive Panther Lake processors, and able to be configured
04:57with up to an Nvidia RTX 5070 graphics card, the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra offers an exemplary
05:04Windows 11 experience, with the operating system and apps all running smoothly. Whilst testing the
05:10Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, we had no problem at all running a wide range of software, and with
05:15plenty of RAM, multitasking between apps is smooth and responsive. Hearing 5060 and 5070 Nvidia GPUs are
05:22in this thing, you might wonder if the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is a gaming laptop. However, it isn't.
05:29Instead, those GPUs are intended for folks with graphically intensive workloads, such as ultra-high
05:35definition video editing, 3D animation, and advanced AI task needs. None of this is to say the Book 6 Ultra
05:41can't play games, though you'll want to enable DLSS upscaling where possible. At 1080p with DLSS on,
05:48and graphics set to high, we got Cyberpunk 2077 running at an impressive 111.86 fps. Meanwhile,
05:57Assassin's Creed Shadows at medium settings with DLSS switch on hit 65 fps. Sure, these aren't the most
06:03mind-blowing numbers, and there will be plenty of PC gamers who turn their noses up at the need
06:08to use DLSS at all, but the fact that such a thin and light laptop can play these games at
06:13all,
06:14let alone at these kinds of frame rates, is really impressive. And yet again, thanks to the OLED
06:19screen, they look incredible. The Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra also remains impressively quiet. Even when
06:25performing intensive tasks, fan noise was kept to a minimum. The lack of distracting whirring is nice,
06:30but it does also mean that at some points, primarily just above the keyboard, the laptop
06:35can get very hot to the touch. There's also a worry that prolonged periods of heavy workloads,
06:40including gaming, could lead to performance getting throttled to stop the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra from
06:45overheating. Though admittedly, that didn't happen during our tests. It's just something that is a
06:50possible risk when packing powerful components into such a slim chassis.
06:57Moving on from specs to features, you'll get access to all the Windows 11 bells and whistles,
07:02Copilot AI, though we're still yet to find a truly compelling reason for it to be built into a laptop,
07:08but also Samsung device integration, which borrows ideas from how MacBooks can work with iPhones,
07:14iPads and other Apple devices. We connected the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra to a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra,
07:21and with a bit of tweaking, we were able to easily share documents between the laptop and the smartphone.
07:27Multi-control is a particularly impressive feature too. By dragging the mouse cursor to the edge of the
07:33Galaxy Book 6 Ultra screen, the cursor will jump to the smartphone and you can use the Galaxy Book 6
07:39Ultra's
07:39trackpad and keyboard to interact with the phone. This was handy to reply to text messages using a large
07:44laptop keyboard, though the use cases perhaps aren't the most wide-reaching for this particular tool.
07:49If the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is going to be your first and only Samsung device, then sadly you won't
07:56be
07:56able to make use of most of these features, though Windows 11's phone link feature remains a great way
08:02to access your phone via your laptop and it will work great on the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra without the
08:07phone needing to be a Samsung-specific model. Though as I've mentioned, you'll be missing out on some really
08:13useful features, many of which make life a lot easier and Samsung has made it the furthest out of any
08:19of its
08:19rivals when it comes to providing an Apple-like experience with its ecosystem. It's worth adding
08:24here that despite all these impressive tools and applications, the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is
08:28still incredibly battery efficient. It managed over 15 hours in our benchmark tests, which is something
08:34you don't see every day, though Apple's MacBook M5 Pro had it beat by about five hours and in more
08:40casual workday tests, we were able to use it for multiple days in a row before it needed to be
08:45plugged
08:45in again, which when we did, it recharged lightning fast. Just note that in the UK and EU, the Galaxy
08:52Book 6
08:53Ultra doesn't come with a power adapter, similar to the MacBook. This is supposed to help reduce e-waste and
08:58while that's an admirable goal, it does add to the expense if you've not got a spare charger already.
09:07So, should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra? Well, at $2,449.99 it is pricey, but it
09:15certainly
09:15does well to justify this cost, especially if you have a Samsung phone and or a tablet, or want a
09:21thin
09:21and light workstation with a solid screen size that looks amazing. This AMOLED display might be
09:27the best on the market. However, gamers and those on a tight budget will want to look elsewhere.
09:32We gave the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra a four and a half star score after several weeks of testing,
09:38and if you're in the mood for a powerful productivity machine that isn't an Apple MacBook,
09:42this is it. Would you be willing to pay more for a Samsung laptop so that you don't have to
09:47go to the
09:47Apple ecosystem? Let us know in the comments below, and you can check out more reviews here on our
09:53YouTube channel.
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