Copilot+ PCsclaim to offer cash advance in two areas : public presentation and battery life . That does not , however , think of every one of these laptops is needs on an equal performing field of battle .
The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge ’s claim to fame is its sizing . Despite offering a large 16 - in projection screen , it ’s amongthe flimsy laptop computer you’re able to buyin its class . That was enough to get me interested , but after expend some clip with the equipment , its lackluster quality - of - life history elements make it a unwieldy laptop computer to utilise in practice .
Specs and configurations
There are three edition of the Galaxy Book4 Edge — one 14 - inch and two 16 - in constellation . The large version , which I reviewed , comes with 16 GB of RAM , a terabyte of storage , and the Snapdragon X1E-84 - 100 cow chip . That ’s the high - end Qualcomm microchip with a 3.8GHz frequency , and it ’s slightly faster than the Snapdragon X1E-80 - 100 offered in the other configurations . This maxed - out configuration cost $ 1,750 .
The other 16 - inch rendering has the X1E-80 - 100 and half the storage at $ 1,450 . Lastly , there ’s the 14 - inch mannikin , which starts at $ 1,350 and 512 GB of storage . The Galaxy Book4 Edge is among the more expensive devices in theCopilot+ PC lineupright now . Part of the understanding is that Samsung is n’t offering the Snapdragon X Plus chip shot at a cheaper starting shape like Microsoft does . Once likewise configure , the Surface Laptop and Galaxy Book4 Edge are like in price — except that the Samsung has an OLED display .
Design
company have taken one of two approaches to adopting the Copilot+ PC stain . HP started from slit , taking the opportunity to throw out their entirelaptop brandsin favour of something new . Dell , meanwhile , has very Intel and Qualcomm versions of its XPS 13 , with no change other than the chip within .
Samsung shore somewhere in between . The Galaxy Book4 Edge is technically a new member in the Galaxy Book4 lineup , but it shares many of the same feature and purpose attributes of its siblings . Let ’s be real — the Galaxy Book4 Edge is almost identical to the Galaxy Book4 Pro . It ’s slightly slender at 0.48 inches versus 0.49 and count the same at 3.4 pounds . For what its worth , the 14 - in example is a bit more telling with its 0.43 - column inch thickness , which slightly outstrip the 0.44 - inchMacBook Air . That thickness equivalence is important , specially since efficiency is the name of the game .
The only significant esthetic difference is the colorway . The keycaps are a short gray-headed and the chassis is Sapphire Blue , which is a subtle tone . It ’s certainly a bit more interesting than the bland ash grey option that come on the other models .
For me , the parity with the rest of the Galaxy Book4 serial publication is problematic . It ’s a rather drilling - look laptop , and the large bottom bezel is an eyesore . More importantly , though , this is a laptop that just feel ill-chosen to use . The keyboard features a very shallow , almost wooden typing experience .
I do n’t know if Samsung is actually using butterfly stroke switches here , but it feels ( and sound ) a lot like those old , ill - fated MacBook keyboard . There was definitely a con curve to feeling comfortable typing here . It does n’t help that with the 16 - inch model , the Galaxy Book4 Edge features a number launching pad , which make the touchpad and keyboard feel off - center . There are those that will like having a number launch area , but count me out .
The touchpad is worse , though . It ’s extra large , which I typically care . But here , the decoration rejection just is n’t up to snuff . Misclicks or swipe happened more than I ’d wish . The surface of the touchpad is smooth , but the click mechanics is flashy and besotted . I ’ve really add up to prefer thehaptic feedback trackpadsthat are found in other laptops , such as the Surface Laptop , MacBook Pro , or Dell XPS 13 . If Samsung need to vie at this price power point , it needs to use the high - end components .
These are a fate of the problems I noticed while review theGalaxy Book4 Ultra , for example . That was a laptop I want to care thanks to the show and performance , but the timber - of - life issues were too rampant .
It ’s notallbad , of course . The physique quality is great on the whole Galaxy Book4 serial , and that ’s unfeigned of the Galaxy Book4 Edge too . I really enjoy the rounded niche of the screen too . It feels like a premium laptop to hold and look at — just not once you bulge out using it .
Port selection
The Galaxy Book4 Edge has great port choice , especially for a laptop computer of this type . Like the Galaxy Book4 Pro , the Edge features HDMI , USB - A , a headphone jack , and two USB - atomic number 6 port — one of which you ’ll use for charging . That means very rarely will you run into a situation where you might need a dongle .
It does have a microSD visiting card slot , but photographer and videographers will miss the full - size slot that more God Almighty - focused laptop computer have .
All in all , though , you ’re getting more larboard here than on a Surface Laptop orDell XPS 16 .
Display
Samsung is known for its displays , and the company has put an excellent one in the Galaxy Book4 Edge . It ’s AMOLED , of course , and come in at a resolution of 2880 x 1800 . That ’s stretched out a bit more on the 16 - inch , giving you a pixel density of around 212 pixel per in ( ppi ) , but it ’s a nigh match to theMacBook Air 15 - column inch .
The AMOLED screen door give baby-sit an upper - hand in this comparing , though , providing the deep blacks , high-pitched contrast , and meliorate color insurance coverage we all love . The coloring truth , however , is n’t the practiced . I tested a Delta - E of 1.74 , which is n’t horrible , but falls behind some of the other Copilot+ PCs we ’ve test , such as theHP OmniBook XandLenovo Yoga Slim 7x . My tintometer measured a max luminousness of 379 nits , which is n’t bad for an OLED venire , but shy of the 500 nit claimed by Samsung .
Overall , though , it ’s a very enjoyable screen . Everything pops , and even though it ’s calendered , Samsung has a nice anti - glare finish that deflect glare well without reducing clarity .
I should advert it also comes with a 120Hz refresh charge per unit and is touch - enable . The riotous , high - quality display definitely offers the Galaxy Book4 Edge an reward over the MacBook Air 15 - column inch and Surface Laptop 7th Edition 15 - column inch .
Webcam and speakers
The Galaxy Book4 Edge has a 1080p webcam and musculus quadriceps femoris speaker setup , which includes two woofers and two tweeter . That sounds like a proper apparatus for multimedia system and video calls , but unfortunately , the experience falls short . I found the figure timber of the photographic camera to be grainy and overly dark — even in fairly well - light spot . I found myself flipping on every light or lamp in the room to brighten my face . If being in television birdsong everyday is part of your job , you ’re going to be a chip frustrated .
On top of that , the Galaxy Book4 Edge does n’t let in an IR camera for Windows Hello login . The fingerprint reader built into the power button works just fine , but it finger like a weird place to disregard corners on a laptop of this price .
The same is dependable of the speakers . These are n’t the sorry laptop speakers I ’ve ever heard , but they are n’t on the dot pleasant either . They made me be more persevering about always using earphone while listening to music , learn videos , and even taking video call .
Performance
As part of the Copilot+ personal computer origin , the Galaxy Book4 Edge apply the fresh Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips . There are many different configurations of these chips , however , and the Galaxy Book4 Edge is one of the few laptop computer that use the fastest of the crew , the Snapdragon X1E-84 - 100 . It has 12 cores like the other X elect chips , but this configuration comes with a faster clock speed of 3.8GHz . I ’m used to that conflict in frequence not being huge , but with the Galaxy Book4 Edge , you may definitely see the encouragement in performance testing across both the CPU and GPU .
Across the board , the Galaxy Book4 Edge exceed both the Surface Laptop 7th Edition 15 - inch and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x by a surprising border . I ’ll start out with the most impressive feat . This configuration of the Galaxy Book4 Edge hit 15 % better in the single - core Cinebench R24 psychometric test than the Surface Laptop 15 - in . It ’s really the highest sexual conquest in this test we ’ve ever seen on a Windows laptop , just barely prod out immense gaming laptop computer with crisp like the Core i9 - 14900HX under the bonnet . That ’s kind of psyche - blowing when you think about it .
Even more surprisingly , the Galaxy Book4 Edge outperforms theMacBook Air M3 in multi - core functioning by 22 % . That lead is widen when you turn the Galaxy Book4 Edge to the Performance mode within Samsung options , which boosts it by another 23 % . There ’s clearly a bit more oomph in this chip if the system is allowed to push the fans harder , which can issue forth in handy if you ’re want to hie up a particular task .
It play out in graphics too , where the Galaxy Book4 Edge beat the Surface Laptop by 18 % in 3DMark Wildlife Extreme and 16 % in 3DMark Steel Nomad Light . Apple ’s M3 chip is still a level-headed 33 % quicker in these same tests , but it ’s still courteous to see the remainder in performance across Qualcomm ’s dissimilar version .
It ’s particularly interesting because Time Spy has not been compile for Arm , so it ’s running in emulation . So , while the Adreno graphics are much fast than the Intel Arc incorporated computer graphic while run native applications , it ’s importantly slower in emulation . There , Intel ’s Arc graphics beat Qualcomm ’s Adreno . In native apps like the Nomad Light tryout , however , Qualcomm fares much intimately .
As has been mention to death already , these Copilot+ PC are not gaming PC , and I would n’t even consider evaluating it from that position . Not only is the GPU not powerful enough , but compatibility remains an outlet , as many games still resist to even run . That situation will likely get near , but it ’s authoritative to hump about now .
Fortunately , when it amount to task the Galaxy Book4 Edge is mean to be used for , it ’s all good news . You ’ll never contain and consider that you ’re using anything other than an ordinary Windows laptop , and that ’s a monolithic accomplishment in its own right . Everything is larder smooth , and even apps running in emulation seem to agree up well enough . We do n’t have our intact suite of benchmarks to go through since they ’re not all compatible yet , but the GeekBench and Cinebench scores alone differentiate a compelling story .
The comparison against the Galaxy Book4 Ultra also disclose just how far Qualcomm has occur . Despite the fact that the Ultra is importantly thick , its Intel Core Ultra 9 185H chip is slow than the Snapdragon X1E-84 - 100 when you plow on the carrying into action style on both of these laptops . And that ’s compare a Divine laptop with a lean - and - light .
Lastly , it ’s deserving note that these Arm laptop computer do n’t recede a single bit of performance while on battery , unlike traditional x86 chip .
Software
I wo n’t drop much time talking about the software program features of the Galaxy Book4 Edge , specially when it make out to AI . Yes , it comes with things like Cocreator in Paint or Live Captions that run exclusively on the chip ’s NPU . And they ’re neat — I ’m for sure not doubt that . But they ’re the same on every Copilot+ PC , so there ’s not much new to say here . Furthermore , we’re still waitress on Recallto show up to get a full picture of Microsoft ’s vision for AI microcomputer in this Modern earned run average .
Beyond those , the laptop computer comes with Samsung ’s typical range of build - in apps , some of which are helpful and some of which are better left ignored . One of the new features from Samsung let you control your Samsung phone exclusively with Copilot . That ’s not an NPU - exclusive feature , but it ’s new on the Galaxy Book4 Edge . I was n’t able to test it , as I did n’t have a Samsung phone on hand — but unruffled interaction between your phone and laptop is never a bad thing .
Battery
assault and battery life was supposed to be one of the most important vocation card game of the Copilot+ PC , but the Galaxy Book4 Edge is at the back of the pack . It live on for 12.5 hour in our light web - crop battery trial , and two more in local TV playback . That ’s running on a 61.8 - James Watt - hour battery .
Let me just say this first : Those are solid numbers , and I think you ’ll be satisfied with this battery life . It ’s an improvement over the current crop ofnon - Copilot+ PCsout there in this class .
However , you might be wonder why it ’s so far off the target of 22 hours exact by Microsoft and Samsung — which is hit by laptops like the Surface Laptop 7 . Well , we can only imagine . Perhaps it ’s the OLED screenland or just the size of it of the panel itself . Or maybe it ’s the extra rut create by this particular chip . We ’ll only know once we ’ve tested other laptops with this same chip inside , but it certainly seems plausible that this conformation of the Galaxy Book4 Edge is trading some barrage animation for additional performance .
Lacking in quality
I ’m a lover of what Microsoft and Qualcomm have done with the Copilot+ microcomputer , but the Galaxy Book4 Edge 16 is not my favorite . The keyboard , touchpad , webcam , and verbaliser are all disappointing — and these are four things that the ordinary laptop user should expect more from .
The show and performance are gamy point , though if you ’re attracted to the battery lifetime and portability of Windows on Arm , you really should be looking at a smaller laptop first . I have a feeling I ’d have a slightly dependable impression of the Galaxy Book4 Edge 14 - inch , even if the aforementioned issue were n’t improved . If you ’re committed to the Samsung ecosystem , I do think the Galaxy Book4 Edge ( specially the 14 - inch model ) , is one of the better options for the price .
And the vibrant OLED sieve is the primary reward this gimmick has over the 15 - inch Surface Laptop and MacBook Air . But for most people , it ’s just not going to be worth the swap - offs in overall usability that other laptop computer surpass in .
