I just tested the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro — and Panther Lake is the real deal

The Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro could be my favorite laptop from the company yet. It has everything I love about the series—the thin design, a gorgeous display, and killer performance. That last part is especially notable, as the new Book6 Pro packs the brand-new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 “Panther Lake” processor, marking a huge architectural shift for Intel.

I just received both the Galaxy Book6 Pro and its beefier sibling, the Galaxy Book6 Ultra, and I’ll have full reviews of both soon. For this piece, I wanted to share my initial impressions of the Book6 Pro, as it’s the first Panther Lake laptop I’ve had the chance to test. Not only is it an excellent notebook for everyday work, but that new Intel silicon also makes it a surprisingly adept gaming machine—a wild feat for a laptop using integrated graphics.

Here are my impressions of the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro, along with our preliminary lab results.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro hands-on: Specs

Elegant design

Samsung has re-engineered the chassis for the better. For starters, the number pad is gone, allowing for a centralized keyboard that's much more comfortable for long typing sessions. The keyboard is now flanked by a new quad speaker system, which delivers fuller sound than previous models.

The haptic touchpad is also much larger than before, though it's just as responsive as ever. At just 0.47 inches thick, the aluminum chassis is a hair thinner than the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 (0.45 inches). While some might consider the design "safe" or boring, I like its professional, non-descript look. It won't turn heads design-wise, but the real magic is on the inside, which I'll cover shortly.

Vibrant display

The 16-inch 2880 x 1800 AMOLED panel is a stunner. I watched the latest trailer for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and was impressed by how vivid everything appeared. This is especially true when Yoshi shows up, as we get treated to a myriad of colors.

A key upgrade from last year's model is the variable refresh rate, which can now scale from 120Hz all the way down to 30Hz. This should help significantly with battery life when you’re just reading text or looking at static images.

Our lab tests confirm what my eyes saw. The sRGB coverage is well over the 100% target, and while the DCI-P3 doesn’t hit the full mark, the colors look rich without feeling oversaturated.

The anti-reflective coating on the Gorilla Glass with DXC also does a great job of dealing with the overhead lights in my apartment, though it's not as adept as the nano-texture display on the MacBook Pro M5.

Panther Lake roars

My review unit is a productivity monster thanks to the Intel Core Ultra X7 358H processor and 32GB of RAM. It deftly handled my average workload, which usually consists of 20 to 30 Chrome tabs and the occasional YouTube video. During my time using the laptop, it has never slowed down or stuttered.

Samsung’s notebook performed admirably on the Geekbench 6 CPU test, pulling in solid numbers in single- and multi-core tasks. Intel’s chip allows the Book6 Pro to keep pace with the Framework Desktop, which packs an AMD Ryzen Max AI 385 (a direct rival to Panther Lake) and has a higher TDP.

The new Galaxy Book6 Pro’s performance also ran circles around its Lunar Lake-powered predecessor, the Samsung Galaxy Book 5 Pro, especially in the multi-core test. It also did well in the Handbrake video transcoding test.

Surprising gaming performance

The real shocker here is that this thing can game! I fired up the graphically demanding Cyberpunk 2077, with the resolution set to 1800p, graphics to "Ray Tracing Low," and XeSS enabled. At those settings, it hovered between 55 and 65 fps. Seeing those numbers on integrated graphics is bonkers!

It’s important to note that Cyberpunk 2077 currently supports XeSS 2 (Intel's frame-boosting tech). Once titles begin patching in Panther Lake's XeSS 3, we could see even higher frame rates through AI-driven frame generation. I can't wait to see the results!

MacBook-level battery life

While our official battery test is still pending, the PCMark 10 results I conducted give us a taste of what to expect. With the laptop set to "Best Performance," it lasted an astonishing 15 hours and 53 minutes.

When you consider that OLED panels are traditionally power-hungry, hitting nearly 16 hours is a major win for Intel’s new architecture. It puts this Windows machine squarely in the same conversation as the MacBook Air for all-day endurance.

Outlook

I’ll have a complete review of the Samsung Galaxy Book6 Pro for you soon, but the preliminary testing we’ve done is more than promising. Not only is this a rock-solid work laptop, but it can also handle graphically demanding games. It’s the best of both worlds in that regard.

When you combine the impressive Panther Lake performance with the Galaxy Book6 Pro’s elegant design and vivid display, you have what could be one of the best Windows laptops of the year. Stay tuned!

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