Samsung Galaxy Book4 Pro and Book4 Pro 360: everyday test

Samsung has launched its new Galaxy Book lineup. I was able to test the Galaxy Book4 Pro and the Book4 Pro 360, and I’m showing how I, as a perfectly ordinary user, experienced the laptops in everyday use: what they can do, what they can’t, and whether they’re worth it at that price.

Book4 Pro or Book4 Pro 360?

The only difference: The Book4 Pro 360 is a convertible. You can fold the display back a full 360 degrees, and it comes with the S Pen. If you want to write on the laptop, sign documents or draw, you take the 360. Everyone else goes for the Book4 Pro, because all specs and features are otherwise identical.

Design and ports

The fourth-generation Galaxy Books are built to an extremely high standard throughout. The aluminum body is 1.2 cm slim, and the 14-inch Book4 Pro weighs only 1.2 kg and is easy to take along. The 16-inch version is a bit heavier, but still manageable in a backpack or handbag.

I was especially pleased with the ports:

• One side: HDMI for external monitors and two USB-C ports. There you can, for example, connect an external hard drive and charge at the same time.
• Other side: headphone jack, microSD slot and a USB-A port. I love that one, for USB sticks or my portable UV nail lamp.

Display

Samsung knows how to build displays, and here the motto was go big or go home. It has an OLED display with 3K resolution and 120 Hz that reflects less. According to Samsung, the built-in Vision Booster is supposed to suppress bright areas in direct sunlight and boost dark ones. All I can say is: in everyday use you get a crisply sharp display with great color. What’s new is that all models in the Book4 Pro series have a touch display.

I like the 16:10 format for movies and videos. I like the fat bottom bezel less, as if Samsung had first designed the body, then produced a matching display and noticed during assembly that it didn’t fit. That is complaining at a high level, the display is really great.

Keyboard, touchpad and webcam

I really like the keyboard: sturdily built, a nicely muted key feel, and the keys are clicky. The 16-inch version has a number pad on the right, and the large touchpad sits offset to the left under the letter area. If you have a little Monk inside you like I do, you’d better go for the 14-inch: it has no number pad, and the touchpad sits in the center.

The HD webcam could be better, but it is completely sufficient for video conferences. You can set a background blur effect and even have your own image softened. At work, I find that unnecessary.

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AI features missing

Samsung announced the Book4 Pro series as an AI Book, for example with the ability to use the smartphone wirelessly as a webcam and to continue work seamlessly from one device to another. So far, I haven’t found a single one of the announced AI features on the device, even though it has been on the market since February, so for almost two months. They are probably coming with an update. Shipping a device with AI as its marketing focus without a single one of the stated features is bold.

Performance

Both devices have the Intel Core Ultra 7 and Intel Arc graphics. That is a step up from the predecessor. I find it a pity that the Book4 Pro is only available with 16 GB of RAM, while the Book4 Pro 360 is also available with 32 GB. I produce 4K videos and could have used the performance.

Benchmarks usually have little to do with everyday performance. In everyday use, opening and closing programs, split view, Microsoft Office and video conferences in Teams, the Galaxy Book4 Pro is blazingly fast.

With 4K video editing, it’s different:

• Simple vacation videos with a few photos and music work without problems with the new Samsung Studio.
• Large 4K videos with several tracks are no longer suitable for it. In most of the editing programs I tried, the Book hits its limits and can’t be edited smoothly. With proxy files, so smaller preview files, the performance is really good again.
• Under high load, the fan makes itself clearly heard. I used to be a MacBook user, which has no fan. The fan blows so hard that I thought about using it to dry my hair in the morning. In the Samsung settings, there are performance modes: in the quiet or silent mode, the fan noise drops to almost zero, but so does the performance. In that mode, you no longer need to bother editing a video.

Configuration and price

The Galaxy Book4 Pro is available in only one configuration, with 512 GB of storage and 16 GB of RAM: €1,899 with 14 inches, €1,999 with 16 inches. The Book4 Pro 360 is available with 16 or 32 GB of RAM and 512 GB or 1 TB of storage. Overall, the prices are clearly too high. For comparison: the MacBook Air with M3 and 13.6 inches costs €1,759 in the same configuration. With manufacturers like Lenovo, too, you can get laptops in this configuration much cheaper.

Verdict

So why go for the Galaxy Book4 Pro? In my view, only if you are at home in the Samsung ecosystem and want to stay there. That ecosystem has grown in recent years and is no longer inferior to Apple’s. I suspect Samsung wants to be paid for it just like Apple. If you want to use your familiar Samsung apps on the laptop too, mirror your Galaxy smartphone and use the Galaxy tablet as a second screen, you get really cool features, but you have to pay accordingly.