At first glance, the Galaxy Book3 Pro looks elegant and expensive, in a very understated way. The design is plain grey on an aluminium exterior, with the Samsung logo etched on one side.
I let out a sigh of relief knowing that the 14-inch model I’ve got weighs just about 1.17 kg, which my shoulders are going to be thankful for later. The bigger 16-inch variant is also quite commute-friendly at just about 1.5 kg. The thin form factor - at just 12.5 mm - also lends to how premium the laptop looks and feels.
Display
I power on the 14-inch display expecting crisp, clear visuals and there’s no disappointment there. For the first time, Samsung has integrated a dynamic AMOLED 2X display, which it’s been using on its flagship smartphones so far.
During a week-long bout of the flu, I decide to binge-watch some true crime-based thrillers on the 120 Hz AMOLED display, which delivers a pretty immersive experience. Not only are the colours vibrant and rich, the viewing experience isn’t marred one bit by the reflective finish on the display.
Outside of meetings, I almost never needed to use my earbuds. The quad speaker system delivers clear acoustics whether it be a movie, a webinar or Lil Nas X streaming on YouTube.
To aid work meetings, the laptop has built-in a 1080p webcam, and dual microphones with AI Noise cancelling. Each time I logged in to a meeting with my video on, Studio Mode popped up to help me tweak my video settings. With face filters, I could go from looking like myself (no filter) to looking like a I took a digital pumice stone to my face and rubbed out anything that resembles natural skin texture. There’s the usual background effect to blur or use a colour background, which the software does a rather shoddy job of. There’s eye contact which digitally adjusts my gaze to look like I’m looking at the centre of the screen - it does a decent job of it. Auto framing was the most helpful feature of the lot, zooming in to a tight, professional-looking frame - helpful to those who can’t get their angles right on video calls.
There’s a full-size chiclet-style backlit keyboard, with a sizeable trackpad. The only gripe here is that the keys have very short travel, which makes the tactile experience of typing a little less satisfying. The keys, however, are responsive and the typing experience accurate. The plain-black, no-icon power button on the top right doubles up as a fingerprint reader, and does its job effectively.
Also read: Shooting for the stars: Samsung Galaxy S23+ review
Performance
The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro is powered by the 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1360P processor with 16 GB RAM and runs on Windows 11 Home. The generous RAM lends itself to smooth and easy multi-tasking with no lags. The processor, however, is not the most high-end you’d find on a premium Windows laptop.
Ports are aplenty with two USB-C ports equipped with Thunderbolt 4 technology for quick data transfer, and an HDMI port on the left side. On the right there’s a 3.5mm audio jack, a USB-A port and a microSD card slot. I played a bit of Century: Age of Ashes on the system, a multiplayer dragon shooting game. While the details rendered really well on-screen, the graphics weren’t the most fluid I’ve seen on a high-end laptop. Unlike the Ultra, this one doesn’t have a dedicated graphics card.
Now, the laptop features a ton of add-ons that are designed to work exclusively with other Samsung Galaxy devices. There’s Instant Hotspot that lets you connect to wireless hotspots with just a click. Samsung’s multi-control feature will let you control your PC, Galaxy Tab and Galaxy smartphone with the Galaxy Book3’s keyboard and trackpad, enabling you to copy and paste or drag-and-drop between devices. Even with content creation, you can take Expert RAW snaps on a Galaxy smartphone and transfer them automatically to the laptop to edit.
Battery
The battery life of the 14-incher is satisfactory. While I’ve seen longer usage out of competitors such as ASUS, the Galaxy Book3 Pro manages to give me almost 5-6 hours of continuous usage - writing, editing, streaming music on YouTube - with the brightness set to about 50-60 per cent.
With the 65W universal charger it comes along with, the laptop takes around 1.5 hours to be fully charged from zero.
Verdict
The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro - as a series - comes in a bunch of configurations. Depending on the screen size, processor and storage, the price of the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro starts from ₹ 1,64,990 (14-inch + Intel i5 processor + 512 GB) and upwards of ₹2,00,000 for the variant with a bigger screen and better specs. The specific unit I reviewed with its Intel i7 processor and 1 TB storage costs ₹ 1,94,990.
Where the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro really shines is design and build, vivid display and decent battery life. If you’re already deeply invested in the Samsung Galaxy ecosystem, buying this does have added benefits for you. However, for a laptop at this price, you’d also expect - and deserve - better heavy-duty editing and gaming capabilities, along with maybe even a touchscreen. It doesn’t help Samsung that other brands such as Apple and ASUS are able to offer powerful competitors at a much lower price range.
Price - ₹1,64,990 onwards
Pros - Excellent display, decent battery life, premium build
Cons - On the expensive side, no touchscreen at this price