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00:00I'm sorry, look at the size of that touchpad.
00:04I feel like they built the laptop around it, and I actually kind of hate it.
00:09Okay, let's park that for a second.
00:12This is the brand new Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge, and it really is a stunning laptop.
00:17It's incredibly thin and light.
00:19We also have this gorgeous 120 hertz OLED screen, 16 inches, 3K resolution, and it's
00:24a touchscreen.
00:25Very, very nice.
00:26It has a 22 hours of battery, according to Samsung, and I'll be doing my own tests in
00:30a second.
00:31And this is powered by the Snapdragon X Elite.
00:34So this is one of the first wave of Snapdragon powered laptops.
00:38Not only that, but it's packing one of the most powerful versions of the X Elite.
00:42And in fact, just last week I reviewed this, the ASUS S15.
00:46For the nerds among you, this has the X1E78-100 chip.
00:50This has the X1E84-100 chip.
00:53Oh, hang on.
00:54This is future Tom jumping in here because I didn't realize until just now that the standard
00:59version of the 14 and the 16 comes with the slightly slower X1E80 chip.
01:05You can see the little chart here.
01:07It comes with this guy by default, which is still a little bit better than the one that
01:12you get in the VIVA book.
01:13The difference is that you get the dual core boost.
01:16However, you actually have to spec the one terabyte model of the 16 to get the higher
01:21end X1E84 chip, which adds a 0.4 gigahertz higher CPU clock speed, a 0.2 gigahertz higher
01:28dual core boost, but also significantly increase in the graphics performance.
01:33And that'll cost you an extra 200 pounds.
01:35It jumps from 15 to 17 for the 16 inch.
01:38Not available at all for the 14.
01:39Anyway, let's dive into the review of the Galaxy Book 4 Edge because there's a lot to
01:42talk about.
01:43And the first thing I want to mention is the battery life.
01:46Because I think for me and most of us who are considering these Snapdragon powered laptops,
01:50the promise of incredible battery life is kind of the main reason we want to buy one
01:53right now.
01:54Asus claims 17 hours for their VIVA book, Samsung say 22 hours, and Dell even reckon
01:59their new XPS 13 will get 27 hours.
02:02Now all these numbers are for local video playback, basically just watching a video
02:07on repeat that's been downloaded and stored onto the laptop.
02:10Not something most of us do that often.
02:12So instead I thought I'd run a nice little overnight YouTube battery rundown test because
02:16I figured that's a bit more, you know, relatable.
02:18People watching tech chat videos all night long until their laptop dies.
02:22People do that, right?
02:23Now, obviously the Samsung has a bigger screen, which will use more power.
02:27And despite the size difference, the VIVA book actually has the bigger battery here,
02:3070 watt hours versus 62, both of which would suggest the VIVA book would last longer.
02:36But from 100%, both set to 100 nits, watching YouTube in the Edge browser, the VIVA book
02:41lasts about 11 and a half hours.
02:43The Galaxy book, just shy of 14.
02:46And even better, standby life.
02:48Leaving this overnight, I only lost sort of between 1 and 2% of its charge.
02:53Very impressive battery life for a Windows laptop.
02:55Now, yes, my MacBook Air 15 inch M3 can last a little bit longer doing a similar test around
02:59sort of 15, 16 hours-ish, but not everyone wants a Mac.
03:02And the beauty of this is that we finally have some proper competition to Apple's lineup,
03:08which we just haven't had for years now since they introduced the M series chips.
03:11Even better, look at the size of this charger.
03:15This is the charger that, yes, is bundled in the box, unlike their phones.
03:19It's literally the same power brick, not even brick, what do you call it, wall connector
03:24plug that you'd get with a phone, that you could buy with your phone.
03:27My only complaint is that both the USB 4 ports are on the left side, along with the HDMI
03:332.1.
03:34And on the right side, we have the USB type A, micro SD, and the audio combo jack.
03:38So if I want to charge it, if I want to plug into an external display, I have to do it
03:42from the left side.
03:43It would have been handy to have another USB 4 on the right.
03:46Can we talk about this design for a second?
03:48Look at it.
03:49It is absolutely gorgeous.
03:50Now that is as far as it will go back, so you're not getting a 180 hinge.
03:54Can I open it with one finger?
03:55Yes, I can.
03:56Look at that.
03:57And actually, not too bad at all in terms of screen wobble.
04:00It's also incredibly thin and light.
04:02We're talking, I think, 12.3 millimeters at its thickest point, 10.9 for the 14 inch.
04:09So 1.55 kilograms, which is about 3.4 pounds.
04:12Not quite LG gram territory of light, but then I don't love the sort of magnesium alloy
04:17material they use on that.
04:18This is a full aluminum chassis all around, and it is gorgeous.
04:22I love the sapphire blue.
04:23And if we open it up, it definitely gives me kind of surface laptop vibes in this color
04:28with this sort of gray bluish keys.
04:30I also quite like the rounded corners of the bezel, although we do have a bit of a chunky
04:34chin here at the bottom.
04:36But what I don't like, what I really don't like, if I'm honest, is this trackpad.
04:42The size, for starters, it is comically huge.
04:45And everyone I've shown this to said, why is that so big?
04:48It looks kind of ridiculous.
04:50But the bigger issue, I can get over people laughing at me.
04:52They do that all the time.
04:53The bigger issue, if I can kind of demonstrate this, I actually have to bring my arms, what
04:57am I talking about, my hands from here to here to do the same typing, which means it
05:04ends up digging in to my forearm.
05:07And if you're wearing a watch, it's going to scratch and also sort of jerk your hand
05:11up a little bit on top of the palm rest.
05:15I just don't know what the benefit of it being this big is.
05:17And not only that, this doesn't have any sort of haptic feedback, and it's kind of a diving
05:21board design.
05:22So it's easier to click at the bottom than the top, which some people prefer over like
05:27a force feedback haptic trackpad.
05:29But personally, it feels just a little bit cheaper to me.
05:32Don't get me wrong.
05:33It is nice to use.
05:34It's smooth and responsive, and I absolutely love the keyboard on this.
05:37In fact, it's one of the nicest keyboards I've ever used.
05:41Really really tactile keys, well spaced, good travel, they feel responsive, and they squeeze
05:45in a little numpad on the side there.
05:47I think for me, this is actually the main reason I would probably go with the 14-inch.
05:51Not only do you save yourself £100, it's a little bit cheaper, but everything's just
05:54shrunk a little bit.
05:55It doesn't need to be this big Samsung.
05:57There's no reason for it.
05:58Push all this down, lose half an inch of this lower bezel, make the whole thing more compact,
06:03maybe even put some, you know, upward-firing speakers in.
06:06Speakers are pretty good, by the way, especially when you do turn on Dolby Atmos.
06:09A Deadpool and a Wolverine.
06:12Am I overreacting, or is this a bit dumb?
06:15Let me know what you think in the comments.
06:17Anyway, the power button at the top right here doubles as a fingerprint reader, although
06:21frustratingly we don't have any face unlocking.
06:23We do have this 1080p webcam at the top, and the quality is... it's okay.
06:29It's alright.
06:30So because this is a Snapdragon laptop, we get all the AI extras, including these Windows
06:34Studio effects.
06:35So I can turn on auto-framing, portrait light, eye contact, which I think is probably the
06:39most important one, background effects, creative filters.
06:42Yes, you can do this with other apps, but the point really of all the AI stuff is to
06:47be more efficient.
06:48So hand off stuff that normally the CPU or the GPU would do, run it through the MPU,
06:52which uses a lot less battery.
06:54But let's talk about this screen.
06:5516 inches, also 14-inch option, but they both share the same 3K resolution, 120Hz Dynamic
07:02AMOLED panel, and also they're both a touchscreen.
07:05It is a really lovely screen, and it hits a solid 500 nits of brightness in regular
07:09SDR use, and just shy of 700, around 675 in HDR, which actually is impressively bright
07:15for an OLED laptop.
07:18This is also an OLED 3K 120Hz screen on the VivoBook, and if I point them both towards
07:23my studio light, you can see...
07:25Stop turning on!
07:28If I can...
07:29Look at that.
07:30That's quite a significant difference, actually.
07:33It makes it much easier to use outdoors, or I don't know, if you're on a train or something
07:36where you've got bright lights above you in the office.
07:40Definitely like that.
07:41Let's talk about the performance, because that is a key deciding factor, especially
07:44as this is powered by the Snapdragon X Elite.
07:47And versus the VivoBook with that lower tier X Elite, it is notably faster in the order
07:52of 10 to 20%.
07:54And generally, this will either match or outperform the current Intel Ultra 7 155H.
08:00And from my tests and review of a couple laptops so far, I have been impressed by the performance
08:04of the X Elite.
08:05The only area where it does fall down a little bit compared to the competition, I would say,
08:08is in the graphics department.
08:10Intel and AMD's integrated GPUs, particularly AMD, is quite a bit faster here, but what
08:15we trade for maybe a little bit of performance in the graphics department, we kind of make
08:18up for both in the AI department, which actually isn't that useful right now.
08:23As I say, it's mostly towards just being more efficient, giving us better battery.
08:26Although, of course, being a Snapdragon laptop, these are the first Copilot Plus certified
08:31PC, so you get Windows Co-Create and Live Translation and also Recall when they actually
08:35launch it, because they recalled Recall.
08:37None of those things are essential.
08:39I think Live Translation is probably most useful.
08:49But also, and I think much more importantly, is that these run so much cooler and quieter
08:55than its Intel and AMD rivals.
08:57I had to put this in its high performance mode and then run games and benchmarks for
09:01the fans to actually wear up.
09:03Most of the time, it is absolutely silent.
09:05It's almost unquantifiable, but it's just such a nice quality of life to not have a
09:09laptop that just wears up and blasts its fan at you when it's opening a Chrome tab.
09:14But I suppose a little bit like Apple's iPads, which have, you know, like the M4 and the
09:18Pro's, great performance, but just not that well-utilized, or in this case, not that well-optimized
09:23in every application.
09:24They are getting better.
09:25A lot of big-name apps have been optimized and run really well on this.
09:29But if they haven't yet, then you're not going to get as good performance, you're not going
09:31to get as good battery life, and they simply might not even run at all.
09:34So I was actually just wrapping up my review of the Book 4 Edge, and Qualcomm reached out
09:38with a new driver update for the Adreno Graphics.
09:41Obviously, these laptops have only been out for a couple of weeks as I'm recording this,
09:45so it's actually really encouraging to see that already there are some big driver patches,
09:49and it offers performance improvements in Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve, a dozen or so games.
09:53It is still early days, and I think for most people, it could be best just to keep waiting
09:57a little bit more, see what the competitors come out with, see if we get better deals
10:01post-launch, and also just better drivers and app compatibility.
10:04But as I say, a couple of weeks in, big graphics update for games, and also just productivity
10:09tools.
10:10Very encouraging.
10:11But also, what makes this stand out compared to other Snapdragon-powered laptops is the
10:15Samsung ecosystem.
10:17Pretty much every ecosystem feature that you get with Apple, Samsung has their own version,
10:22whether it's quick share, screen sharing to your tablet.
10:24I also really like the fact that when you type in settings, there's actually two settings
10:29menus, with the first one being Samsung settings.
10:31And if you've used a Samsung tablet, Samsung phone, this will feel very familiar.
10:36You can go to battery and performance and put it to quiet or high performance mode.
10:40In the display menu, you can tap on this auto mode here and switch between sRGB, Adobe
10:44RGB, DCI-P3 color modes.
10:47And in the connected devices, you've got quick share, auto switch for your Galaxy Buds.
10:51And being in the Samsung ecosystem, you have access to smart things.
10:54So you can control your TV and washing machine.
10:56It's all very nice to use.
10:57And if you are in the Galaxy ecosystem with your phone and Galaxy Pods and maybe your
11:02TV or whatever, there is definitely a value add here.
11:05So how much for the Galaxy Book 4 Edge?
11:07Well, the 14-inch version will set you back £1,400.
11:11The 16-inch is £100 more, £1,500, which is a lot of money.
11:15But it's sort of MacBook 15-inch M3 money in that area.
11:18The main difference is between the 16 and the 14, and I don't know why I was moving
11:22that aside because I don't have the 14 with me.
11:24The main difference is, aside from being £100 cheaper, smaller screen, is the 14 is also
11:28a little bit thinner and lighter.
11:29Also, the 14 has a smaller battery, but otherwise, same specs, same 120Hz 3K AMOLED screen.
11:35And I think for me, as much as I do love a big screen, I would probably go with the 14-inch.
11:40Smaller trackpad, £100 cheaper, even more portable.
11:43But what do you reckon?
11:44Are you tempted to buy one of these or indeed any standard rugged powered laptop?
11:47Let me know what you make of them in the comments below.
11:49If you found this helpful, a cheeky like and subscribe would be fantastic.
11:52And I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Jab.
11:54Thanks for watching.