Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro review: Design delights

It's a big year for the best laptops – one that's been a few years in the making. Ever since Apple shelved Intel, going it alone, the latter chip-maker has had to give itself a slap around the chops and get to work in making truly competitive new hardware.

That's precisely what you'll find in the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro, though, as Intel's 'Panther Lake' Series 3 chips are the real deal – per my earlier, initial testing – and a bit of a 'raspberry-blow' back at Apple, if you like. Especially in the form of this Samsung design, which is as deliciously sleek and as elegant as Windows laptops come.

The other reason it's a big year, however, is that Qualcomm is also going big in the laptops game – its Snapdragon X2 Elite is incoming (albeit in 'Q2', meaning summer?) – but also because the price of RAM and storage is on a sharp rise. That means PC-makers have already got their elbows out in a bid to sell now, and sell fast.

Based on my time with the 16-inch Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro on review, however, the brand should have no problem selling, because this is a humdinger of a laptop that'll precede the Qualcomm-equipped competition.

That Samsung served a hiatus from the UK laptops market should give no cause for concern either, given the brand's experience in mobile and beyond. The all-new Galaxy Book 6 range caters for all, too, with base, Pro, and the discrete-graphics-toting Ultra models all on offer.

Price & Availability

At the time of publication, the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro isn't yet on sale. It's expected to arrive sometime in the first quarter of 2026, I'm told, but that date could slip – with this very month, February 2026, assumed to be the earliest possible availability.

Even if you do have to wait longer, though, I think it'll be worth your while. You might need to save up a smidge, given the anticipated starting price – by which I mean it's very much still 'to be confirmed' – of £1,399 in the UK (other regions remain TBC).

Note: that's for the 14-inch model with 256GB storage. On review, however, I have the 16-inch variant with 1TB storage and 32GB RAM, which is expected to cost £2,199. Not cheap, but just look at the design – oh, and keep in mind the MacBook Pro 16 starts at £2,499 with less storage and less RAM (or 'unified memory' as Apple prefers).

Design

Now that's what I call a sophisticated aesthetic. From the very moment I received my Galaxy Book 6 Pro, I could tell it was a quality piece of kit from touch alone. Though FedEx must've kept it in cold storage or something, as the aluminium chassis was borderline freezing after unboxing.

Plugging in helped to warm that slender chassis up a little, though. Not that it gets too hot, thanks to the redesigned thermal cooling system on board, which Samsung suggests was designed around the new Intel chip to ensure top, harmonious performance. It claims to be 35% more efficient than its Galaxy Book 5 Pro predecessor.

Now, I suspect I'm not the only person who's going to suggest there's an air of MacBook about the Galaxy Book's overall visual. To me, this is akin to the Windows equivalent of Apple's laptop line, albeit with a little more delicacy in some areas – Samsung's laptop has a less 'wedge-of-metal heft' about it, given the tapering to front and sides.

I'm not comparing Galaxy Book to MacBook to any detriment either: as a long-time user of Apple laptops, I appreciate the sturdy design and finish, the robustness of materials, the well-judged weighting and motion to the screen hinge – all of which is spot-on in Samsung's laptop, too.

That the Galaxy Book doesn't shun a full-size USB-A port (in addition to its pair of USB-C) won't hurt; neither will the HDMI 2.1 port's presence. That all goes to make this a more work-equipped laptop without requiring any extra peripherals to connect it up to various outlets, or easily export documents to various drive types.

Display

I'm reviewing the 16-inch version of the Galaxy Book 6 Pro, but there's also the 14-inch model – which, personally, is the smaller and more transportable one that I'd opt to buy. As the smaller panel has the same volume of pixels, it can deliver a higher perceived sharpness on account of its smaller scale.

Which of the pair you plump for won't affect the screen type: both offer Samsung's 'AMOLED 2X' panels – a nice and bright OLED, as you find in top-tier TVs, in essence – complete with fast refresh-rate (to 120Hz) and an anti-reflection coating to make outdoors use much improved. The 1000 nits HDR (high dynamic range) brightness maximum performance further bolsters this.

Not that I've used the Galaxy Book 6 Pro outside as part of this review. In the UK, while it's far from the coldest of winters we've had, the lack of sun, volume of rain and general extended hours of darkness aren't, at this stage, going to give me any sense of 'summertime testing'.

Given how impressive Samsung's handling of anti-reflection is – in the likes of its S95F TV model, for example – I've no doubt in its application here, leveraging Corning's Gorilla Glass with DXC for the job. This also adds additional robustness to the surface.

Indeed, even with anti-reflection in play, this Galaxy Book laptop keeps those blacks nice and deep in appearance – which is a key OLED benefit – without looking washed out, as can sometimes be an issue with anti-reflection coatings.

It's also worth noting that this is a touchscreen panel. Many Windows laptops offer this functionality, of course, and while I rarely use it, I know many will appreciate it. It's actually in the apparent high resistance to fingerprint marks that I've been most impressed, though, which gives me greater cause to start thinking about my laptop use differently!

It's generally hard to poke any major criticisms at this panel, therefore, save for the large bottom bezel – which, to me, feels like a hangover from the previous design. Actually, less bezel all-round wouldn't go amiss here, to add that level-up of design finesse compared to many rivals. But that's all I've got to suggest.

Keyboard & Trackpad

The variance in keyboard quality that you get in laptops varies quite a bit more than you might expect. I enjoy the clicky, low-travel yet responsive nature of a keyboard, as Samsung has elected to install in the Galaxy Book 6 Pro.

In the 16-inch model it does feel rather 'set back' in the body towards the screen, though, so depending on what you're coming from, it may take a little getting used to. After a day, my default touch-typing brain had shifted by the few millimetres necessary for accurate use.

Interestingly, the last-gen Galaxy Book's keyboard also included a Numpad. Fortunately, this newer model has done away with this, giving back some space to the much-improved integrated speakers, and giving a better proportional layout, as far as I'm concerned.

Oh, and while this has nothing to do with either the keyboard or trackpad, I must shout out just how grand these new speakers sound. The 16-inch model has four speakers total, for a really wide sound, while the 14-inch drops to stereo.

Getting rid of the Numpad has also meant there's no reason to offset the large trackpad's position, which sits central to the Galaxy Book Pro 6.

Now, I'm all for a large touchpad, but this Samsung one is really rather huge, and I've sometimes found my wrists leaning on it or being a little too close when typing. Again, you'll get used to it, as I have, but it's up for debate whether it truly needs to be of this scale.

Now, the Samsung Newsroom release describes the touchpad as "haptic", which might set alarm bells ringing. However, fret not, it does have physical movement – it's quite visible when looking up close – so you get that assured, 'real' feel, in addition to haptic feedback assertion, regardless of where you click on the pad.

Performance

Having migrated over from an older Windows 11 laptop so I could run my native apps on this Samsung for testing – before then wiping it again to return, following this review – I've been impressed with how deftly the Galaxy Book 6 can cut through tasks.

As I said up top, a lot of this relies on Intel's 'knocked-it-out-the-park' advances in its Series 3 chipset – here the Intel Core Ultra X7 (358H) processor, 32GB RAM, plus Intel Arc B390 graphics. It's knocking on the door of being a "creative's" laptop, such is the ability to be a dab hand at pretty much everything.

From expedited photo and video processing, to graphically adept output – even gaming – at completely acceptable levels when away from the plug. It's got the right balance of ability, without costing a complete fortune – as can be the case with some gaming laptops or creative workstation-style options.

The repeat benchmarks I've run as part of this test show competent multi-thread performance that's competitive against Apple's latest M5 silicon, which goes to show how far Intel has come. That said, single-thread competency is nowhere near, so for your day-to-day apps – word processors and the like – there's room for more.

Figures are one aspect only, though, and I've found using the Galaxy Book 6 Pro to be great. It runs like a dream and, even when pushing the graphics testing, the integrated fan will certainly kick in – but avoids the nastiest 'whirring' or 'whistling' sound that you'll find from some lesser designs.

Battery Life

A major component of this Intel chip, however, is its purported uptick in efficiency. It was one of the areas where Intel was getting behind, but it's made sufficient improvements to remain competitive in this latest hardware.

When I ran initial tests I found the battery capability to be good, but still not class-leading. That's on account of it being early testing and the Samsung's 78Wh battery here not being at the ceiling level of what laptops can offer – but, of course, at the compromise of design to some degree.

However, I've run repeat tests and, as I expected, the battery ability has settled down and delivers a solid performance. With Wi-Fi streaming at Full HD from YouTube, for example, I've been able to achieve 14 hours non-stop – with brightness fixed at 75%.

That's an improvement over the first 12.5-hour result. It's a far cry from the supposed 30 hours that Samsung claims, mind, but that's with the brightness nowhere nearly as high and Airplane mode engaged. My result is much more real-life – and still a decent enough performance.

I actually perform these tests in full, too, to ensure it's a true outcome. A nice crackling fireplace on YouTube is my go-to, especially in this cooler weather. It brings a bit of background comfort to the testing process.

Using the laptop as my work machine, however, and I've managed to get it to go even further. That's because I basically live in Chrome – including for Gmail, as that's a work requirement – with only really Bluetooth streaming to headphones and Adobe Creative Suite adding extra demands. There's zero problem getting through a 10 hour workday with plenty left in the tank.

Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro review: Verdict

If you're shopping for a prestige Windows laptop, then, having used the Galaxy Book 6 Pro the past week for this review, I don't think you're likely to find anything more complete. It combines top-end design and strong performance into one neat package.

This Galaxy Book is also proof of Intel's latest Series 3 chips. You'll get solid performance across the full spectrum, including gaming, and there's decent battery life – albeit not to Samsung's not-real-life claims. All of which sets up the 2026 laptop landscape to be a cracker.

There are nitpicks in the display's large lower bezel, that battery life can be bettered elsewhere, and that pricing is still somewhat up in the air at the time of writing – but it's not expected to be so far out of tune that it'll cease to be competitive.

Simply put: the Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Pro is a laptop star. It's an all-round improvement over its already successful predecessor, one that'll pose questions for Microsoft, Dell and any of the other big players in the design-led laptop sector this year.

Also Consider

However, there is plenty of competition to speak of. If you're not 100% sold on Windows, then Apple's MacBook Pro is the obvious alternative choice. It's a bit pricier, but can be specced with more power. And, of course, it runs MacOS – for better or worse, depending on what you're used to.

As the Galaxy Book 6 Pro is so focused on its design language, few others offer this level of refinement. You could look to Microsoft's Surface Laptop, for one, but it's a different size – which may better suit you, to be fair – and we're still awaiting the brand's move to the new-gen hardware, as per Samsung's setup.

Otherwise, Dell's return to its XPS brand – after one year off, with a failed marketing shift – isn't a bad shout. Or, if you've got time on your hands, then awaiting Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite in various models will give you greater visibility on how battery performance compares.