Samsung's new Ultra laptop no longer guarantees top-tier performance

Samsung finally announced a new Ultra laptop after skipping a generation last year. The latest Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, unveiled at CES 2026, goes on sale in select markets by the end of January. There is a lot I like about it, including the new touchpad, but I'm also a little bit confused by Samsung's new direction.

The one thing I find the most unusual is that Samsung has changed the meaning of the Ultra brand. Not entirely, but enough that you may have to relearn what Ultra stands for in the world of Galaxy Books.

The Galaxy Book 4 Ultra was released in 2024 exclusively with a dedicated NVIDIA GPU. If you bought the Ultra, you knew it came with either an NVIDIA RTX 4050 or an RTX 4070 GPU. Not anymore.

The new Galaxy Book 6 Ultra is available with newer RTX 5060 and 5070 GPU options, but also an Intel Arc integrated GPU.

While it sometimes doesn't hurt to have more options, this decision also seems like it might dilute the power of the Ultra laptop brand.

Some of you might recall that the old Galaxy Book 3 Ultra had a bit of a power draw issue. Its GPU was too power-hungry, and the wall charger included in the box couldn't keep up. In other words, the laptop's battery could lose charge even when plugged in, particularly when the laptop was running demanding tasks.

I remember this because one of the most worthwhile and Apple-like upgrades Samsung gave the Book 4 Ultra a year later was a 140W charger in the box.

Needless to say, I was surprised to find out that the brand-new Galaxy Book 6 Ultra comes with a 100W or a 140W charger.

No, you don't get to choose your charger. Rather, you get the 100W one with the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra featuring Intel graphics. The 140W charger is reserved for the Ultra variants equipped with NVIDIA RTX GPUs.

It's not entirely clear if the Intel Arc models are capped at 100W charging and can't go above 100W even if you plug them into a beefier wall charger. Either way, I find this distinction odd, and even stranger is that we now have an Ultra laptop option without dedicated graphics.

All in all, if you are in the market for a new laptop and you're thinking about buying the Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, make sure you choose the right configuration. The Ultra brand no longer guarantees that you get a dedicated GPU and the best charging solution in the box.