A laptop you can fall in love with, but with some minor quirks
Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is a premium laptop among over 20 Copilot+ PCs announced on May 20th, 2024. Powered by the high-performance Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite platform variant (X1E-84-100), with top-notch hardware and software, it is a laptop targeted at premium consumer and small and midsize enterprise (SME) market segments. After using the 16-inch model for over six weeks, I can say that it is a PC one can fall in love with.
The small quirks are mostly because of app compatibility, limited game support, and some minor annoyances with the keyboard.
Note: Make sure to check out my other product reviews here
Gorgeous looks, excellent performance, and top-notch hardware
The difference between other PC OEMs and Samsung is that it’s not just a perfectly working device but something you love and feel proud to own. That means something that looks as beautiful as a work of art, offers the best performance, has excellent battery life, and has top-notch hardware and build. In my six weeks of testing, I found Galaxy Book4 Edge to have all these characters.
Arm-based Qualcomm’s X Elite Platform is the biggest reason behind many of these characteristics. At 12.3mm thickness (14-inch version, 10.9mm), Galaxy Book4 Edge is the thinnest Copilot+ PC. It is also extremely light, weighing only 1.55kg (14-inch, 1.16kg). It feels so light when carrying it around that often; I check my backpack to confirm I have it and haven’t forgotten it somewhere.
Galaxy Book4 Edge is the only Copilot+ PC with a 16-inch screen option. It comes in only Sapphire Blue color, which gives it a distinctive modern look, differentiating it from the traditional aluminum grey of most other premium laptops, including the MacBook Pro.
The power of the high-performance X Elite variant becomes evident in how smoothly the applications run, be it productivity tools like Microsoft Office suite, browsers, video and audio editing, and even scores of games supported on Arm. With 45 NPU TOPS, X Elite is an AI powerhouse. Samsung claims the Galaxy Book4 Edge is 4x faster than the Galaxy Book4 (Intel Core Ultra SoC). Numerous benchmark tests have shown that X Elite is among the best, if not the best-performing, laptop SoC in the market today.
With the 61.8Wh battery, Galaxy Book4 Edge provides a full day of battery life, even on busy working days, for productivity use cases. Unsurprisingly, Samsung computing lead Anjum Hassan mentioned in our Tantra’s Mantra podcast that longer battery life was the top requirement of their customers when designing Copilot+/Arm PCs. The included 65W fast charger can charge up to 45% in just 30 minutes. Although I didn’t time my charges, I found that charging even for a few minutes during breaks generated enough juice to get on with the work, and battery life was never a concern. For most day trips, I left my charger at home.
In addition to the SoC, the other hardware on Galaxy Book4 Edge is top-notch as well. The dynamic AMOLED 3k display with an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate provides a wider range of brightness and colors that pop. 500nits brightness, Vision Booster, and anti-reflective features make the laptop usable outdoors in daylight. I did not use the touchscreen much. Book4 Edge supports Wi-Fi 7, making its connectivity futureproof.
Copilot+, Samsung ecosystem features – Some useful, others good to have
As explained in my earlier Lenovo Yoga Slim7x review, some of the Copilot+ features are useful, while others are just good to have. The marquee “Recall” feature is still not supported. “Windows Studio Effects” is quite useful and works very well. It replaces Samsung’s proprietary “Studio Mode” feature found in earlier PCs. “Live Captions” and “Co-Creator” also worked well, but I didn’t test them much.
Among all PC OEMs, Samsung’s ecosystem features offer the best differentiation. Many of these are further enhanced in Galaxy Book4 Edge. The “Link to Windows” and “Quick Share” are much more reliable and work faster now. The “Multi-Control” feature, which allows Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets to be controlled through the Galaxy Book4 Edge’s mouse and keyboard, is as useful as ever. Additionally, the Google “Circle to search” on Galaxy phones can now be accessed through Galaxy Book4 Edge using Link to Windows, effectively bringing the feature to PCs. The importance of this is now reduced as Google Lens-based search is now available on Chrome.
App compatibility – vastly improved, but still a “work in progress”
I call Windows on Arm app compatibility “still in progress” because that’s exactly what it is. It is continuously improving, though. Many issues I discovered during the Yoga review have been improved or solved. For example, the WhatsApp frequent disconnection issue is almost resolved. Because of Galaxy Book4 Edge’s superior processor, many apps work better. For example, Da Vinci Resolve for Arm, out of Beta now, works smoothly for low-complexity tasks. Many engineering apps, such as Sold Works, MATLAB, and Ultimaker Cura, that I found almost unusable on others run at a decent speed on Galaxy Book4 Edge (but still not perfect).
The much-awaited Adobe Illustrator support is now available in beta. The biggest pet peeve—VPN support is now addressed, with support for many apps, including Surfshark, Express VPN, and PIA. Game support is quickly expanding as well. The official www.WorksonWoA.com portal lists nearly 1400 games, compared to 1200 during Computex in May 2024.
Besides the app compatibility issues, Galaxy Book4 Edge has minor quirks and annoyances. First, I am not a big fan of its keyboard. Compared to Galaxy Book3, the keys are slightly elevated, not as firm, and quiet. Some keys, especially the ones wider than standard width, such as the space bar, Shift, Enter, and Backspace keys, are wiggly and noisy. The noise when typing in a quiet place like a library or working late at night could be annoying. Also, the keys are gray, making the white lettering on them less visible. Again, I much liked the white-on-black lettering and overall build of the Galaxy Book3 keyboard.
The overall higher pricing of Copilot+ PCs could be a heartburn for some, especially when much-marketed Copilot+ features are not currently useful. Galaxy Book4 Edge is probably the most expensive of all the Copilot+ PCs. However, it is a premium offering. Despite minor quirks, I think it provides great value for the price. Also, Samsung and its retailers offer many attractive deals, significantly reducing its effective price.
The bottom line—Galaxy Book4 Edge is a laptop that you can fall in love with, not just for its looks but also for its top-notch performance, long battery life, and excellent build.
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