Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra: A MacBook Pro Rival with All-Day Battery Life

Samsung’s Galaxy Book6 Ultra is poised to launch on March 11, starting at $2,450. Featuring a vibrant 16-inch AMOLED display and powered by Intel’s new Panther Lake processor, it aims to be a compelling alternative for creative professionals.

Refined Design and Display

The Galaxy Book6 Ultra maintains a similar aesthetic to the Galaxy Book5 Pro, with a slightly larger form factor measuring 14.05 x 9.76 x 0.6 inches and weighing just under four pounds. Samsung has optimized the internal PCB layout to improve weight distribution, making it easy to lift with one finger.

The laptop boasts a 16-inch, 3K AMOLED touchscreen with a peak brightness of 1,000 nits and a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate, protected by Corning Gorilla Glass with DXC. The display carries over from the successful Galaxy Book5 Pro, recognized for its quality.

Enhanced Audio Experience

Samsung has upgraded the audio system with a six-speaker setup, comprising four force-canceling woofers and two tweeters. This delivers crisp, room-filling audio with excellent clarity, even at higher volumes. While the audio quality is improved, the bass output remains somewhat restrained, potentially impacting genres like rap.

Design Considerations

Despite the improvements, some design elements remain a mixed bag. The wrist rest edges can feel slightly sharp, and the keyboard, while improved over the Galaxy Book5 Pro, still features shallow key travel, potentially affecting typing speed, and accuracy. However, the large, responsive trackpad continues to be a standout feature.

Panther Lake Performance

The review unit of the Galaxy Book6 Ultra is equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 356H processor, 32GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 graphics card. In benchmark tests, the Galaxy Book6 Ultra with Intel’s Panther Lake processor outperforms both the Asus ProArt P16 and the Dell 16 Premium in multi-threaded tasks. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i slightly edges it out due to stronger hardware.

The laptop achieves a single-core score of 2,832, ensuring fast and fluid everyday performance. While Apple’s M5 MacBook Pro achieves a higher single-core score of 4,111, the Galaxy Book6 Ultra provides perfectly acceptable performance for typical work tasks.

Cooling and Battery Life

Samsung has revamped the cooling system with a new fan and heatsink pairing, and a larger inlet grill to improve airflow. The system generally keeps the laptop cool under moderate workloads. However, temperatures can rise significantly during demanding tasks like gaming, causing the keyboard surface to become uncomfortably hot.

Battery life is a major strength of the Galaxy Book6 Ultra. Testing revealed nearly 20 hours of employ on a single charge, falling slightly short of Samsung’s claimed 30-hour battery life. Charging is also efficient, reaching 65% charge in approximately 30 minutes.

Availability and Pricing

The Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra, along with the Galaxy Book6 Pro and the base Galaxy Book6, will be available in the US starting March 11. Prices for the Ultra model begin at $2,450. Interested buyers can sign up for notifications on Samsung’s Reserve page to be alerted when the laptops become available.