Samsung Galaxy Book3 review: Too expensive for an everyday laptop

Price When Reviewed

$999.99

Best Prices Today: Samsung Galaxy Book3

$999.99

$1,030.54

Samsung has had nice success with its Galaxy Book computer systems lately. Several of them have obtained prime marks in my assessments and I run the vigorous, luxurious and above all splendidly mild OLED 13-inch Galaxy Book 2 Pro from 2022 as my very own laptop computer.

The Galaxy Book3, launched in late winter, doesn’t have a lot in widespread with it, aside from the producer and the title. This is a considerably easier constructed laptop that, regardless of an identical value, doesn’t dwell as much as my excessive expectations in any respect. It is certainly comparatively skinny and light-weight, not less than for a 15-inch laptop, weighing solely 3.46 kilos.

But the place you normally see luxurious mild metallic chassis in Samsung’s laptops, the Galaxy Book3 is a mixture of aluminium and plastic. And it feels plasticky within the “wrong” locations, like within the suspension and hinges for the display screen, in addition to within the unusually dumb keyboard.

Otherwise, the keyboard is neat and tidy, with a compact numeric keypad on the facet, and an on button with a built-in fingerprint reader in a single nook, the place it’s not more likely to be accessed unintentionally. On the slim sides are what I’d name a normal set of exterior connections, two sort c and two sort a USBs, an HDMI port and a 3.5 mm widespread headphone and microphone port.

Looking for extra choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best laptops out there at this time.

Samsung Galaxy Book3: Specifications

There’s no Thunderbolt 4 performance on the Type-C ports like another new laptops, however you get the primary options, help for charging, USB docking and show port. A compact cell phone charger is included. Here’s the listing of specs at a look:

Processor: Intel Core i5-1355U, 2pcs Performance as much as 4,6 GHz + 8pcs Efficient as much as 3,4 GHz
Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
Memory: 16 GB ddr4
Storage: 512 GB ssd, slot for micro sd card
Display: 15.6″ matte IPS, 1920×1080 pixels
Webcam: 720p
Connections: 2 pcs usb 3 gen 1 sort c with displayport, 2 pcs usb 3 gen 1 sort a, hdmi, headset
Wireless: Wifi 6, bluetooth 5.1
Operating system: Windows 11 Home
Other: Fingerprint reader, backlit keyboard, numeric keypad
Noise degree: 0-39 dBa
Battery life: 1 hr 50 min (excessive load), 17 hr 30 min (low load)
Size: 35.7 x 22.9 x 1.54 cm
Weight: 1.57 kg
Price: $999.99

Mattias Inghe

The laptop is supplied with a 13th era Intel processor. But it’s one of many weaker ones, a Core i5-1355U, constructed for cooler and extra power-efficient operation than for sustained excessive efficiency. It’s nice for searching and operating Office, however difficult it with high-resolution picture modifying or video modifying shall be a problem, and it may be a little bit of a drag. Although it’s doable. But with solely two so-called efficiency cores to deal with essentially the most demanding processes, it’s not perfect.

The processor, with a average 15 watts of base energy, does job of maintaining energy consumption down when it’s not maxed out. A full working day of searching, Excel work, emailing, and occasional video streams is sufficient for the battery with out a lot hassle. And packing the small charger for emergencies is simple.

Samsung Galaxy Book3: Display, audio

A contributing issue to good battery life is an energy-efficient display screen. It can mild as much as about 300 cd/m2, which isn’t fairly sufficient for daylight open air, however is greater than sufficient for indoors. And if you happen to flip down the brightness a bit, it doesn’t pressure the battery greater than marginally. But then once more, it’s a reasonably easy monitor. 1080p decision, 60 Hz body price, and no nice shade area to talk of. It can deal with simply over 60 p.c of the srgb shade scale, so apart from internet and workplace graphics, the expertise is proscribed.

Black surfaces should not as deeply black as some higher IPS and PLS panels can handle, and there’s some white level shifting at completely different viewing angles. However, if you happen to don’t have excessive calls for on color and dynamics, this can be a nice, flicker-free display screen you may spend many hours in entrance of.

Mattias Inghe

The sound can be acceptable, however not within the greater divisions. It is nice, offers good stereo and good stability between bass, midrange and treble. But with out a lot strain in both. It drops out small particulars in music I play, and results and rumbles in movie trailers are reproduced appropriately, however with none actual weight. You can get audio enhancement with Dolby Audio, nevertheless it’s off by default. Turning it on offers some equaliser management, however the {hardware} is the restrict.

Samsung Galaxy Book3: Galaxy ecosystem

Samsung is eager to make the Galaxy Book computer systems a part of its ecosystem of Galaxy mobiles, tablets and equipment. So there’s a bunch of apps and options that allow this. You can shortly share media with different Galaxy gadgets, increase the display screen of a Galaxy pill, and management completely different gadgets from one another.

It’s sensible and handy you probably have the precise devices round. I examined a number of of the options with a Galaxy Z Fold 5 I’ve in for testing, they usually work as promised. I nonetheless haven’t discovered tips on how to use them, however maybe my lack of creativeness is the restrict.

Mattias Inghe

Samsung additionally has its personal suite of applications which are supposed so as to add worth to the pc, however I’m extra uncertain about what they really add. Samsung Gallery is a picture viewing program the place Windows already has two good ones. Samsung Studio Plus permits you to edit video, however the worth of that add-on has diminished as Clipchamp is now a part of Windows. I also can do with out the search perform and Bixby help. In any case, there isn’t any vital bloatware within the laptop, apart from the frequent 30-day McAfee Livesafe, and an Amazon hyperlink.

Samsung Galaxy Book3: Performance

Cinebench R23, CPU: 7,427 factors
Cinebench R23, CPU and core: 1,661 factors
Geekbench 6, CPU: 8,460 factors
Geekbench 6, CPU and core: 2,223 factors
Geekbench 6, GPU: 15,314 factors
Disk learn: 2,199.18 MB/s
Disk write: 1,194.66 MB/s

This overview was translated from Swedish to English and initially appeared on pcforalla.se.