I tested Samsung’s new Copilot+ PC and it stands out from the crowd in three key ways.
What’s up?
Samsung’s latest Copilot+ PC, the Galaxy Book 4 Edge, which was released earlier this summer, now has its first significant price cut at Best Buy. $300 discount 16-inch version costs $1,149and $350 off 14-inch version, only $999.
Why does ZDNET recommend this trade?
We just left practice with the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge and praised its powerful, responsive performance. The new Snapdragon X Elite chip is as power-efficient as it is powerful, giving this laptop impressive battery life. Plus, the PC’s AMOLED display makes it a gorgeous device for creators.
ZDNET Key Points
- The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is on sale for $1,149. The configuration I tested — with a 16-inch screen and 1TB of storage — normally starts at $1,749.
- This is one of the most impressive Copilot+ computers to hit the market this year, with a gorgeous display, long battery life, and outstanding performance.
- It’s expensive, has some quirky design quirks, and lives up to its potential within the Samsung ecosystem.
Samsung has created a seat at the table with the big boys with Galaxy Book 4 EdgeThe Copilot+ PC with the new Snapdragon X Elite processor is nothing short of a statement machine. This laptop feels as good as it looks and has the features consumers care about most: a bright display, a thin and light design, and long battery life.
I recently got a chance to try out the Edge, using it as my primary driver for a week while I commuted to and from work and worked remotely, and I really liked it. It’s a great thing: It’s lightweight, has blazing fast performance, great battery life, a gorgeous display, and surprisingly good speakers.
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Belong to all new Snapdragon Copilot+ computers released this yearThis laptop has one of the most obvious use cases. It really shines when paired with other Samsung products, especially Galaxy Phonescan be controlled remotely on the laptop in Samsung’s Plug-in app — something Apple is still growing — as well as many other features.
However, to get the most out of the Galaxy Book 4 Edge, a few things need to be done. We’ll get into that more later; let’s first look at the specs.
The first thing you notice about the Edge is its thin, light design. It weighs just 3.4 pounds, but still feels solid, with minimal screen wobble compared to some other 16-inch ultraportables.
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And what a display! The 16-inch 2x (2800 x 1800) AMOLED display has a gorgeous 3K resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a 120Hz refresh rate for silky smooth visuals. It’s also bright enough at 400 nits for standard content and up to 500 nits for HDR video. There’s also some excellent anti-glare technology with impressive light reduction.
Earlier this year, my colleague Kerry Wan rated Its predecessor — the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra with an Intel Core 7 or 9 Ultra chip — was equally impressive with its OLED display. Samsung has upgraded the AMOLED display on the Edge, offering better power efficiency and resolution (but at a higher cost).
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The display is also a touchscreen, but it doesn’t come with a stylus, nor does it fold flat or into a tablet. However, some useful uses for the touchscreen include pinch-to-zoom and scrolling — two functions we’re all familiar with on smartphones.
As for the rest of the physical form, the keyboard on the Edge feels good; the keys are responsive and have a decent amount of travel, and I also appreciate the full-size format with the number pad on the right.
The trackpad on the Edge, however, is massive. Like the Book 4 Ultra, it has a football field-sized trackpad that some people will love, but others may find more trouble than it’s worth.
During testing, I did notice quite a few false positives with the trackpad from typing or resting my wrists, although they did lessen over time as I got used to it. I didn’t like it, but it wasn’t a huge deal since the trackpad is well optimized.
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In our review of Edge’s predecessor earlier this year, We note that the trackpad is not the laptop’s strong point.: it will fluctuate between being too sensitive and not sensitive enough. Samsung seems to have optimized the technology on the Edge, as I didn’t have any noticeable issues with its responsiveness this time around.
The Galaxy Book 4 Edge doesn’t just come with the new Snapdragon X Elite processor; it comes with the most powerful version of it yet. The 3.8GHz, 12-core processor with dual-core boost mode is only available in the 1TB configuration of the Edge, a bold move for Samsung.
After benchmarking the processor in GeekbenchI got a single-core score of 2953 and a multi-core score of 15672, an impressive number that puts the Galaxy Book 4 Edge at the top of the Copilot+ PCs and beats some of the MacBook’s scores, although Apple’s silicon still scores higher in single-core and GPU performance.
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The onboard Qualcomm Adreno GPU won’t beat Apple’s integrated M3 graphics, but when combined with the Snapdragon’s NPU and blazing-fast CPU, it puts up a good fight. Video editing in DaVinci Resolve on the Galaxy Book 4 Edge is smooth, especially with AI-related tasks, and I expect performance in this area to continue to improve over time.
Also, remember that throughout all this heavy lifting, the machine remains quiet and cool, generating virtually no heat and making no noise (although it does have a fan).
Benchmarks are technical metrics that aren’t always useful to everyday consumers, but they’re important in demonstrating that the Snapdragon X Elite chip is a real competitor to Apple’s silicon. We’re looking at consumer machines — available to buy today — beating the MacBook Pro in real time, not in a controlled demo environment. That’s it; here they are.
Another big thing that sets the Galaxy Book 4 Edge apart is the use of eUFS (eternal universal flash memory) instead of a solid-state drive (SSD). Since eUFS is the type of storage technology used in smartphones, it makes sense that Samsung would bring it to its laptop lineup, but there are some caveats.
First, the laptop’s storage is a solid unit that can’t be changed or upgraded in any way: It’s built into the machine as-is. For that reason, I’d highly recommend opting for the 1TB configuration if you’re interested in buying the Edge, since what you choose at the time of purchase is what you’ll have to stick with for the rest of the laptop’s life.
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Second, the 3.8GHz processor only comes with the 1TB configuration of the Edge. And since the 1TB version only has a 16-inch display, this is a laptop with a much larger gap between the 14- and 16-inch versions than the screen size.
I’d only consider buying this laptop if you’re willing to commit to the 16-inch, 1TB storage version. Any other configuration is too big a step down. In that vein, the 16-inch version costs $1,750, which is certainly not cheap, but still under the $2,000 price point that the average consumer would consider “realistic.”
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Finally, the Edge’s battery is really impressive. I recently tested the HP Omnibook X 14Another Copilot+ PC with a Snapdragon X Elite processor and noted superior battery performance. The Galaxy Book 4 Edge is even better, considering its large AMOLED display and more powerful processor.
During the ZDNET benchmark test of streaming 4K YouTube over Wi-Fi at 50% brightness, I got over 13 hours of playback, which is well above what’s considered “good” for a laptop and more than enough for a couple of standard workdays. Even better, when this laptop is in standby mode, battery life drops to very little.
ZDNET Buying Advice
The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge is a powerful laptop worth the price if you’re willing to commit to the 16-inch, 1TB version with the top-of-the-line Snapdragon processor. The deal is even sweeter if you have a Samsung smartphone and appreciate the integration this laptop brings into the Samsung device ecosystem.
If neither of those apply to you, the Galaxy Book 4 Edge is still a great choice simply for its sheer star power and impressive performance. However, if you’re on the fence about price but still want a Copilot+ PC, you might want to consider Microsoft Surface Pro or Asus Vivobook S15 — both are Snapdragon laptops with OLED displays at much lower prices.
When will this agreement expire?
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