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Galaxy Book 3 First Look: Samsung’s Pro Laptops Are Leveling Up

With a 16-inch AMOLED display, lots of ports and seamless connectivity with other Galaxy devices, the Ultra redefines premium laptops for Samsung.

Samsung’s Galaxy Book Pro laptops are leveling up. At Samsung’s Unpacked event Wednesday, the electronics giant announced the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra laptop alongside its latest flagship Galaxy S23 phones.

Like Samsung’s top Galaxy Ultra phones and Galaxy Tab S8 Ultra tablet, the Ultra laptop will have the best performance, a ton of features and a killer display. But like the other Ultra devices, the Ultra laptop might be more computer than you need. Samsung also has the Galaxy Book 3 Pro and Pro 360, which are a notch below the Ultra in performance, but have a lot of features in common, along with their own added extras.

Read more: Samsung Unpacked Live Updates

The Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is the star, though, and thankfully it fixes two things I didn’t like about the otherwise excellent Galaxy Book 2 Pro models. One issue was their displays. While they had great-looking AMOLED panels, they were 16:9, 1080p widescreens; most premium laptops use higher-resolution 16:10 panels that give you more vertical space. The 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Ultra makes the jump to 16:10. It’s still an AMOLED panel, too, so you’re going to get amazing color and contrast. Plus it has a 120Hz refresh rate for smoother-looking video; its resolution is 2,880×1,800 pixels.

The second issue I had with the Book 2 Pro was that Samsung didn’t offer any options for discrete graphics and frankly, if you’re going to call something «Pro» you should offer something stronger than integrated graphics. That doesn’t change with the Book 3 Pro models, but the Ultra will have either an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 or 4070 graphics chip and they’ll be paired with a 13th-gen Intel Core i7 or i9 processor, respectively, giving the Ultra some pro-level laptop performance.

Those components drive the price up considerably, with the Core i7 and RTX 4050 configuration starting at $2,400 and the Core i9 and RTX 4070 pairing going for $3,000. (Pricing and availability weren’t announced for the UK or Australia, but the entry price converts to 1,950 and AU$3,400.) You get a lot of other great features for those prices like a 1080p webcam, a quad-speaker audio system, a fingerprint reader on the power button and a larger 76-watt-hour battery. The Ultra also has more ports than the Galaxy Book 2 Pro, with a USB-A port and HDMI 2.0 output joining its two Thunderbolt USB-C ports, microSD card slot and headphone jack.

The good news is almost all of these things trickle down to the Pro models, with the big exceptions being the Core i9 processor and the discrete graphics. The nice thing about that is the 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Pro laptop is 4 millimeters thinner and it’s about a half pound lighter than the 16.5-mm thick, 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) Ultra. The Galaxy Book 3 Pro will also be available in a 14-inch size that’s just 2.6 pounds (1.2 kilograms).

There’s also a 16-inch Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 two-in-one, which is large for a two-in-one, but since it comes with one of Samsung’s excellent S Pens, you’ll have a lot of room to draw or take notes, plus it’ll make a nice digital whiteboard for meetings. And again, all of the features like the high-res webcam, port assortment and quad speakers on the Ultra are here, too. It’s also the only model to come with optional 5G wireless.

Also, just like earlier Galaxy Books, the new Ultra and Pro laptops are made to work with other Galaxy devices. Things like sending files back and forth between your phone and laptop are easy. You can, for instance, start working on a file on your Galaxy phone and finish up on the Galaxy Book. Or you can use a Galaxy Tab S8 as a wireless external display to extend the laptop’s screen. Your Galaxy Buds can automatically switch between devices as well. This extra layer of interoperability is something Apple does well with its iPhones, iPads and MacBooks, and Samsung is quickly catching up with help from Intel and Microsoft. These laptops have enterprise-level security, too, since they meet Microsoft’s secured-core PC requirements.

There is one thing that Samsung kept the same as the previous generations and that’s the overall look. They’re nice and clean, if a bit unexciting, especially compared to Samsung’s phones, which come in several colors — these come in graphite or beige. Build quality is improved, though. They’re sturdier, stiffer and stronger, which is certainly a plus even if they’re a bit heavier because of it.

The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra and Pro and Pro 360 laptops are available to preorder now through Samsung’s site and the Pro models are expected to start shipping on Feb. 17.

Technologies

Google’s New AI Features Are Trying to Make Data Entry a Thing of the Past

More Gemini AI features will come to Google Docs, Sheets and Slides.

The latest batch of Google updates to its workspace tools highlights AI’s promise to automate mundanity in the workplace. Google Docs, Slides, Sheets and Drive all have new AI-powered features, the company announced Tuesday. The one thing all these updates have in common? Gemini is using your files, emails and chats to give you relevant information, not random answers gleaned from the web.

These updates come as AI is playing a bigger role in our work lives, for better or worse. Agentic tools like Claude Cowork and coding assistants like Anthropic’s Claude Code and OpenAI’s Codex are more capable than chatbots and able to handle tasks announced independently. AI tools are also becoming more customized, with Google’s personalized intelligence rolling out across its platforms to help refine AI outputs to things that are relevant and useful for you. Google continues that trend with this new batch of Workspace updates.

New Gemini AI features in Google Workspace apps will cite their sources after each query. For example, if you ask Gemini in Google Docs to fill out an itinerary template, it will pull the information from your email, chats and files. The «sources» tab in the Gemini side panel will show you where it found the information it used, like your flight confirmation email and chats discussing dinner plans. Seeing where Gemini pulled its answers from is also how you’ll double-check Gemini’s work.

The most impressive new features are in Sheets, where AI can fill in the holes in your spreadsheets. You can describe what you want the AI to do with a simple prompt and avoid writing an exact formula. You can click on an empty cell, select the pop-up that says «Drag to fill with Gemini,» then highlight the cells you want Gemini to fill in. That deploys an AI agent to search the web to fill each cell with the necessary information.

For example, if you have a spreadsheet of the contact info for local companies, you can have Gemini search the web to fill in a the location, CEO and other publicly available information of each company. The tool aims to dramatically reduce the time needed for manual data entry. Gemini can also summarize, categorize and create charts with prompts alone.

You can also chat with Gemini in Sheets and have it scour your raw data to make custom reports and charts. No need for pivot tables if they confound you as much as they baffle me. One of the biggest uses of AI at work is helping create presentations.

In Google Slides, you can now tell Gemini in natural language what you want to appear on a slide, and it will create it, matching the style of your existing slides. You can also ask Gemini to edit your slides if you don’t want to waste time painstakingly moving design elements around the slide. The AI should fill the slides with relevant information based on your instructions and the work files it has access to, so you shouldn’t need to replace a bunch of filler text.

If you use Docs, Sheets and Slides through the Workspace account of your company, then you won’t be able to turn off AI features individually. The managing company is in control of AI access for users. Personal users can tweak their settings to limit Gemini. The new features are rolling out in beta now, in English only, to Google AI Ultra and Pro subscribers in the US, as well as some Google Workspace customers who are part of the Gemini Alpha testing program.

For more, check out the new cowork feature in Copilot and how to use Perplexity AI for deep research.

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Nintendo Switches Lanes, Sues US Over Tariffs

Mario wants his money back.

Tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump were struck down by the Supreme Court last month. Companies that were subjected to those fees, such as FedEx and Dollar General, have since sued the federal government, and Nintendo wants a piece of the action. 

Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the federal government in the US Court of International Trade on Friday, as first spotted by Aftermath. The complaint seeks refunds of tariffs Nintendo paid, plus interest, and asks the court to declare the tariffs unlawful and stop the government from collecting them going forward. 

«Since February 1, 2025, President Trump has executed the unlawful Executive Orders, imposing tariffs on imports from a vast swath of countries,» Nintendo said in the complaint. 

When reached for comment, Nintendo of America confirmed the lawsuit. 

«We can confirm that we filed a request. We have nothing else to share on this topic,» Nintendo of America said in an emailed statement on Friday, March 6. 

It’s unclear how much Nintendo paid in tariffs, and it did not state an amount in the lawsuit. While the Switch 2 was priced at $450 when it launched last year, and has stayed at that amount, Nintendo did increase the price of the original Switch and accessories for both consoles. Microsoft and Sony also increased the prices of their hardware and accessories last year due to tariffs. 

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. 

On Feb. 20, the Supreme Court ruled by a vote of 6 to 3 that the sweeping tariffs Trump instituted last year exceeded his executive powers. Following the ruling, on the same day, Trump announced a new set of tariffs of 10% on imported goods that would last for 150 days, starting Feb. 24. 

The decision on what to do with the collected tariffs — a reported $166 billion —  has been left to the US Court of International Trade. Judge Richard Eaton told the US Customs and Border Protection on Wednesday, March 4, to refund the importers that were forced to pay tariffs, which is more than 330,000. On Friday, the CBP said it couldn’t easily issue tariff refunds because its system requires duties to be recalculated and refunds processed entry by entry. This process would involve tens of millions of transactions. The agency said it’s updating its systems and could start providing refunds by late April. 

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Sony WF-1000XM6 vs. Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro Earbuds: A Photo Finish

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