We've reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra and we have no reservations about telling you it is one of the best laptops money can buy right now. But how does the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra stack up against the MacBook Pro 16-inch? To determine which laptop is the best for you we've put them head to head.
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TechTranscript
00:00 This is a 16 inch MacBook Pro with an M2 Max chip.
00:04 This is a Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra.
00:07 Now, Samsung wants this to be the answer to this,
00:12 but is it?
00:13 Let's find out.
00:14 (upbeat music)
00:16 The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra
00:21 is a sleek and elegant laptop.
00:24 As you can see here, it is extremely thin.
00:27 Even though it's almost four pounds,
00:29 it doesn't feel like it because of the weight distribution.
00:32 As a matter of fact, it's actually one pound less
00:36 than the MacBook Pro 16 inch,
00:38 which is kind of a big deal
00:39 if you're gonna be carrying this thing around
00:41 wherever you're going.
00:42 While I like the way the MacBook Pro 16 inch looks,
00:45 don't get me wrong, it looks great,
00:47 I really like the way this one looks
00:49 just because it's so nondescript.
00:51 I'm not really into like laptops
00:53 that call too much attention to themselves.
00:55 The only real market has is the Samsung logo.
00:58 You can see right there.
00:59 Other than that, as you can see, it's all graphite,
01:02 which is a really nice finish, machined aluminum.
01:05 And it just looks fantastic.
01:07 Like whether you're in the office, in a cafe,
01:10 at home, wherever, you can open it easily with one hand,
01:13 no problem, which is kind of a big deal.
01:17 As far as ports, you get a lot of them.
01:20 So right here on this side, as you can see,
01:22 we have two USB-C ports, Thunderbolt 4,
01:27 HDMI cable, which is very important
01:29 if you wanna plug this into a external monitor.
01:32 On this side here, we have an USB-A port
01:37 in case you have an older device.
01:39 Got a micro SD slot right there.
01:41 And of course, a headphone jack.
01:43 A lot of modern laptops seem to not use
01:46 headphone jacks anymore 'cause the general consensus is
01:49 people use Bluetooth devices.
01:50 That's all well and good.
01:52 I like having a headphone jack there.
01:54 I think a lot of people will too.
01:56 (gentle music)
01:58 The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra has a 16-inch OLED display,
02:03 120 hertz, which is always nice.
02:06 And also another way that you can see
02:09 they're trying to go after the MacBook Pro in that instance.
02:12 I think the display's great.
02:13 I watched a couple of trailers on it, played games on it.
02:16 We're gonna talk about that later.
02:18 And everything just looks so crisp.
02:20 And as I understand it, this is the same type of technology
02:23 they use on the more recent Samsung Galaxy S20 phones,
02:28 particularly the 22 and 23.
02:30 And it's kinda cool to see that type of technology
02:33 used for such a big screen.
02:35 It's one of my favorite aspects of this laptop.
02:37 When it comes to how it compares to the mini-LED display,
02:41 to me, it's close.
02:42 It's like, it looks as good as the one on the MacBook Pro.
02:47 As a matter of fact, even in our testing,
02:49 the color reproduction on both of them is almost on par.
02:54 I can't, it's hard, like objectively,
02:56 it's hard to say which one is better than the other.
02:58 It would be easier if one was just like really, really bad,
03:00 but this one is, I would say,
03:02 as good as the Apple mini-LED display.
03:05 Okay, let's talk about audio quality.
03:10 Generally, laptops don't produce the greatest sound.
03:13 When it comes to podcasts and stuff like that, it's fine.
03:16 But with music, I'm not a fan, you know,
03:19 very thin sound overall with some laptops,
03:22 bass isn't there.
03:23 But the sound on this laptop is great.
03:26 It's very loud, very punchy.
03:28 The bass could have been a little bit higher,
03:30 but I'm a stickler for bass,
03:31 but I think it sounds really good.
03:33 With that said, I do believe that the MacBook Pro
03:36 has better audio quality all around.
03:39 It's just a lot richer, a little bit louder,
03:42 and everything just sounds evenly distributed, right?
03:46 This one, the Samsung laptop, good,
03:49 but it kind of tends to be a little thin.
03:52 This one just has richer sound,
03:54 but you're not gonna be disappointed
03:56 if you're using these speakers to listen to podcasts
03:59 or content like that.
04:01 All right, let's talk about performance,
04:06 and this is the big sticking point.
04:08 As a matter of fact, this may be the deciding factor
04:10 for some people.
04:11 Effectively, do you wanna play video games
04:15 or do you wanna video edit?
04:16 You could do both on this, but let's get into that.
04:20 Let's talk about gaming first.
04:22 The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra packs the latest Intel CPUs
04:26 and NVIDIA GPUs to be specific,
04:29 13th Gen Intel Core CPUs, RTX 40 series GPUs.
04:34 This is the model we reviewed.
04:36 This came with an i7 Intel Core CPU and an RTX 4050,
04:41 but you could get it up to an i9 Core CPU
04:45 and an RTX 70 GPU.
04:48 So very powerful stuff, absolutely great for gaming
04:52 as I could attest to.
04:53 Now, what I'm gonna say is in a secret,
04:56 MacBook Pro, especially with the M2 Max chip,
05:00 absolutely a monster when it comes to performance, right?
05:03 The problem is there's not a lot of high-end games like that
05:06 that actually are available for back
05:09 just because, for example, it's Steam stores,
05:12 for the lack of a better term, just barren
05:15 compared to what you'll find on a proper Windows laptop
05:18 like the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra.
05:21 If you have games that are optimized for Apple Silicon,
05:24 you're gonna have a great time,
05:25 but very few and far between.
05:27 I can't play "Doom Eternal" on this,
05:29 can't play "Cyberpunk" on this,
05:30 I can't play "Marvel's Spider-Man" on this.
05:32 So that's, to me as a gamer, that's a big deal.
05:35 Like I would love if Apple had that kind of support,
05:38 but at the moment it doesn't.
05:39 So that's why this,
05:41 and I recently wrote an article about this,
05:42 this is why I think this is actually
05:45 one of the best gaming laptops released this year.
05:47 It doesn't look like a gaming laptop,
05:48 it's not advertised as a gaming laptop,
05:50 but it really hits all the marks if you're a gamer.
05:53 As far as battery life is concerned,
06:03 according to our benchmarks,
06:05 the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 lasts for 10 hours and one minute.
06:09 I know that's kind of nitpicky,
06:10 but 10 hours, which is pretty good.
06:12 That's about average now.
06:14 Eight hours used to actually be the gold standard
06:16 for laptop life, but now, thanks to Apple,
06:20 the bar has been raised significantly.
06:22 But 10 hours, that's pretty good.
06:24 Now this bad boy, the MacBook 16 inch,
06:27 very different story.
06:28 So Apple, like because of the Apple Silicon,
06:32 they're just doing wonders when it comes to battery life,
06:34 but this one won't disappoint you at all.
06:36 It could run a little bit hot
06:38 because it is, at the end of the day,
06:40 effectively a gaming laptop
06:42 with all the crazy specs it has.
06:44 So if you leave it on the desk,
06:45 you're not even gonna notice it.
06:46 The fans may be a little bothersome,
06:49 but yeah, as far as battery life is concerned,
06:51 Samsung did great,
06:53 but you are not beating the Apple MacBook 16 inch.
06:57 So what are my overall impressions?
07:01 This is my favorite laptop of the year so far.
07:04 I love the design, it's just very nondescript.
07:07 It's super light, which is always good,
07:09 especially for someone like me
07:10 who travels a lot between work and home
07:12 and all that other stuff.
07:13 And the biggest thing for me, obviously, is the gaming.
07:16 I'm a big gamer, so I like the fact that
07:18 such a thin laptop is just able to play games like that.
07:23 This is not built as a gaming laptop.
07:24 That's why I'm even more amazed by what it can offer.
07:28 They are marketing it more towards content creators.
07:30 For me, this is the low key,
07:33 best gaming laptop you can get right now.
07:35 If you wanna use this as your desktop replacement,
07:38 it's actually pretty viable
07:39 just because of how much power it offers
07:41 and also portability.
07:42 So I think it's fantastic in that sense.
07:45 But the main question is,
07:46 do you want to get this over the MacBook 16 inch?
07:50 It depends, right?
07:51 There's a couple of factors.
07:52 First one is, what do you like more?
07:55 Do you like Windows or do you like macOS, right?
07:58 I've always been a traditionally a Windows guy,
08:00 so I would kinda opt for this,
08:03 but obviously I use MacBooks a lot for work and everything.
08:07 To me, this offers a little bit more of a complete package.
08:10 In that sense, I would say I would prefer this
08:13 over the MacBook Pro 16 inch,
08:15 but obviously if you are an Apple fan,
08:18 if you have things like the Apple Watch
08:20 and the iPhone and all that,
08:22 the MacBook may be a better choice
08:24 because of the interoperability.
08:26 So if you're already in the Apple ecosystem,
08:28 the 16 inch MacBook Pro is a no brainer.
08:30 And if you don't really care about gaming,
08:32 you just want like a really good, solid laptop
08:36 that's gonna last you for many, many, many years,
08:38 the 16 inch MacBook Pro,
08:40 and even the 14 inch one as well,
08:41 will do you right, you're not gonna go wrong with that.
08:43 As far as price is concerned,
08:45 this is where you may lose some people.
08:47 This is not a cheap laptop.
08:50 To start, it is $2199,
08:53 and you can go up as high as $2999
08:56 for the super decked out one.
08:58 Those prices are actually higher
09:00 than the entry level new MacBook Pros.
09:03 The 14 inch MacBook Pro starts at $1999,
09:06 and the 16 inch starts at $2499, right?
09:10 But I would argue that you actually get more value
09:13 out of this just because of the fact
09:14 you could play video games on it,
09:16 and the fact it's such a thin laptop
09:19 compared to not only MacBooks,
09:21 but also gaming laptops in general.
09:23 $2199, that is admittedly a lot,
09:26 I'm not gonna sugar coat that,
09:28 but I still think it's worth the value
09:30 just because of everything it provides.
09:31 Okay guys, so that's what I think
09:32 of the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra.
09:34 For more from Tom's Guide,
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09:39 For Tom's Guide, I was Tony Blanco,
09:41 signing out, have a good one.
09:42 (upbeat music)