Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro

One of the few companies in India, Samsung, has begun to ship brand-new laptops equipped with Intel’s latest Core Ultra CPUs, which are built on the Meteor Lake architecture. The Galaxy Book4, Book4 360, Book4 Pro, and Book4 Ultra segments of the most recent Galaxy Book4 range are available in clamshell and 2-in-1 form factors.

Last year, we got the opportunity to test-drive the Galaxy Book3 360 and the flagship Galaxy Book3 Ultra. We currently own a Galaxy Book4 Pro. There are two sizes available: 14 and 16 inches and both have almost the same specs. A closer look at the 14-inch model is provided here.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro Rating: 7.5 / 10

Design and build

Regarding the design, Samsung hasn’t made any notable adjustments. The laptop is the same as the previous generation Galaxy Book3 Pro, with an all-aluminum body that takes a clean, minimalistic style and is inspired by the MacBook. It has an extremely sturdy build and is expertly built with no visible flaws. In particular, I appreciate that the hinge provides a certain degree of resistance, preventing the display from swaying and allowing it to remain still.

Based on numerical comparison, the dimensions and weight of the Galaxy Book4 Pro are comparable to those of the 13-inch MacBook Air M2/M3. They both have a thickness of less than 12mm and weigh about 1.24 kilograms. On the other hand, Samsung’s product has more screen real estate and more connectors.

Four rubber feet and a ventilation-perforated portion are features of the lower cover. Also, each side’s bottom-firing speakers are protected by two strips of fine mesh. The lid was quite simple to remove. To reveal four ordinary Philips head screws, simply pry open the rubber feet. A plastic prying tool can be used to help undo the internal clips after they have been removed. The thermal system consists of a vapor chamber, two heat pipes, and cooling fans. The M.2 SSD is the only component that can be upgraded because the memory is soldered.

Display

Samsung, which has a great deal of experience with screens, still offers its vibrant and dazzling “Dynamic AMOLED 2X” panel on the Galaxy Book4 Pro. This year’s model is identical to the previous one, with a dynamic refresh rate of 60Hz and 120Hz and a 3K resolution of 2,880 x 1,800. While the touchscreen feature is a welcome addition, the Galaxy Book4 360 model is the better option in this regard.

In addition, the panel has an anti-reflective coating that, while not very effective, improves viewing angles over laptops with OLED displays from earlier generations. The experience is not hampered by the display’s rounded corners and small bezels, even though it doesn’t extend to the edges.

You may choose between various color profiles, including defaults for DCI-P3, sRGB, and Adobe RGB, by using the Samsung Settings app. Content producers and designers who work with photo editing and video editing will find this tool helpful. The Display tab in the basic Windows 11 settings also provides access to these profiles.

The exhibit appears fantastic all around. It has great response times, feels smooth, and has deep, vibrant colors.

Trackpad and keyboard

The keyboard features scissor-style switches, just like the MacBook series from Apple, and it sits flush with the body. Not only does it provide three levels of white illumination, but it is also comfortable to type on. A TPM fingerprint reader that is integrated into the top right corner of the power button functions quickly and precisely with Windows Hello.

With support for all Windows gestures, the big trackpad is appropriate for a majority of jobs. Samsung has to work on the trackpad clicks, but other than that, it feels responsive and snappy.

Performance and software

Samsung has installed a large number of software on the Galaxy Book4 Pro, which is compatible with Windows 11 Home or Pro. Some of them work well, while some require a Samsung tablet or smartphone. For example, you can use a Samsung tablet as a secondary display for the laptop by using the screen mirroring capability. Then some functions let you exchange notes, operate smart devices, drag and drop files between your laptop and smartphone, and much more. You can also adjust the laptop’s performance modes, keyboard lighting, battery protection, display color profile settings, and other features via the Samsung Settings app.

Galaxy Book4 Pro features a 14-core Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, six cores, eight cores, and two LPs. The chip offers a turbo frequency of 4.8 GHz for P cores and 3.8 GHz for E cores. With a base power of 20-28 W, the CPU can consume up to 115 W. LP cores can range from 700MHz to 2.5GHz, helping to reduce load and save battery life when performing simple tasks like browsing the internet.

In terms of power consumption and thermal efficiency, the CPU can now go up to 56W. This is very high for only a short time and then gradually decreases due to the heat of the fire.

The new Intel Arc graphics offer a little more power to handle graphics loads and can run some games like Forza Horizon 5 and Counter-Strike 2 at over 60fps at 1200p at low and medium settings. The base should be able to handle retro games and a few low-end modern PC games.

Also new Core Ultra software; also supports artificial intelligence software such as OpenVINO, WindowsML, and ONNX RT. Audacity is one of the first programs that can use Intel AI tools thanks to the OpenVINO plug-in. There are noise reduction and transcription tools for podcasts, while AI tools for music include Music Styles and Style Remixes, which use Stable Diffusion (and Diffusion) to create new music from the latest sources or based on previous music.

There’s also a Music Splitter that lets you split a song into vocal and instrumental sections, or vocals, drums, bass, and an “all” section. This is a good start, but there are limits to how far AI can reach and perform tasks for you. We expect more apps and developers to take advantage of this power and offer more features in the coming months.

Battery

The Intel Core Ultra CPU’s specialized LP cores allow the Galaxy Book4 Pro to provide significantly longer battery life. The notebook includes a portable 65W charger in addition to using the same 63Whr battery from the discontinued model. I was using it for up to eight hours a day, usually for light tasks like using many Chrome tabs, editing a few photographs, inputting a lot of text, and watching a few YouTube movies.

I scored 12 hours and 19 minutes in the Modern Office battery benchmark test on PCMark 10. Although that is excellent for a Windows laptop, the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M3 or even M2 still outperforms it by a wide margin.

Verdict

In terms of appearance, at least, the Galaxy Book4 Pro manages to compete with Apple, making it a competitive Windows product. Priced at Rs 1,39,990 for the base model with 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD, you can quadruple the memory and storage for an additional Rs 1,71,990. Since the RAM is soldered, it makes sense to select the right model based on your requirements.

Thanks to its low-power cores, Intel’s new Core Ultra series offers significant battery life enhancements as well as some AI magic in a range of software and apps. Although it isn’t particularly powerful, the form factor makes it obvious that Intel is headed in the right direction. Purchase this if you’re looking for a stylish, premium Windows notebook with a build that doesn’t skimp on quality. The Galaxy Book4 Pro is also appropriate for content creators, and if you use the Samsung ecosystem, the suite of programs specifically designed for it can be very helpful.