Samsung’s flagship laptop computer is a MacBook Pro clone long gone horribly inappropriate

II know I’m no longer the simplest one who wants a MacBook Pro for Windows: a graceful, extremely highly efficient, big moveable machine with an just hide and excessive-quality build. Samsung’s Galaxy Book6 Ultra indisputably tries. It’s got a marvelous hide and a pleasant beget, and it’s as solidly built as laptops attain.It furthermore looks to be, well, nearly exactly like a MacBook Pro, to the point where I on occasion spend the inappropriate keyboard shortcuts out of addiction. A huge selection of Windows laptops contain on occasion incorporated some MacBook beget influences, nevertheless the Galaxy homes so many of them that it’s glaring what Samsung used to be going for.Imitating things people want is understandable. But Samsung furthermore repeats some of Apple’s earlier failings, like including a awful keyboard and a surprisingly poor webcam. And it’s charging excessive-pause MacBook Pro money for a instrument that doesn’t fabricate like one.“Upright artists reproduction, substantial artists grab.” But what if they botch the theft?$3800The GoodVery good (and actually acquainted) build and designBright and incompatibility-y OLED displayGood Intel Panther Lake / Nvidia RTX performanceThe BadBad keyboard with brief key travelPoor webcam qualitySo pricey for such glaring faultsThe Galaxy Book6 Ultra starts at $2,900 with a 16-core Core Ultra X7 358H chip and built-in Intel Arc B390 graphics. Our overview configuration has a identical Intel Core Ultra 7 356H chip paired with an Nvidia RTX 5070 Notebook computer GPU. It furthermore has 32GB of soldered RAM and a 2TB SSD. It value $3,200 sooner than RAMageddon drove prices up. Now, it’s a whopping $3,800 with a 1TB SSD. At that value, it’s staunch $100 insecure of a 16-roam MacBook Pro with M5 Max with 36GB of reminiscence and a 2TB SSD. (Let’s maintain that decide within the succor of our minds.)Ingredient document cardScreen: AWebcam: DKeyboard: DTrackpad: CPort option: BSpeakers: BNumber of grotesque stickers to take away: 4 (one below)As expected from a excessive-pause Samsung instrument, the gift is knowing. The 16-roam, 2880 x 1800 OLED touchscreen is knowing and involving, rendering vivid colours and ultimate incompatibility. And the 120Hz adaptive refresh rate makes motion good and mushy.Luxuriate in a MacBook Pro, the Galaxy Book6 Ultra has Thunderbolt and HDMI 2.1 ports and an SD card slot. While the MacBooks contain three Thunderbolt 5 ports, the Samsung has two Thunderbolt 4 and an former-long-established USB-A. No matter USB need, it’s a appropriate port option that’s match for traumatic users and mutter material creators. It’d be good if it were Thunderbolt 5, given the value, nevertheless Panther Lake doesn’t contain native give a enhance to for Thunderbolt 5.In terms of performance, the Book6 is instant. It’s instant ample to handle busy multitasking and deal with hefty edits in Lightroom Basic. It slowed down a contact when I made plump edits using field and background detection masks, then copied and pasted them across batches of photographs, nevertheless I inquire that in most laptops varied than excessive-pause Macs with Pro and Max chips.On the staunch are the USB-A port, 3.5mm audio jack, and SD card slot.On the left is an HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a energy / battery indicator.On the keyboard deck is a awful keyboard and an okay trackpad.Due to the the discrete graphics, I could perchance perhaps perchance even play games like Battlefield 6 and Marathon reasonably well (two games you have to perhaps perchance’t dart at all on macOS). In BF6, I on the total got a solid 70+ fps by conserving settings modest: medium presets at 2880 x 1800 resolution with DLSS field to Performance. Marathon mustered a enough 50+ fps using Nvidia’s optimized settings. The followers don’t even win big loud, nevertheless, in change, the underside of the Galaxy Book’s chassis got very warm conclude to the succor.The Intel Panther Lake CPU and Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU combo makes the Book6 a piece of of a sleeper gaming laptop computer. It’s miles sooner than either MacBook for that. But for $3,800 you have to perhaps perchance win critically better performance from the extra straightforwardly gamer-taking a peer laptops available. Otherwise you have to perhaps perchance remain a piece of stealthy with a Razer Blade or Asus ROG Zephyrus, and win identical gaming performance for heaps much less money.Sadly, gaming performance isn’t ample for a laptop computer that prices nearly $4,000. In benchmarks the Galaxy Book6 Ultra is nearer to the $1,700 MacBook Pro with the immoral M5 chip. Benchmarks aren’t every little thing, nevertheless Samsung is charging so grand money for a laptop computer that will get outpaced by individual who’s half of the value. Where the Book6’s discrete GPU gives it a bonus in some graphics-heavy tests, the grand more cost effective M5 MacBook Pro isn’t a long way at the succor of. It even handily beats Samsung’s machine in our 4K video export take a look at.1/10Just because it copies some of its beget doesn’t indicate it isn’t graceful and good taking a peer.This isn’t actually Samsung’s fault. Windows laptop computer makers can’t compete with excessive-pause Macs in raw dart. Intel and AMD don’t contain any laptop computer CPUs that win conclude to Apple’s single-core performance, which is why a 10-core M5’s multicore performance can beat a 16-core Panther Lake chip.In associated facts, battery performance is uneven. I’ve had days of sunshine usage (many Chrome tabs, some stints of music listening, and a piece of of list editing) where it lasted over 10 hours, after which equally light days where I simplest got seven. A huge selection of Panther Lake laptops I’ve examined contain better battery lifestyles, nevertheless the Nvidia GPU uses extra energy than built-in graphics. Despite the very fact that the laptop computer is supposed to change to built-in graphics originate air of traumatic projects, laptops with each are at risk of contain worse battery lifestyles even originate air of games.I admire discrete graphics for gaming, nevertheless Macs contain an inherent advantage in battery lifestyles consistency because they sidestep that energy dance fully with built-in graphics going as a lot as a wildly excessive assortment of GPU cores. The grand more cost effective 14-roam MacBook Pro is in “Eh, who cares whilst you forgot the charger at house” territory — assuredly lasting me 12 hours or extra. (Talking of chargers, Samsung’s plump 140W energy adapter even looks to be as if Apple’s. But its prongs don’t fold down, and the incorporated cable is a piece of brief at 70 inches / 1.8 meters. Who made up our minds much less cable is healthier?)As for the audio system, they’re appropriate. But they lack a piece of depth and bass when in contrast with the identical six-speaker setups on the MacBook Pros and even the 15-roam MacBook Air.1/12Here’s the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra side by side with a 16-roam MacBook Pro.However the most egregious misstep is the Galaxy Book6 Ultra’s keyboard. The keys are very flat, with minimal separation from the deck. Samsung claims there’s 1mm of key hump, matching the most contemporary MacBook keyboards, alternatively it one map or the other feels shallower and heaps extra and rather a lot of worse. Typing on this keyboard gives me flashbacks to the former Apple butterfly keyboards, and that’s no longer an abilities we wants to be revisiting. Frankly, I don’t know how Samsung carried out this (derogatory). I fabricate extra typos and errors on this keyboard than celebrated, and I abominate it so grand I usually feature a mechanical keyboard over it. I’m certain you have to perhaps perchance win former to it, nevertheless that’s no longer appropriate ample on a laptop computer this pricey.I need that used to be the simplest mutter, nevertheless the haptic trackpad can furthermore be frustrating. I assuredly admire haptic pads since you have to perhaps perchance register a click wherever, and the Galaxy Book offers a generously sized house for clicking — grand like the Drive Touch trackpads on a MacBook. But this one’s staunch okay. It’s assuredly handsome, nevertheless I usually experienced delayed clicks and repeated inputs when clicking and dragging things or highlighting cells in a spreadsheet.Me, questioning what is up with this webcam image quality.After which there’s the webcam. I don’t contain any thought what processing Samsung is doing, nevertheless the 1080p digicam one map or the other makes you leer simultaneously grainy and smoothed out. My most efficient wager is it’s a loud image sensor and Samsung has some noise reduction or pores and skin smoothing going on — or each. It’s a poor signal when the principle element my colleagues assign a inquire of to me in a video name is what laptop computer I’m using.Samsung wants its flagship laptop computer to be a MacBook Pro for Windows so badly. It has a pleasant chassis and hide, and appropriate performance for a Windows laptop computer this skinny, alternatively it whiffs on too many of the fundamentals. It’s priced like an M5 Max MacBook Pro, has the performance of a MacBook no longer as a lot as half of its value, and lacks the just battery lifestyles of either. Valid win the explicit article.Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra specs (as reviewed)Cloak: 16-roam (2880 x 1800) 120Hz OLED touchscreenCPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 356HGPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5070 Notebook computer GPURAM: 32GB LPDDR5X (soldered)Storage: 2TB NVMe SSD with 2nd storage slotWebcam: 1080pConnectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4Ports: 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C (DisplayPort / Energy Offer), 1x USB-A 3.2, HDMI 2.1, stout-dimension SDXC card slot, 3.5mm combo audio jackWeight: 4.17 kilos / 1.89kgDimensions: 14.05 x 9.76 x 0.61 inches / 356.9 x 248 x 15.4mmBattery: 80.2WhPrice: $3,799.99Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The VergeBenchmarks comparability tableSamsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra / Intel Core Ultra 7 356H (Panther Lake) / 32GB / 2TBMacBook Pro 14 / Apple M5 / 16GB / 1TBAsus Zenbook Duo / Intel Core Ultra X9 388H (Panther Lake) / 32GB / 1TBRazer Blade 16 (2025) / AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 / RTX 5090 / 32GB / 2TBAsus Zenbook A16 / Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Impolite X2E94100 / 48GB / 1TBMacBook Pro 16 / Apple M5 Max / 128GB / 4TBCPU cores161016121818GPUNvidia RTX 5070 Notebook computer GPU (4,608 CUDA cores)Apple M5 (10 cores)Arc B390 (12 cores)Nvidia RTX 5090 Notebook computer GPU (10,496 CUDA cores)Adreno X2-90Apple M5 Max (40 cores)Geekbench 6 CPU Single280242083009296836434330Geekbench 6 CPU Multi164711794817268159222204429143Geekbench 6 GPU (OpenCL)117306490595683921301641101145613Cinebench 2026 Single499736528Not tested628734Cinebench 2026 Multi436944863993Not tested63278952PugetBench for Photoshop805712354877386791093115716PugetBench for Premiere Pro (2.0.0+)819897112254920Not testedNot tested154829Blender lecture room take a look at (seconds, decrease is healthier)4044611819815Blender cosmos take a look at (seconds, decrease is healthier)223Not tested20412167035Premiere 4K Export (decrease is healthier)4 minutes, 25 seconds2 minutes, 47 seconds3 minutes, 3 seconds1 minute, 56 seconds6 minutes, 38 seconds1 minute, 10 secondsSustained SSD reads (MB/s)7049.867049.456762.156726.257092.9113638.91Sustained SSD writes (MB/s)5819.387317.65679.414931.415694.9417814.19Price as examined$3,799.99$1,949$2,299.99$4,499.99$1,699.99$6,149Follow issues and authors from this legend to leer extra like this to your personalized homepage feed and to win electronic mail updates.Antonio G. Di Benedetto