Samsung Galaxy Book6 Ultra Review - Impressive multimedia laptop with gorgeous OLED & RTX 5070

[Redaktion]

Samsung's new Galaxy Book6 Ultra is a powerful 16-inch multimedia laptop with an amazing OLED screen, Panther Lake processor and GeForce RTX 5070. There are also many similarities with the Apple MacBook Pro 16, but is it enough to beat Apple's machine?

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Samsung-Galaxy-Book6-Ultra-Review-Impressive-multimedia-laptop-with-gorgeous-OLED-RTX-5070.1242686.0.html

[Chaebol]

The quiet profile seems to castrate GPU performance for CPU. I wonder if there's a way to swap that so it's 45W TGP and 22W TDP instead.

This notebook seems almost as efficient halo. Struggling to see the point of it anymore besides AI. Oh, I guess halo notebooks run generally slightly cooler but in terms of wattage and noise...almost similar.

It's also quite depressing how on a $4000 laptop we still don't have SD Express card reader but on a $400 switch 2 we do.

I kind of wish NBC did the gaming benchmarks @ 40 dB (aka more balanced / optimized profiles rather than max turbo). Does anyone actually game at full throttle with 50+ dB? But then again I guess it'd complicate things further as everyone OEM has their own definition and power limits of what is "balance/optimized"..

[8 GB VRAM for 3600]

8 GB VRAM for 3600..

[SomeName]

Screen cracking issue?

[dumb_oems]

Yeah great - OLED panels suck, especially the ones with low frequency and high amplitude flickering.

I am so tired of this OLED stuff and the negative health impact, burn in issues, degradation...

These OEMs are so dumb that they don't offer other options, I would never buy such a screen ever.

[GalaxySlop]

I'm using GalaxyBook myself, but Macbooks now are objectively better in every way AND cheaper! What's wrong with windows laptops?! They are like "RAM is now 100$ more expensive, so you understand we need to bump the laptop prices by 500$".. And Apple releases 600$ laptop that even runs windows better than any windows laptop..

[oem_smart]

@dumb_oems, do you've a suggestion though of an alternative? It's easy to hate on oled and it definitely has flaws but let's face it before oled there were minimal improvements to LCD display tech, whether it be contrast, brightness or gamut accuracy.

MiniLED has pwm too and has its own issues.

I feel like the degradation issue is overblown too. Yes, they degrade but guess what? My 13 year LCD does too. All displays degrade over time. That's why people upgrade every several years.

[tikkus]

the screen is like a mirror, totally useless. why is this not in the cons!??
but yeah, again "soldered RAM" since 5 years everything is soldered, why you even mention this!
how about "no usb-c port on the right side" !?
almost 4000 bucks, noone in their right mind will buy this

[dumb_oems]

@oem_smart

I would just be happy with a high-res reasonable low latency high brightness (>550 nits) IPS screen without PWM.

No flickering headaches & eyestrain, no burn-ins, very little other degradation (e.g. to brightness) over time.

I don't want to buy a new laptop every 2-3 years or worry that my taskbar or tab bar is static - which it is a lot of the time.

But no, 90% of non-cheap laptops suddenly come with OLED screens only, or some garbage IPS with 65 ms GtG response times...

[Sivious]

It looks like they maybe finally solved the screen door effect on OLED touchscreens? Is anybody able to confirm that the screen doesn't have a visible grainy layer on it? Hard to tell from photos.

[dumb_oems]

Also the price is so ridiculous for this configuration, it makes Apple surcharges for storage and memory look cheap. 3600k EUR? lol. let it sh1te sit on the storeshelves.

[oem_smart]

I don't want to buy a new laptop every 2-3 years or worry that my taskbar or tab bar is static - which it is a lot of the time.

I think this may have been a problem with earlier oled displays but is largely mitigated now through modern software improvements (e.g. moving/shifting pixels every now and then and screen savers). You have to like run display running permanently a fixed picture 24/7 365 for years with all safety features disabled for this to happen.

But no, 90% of non-cheap laptops suddenly come with OLED screens only, or some garbage IPS with 65 ms GtG response times...

Same thing for TVs and phones. Soon I don't think people are going to have much choice, whether they like it or not. It's going to be all OLED once pricing goes down and even budget models adopt the technology. At that stage it'll be difficult to get any IPS eventually the way we're headed.

Nothing comes close to the low latency response time either, besides CRTs and plasma but doubtful they're making a resurgence anytime soon.

The headaches suck. But my eyes have largely adapted to it and in any case, I've just gotten around it by limiting my exposure. And touching grass more often. After all, I doubt an opthalmologist would recommend long term prolonged exposure with any display technology. Humans just weren't biological wired to be used that way.

[Worgarthe]

I don't want to buy a new laptop every 2-3 years or worry that my taskbar or tab bar is static - which it is a lot of the time.

I think this may have been a problem with earlier oled displays but is largely mitigated now through modern software improvements (e.g. moving/shifting pixels every now and then and screen savers). You have to like run display running permanently a fixed picture 24/7 365 for years with all safety features disabled for this to happen.

This. And... at max brightness! I doubt that many people will run this all the time at 100%, so 500 nits (well, 504.6). Tone that down to normal 170-250 when indoors and there is no fear of burn in any time soon.

[dumb_oems]

There is no pixel shifting that can fix it. Your taskbar's or tab bar's or whatever neighbor pixels are of the same exact color most of the time.

>> The headaches suck. But my eyes have largely adapted to it and in any case, I've just gotten around it by limiting my exposure.

you are fucking insane, health comes first to me. a decent IPS screen is an almost identical experience, in some ways better, except for the lack of HDR and worse black.

why would people ever expose themselves to unneeded flickering? I just don't understand.

the first parameter I choose my phone with is having an IPS screen. Moto G75. Cheap, bright, I don't know what else you could want. And it is very good even in direct sun.

People have truly gone mad. Good thing there are still laptops like MacBook Air.

[oem_smart]

why would people ever expose themselves to unneeded flickering? I just don't understand.

Because if you don't want to be limited to like a Moto G75 and MBA, as you're trying to prioritize other things as well, then that's kind of what you've to do.

PWM isn't the only thing that causes eye strain. Just having a display that doesn't get bright enough and not enough contrast so you can barely see anything clear enough also does too, which plenty of IPS panels are guilty of. So it's not a one way blame street.

Additionally, high frequency pwm panels kind of reduce the issues for many people on the spectrum of sensitivity making it good enough and usable. Tho it depends on amplitude and also manufacturers source different panels so it is kind of a lottery..

To clarify more what I meant by the adapted comment, when I first got oled I couldn't do more than 20 min - 2 hrs (dependent on background lighting conditions, darker puts more strain)... but now I can do 3-4 hours. Also, I think there's something about when you have different display tech on different devices it causes problems like your eyes to get confused and it puts additional strain. Ever since I no longer have any IPS anymore, the headaches are more rare now. In fact, it's kind of funny, after using oled so long switching back to an IPS gives me headaches now..so to me it just depends what you get used to. At least that's how it is for me.

you are fucking insane, health comes first to me.

Do you really though? Then quit looking at displays at close range for prolonged periods of time completely. Feel like we're just repeating ourselves here so we're gonna have to agree to disagree here.

Our great great great ancestors weren't eating the pesticides our food is grown in today, and they weren't looking at displays either. That's the way it should be.

Like I said in my initial comment, you've failed to provide a real alternative. You may think the displays found in MBA and G75 are noteworthy, but by every reputable professional independent review outlet that tests displays for a living, they're deemed pretty much trash.

I wish we could make plasma or CRT a viable buts it's not an option, realistically.

except for the lack of HDR ..

except?? :P bruh, that reason alone is huge. I don't think you realize just how many people upgrade display for that reason alone.