Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge hands-on review: early signs of a game-changer

Our Verdict

If you're already a part of the Samsung ecosystem then there's no excuse for you not to invest in the Galaxy Book4 Edge. This AI-boosted laptop is a next-gen genius and an excellent tool for creatives to prioritise and speed up workflows. It has a powerful Snapdragon Elite X chip, a compact and slim build, it can link to your Android phone for seamless integration, and there's even a dedicated Copilot AI key on the keyboard for easy access to helpful tools and features.

For

• Copilot Plus PC
• Galaxy AI
• Can control your phone

Against

TODAY'S BEST DEALS

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is the first-ever Copilot Plus AI-powered laptop from Samsung. It was released just weeks ago on 18 June 2024, and I think it's without a doubt one of the best AI laptops on the market right now (I'm trying really hard not to be biased as a diehard Samsung fan).

For creatives, this Galaxy Book offers the perfect blend of portability, style, performance, and sheer computing power thanks to its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) and Snapdragon Elite X processor. Add Copilot AI into the mix – and you get a laptop that can prioritise and manage your workload, help you stay focussed on the tasks at hand, and get your creative projects completed much faster.

I'll dive into the features and performance of this laptop soon, but for a quick rundown of why I think this is one of the best laptops for creatives, you can read my first impressions of the Galaxy Book4 Edge when Samsung invited me to try it out. It might also be worth taking a look at our explainer on what is an AI laptop? if you're feeling a little bit out of depth.

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is a very reasonably priced premium laptop (at least I think so) considering the features that you get, sitting at $1,749.99 / £1,499 for the 16-inch model, and $1,349.99 / £1,399 for the 14-inch. I've gotten hands-on with this laptop for just over two weeks now, and you can discover how I rate this AI-powered workstation in each of the sections below.

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Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge review: Key specs

CPU:Qualcomm 8CX Gen X 12 Core Pro

NPU:Qualcomm® Hexagon™ NPU

RAM:16GB LPDDRX5

GPU:Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU

Storage:512 GB

Display:LCD 16-inch AR AMOLED Touch (2880 x 1800)

OS:Windows 11 Home

Connectivity:65 W USB Type-C Adapter

Ports:HDMI 2.1 (Supports 4K@60Hz) 1 USB3.2 2 USB4.0 MicroSD Multi-media Card Reader Headphone out/Mic-in Combo

Battery:4 Cell (61.8 Wh)

Dimensions:355.4 x 250.4 x 12.3 mm

Weight:1.54 kg (3.40 lbs)

Colour:Sapphire Blue

Design and display

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge has clearly been designed by a team who understood the assignment. It is SO THIN and lightweight that I can comfortably hold it in the palm of my hand, and it barely adds any weight to my backpack when transporting it around. There's a fingerprint scanner for easy login, and the webcam is the size of a pinhole at the top of the device (you can barely see it if you squint).

As you can tell from the images, this laptop has a lot of ports (which is great) but Samsung has seemingly had to thicken the sides of the laptop slightly creating ridges just to be able to include USB ports, that's how thin the Book4 Edge is. Not much thicker than a few sheets of paper which is mindblowing.

The gorgeous anti-reflective touchscreen AMOLED display is delightful, with crisp bright colours and sharp visuals. I found that it was great for photo editing, retaining the correct colours and the large 16-inch display size is ideal for creative work. It can supposedly block out harmful blue light for those of us who stare at screens for a living, and the 120Hz refresh rate is a bonus.

We recently reported that the Koto Copilot branding was intended to bring out the human side of AI, and this has been achieved with the interface of the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge which feels extremely modern, professional and calming to use. I'm not sure exactly how it can feel calming to use a laptop or if that's even the right word to use but just trust me on this one. The keypad is virtually silent and it feels incredible to type on, like smooth soft pebbles.

The charging cable is equally as minimalistic, with a white rectangular plug and a long white USB-C to USB-C cable to plug in the laptop. No heavy slabs or chunky electric blocks here. Just a super thin plug and cable. Exquisite.

Features

I could go on all day about how impressive the AI Copilot combined with Galaxy AI features are on this laptop. It's amazing how much Copilot can assist you simply by doing the admin work that you didn't know you needed doing, and Galaxy AI offers the same exciting AI features introduced with the Galaxy S24 series earlier this year.

For starters, the Galaxy Book4 Edge using Copilot can take notes on all of your meetings and automatically transcribe them for you, while generating live captions in real-time of everything being said. Note assist with Galaxy AI can offer suggestions on formatting, help you tidy up and summarise your notes, and provide translations.

The Windows Studio Effects feature allows you to get creative and enhance your conference calls, with camera filters that can adjust your eye contact, portrait lighting, auto framing and focus, and blurring of the background using on-device AI.

But that's not all, if you're into photo editing (like me) then the Paint application on the Galaxy Book4 Edge now comes equipped with Cocreator. This software uses AI to convert your rough sketches into finalised digital art the same way that an image generator would use a reference image, and it's totally free with no credits needed.

Similarly, the native Photos application in Windows now offers generative text-to-image features using AI to help bring your ideas to life without needing to leave your workspace or rely on one of the best AI generators.

Samsung family ecosystem

If you're a Samsung fanatic like me, chances are you own a lot of Samsung tech and appreciate that it all seems to connect together seamlessly. The Galaxy Book4 Edge is no exception to this either, and you can use your new laptop to connect to and control your Android phone, and vice versa.

You can use your phone as a connected camera paired with the Galaxy Book, make use of other cool features such as Quick Share and easy file transfers between your devices using a QR code, and secure backups between your phone and laptop too.

This is possible because of the new Link to Windows function which will prompt you on the start-up and installation of the laptop to connect your Microsoft account and phone to the laptop should you choose.

This means you can seamlessly perform everyday actions such as making calls to your contacts or sending messages directly from your laptop instead of on a phone, using easy Copilot voice prompts. Pretty cool right? I really enjoyed testing this out with my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra.

Performance

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is a Copilot Plus PC, meaning that it offers a blend of intelligent hybrid AI integrations to help you manage your tasks. This AI laptop in particular offers 4x faster AI processing thanks to the Snapdragon Elite X chip, and the NPU allows AI to be a background hub within your laptop, keeping things ticking along so that you are free to handle the more important and pressing tasks.

My two weeks with the Galaxy Book4 Edge have been game-changing, and I don't think I could ever go back to a non-Copilot or Galaxy AI-equipped laptop now that I've had a taste of it. It has helped me significantly organise my desktop notes and files, it's so much lighter to carry around than my ASUS Vivobook laptop, and I love that it integrates with my Samsung smartphone so I have complete control.

As for the battery life, I've found that the Book4 Edge is powerful enough to handle pretty much anything including YouTube browsing, photo editing, email admin and general use with various apps without slowing down or needing to be plugged in often. I had maybe five hours of extensive use before it showed any signs of depleting battery.

However, I haven't had a chance to game on this laptop yet (I will update this review accordingly) so I'm not sure If I've really challenged the Book4 Edge enough to give it a real struggle. Samsung ensures that the Book4 Edge can last with up to 22 hours of battery life without a charge, so I'd be keen to see how well this measures up with further testing and benchmarks.

Price

The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge currently retails for $1,749.99 / £1,499 for the 16-inch model, and $1,349.99 / £1,399 for the 14-inch version. I think it's pretty affordable and very reasonably priced for a premium AI laptop that's new on the market, at least compared with most other laptops for graphic designers which can push the bar at around $3k depending on which specifications you opt for.

I know that £1500 for a laptop is definitely not cheap, and might seem like a lot to splash out at first. Anything over £900 is what I would usually consider out of my personal budget for a creative laptop. But since getting comfortable with Copilot and discovering everything that this AI can do, l think the Galaxy Book4 Edge is worth every penny of its asking price.

It doesn't fall into budget-friendly territory or even student laptop or graduate tech categories, but if you're a creative freelancer or professional then you're seriously going to want to consider the Galaxy Book4 Edge or any AI laptop for that matter as an investment if you value your time and energy.

Should I buy the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge?

The decision is solely yours, but if you want my advice then yes. Absolutely. Especially if you're someone who already owns Samsung tech then this laptop is the cherry on top bringing together all of your devices into a creative hub. I would recommend this laptop for creatives who need a bit of help managing the work/life/play balance, and who maybe like to dabble in a bit of gaming, and require a laptop that can withstand performance-heavy creative software and background processing without struggle.

There aren't many other laptops out there that can do everything you need, including creative heavy and complex tasks, with the bonus of on-device AI and Snapdragon NPU performance to increase your productivity to its maximum, especially at this price point.

If you consider this laptop as an investment then I'm confident that it won't let you down. With that said, I haven't spent more than a few weeks using the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge, so I can't speak about its longevity or reliability in a year's time. I've found that Samsung products are typically extremely durable and non-obsolete, so I can't imagine the Galaxy Book4 Edge to be any different, especially with guarantees of security and software updates to keep devices up to scratch.

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The Verdict

9

out of 10

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge

If you're already a part of the Samsung ecosystem then there's no excuse for you not to invest in the Galaxy Book4 Edge. This AI-boosted laptop is a next-gen genius and an excellent tool for creatives to prioritise and speed up workflows. It has a powerful Snapdragon Elite X chip, a compact and slim build, it can link to your Android phone for seamless integration, and there's even a dedicated Copilot AI key on the keyboard for easy access to helpful tools and features.

Beth is Creative Bloq’s Ecommerce Writer. An avid music photographer and previous staff writer for Digital Camera World, Beth has a keen eye for content and knows just how to create it. Her background working as a tester for CeX has provided extensive knowledge surrounding the latest tech and gaming trends, and she studied Music Journalism too, so you'll probably find her at a gig. Basically, she's a total nerd with a Snorlax tattoo and a Master's degree in Photography, forever wishing she was Peter Parker.