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Samsung has announced its new Galaxy Book3 laptop line. As their name implies, these laptops are sequels to the Galaxy Book2 devices that Samsung released last year. The Book3 devices are visibly similar to their Book2 predecessors in many ways; the biggest major changes are to the processors and the displays.
The Book3 line includes Intel’s 13th Gen Core processors as well as a new screen that Samsung calls the Dynamic AMOLED 2X Display. The panel is already used in the Galaxy phone line, and the “2X” just indicates a 120Hz refresh rate. The panels will also have 2880 x 1800 resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio across models. That’s going to be taller and roomier than the 16:9 displays that the Galaxy Book2 line had. And, naturally, they are OLED, with all of the punchy colors, wide viewing angles, fast response times, and deep blacks that come with that technology.
Models announced today include a Galaxy Book3 Pro in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes as well as a 16-inch Galaxy Book3 Pro 360. Previous Galaxy Book lines have included non-Pro models, but none appear to have been announced at this time.
A brand-new model, the Galaxy Book3 Ultra, has also been announced, though it doesn’t have a release date as of yet. This will be a more expensive and higher-powered model with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU inside, competing with the likes of Apple’s recently announced MacBook Pros. We’ve got impressions and video footage of that device in our hands-on article.
In the past, we’ve found Galaxy Book devices to be some of the best laptops in the ultraportable category. They’re quite lightweight, and — as you might expect from Samsung devices — they have very good screens. We’d expect that the higher-resolution and higher-refresh screens will make for a good multimedia experience, but the question of how the new 13th Gen processors perform will need to wait for full reviews.
The Book3 Pro will start at $1,449.99, the Book3 Pro 360 will start at $1,899.99, and the Ultra will start at $2,399.99. These models are up for preorder now and will be available for purchase on February 17th.
