Earlier this month, I remember sitting alongside my fellow industry colleagues, through the briefing of the Galaxy Book 6 series. By the end of the session, the folks at Samsung asked me which device I would prefer for testing between the standard Book 6, Book 6 Pro, and Book 6 Ultra. As a guy who juggles between two MacBooks, both of which are 13 and 14-inch machines, I was naturally inclined to test the Galaxy Book 6 Pro. To my surprise, Samsung sent me their top of the line Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, a 16-inch Windows powerhouse, and now, I don’t want to go back to the 13 and 14-inch laptops I have been accustomed to.
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I have also seen the Galaxy Book 6 Pro. Held it in the hand, and it is so light, and I am sure, it is loaded to the brim with all the hardware and software goodness for its price.
But nothing compares if you want to go all in. Because, at a starting price of Rs 2,42,990 for the Core Ultra X7 358H version, or Rs 3,10,990 for the Core X7 356H version, there are hardly any options in the Indian PC market, as the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, that can qualify as a high-end lifestyle productivity laptop, which is also a gaming laptop, sort of. And I don’t know if you noticed, but the lower-priced version of the machine has the more potent processor, and I am going to address that as well, in a bit.
Here are my initial impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra.
I am a Mac user, and the reason I prefer macOS is mainly because of the ecosystem, and not because macOS is better than Windows 11 and vice versa. Over the years, I have used a lot of Windows laptops, remarkable machines, but I kept coming back to the Mac. But then I have also used a bunch of Samsungs, most recently just last year, the Galaxy Book 5 Pro. And there’s always this thing about a Samsung that if I can switch from macOS to Windows 11, it has to be a Galaxy Book, and the Book 6 Ultra that I am using makes a pretty strong case.
Of course, if you haven’t figured it out yet, the main reason I am enjoying the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra experience here is the Samsung ecosystem.
I recently used the Asus Zenbook Duo 2026 (read review), and I loved that machine. And that was mainly for its form factor and not because I was enticed by Windows 11 on that machine. Sure, the Panther Lake performance is quite superior to the last generation Lunar Lake chips, and I did notice that bump in the Asus. The fact is, I can’t see it as my long-term daily driver once the novelty factor of the dual-screen setup fades off.
With the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, things are much different. Not only do you get the Windows 11 experience powered by Intel’s Panther Lake chip, but also the Samsung ecosystem advantage that you don’t get with any other Windows laptop out there. And no, you don’t need to do some extra setups to achieve this. Both your computer and, in my case, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, are connected to my main Samsung account and linked to Windows. Following this, there’s a lot I can do on my laptop, with my phone being in complete sync.
You must have heard Apple users talking about the seamless integration between a Mac and iPhone. Take, for example, Continuity, which lets you copy/paste stuff between a Mac and an iPhone. This feature has been acting so finicky lately, and 5 out of 10 times, it doesn’t work. On the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra and S26 Ultra, both devices support this continuity feature. There’s a Multi-Control feature enabled on both devices. It not only lets me copy/paste stuff between both devices, but I can also move my laptop’s cursor to the corner of the screen, and it seamlessly appears on my phone. Also, for the context, this feature works without any delay, and most importantly, always without any tantrums.
Of course, there are a lot of ecosystem features that I will talk about in my full review of the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra.
The Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is loaded with all the raw hardware you’d expect from a laptop of this calibre. It features 32GB RAM with 8,533 MT/s speeds. This is paired with 1TB of fast NVMe SSD storage. The good thing, in both variants of the laptop available for purchase, you get the same 32GB RAM + 1TB storage configuration.
The difference lies in the Panther Lake chipsets, both of which, by the way, have 16-cores and 16 threads. For the AI future proofing, there’s a 50 TOPS NPU as well.
On the base version, which is priced at Rs 2,42,990, Samsung is giving the higher-end 4.8 GHz Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor, which has the Intel Arc B390 integrated GPU. On the other hand, the top variant has a slightly toned-down chip, the 4.7 GHz Intel Core Ultra 7 356H, having the Intel Graphics GPU as the integrated solution. You may then ask, what’s the logic behind the Ultra 7 version costing Rs 70,000 more than the Ultra X7 one?
First and foremost, when it comes to the integrated GPU solutions, the Intel Arc B390 on the Ultra X7 has 12 XE cores, while the standard Intel Graphics chip on the Ultra 7 has 4 XE cores. However, because the higher-priced Ultra 7 features the 8GB Nvidia RTX 5070 dedicated GPU, it doesn’t really need the massive integrated GPU power, as it will unnecessarily generate heat. Whereas the lower-priced variant doesn’t have a dedicated Nvidia GPU. Instead, with the Ultra X7 chip, the base variant can simply rely on the Intel Arc 390 GPU, which in itself is powerful enough to handle 1080p gaming and decent-quality video edits.
Basically, the CPU difference (4.8 GHz vs 4.7 GHz) is negligible in the real world. However, the jump in graphics performance courtesy of the RTX 5070 over the integrated Arc 390 presents the real story in terms of the price difference.
So, there you have it, the base version, priced at Rs 2,42,990, is powered by the Core Ultra X7 chip paired with the Intel Arc B390 graphics. Whereas the higher-end version, priced at Rs 3,10,990, comes with the slightly less powerful Core Ultra 7 CPU, but a much more powerful dedicated Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU. Hence, the massive price difference.
I hope I have cleared all doubts regarding the choice of CPU on both variants. This is something that I also felt looked strange from the get-go, but then it all started to make sense.
Which brings me to the variant I have. The top-end one with the Core Ultra 7 chip, paired with the Nvidia RTX 5070. And this is the setup that is designed to take care of all the heavy loads you can think of putting on this machine. While it’s only been a few days since I started using this machine, I have already loaded it up with four AAA games (GTA V: Enhanced Edition, Hogwarts Legacy, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Tekken 7) that I absolutely enjoy playing.
What makes it exciting for me every day is that, during the day, this is my work machine, on which I do a lot of typing and some photo editing as well. Come night, and this machine transforms into my gaming rig. I have also been watching a lot of Netflix on this machine, enjoying Orange is the New Black (still haven’t finished that one). I even watched the latest season (first 4 episodes) of Invincible on Prime Video. The content looks absolutely stunning on this screen. It is bright, sharp, vivid, and it is a touchscreen. For those who care about the specs, this is an edge-to-edge 16-inch Dynamic AMOLED 2X anti-reflective display, with a 120Hz refresh rate and a 3K resolution.
Finally, coming to the design and build, the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is a beautiful laptop. It gets a full metal build with no creaks or flex in the chassis. Yes, it is heavy at about 1.89 kg, especially coming from the laptops I normally use. But, for all the power and performance on offer, I appreciate the fact that it is not as bulky and thick as the usual gaming laptops. Again, it maintains the aesthetic of a lifestyle productivity laptop, but under the hood, it gives you all the oomph to run anything you can throw at it.
True to its moniker, the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is also loaded with all the essentials you can think of. In the top bezel, there’s a 1080p webcam. The six-speaker system gets pretty loud and has depth, too. The port situation is sorted. There are two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, a Type-A port, an HDMI port, a headphone jack and a dedicated SD card reader slot.
You are also getting a full-sized backlit keyboard with good travel, along with a humongous trackpad with haptic feedback.
This has been quite a long article for a first-impressions piece. And despite that, I am yet to cover a bunch of areas that I haven’t mentioned here.
Of course, a lot of testing needs to be done in the Digit Test Labs. How bright is the display in terms of numbers? How does this machine hold up in terms of benchmarks, and what kind of gaming performance can one expect from it? Why is the RTX 5070 GPU capped at 90W TGP, when in reality, it can theoretically push up to 140W of power? Or with the kind of power at disposal, what kind of battery life are we looking at?
I’ll be pushing the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra through its paces in the Digit Test Labs to get all the answers. With that said, I am really impressed with the Book 6 Ultra here, and after a long time, I am not carrying a Mac in my backpack.
There’s a lot more to unfold in the full review of the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra. Stay tuned to Digit for more.
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