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White phosphorus is not banned under international law, but can "create cruel injuries" and indiscriminate harm in civilian areas.

(Image credit: Oliver Laban-Mattei)

GoodData.AI CTO Peter Fedorocko says AI is an efficiency amplifier that won't replace humans, but businesses must focus on real automation use cases.

Pope Leo XIV said the war in Iran does not qualify as a "just war" according to Catholic teaching, while answering questions by journalists aboard the papal plane for his six-day visit to Spain.

(Image credit: Alessandra Tarantino)

All the ways to watch Bolivia vs Scotland live streams online and from anywhere in one of the last friendlies before the 2026 World Cup gets underway.

The pop sensation’s collab with sleek UK-based phone maker Nothing is infused with the fashion sense that smartphones desperately need.

The unmanned ground vehicle (UGV)'s feat is one of many on a battlefield where both factions increasingly rely on robots and drones to handle some of their most dangerous tasks.

All the ways to watch England vs New Zealand live streams online and from anywhere in one of the last friendlies before the 2026 World Cup gets underway.

We round up some of the other major news from Microsoft Build 2026.

All the ways to watch Portugal vs Chile live streams online and from anywhere in one of the last friendlies before the 2026 World Cup gets underway.

Is Google Health's new AI coach worth your money? I put it to the test for a week to find out.

All the ways to watch USA vs Germany live streams online and from anywhere as both sides' 2026 World Cup preparations come to an end.

The SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud aims to be the only controller you need. A hybrid option that extends to become a USB-C mobile grip and collapses into a standalone Bluetooth gamepad.

One-minute review

The SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud positions itself as the “world's first true dual-mode cloud controller”. It starts out as a generic-looking Bluetooth gamepad before doing its best Autobot impersonation and extending out to become a mobile grip that connects to your phone via USB-C, too.

It’s a clever idea and it’s backed up by an impressive spec sheet that ticks all the usual premium controller boxes. Hall Effect thumbsticks and triggers, mechanical face buttons, programmable rear buttons, and compatibility with Mac, PC, iOS, and Android.

That all sounds great, but after a week of using the Nimbus Cloud, it sadly lived up to its name. Cumulonimbus clouds are the type that bring heavy rain and thunderstorms, and my parade has been well and truly rained on.

(Image credit: Future)

When it works, it’s not a bad controller and falls neatly in line with the likes of the stock Xbox Wireless Controller. However, for a $149.99 / £129.99 / AU$359.99 controller, the Nimbus Cloud simply has too many flaws that spoil the day-to-day experience. There’s a list of buts coming here and it doesn’t make for particularly pleasant reading.

Build quality is fine, but it’s generic rather than carrying any kind of premium vibe. The triggers use Hall Effect sensors, which is good, but they feel mushy and throttle control in racing games proved a frustrating experience. The mechanical face buttons are crisp, but over both Bluetooth and USB-C I encountered missed inputs when pressing them more than once.

My iPhone 17 Pro fit, but it was far from a secure hold and it required the removal of the rubber inserts, leaving the phone resting and rubbing against bare plastic. SteelSeries lists Mac as a compatible platform, but my testing on a MacBook Air was a mess, with inverted sticks, wrongly mapped inputs, and Steam not playing nice either.

If this were a cheaper option or first attempt from a challenger brand then I’d find it easier to focus on the decent core elements and look past the finer details. However, at $149.99, you're paying over the odds for an under par experience, regardless of which mode you’re running it in.

SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud: Price and availability

• Costs $149.99 / £129.00 / AU$359.99
• Available from SteelSeries and some third-party retailers
• Released September 2025

The SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud is a relatively new addition to the range, launching in the back half of 2025 at $149.99 / £129.99 / AU$359.99. That’s top-end territory for a mobile grip or PC controller on its own, though it’s certainly more palatable for a device aiming to be both in one.

For comparison, the Backbone Pro mobile grip and Razer Wolverine V3 Pro PC controller will both set you back around the same on their own. But you could grab both the GameSir G8+ for mobile and 8BitDo Ultimate 2 for PC and have a little budget to spare.

It is worth shopping around, too, because the price seems to vary dramatically. Apple lists the Nimbus Cloud £20 higher in the UK than SteelSeries on its own website. And I’ve seen the price drop as low as £64 while writing this piece.

SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud: Specs

Price

$149.99 / £129.99 / AU$359.99

Dimensions

6 x 3.5 x 7.2 in / 154 x 90 x 182 mm

Weight

8.1 oz / 252g

Connection

USB-C (mobile only), Bluetooth LE

Compatibility

iPhone 15+, Android, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, PC, Chromebook, Smart TV

Software

N/A

SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud: Design and features

• Cleverly extends from a compact PC controller to a full-width mobile controller grip
• Broad compatibility across platforms
• Nicely sized and positioned rear buttons

Pick up the SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud in its collapsed form, and, apart from a curious split down the middle, you'd be forgiven for thinking it's a fairly standard Bluetooth gamepad. It has the familiar Xbox-style stick layout, ABXY face buttons, bumpers, triggers, a d-pad, and view/menu buttons.

There's no center button like an Xbox guide button, though there is a Home button that directs you to your device's home screen or, on iOS, Apple's Games app. It’s all pretty standard stuff.

Build quality is alright rather than impressive. I wasn’t blown away by how it felt in my hands but equally there wasn’t any area of particular concern. It's surprisingly light at just over 250g, which is welcome for a mobile controller with a battery, but that lightness comes with a hollow feeling that doesn't scream premium.

Nothing rattles or creaks, but it's no better than a stock Xbox controller and lacks the little premium touches like rubberized or textured grips that you’d expect for $150. SteelSeries says the battery is good for 20 hours of play over Bluetooth and that seems about right based on my testing. There’s passthrough USB-C charging too, but no 3.5mm audio output.

(Image credit: Future)

The magic trick is when it engages Transformer mode (an unofficial name I’m giving it). Pull the two halves apart and the Nimbus Cloud unfurls into a telescopic mobile grip, revealing a USB-C connector on the upper right side that plugs directly into your phone.

The mechanism involves multiple overlapping sections that extend, and credit where it's due, it's a very clever bit of mechanical design. It just seems to keep going with more and more phone deck appearing from nowhere. It’s satisfying in a fidget-toy sort of way and while using it in PC controller mode I caught myself idly expanding and collapsing it a few times during cutscenes.

Phone compatibility is a mixed bag and unlike other dedicated mobile grips it’s not simply a matter of case on vs case off. I tested with both an iPhone 17 Pro and a POCO X5 Pro. The POCO has a slim, nearly flat profile and fit physically with the stock set of rubber inserts.

By design your phone is seated in the upper half of the grip rather than centrally, though, which leaves it feeling somewhat exposed and prone to knocks. The iPhone 17 Pro was almost a non-starter as with either size of the included rubber inserts the camera bump was too thick to fit neatly.

Even after removing the inserts entirely, which leaves the phone resting against bare hard plastic, it didn't fit in a way I’d consider usable long term. Beyond worries about it getting scratched to bits, I was concerned about the amount of stress going through the USB-C connector. There's noticeable movement and wobble with the phone inserted, it never feels square, and one bad bump feels like it could snap the connector off inside your phone's port.

The rear of the SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud has two programmable buttons that sit in a natural resting position for your middle fingers. I’d call them a hybrid between a paddle and a button and it’s a design that works well ergonomically, requiring just the right amount of force to activate while avoiding accidental clicks.

However, the lack of any official companion app means you can only bind or remap these through iOS's built-in Game Controller settings. On Android, I couldn't remap them at all.

For a controller at this price from a brand with the resources of SteelSeries, the absence of a dedicated app for customization is difficult to understand. Competitors like Razer, GameSir, and Backbone all offer robust software companions, and some of those are half the price.

(Image credit: Future)SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud: Performance

• Hall Effect sticks and mechanical face buttons feel great
• Triggers are mushy and lack control
• Connectivity and compatibility is a real mixed bag across platforms

Whether in controller or grip trim, the Hall Effect thumbsticks are the SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud's strongest performing feature.

They're quite firm with a relatively fast spring-back and slightly shorter travel than some competitors I've tested. That means they're precise enough for shooters and responsive enough for general gaming, though the smaller range of movement might take some adjustment. Unlike some competitors, there’s no option to swap or adjust the sticks and SteelSeries has played it reasonably safe with a shortish stick height and traditional caps.

The triggers also use Hall Effect sensors, but they’re muddy and I didn’t feel like they consistently recreated their physical movement in game. It's hard to explain, but where good thumbsticks let you feel dialed in when playing racing games like Forza Horizon 6, on the Nimbus Cloud I felt disconnected when trying to modulate the throttle. This was the same whether I was playing locally on my PC or via cloud gaming on mobile, so wasn’t a Bluetooth latency issue.

The mechanical face buttons are super clicky, tactile, and satisfying to press, as is the d-pad. They’re responsive for general gameplay; however, I noticed the Nimbus Cloud would occasionally miss inputs in situations where I was pressing the same button repeatedly.

This originally cropped up when spam jumping waiting for the Battle Bus in a Fortnite lobby and I was able to confirm it with dedicated testing after getting eliminated. Interestingly, this didn't seem to be an issue when pressing a combination of buttons so appears to be a debounce problem. The face buttons are pretty quiet but the same can’t be said for the bumpers. It’s nice to see these use mechanical switches, but unlike the face buttons they’re loud and almost sound like a cheap old-fashioned mouse.

When stretched out in mobile grip mode the SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud performs well. On both iOS and Android it was immediately recognized, though the controller itself is a little shy in confirming this for you. The four battery LEDs do briefly light up initially, but I’d like a persistent indicator like you find on rivals.

Both Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile recognized the controller on launch with no extra config or mapping needed, as did Xbox Cloud Gaming. It all worked nicely and naturally out of the box, which is just as well, because without an app you’d be completely stuck otherwise. I mentioned it before, but the Nimbus Cloud having no companion app feels like a real misstep. Rivals like the GameSir G8+ allow for deep customization like dead zone adjustment and hair trigger modes, both of which are notably absent here on a controller that costs nearly twice as much.

Where things fell apart completely in my testing was when I tried to use the Nimbus Cloud with macOS. SteelSeries lists Mac as a compatible platform, but in my experience it was borderline unusable. It happily connected via Bluetooth without any fuss, but that’s where the joy ended.

In Forza Horizon 6 via Xbox Cloud Gaming I was greeted by the left stick input being inverted and triggers that were mapped to start and select. It turned out the bumpers were acting as triggers instead, and while I attempted to remap through macOS system settings, it didn't seem to be respected in game. This wasn’t a Forza problem; either, Stardew Valley didn’t even recognize it at all. Steam fared just as badly, albeit in a different way. There it detected the Nimbus Cloud as two separate controllers simultaneously, neither of which worked correctly.

The good news is that I was actually quite impressed with how the SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud performed over Bluetooth (as long as you’re not a Mac main, of course). My iPad Pro immediately recognized the Nimbus Cloud without issue and playing Fortnite natively could easily have been mistaken for a scaled-down console experience.

Connected to my Windows gaming PC I happily spent a couple of hours in Roadcraft and at this slower pace the Nimbus Cloud kept up nicely. I did have to go through the full Steam controller setup procedure, however, something I’ve not needed to do with controllers in the past. Cloud gaming was fine on Windows too, up was up, down was down, and triggers were triggers.

(Image credit: Future)Should I buy the SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud?Buy it if...

You consistently jump between mobile and desktop devices
The Nimbus Cloud combines two controllers into one. The extending mechanism works well to stretch out into a mobile grip and the form factor in both modes is comfortable to hold for longer sessions.

Don't buy it if...

You mainly game on PC
While the Windows experience is good enough, there are many better dedicated PC controllers that’ll set you back far less. Gaming on macOS? Look elsewhere, the Nimbus Cloud is barely compatible.

You have a larger phone
While SteelSeries does include a couple of sizes of rubber insert, larger phones like the iPhone 17 Pro don’t sit securely in the Nimbus Cloud. You’ll be left with your phone rubbing against hard plastic which is unlikely to end well.

Also consider

After a more consistent experience? Here are two capable alternatives.

SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud

GameSir G8+ MFi

Backbone Pro

Price

$149.99 / £129.99 / AU$359.99

$79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129.99

$169.99 / £169.99 / AU$299.95

Dimensions

6 x 3.5 x 7.2 in / 154 x 90 x 182 mm

9.02 x 4.20 x 2.13in / 229 x 106.8 x 54.2mm

7.1 x 11.1 x 2in / 181 x 281 x 50mm

Weight

8.1 oz / 252g

10.72oz / 304g

0.44lbs / 203g

Connection

USB-C (mobile only), Bluetooth

Wired (USB-C)

Wired (Type-C), Bluetooth

Compatibility

iPhone 15+, Android, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, PC, Chromebook, Smart TV

Android, iOS

iPhone 15 Series, Android, PC, smart TV, Nintendo Switch

Software

N/A

GameSir App

Backbone App

GameSir G8+ MFi
The GameSir G8+ lacks the Nimbus Cloud's dual-mode trick, but it's a better mobile controller in virtually every other way. You get Hall Effect sticks and triggers, dual vibration motors, MFi certification for iPhone and iPad Mini, a companion app for full customization, and swappable ABXY button caps, all for $79.99 / £79.99 / AU$129.99.

For more information, check out our full GameSir G8+ MFi review

Backbone Pro
The Backbone Pro is the Nimbus Cloud's most direct competitor. It costs a touch more and doesn’t fully fold down to a conventional controller form factor, but in return you get a polished companion app, a 3.5mm headphone jack, double the battery life, and reliable cross-platform Bluetooth. Its sticks aren't Hall Effect, but the overall package is refined and, crucially, actually works on every platform it claims to support.

For more information, check out our full Backbone Pro review

How I tested the SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud

• I spent a few days testing across devices, including an iPhone 17 Pro and POCO X5 Pro, an iPad Pro, a MacBook Air, and a gaming PC
• I played Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile natively on mobile and iPad, Roadcraft on desktop, and Forza Horizon 6 via Xbox Cloud Gaming.
• I tested it in both collapsed and expanded modes

Over the course of a week I tested the SteelSeries Nimbus Cloud across multiple platforms and game genres. Mobile testing was split between an iPhone 17 Pro and a POCO X5 Pro, covering both iOS and Android in the extended USB-C mode. I played a mix of native mobile games and cloud-streamed titles via Xbox GamePass.

For Bluetooth testing, I paired the Nimbus Cloud with a Windows PC and a MacBook Air, looking at games on Steam and cloud gaming on both platforms. When I noticed potential missed button inputs during regular gameplay, I used a dedicated button testing app to verify.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed July 2025

America's 250th Birthday is almost here, and Walmart has deals on everything you need to celebrate, including grills, decor, patio furniture, games, and more.

The Samsung Galaxy Book6 Enterprise Edition is a heavyweight business laptop that uses Intel’s latest 300 series silicon.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 EE: 30-second review

Samsung's Galaxy Book series has always aimed at the sensible middle of the market. Not the cheapest, not the most powerful, but reliably built and tightly integrated with the rest of the Galaxy ecosystem. The Book6 Enterprise Edition continues that tradition, but with a genuinely interesting processor under the hood and an Enterprise deployment capability.

Intel's Core Ultra Series 3, codename Panther Lake, marks the company's first laptop silicon on the 18A process node. In the Pro and Ultra models debuting this cycle, the architecture shows its teeth. The standard Book6 EE is more restrained, using the Core Ultra 5 325 or Ultra 7 355 variants with Intel's integrated Xe3 graphics rather than the Arc B390 iGPU found in the Pro. That distinction matters, and we will come back to it.

What the standard Book6 EE does well is the things most buyers actually need. The battery life is genuinely long, the build quality feels solid for the price, and the symmetrical redesign is a clear improvement over earlier generations. The new 16:10 IPS WUXGA display gives more vertical real estate than before, even if it cannot match the OLED richness of the Pro tier.

The elephant in this room is the Pro model. At launch, the Galaxy Book6 Pro 16-inch is not dramatically more than the top Book6 EE configuration, and it brings a 3K AMOLED display, stronger integrated graphics and better thermal headroom. For buyers who plan to push the machine hard, that price gap becomes hard to ignore.

But the standard Book6 EE is not trying to be the Pro. It is aimed at everyday professionals and Galaxy ecosystem users who want a well-rounded machine at a sensible entry price. On those terms, it largely succeeds.

However, some of the Samsung-imposed limitations, like the USB ports, stop this from entering our hallowed best business laptops hall of fame.

Samsung Galaxy Book6 EE: Price and availability

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

• How much does it cost? From £1405
• When is it out? Available now in UK
• Where can you get it? Direct from Samsung B2B

The Galaxy Book6 was announced at CES in January 2026 and went on sale in the UK from 11 March 2026. European pre-orders opened from 25 February.

It's available in US via Samsung, but also on Amazon, where prices start from $1280.

UK pricing starts at £1405 for the 14-inch model with a Core Ultra 5 processor, 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage. A 16-inch Core Ultra 7 model with 32GB and 512GB of storage sits at the top of the standard Book6 range at £1,809.

One with the specifications of the review hardware that includes the Core 7 Ultra 355 CPU, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage isn’t yet listed, but it’s likely to be north of £2000 based on these choices.

What also makes buying one directly from Samsung or one of its partner retailers so confusing is that it's still selling the Book5 and Book4 models, and some of these seem to be much better value for money, especially at the higher end.

As there are so many SKUs, here is a grid of what is available purely on the Book6 EE products in the UK.

Project

SKU Code

CPU Class

Memory/SSD

Cost

GB6 14 vPro

NP742BJG-KA2UK

U5v

16G/512G

£ 1,449

GB6 14 vPro

NP742BJG-KG3UK

U7v

32G/512G

£ 1,809

GB6 EE 14

NP744BJG-KA2UK

U5

16G/512G

£ 1,409

GB6 EE 14

NP744BJG-KG1UK

U7

16G/512G

£ 1,509

GB6 EE 14

NP744BJG-KG3UK

U7

32G/512G

£ 1,769

GB6 EE 16

NP764BJG-KA2UK

U5

16G/512G

£ 1,509

GB6 EE 16

NP764BJG-KG1UK

U7

16G/512G

£ 1,609

GB6 EE 16

NP764BJG-KG3UK

U7

32G/512G

£ 1,869

For those wondering, these machines are roughly about £150 more than the equivalent retail models, though they do come with some differences that I’ll mention later.

The immediate competition in the UK includes the Acer Swift 16 AI, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5, and the ASUS Vivobook S 16. None of those offers the same Galaxy AI integration, though most come with an OLED option at comparable prices. The standard Book6 does not offer this screen technology, and the Enterprise Edition does not either unless you have a Pro model.

In terms of price, the extra cost over the retail Book6 seems plausible given what these machines might save a company in admin, but the baseline Book6 on which they’ve been built is expensive compared with the Book5 that came before it.

For those with money to burn, the Book6 Ultra Enterprise Edition 16-inch comes with a Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, and an Nvidia 5060 mobile GPU for an astonishing £3,619.

• Value: 3 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Book6 EE: Specs

Item

Spec

Hardware:

Samsung Galaxy Book6 NP760VJG-KG5UK (16 inch, as reviewed)

CPU:

Intel Core Ultra 7 355 (Series 3, Panther Lake)

GPU:

Intel Graphics 4 Xe3

NPU:

Intel NPU, 49 TOPS

RAM:

32GB LPDDR5X (soldered)

Storage:

1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD

Screen:

16-inch IPS WUXGA, 1920 x 1200, 120Hz, 16:10

Ports:

2x USB-C (one for charging), 2x USB-A 3.2, 1x HDMI, 1x RJ-45 LAN, 3.5mm audio

Camera:

FHD 2MP webcam

Networking:

Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4

Dimensions:

357.7 x 249.9 x 14.9 mm

Weight:

1.74 kg (16-inch)

OS:

Windows 11 Pro (pre-installed)

Battery:

68Wh Super Fast Charging 2.0

PSU:

45W (20V 2.25A) USB-C

Samsung Galaxy Book6 EE: Design

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

• Symmetrical layout
• Aluminium chassis in dark grey
• Lots of ports
• 1.8 kg, heavier than the Pro at 1.56 kg

Samsung gave the entire Book6 range a visible redesign. The most immediately striking change is the symmetrical layout. The keyboard and trackpad are centred in the chassis, and the Samsung logo sits dead centre on the lid. It sounds like a minor adjustment, but in practice, it gives the whole machine a tidier, more composed appearance than its predecessors.

The chassis is aluminium throughout. Samsung's finish is understated, a satin dark grey that resists fingerprints reasonably well and gives nothing away about the modest price. The build feels solid, if anything its overly well-constructed. There is a little flex in the keyboard deck under pressure, but the lid is firm, and the hinge is nicely weighted.

At 1.8 kg, the 16-inch Book6 EE is not a machine you forget is in your bag. The Pro model, by comparison, weighs just 1.56 kg. For a single day of commuting, the difference is not dramatic. Over a week of travel, it becomes relevant. If portability is the primary concern, the Pro or something under 1.4 kg would serve better.

The keyboard has been redesigned with a symmetrical key layout and slightly larger keycaps. The backlight is present across all models, and, as a special feature of the EE design, there is a numeric keypad. The trackpad is generously sized for a Windows machine, though it is a standard mechanical unit. The haptic trackpad is reserved for the Ultra.

Port selection on the 16-inch model covers the basics: two USB-C ports (one supports USB PD charging), a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, a full-size HDMI output, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a physical RJ-45 LAN port. That last port is a welcome inclusion. Most thin laptops omit it entirely. The 14-inch model loses the LAN port, I believe.

The biggest issues here are the weight, which is over 300g heavier than the equivalent Acer Swift 16 AI, and some of the port choices.

If you are encouraging upper-body development among your staff and discouraging them from plugging anything in, this might be a good fit for your business.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

I should also mention that there are no visible screws on this machine, so getting inside is problematic if you were thinking about upgrading the internal storage. As the memory is soldered, that’s a non-starter for adding more, even if you can get the case apart.

If you do pull the feet off and find the hidden screws, then you can get inside and discover an unused M.2 2280 slot ready to populate. Normally, this would be a reason for some celebration, but being realistic, the hidden screws would put off most owners before they discovered the upgrade path.

The move from 16:9 to 16:10 in the Book6 display is a welcome one. The extra vertical space makes a practical difference when writing documents or scrolling through code, and it brings the machine in line with competitors that adopted the format a year or two earlier.

The resolution is WUXGA, 1920 x 1200 on the 16-inch panel. That is not a headline number in a market where the Pro ships with a 3K AMOLED screen, but at 16 inches, it is a perfectly acceptable pixel density for everyday use.

IPS has well-known characteristics. Colour accuracy and brightness are adequate for productivity work. Contrast is reasonable, but you will not see the deep blacks or vivid saturation of an OLED. Glossy coating is available on the touchscreen models; the standard display is matte, which suits office use.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

• Design: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Book6 EE: Hardware

• Intel Core Ultra 7 355 (Panther Lake, Intel 18A)
• Intel integrated Xe3 graphics (4 Xe cores)
• 49 TOPS NPU for local AI tasks
• USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports

Before I talk about the platform, I’d like to cover how the Enterprise Edition is different to the retail Book6.

For starters, the retail models don’t offer vPro specification processors, although equally, it is only an option on the 14-inch Enterprise Edition machines.

The Enterprise Edition was built for enterprise deployment with customised OS imaging, BIOS configuration and asset tagging capabilities. It also supports Windows Autopilot and BIOS-level logo customisation, allowing organisations to deploy standardised systems at scale. These are nice-to-haves but hardly critical Enterprise features.

What is more important is that this build adds a discrete Trusted Platform Module for enhanced encryption and credential protection, IR facial recognition alongside the fingerprint reader, and aligns with NIST platform security requirements while integrating Samsung Knox protections. Therefore, if you wish to manage a fleet of company laptops from invasive threats, then the Enterprise Editions are better suited.

These things might not be relevant to smaller enterprises, but to Enterprise customers who are aiming to manage large computer inventories with modest IT resources, they could be critical. Anyway, let’s cover what is under the hood.

Intel's Core Ultra Series 3 represents a meaningful change in the processor landscape. Built on the new 18A process node, Panther Lake is Intel's return to fab leadership after several years on TSMC. The architecture separates high-performance P-cores from efficiency E-cores more distinctly than before, and the NPU has grown substantially. The 49 TOPS figure here qualifies the Book6 as a Copilot+ PC, but that’s not the whole story.

The Core Ultra 7 355 in the top 16-inch Book6 configuration is a U-series part, designed for efficiency rather than all-out performance. It handles web browsing, document editing, light photo work and video calls without any meaningful strain. The integrated Xe3 graphics are improved over the previous generation. Samsung quotes 41% better graphical performance than the Book5, but it is still a step below the Arc B390 iGPU in the Pro, which brings 12 Xe3 cores and a larger shader array.

As a reviewer, I find Intel's return to the ‘Intel Graphics’ naming convention patently idiotic and designed to intentionally confuse the customer. The silicon here is based on the Battlemage work Intel did for its discrete video card range, the one it seems so intent on killing.

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)

The review unit arrives with 32GB of LPDDR5X, which is the right amount for a machine positioned to handle AI workloads alongside a regular productivity stack. The base SKUs start at 16GB, which is workable but leaves less headroom as Galaxy AI features grow more demanding. Either way, the RAM is soldered throughout the range. The configuration you order is the one you keep.

The problem with not having more than 32GB of RAM is that it effectively caps how many local LLMs you can realistically run, even if the combined TOPS of the CPU, GPU, and NPU is decent.

This is where the platform truly shines for day-to-day local assistant use, running models like Llama 3.1 (8B) or Gemma 2 (9B) using standard 4-bit or 5-bit quantisation (e.g., Q4_K_M or Q5_K_M). Smaller models like Llama 3.2 (1B/3B), Microsoft Phi 3.5, or Qwen 2.5 (3B) run exceptionally well, and it is possible to load and run slightly heavier models such as Mistral Nemo (12B) or Qwen 2.5 (14B).

The sweet spot for AI is undoubtedly the 7B to 9B parameter models, where this hardware can easily generate 12 to 20 tokens per second. Modes at Q4 quantisation in this range typically require around 5 GB to 6 GB of memory. This leaves plenty of extra memory within your 32 GB pool to significantly increase the context window, maybe up to 32K, without risking out-of-memory crashes.

However, the hardware on this machine isn’t all good news.

For an inexplicable reason, Samsung decided that customers who may have spent between £1500 and £2000 on a laptop didn’t deserve USB4 or Thunderbolt 4. To put that in perspective, a mini PC, like the GMKtec NucBox M6 Ultra, comes with USB4 for £239.99.

What’s super annoying about this omission is that the Intel processors in this platform all come with USB4 inherently; Samsung just couldn’t be bothered to wire it up.

Some IT person reading this is probably thinking, “That’s no big deal, we disabled all the USBs anyway”. Well, on the basis that you need those ports to recharge, good luck with that plan.

In all honesty, I couldn’t recommend a machine costing this much that didn’t come with a USB-C type port that was only USB 3.2 Gen 2.

• Hardware: 3.5 / 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Samsung Galaxy Book6 EE: Performance

Laptops

Samsung Galaxy Book6 EE

Acer Swift Edge 14 AI

CPU

Intel Core Ultra 7 355

Intel Core Ultra 7 258V

Cores/Threads

8C 8T

8C 8T

TPD

8W-25W

17W-37W

RAM

32GB LPDDR5 7467MT/s

32GB LPDDR5X

SSD

Samsung PM9C1 1TB

1TB Kingston OM8PGP4102Q

Graphics

Intel Graphics 4 (40 TOPS)

Intel Arc 140V

NPU

Intel NPU (49 TOPS)

Intel NPU (47 TOPS)

3DMark

WildLife

21,590

20,983

FireStrike

6065

8003

TimeSpy

3365

4065

Steel Nomad.L

2529

2989

CineBench24

Single

109

120

Multi

614

389

Ratio

5.64

3.24

GeekBench 6

Single

2733

2757

Multi

11466

11148

OpenCL

24373

29692

Vulkan

28359

33890

CrystalDIsk

Read MB/s

7053

4805

Write MB/s

5969

3905

PCMark 10

Office

7739

8206

Battery

18h 04m

18h 28m

Battery

Whr

61.2

65

PSU

45W

100W

WEI

Score

8.4

8.8

For my comparison, I've used the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI, since it shows what's changed from the 200 series to the new 300 series platforms.

I know that the 300 series architecture is an improvement over the 200 series, so why do these numbers not show that is the first obvious question.

From a processing perspective, the Intel Core Ultra 7 355 doesn’t deliver the same punch as the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V on single-threaded tasks, but it is better on multi-threading in some tasks.

But where it falls down considerably is in graphics performance, as the Intel Graphics 4 platform can’t hold a candle to the Arc 140V GPU on previous-generation chips.

It’s worth saying that some of the 300 series have the Arc B390 iGPU, but not this one, sadly. The focus, as it has been since the 100 series, is all on efficiency, and the 300 is certainly power efficient.

The headline battery claim from Samsung is 24 hours of video playback on the 16-inch model. That is a marketing number tested under controlled conditions, and real-world use will land somewhere south of that.

In my tests, it ran the PCMark battery test for an impressive 18 hours and 4 minutes, which is slightly under what the Acer Swift Edge 14 AI managed, but with a smaller battery. That’s enough for the longest working day that most people will likely encounter, and some.

For those wanting to truly burn the midnight oil, the Pro model has either a 78.07 or 67.18 Wh battery, and the Ultra packs a huge 80.20 Wh of capacity.

What helps battery life is that the 120Hz panel drops to 30Hz adaptively when content is static, which Samsung says cuts display power consumption by around 15% on the 16-inch model. That is a meaningful contribution to overall battery life in day-to-day use.

Super Fast Charging 2.0 brings the battery from flat to 33% in 30 minutes. That is useful for a quick top-up between meetings. A full charge will take considerably longer, especially since this model only comes with a 45W PSU. The system is calibrated to that power supply, as using a 100W USB-C charger didn’t speed up the charging process for me.

Overall, while performance in some respects is strong, the way Intel added better multitasking while reducing GPU performance might be an issue for graphics users.

• Performance: 4 / 5

(Image credit: Mark Pickavance)Samsung Galaxy Book6 EE: Final verdict

The Galaxy Book6 is a confident and well-executed entry into the Panther Lake era for Samsung's mainstream laptop line. The build quality is good, if heavy, and the battery endurance is among the strongest you will find at this size. And the Galaxy AI integration is more practical than most of the AI laptop marketing that has dominated the past two years.

However, there are some significant flaws in this concept that appear specifically designed to encourage up-selling to the Book6 Pro series. Chief amongst these is the omission of the OLED display from this tier, making the IPS display merely adequate rather than impressive. The soldered RAM demands careful configuration from the start, and a machine costing more than £2000 that offers only USB 3.2 Gen2 is laughable in this era.

What I've since been told by Samsung is that the vPro models have USB4, which seems an excessive price premium merely to get a feature that all processors on this platform inherently have.

When I first got this machine, I was impressed by how many ports it had, despite the trend toward minimalist layouts. Except it needs those ports, because adding a docking station to this hardware when you only have USB 3.2 Gen 2 to connect is a pointless exercise.

For anyone coming to the Galaxy Book range for the first time, or Windows users who want something reliable, well-built and future-ready at an accessible entry point, the Book6 EE makes a reasonable case. However, if you don’t use AI locally, the Book5 and Book4 models make an even better one from a value and feature perspective.

Those with more demanding needs, the jump to Pro is worth the premium, leaving the base Book6 EE somewhat adrift.

Should you buy a Samsung Galaxy Book6 EEI?

Value

Expensive for a machine without OLED or Thunderbolt

3/5

Design

Spacious and elegant, but hard work on wrists

4/5

Hardware

Intel Core Ultra 300 Series CPU, but no easy upgrades

3.5/5

Performance

Efficient and useful for local AI

4/5

Overall

For the money, most customers would expect more

4/5

Buy it if...

You are in the Samsung ecosystem
You are in the Samsung ecosystem. The Galaxy AI features are noticeably better when paired with a Galaxy phone, and the cross-device features, shared clipboard, file handoff and continued calls, are genuinely useful if you are already carrying a Galaxy handset.

You need a physical LAN port
It sounds basic, but a built-in RJ-45 on a slim 16-inch laptop is rare. If your workplace or home office involves wired connections, this matters.

Don't buy it if...

You need the best display you can get
The WUXGA IPS panel does the job, but the Galaxy Book6 Pro's 3K AMOLED is in a different class and not dramatically more expensive. If the screen is where you spend most of your time, spend slightly more.

You carry your laptop everywhere, every day
At 1.74 kg, the 16-inch Book6 EE is not a massive burden, but it is not light either. The Pro at 1.56 kg makes a more comfortable daily companion for heavy travellers.View Deal

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