Listen up, creative pros: Samsung has updated the pinnacle of its Galaxy Book lineup for 2026 with the Galaxy Book6 Ultra (starts at $2,899.99; $3,799.99 as tested). It will cost you, to be sure, but that’s the price of admission to the premium laptop market. (See what a loaded-out 16-inch MacBook Pro, Razer Blade, or Dell XPS would run you.) Running with that pack, the Book6 Ultra is creditable contender, with a high-quality all-metal build, a brilliant display, and fast performance. If you need a super-powered laptop, you can find more potent options, but among slim, portable 16-inchers with luxe builds, the Book6 is a worthy one for creatives and professionals. However, for the ultimate 16-inch laptop experience, general users should consider the Framework Laptop 16, and creators, the more potent and feature-rich Asus ProArt P16—both are Editors’ Choice award winners.

Configurations: 'Panther Lake' Graphics or Nvidia RTX?

The Galaxy Book6 Ultra is a premium laptop, no matter how you slice it, with a $2,899.99 starting price. For that, you get an Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor with Intel Arc B390 graphics, 32GB of DDR5 on-board memory, and a 1TB SSD alongside the high-end build and the 1800p AMOLED screen (more on those next). That processor likely accounts for much of that price, which may not stand out if you’re unfamiliar with Intel’s latest silicon. This CPU is a “Panther Lake” chip with the Arc B390 integrated graphics processor (IGP), which is notably more powerful than most IGPs. Since this laptop aims at creative pros, including at least this graphics muscle by default makes sense.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

However, our test model takes it even further. This version is the same in most regards, but it swaps out the X7 processor for the Core Ultra 7 356H (no Arc B390 built in) and adds an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 discrete GPU for $3,799.99. You could choose a less powerful RTX 5060 for $3,599.99, too.

Don’t be confused by the way these configurations look on Samsung’s site: It lists the less advanced Ultra 7 356H (without the Arc B390) as a more expensive chip in the processor section, but that’s because it’s tied to including one of the discrete Nvidia GPUs. The slightly lower-power chip is a prerequisite for shoppers seeking more potent graphics performance. The memory and storage options are not configurable.

Design: For Windows Fans With MacBook Envy

You just can’t get around it: The Galaxy Book6 Ultra heavily follows the MacBook Pro’s design. The all-metal build, the slim frame, and the black keyboard set into a silver chassis are all heavily reminiscent of Apple’s beloved laptop. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, as they say, and you could do worse than mimicking one of the most iconic laptop designs around: The Book6 Ultra is a super-premium machine.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

With a 16-inch screen, the Book6 Ultra has a moderately sized footprint. It’s a trim and slim machine, though, measuring 0.61 by 14.1 by 9.8 inches (HWD) and weighing 4.2 pounds. That’s thinner than the 16-inch MacBook Pro, and more than half a pound lighter, so it’s certainly on the portable side.

We don’t see many Samsung laptops come across our test benches, but when we do, the build quality impresses. In addition to its thin dimensions, the metal body is sturdy and feels high-end. The sizable touchpad features haptic feedback, which is missing from many Windows machines; the input and feedback are satisfying, smooth, and responsive.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

If I have qualms, they’re regarding the keyboard. The keyboard feels a bit small relative to the laptop’s size—it’s not abnormal, but I’d personally sacrifice some touchpad size for an easier-to-reach keyboard. The keys feel fairly shallow, with little travel. The keyboard feels flat to me, and I can feel the keys hit the bottom consistently.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

The laptop also includes some unseen features that enhance the device (and add to that steep price). The Book6 Ultra features a vapor chamber for internal cooling, larger fins that extend from the chamber to carry more heat away, and a redesigned outlet fan and heatsink. Samsung claims a 35% improvement over the previous generation with these changes.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Display and Connectivity: Samsung’s AMOLED Shines

As for that 16-inch screen, it’s an advanced 2,880-by-1,800-pixel resolution AMOLED touch panel with a 120Hz refresh rate. Touch capability is far from a necessity for most users, but it’s a welcome addition. (I should remind you that, to this day, MacBooks have no touch screens.) The screen also includes an anti-reflective coating, which, while it can only do so much against direct bright light, helps reduce glare. It’s rated at 500 nits of brightness for SDR content and shines up to 1,000 nits in HDR.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Samsung’s panel is a fantastic-looking screen overall. It’s sharp, vibrant, and bright. The display is a treat to work on and particularly suited to media pros. Apple’s screens always look excellent, but Cupertino hasn’t yet embraced technologies like OLED and touch controls, so Samsung’s screen is a real differentiator.

The Book6 Ultra is well-equipped with ports, offering more than just USB Type-C connections. On the left side, you’ll find two 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports and an HDMI 2.1 connection. The laptop’s right side has a USB Type-A port, an SD card slot, and an audio jack. These connections make up a useful array, with the SD card slot being especially helpful for some creative users. Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 round out Samsung’s connectivity suite.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Samsung equipped this laptop with a 1080p webcam, delivering crisp picture quality in my testing. People expect a full HD camera like this on premium laptops, and it’s even becoming common on more mainstream machines, but the resolution alone doesn’t guarantee clear, balanced video. In this case, the image is sharp, and the camera handles different lighting well.

(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)

Performance Testing: Panther Lake Plus Nvidia Graphics Are Up to the Task

To judge this laptop’s performance, I ran it through our usual benchmark suite, comparing the results against the following competitors.

With its dual screens and Core Ultra chip with Arc B390 graphics, the Asus Zenbook Duo ($2,699.99 as tested) is a worthwhile alternative for big-screen professional productivity. (Plus, we can see how the Arc B390 stacks up to the discrete option.) Our $3,199.99 Dell 16 Premium configuration is the most similar laptop to the Book6 Ultra, while the Framework Laptop 16 ($3,198 as tested) is a unique, customizable do-it-all laptop that also runs on RTX 5070 graphics.

Finally, the 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro is an obvious alternative for those who can consider macOS. Our $6,149 M5 Max-based test model is quite pricey, but the 4TB of storage, and features like nano-texture displays that don’t affect performance, aren't essential either.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

Our primary overall benchmark, UL's PCMark 10, puts a system through its paces in productivity apps ranging from web browsing to word processing and spreadsheet work. Its Full System Drive subtest measures a PC's storage throughput. 

Three more tests we rely on are CPU-centric or processor-intensive: Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene; Primate Labs' Geekbench 6.3 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning; and we see how long it takes the video transcoder HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute clip from 4K to 1080p resolution.

Finally, workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Creators rates a PC's image-editing prowess through a variety of automated operations in the seminal photo editor Adobe Photoshop 25.

The Book6 Ultra came off well against the field, posting the highest multi-core Cinebench score among the PC laptops, hanging with the pack otherwise. While none of the Windows machines could break away,  they’re all fast enough for professional and media workloads. The MacBook Pro is a different story, so the pure speed comparison here is interesting, but your decision may rest purely on Windows versus macOS, anyway. However, a “stripped-down” 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max chip is just $100 more expensive than this Book6 Ultra configuration—something to consider if the operating system is less important to you.

Graphics Tests

We challenge all systems’ graphics with a quintet of animations or gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite. The first two, Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K), use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. The next pair, Steel Nomad's regular and Light subtests, focuses on APIs more commonly used for game development to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. Last up, we turn to 3DMark Solar Bay to measure ray tracing performance.

The Book6 Ultra and its RTX 5070 were a bit inconsistent on these tests, but mostly hung tight to the other RTX 5070 laptops. (One RTX 5070 is a thicker system, the Framework, with more thermal headroom.) You can see the upgrade over the Arc B390 in the Duo, too. (Note that there is usually a larger gap between a system’s Wild Life and Wild Life Extreme scores, as shown with the other laptops. Despite retesting, the Book6 Ultra consistently posted a low Wild Life score, even though the other results are in line.) In all, this is a capable GPU for media workloads and moderate gaming, even if it’s not the most powerful machine out there. The MacBook Pro’s 40-core M5 Max IGP predictably outstripped everything by thousands of points. The entry-level M5 Max IGP likely wouldn’t enjoy a similar shut-out with its 32 cores, but we can’t speak to it any further than that.

Battery Life and Display Tests

We test a laptop's battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender movie Tears of Steel) with display brightness set to 50% and audio volume set to 100%. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

To gauge display performance, we also use a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its software to measure a laptop screen's color saturation—what percentage of the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 color gamuts or palettes the display can show—and its 50% and peak brightness in nits (candelas per square meter).

Battery uptime of 28-plus hours is a fantastic result for any laptop class. We’re seeing the baseline rise rapidly with recent processor generations (a recent "Panther Lake" system from MSI was a record-setter), but this is still one of the longer results we’ve measured thus far. You can work, enjoy entertainment, and travel to and from home without fully draining the battery.

Samsung’s AMOLED display also posted impressive color and brightness results. The panel delivered wide color coverage (with a slight dip on Adobe RGB) and higher peak brightness than most, including, by a good measure, the MacBook Pro.