Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 14 brutally tries to copy the MacBook Air and fails on many fronts, the biggest of which is performance. It tries to shove a hot Intel processor into a tiny Chassy, which results in it massively underperforming the Air, and every other laptop we’ve tested with the same Intel processor is, in fact, priced around the same as the with the same configuration. There really isn’t any reason to buy this laptop over that one. That being said, if you are insistent on buying a premium Windows laptop for light use, yes, this one is viable, so here’s our full review.
Appearance
The Galaxy Book 4 looks very sleek and minimal. It’s fairly lightweight, around the same as the MacBook Air 3, but it’s not as light as the new ThinkPad X1 Carbon or MSI Prestige 13. so definitely portable, but not the lightest out there. Just like a MacBook, this laptop’s chassis is solidly built. There is no screen flex and minimal keyboard deck flex. The monsoon gray color is fingerprint-resistant. If you are using the touch screen, you’ll be pleased to know that the hinge is tight enough that the screen doesn’t fall back while you press on it.
Keyboard
The Galaxy Book 4’s keyboard feels similar to a MacBook Air. in that it feels precise, high quality, but a little low travel. The keyboard backlight is bright and illuminates all secondary functions well. You can see all keys clearly when the backlight is on. That is because the dark-colored keys contrast well with the light-colored backlight.
Display
The display of this laptop is stunning; it is a 14-inch, 2880 by 1800 AMOLED panel. According to Samsung, an AMOLED display is an advanced version of OLED that is thinner, lighter, and more flexible. The display has a variable refresh rate of either 60 or 120 HZ, and it is also very color-accurate with a wide color gamut. The display gets bright enough at over 400 nits and, surprisingly, has rounded corners. Other than that, there was no noticeable screen door effect, which is nice, as this is a common issue on many modern laptops with OLED panels.
Speakers
The speakers get loud enough, and there is a decent base for a laptop this size. but as a whole, the speakers just sound lifeless and flat. Overall, these laptop speakers are just not as good as those on a MacBook Air or other premium 14-inch laptops.
Performance
When it comes to performance, we’re actually going to start with light use. which is probably what most people are going to do on this laptop: browse the web, write Word documents, or that sort of thing. In this case, this laptop is snappy enough; However, it’s always a bit warm, which I found annoying, and the cooling fans are always running. They aren’t overly loud, but in a silent room, you can sometimes hear them. when it comes to high performance, using this laptop is really bad. We set the laptop to its highest performance mode, and compared it to its competitors, the Galaxy Book falls behind all of its. This includes the MSI Prestige 13 and the MacBook Air 13 with M3, which are both smaller and/or lighter. By the way, if you’re wondering why we haven’t been comparing this laptop to the MacBook Pro 14, it’s because that laptop costs a lot more than this one, and honestly, it completely annihilates it.
| Component | Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro 14 |
|---|---|
| Price | $1,449 |
| CPU | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H |
| GPU | Intel Arc integrated graphics |
| Screen | 14-inch, 2880 x 1800 AMOLED |
| RAM | 16GB DDR5 |
| Storage | 512GB SSD |
| Ports | 2x Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C), HDMI 2.1, USB-A 3.2, MicroSD, 3.5mm headphone jack |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 6e (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Camera | 1080p webcam |
| Weight | 1.23kg / 2.71lb |
| Dimensions | 312.3 x 223.8 x 11.6 mm (12.30 x 8.81 x 0.46 inches) |
Battery
You will be able to get full performance out of the laptop when on battery. To test battery life, we ran Cinebench on a loop for 30 minutes. This laptop actually performs surprisingly well. 68% battery remaining; this is especially good given its smaller 63-watt hour battery. but it performed worse than Apple’s MacBook Air, which has an even smaller battery. To test a more realistic use case, we played a Netflix movie on repeat over Wi-Fi for 4 hours. The Galaxy Book again performed well, with 69% of the of the battery remaining. but once again, it was beaten by the MacBook Air with its smaller battery.
Conclusion
The Samsung Galaxy Book 4 is a laptop that has been designed to be sold rather than used. Samsung has clearly focused on the things that in-store shoppers will definitely notice. a stunning display, a compact, high-quality chassis, and the inclusion of all the latest components. But when it comes to using this laptop, its performance and functionality just fall short. For the same price, the MacBook Air with M3 is just much better and is the laptop that you should buy.
