Contents
Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely
professionals and cons
- Giant OLED contact display screen
- Excessive-performance laptop computer with discrete GPU
- Incredible battery life and effectivity.
- Helpful Samsung Options (If You Can Use Them)
- Giant bodily trackpad generates false inputs
- Notable quantity of bloatware/advertisements for the worth
ZDNET Shopping for Ideas
On the finish of the spring season laptop computer launches, Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely It shines with the most effective shows in the marketplace, now out there with touchscreen help, efficiency configuration choices that ought to fulfill content material creators, professional customers and even players, and battery life that can impress everybody.
The Extremely laptop computer nonetheless suffers comparable setbacks as its predecessor. what I attempted final 12 monthstogether with the big bodily trackpad that generally does not register keystrokes or turns into too delicate to inputs (the duality of this trackpad is kind of disconcerting, I do know), the shortage of a full-size SD card slot, and some too many proprietary apps. Samsung (learn: bloatware, when you’re not a Samsung consumer) and pop-up advertisements that should not be a subject of dialog at this value.
You possibly can count on to pay between $2,400 and $3,000 for the Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely, which is an enormous ask, however the efficiency and {hardware} bundle you get in return justifies the worth. My shopping for recommendation is to attend for one in every of Samsung’s gross sales occasions (often throughout main holidays) and reap the benefits of their trade-in program, which may deduct as much as $600 extra. For instance: You possibly can select the best configuration, which comes with an Intel Core Extremely 9, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, and 32GB of RAM, for instance. $500 off on the time of writing.
Specs
|
Present |
16-inch 3K AMOLED (2800 x 1800, 16:10) with 120 Hz, 400 nits |
|
Weight |
4.1 kilos |
|
Processor |
Intel Core Extremely 7 155H, Intel Core Extremely 9 185H |
|
Graphics |
Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 |
|
RAM/Storage |
16GB or 32GB with 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD |
|
Battery |
76Wh (as much as 21 hours) |
|
Ports |
2x Thunderbolt 4, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x USB-A 3.2, 1x MicroSD slot, 3.5m headphone jack |
|
Worth |
How I examined the Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely
I’ve used the Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely as my day by day driver for the previous two weeks. My regular utilization consists of searching the net, responding to emails, writing articles like this, watching movies on YouTube and Netflix, and enhancing pictures and movies for work and play.
The Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely is available in a new Moonstone Grey colour that appears quite a bit like final 12 months’s Graphite.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
More often than not, the laptop computer is related to an exterior monitor (which suggests I attempt to run as many utility home windows and providers concurrently doable) or used at the side of my Samsung Galaxy S24 Extremely with the assistance of Fast Share and Second Display screen. Each cross-platform options labored very effectively, though they’re primarily suitable with Samsung units and solely Samsung units.
For efficiency testing, I ran Cinebench 2024 to calculate single, multi-GPU, and laptop computer scores, whereas additionally taking notes on on a regular basis facets like fan pace and quantity, system temperature, energy drops, body charge and extra.
What are one of the best options of the Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely?
Giant, touch-sensitive OLED show: Do I must say extra? Once I reviewed final 12 months’s Galaxy Guide 3 Extremely, I discussed that “a shiny, touchscreen is a recipe for visible catastrophe.” With the Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely, Samsung mainly mentioned “Maintain my OLED” and supported the 16-inch touchscreen. and a brand new anti-reflective glass cowl. These two options make interacting with a laptop computer probably the most intuitive and visually satisfying experiences I’ve ever tried.
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Stretching a picture to erase blemishes in Photoshop is totally different when you’ll be able to zoom in along with your fingers. (Now if solely Samsung might add S Pen help.) Though the brand new Galaxy Guide display screen just isn’t as anti-glare as, for instance, Samsung’s S95D TV both Galaxy S24 ExtremelyI’ve had no issues utilizing it subsequent to the biggest window in ZDNET’s New York workplace. After all, we’re situated on the best ground of the constructing, so daylight is the second most frequent factor after uncomfortable elevator rides.
Spacious keyboard with shocking tactility: I am not as keen about keyboards as my ZDNET colleague Cesar Cadenas, however I write sufficient every single day to have an thought of what’s good and what’s not. That’s, I charge the Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely keyboard a 7/10; It is spacious, with a full numeric keypad for knowledge analyzers, a devoted Copilot key for fast entry to the Home windows AI assistant, and quiet however tactile suggestions on every key that invitations you to maintain typing and typing.
The keys are evenly spaced, with a numeric keypad, a Copilot key, and an influence button that additionally doubles as a fingerprint sensor.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
The laptop computer’s solely quirk is that it takes a worrying period of time as well up. I usually discovered myself staring on the display screen after urgent and holding the facility button, just for the Samsung brand to seem simply as I used to be prepared to achieve for a charger.
Not critically; The charger, which solely has a USB-C port, is large.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET
Battery life that lasts and lasts: That is my flawless Transfer on to charging and battery life, two different facets I am an enormous fan of concerning the Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely. Apart from the unwieldy, cheese-slice-sized charger that comes within the field, I haven’t got a lot to complain about on the subject of powering the laptop computer and its endurance.
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On common, I acquired about ten hours of use earlier than needing to recharge the gadget. That is spectacular for a 16-inch 3K OLED laptop computer that is powered by a discrete graphics card. When it wanted to cost, the proprietary energy brick gave the Galaxy Guide a 55% cost after half-hour.
Intel Core Extremely and discrete GPU make all distinction: You are not flawed to attribute the Galaxy Guide’s improved effectivity to the brand new Intel Core Extremely 7 or 9 chips that energy the unit. I might do the identical. Once you mix the backend capabilities of Intel’s NPU with a discrete Nvidia GeForce 4050/4070 GPU that is now not the most recent in the marketplace however remains to be wonderful, you get a system that runs most functions and providers easily, together with Adobe Premiere Professional, Lightroom and video games on Steam.
Listed here are the Cinebench scores, in comparison with competing laptops, for reference. Whereas the Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely’s scores will not set any data, they’re consistent with the trade commonplace and aggressive with Apple’s flagship MacBook, which is nice to see.
| Cinebanco 2024 |
Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely (RTX 4070) |
Apple MacBook Professional 16 (M3 Professional) |
Dell XPS 16 (2024) |
|
CPU (single) |
105 |
142 |
103 |
|
CPU (A number of) |
965 |
1,035 |
976 |
|
GPU |
8,135 |
6,604 |
10,264 |
What I want to see within the subsequent mannequin.
Much less bloatware and advertisements, extra options for everybody: For a virtually $3,000 laptop computer, the variety of pre-installed apps, pop-up advertisements to obtain McAfee’s antivirus service, and Samsung-only options detract from what would in any other case be a premium consumer expertise. This stuff are frequent on cheaper laptops as a result of they permit producers to dump a lot of the retail value. In Samsung’s case, you are charging extra for a laptop computer that has no qualms about promoting you providers you could or could not want. That is a no-no for me.
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A smaller haptic trackpad: If I might repair something {hardware} associated, it could be the trackpad. Whereas the Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely’s abnormally giant trackpad is helpful in principle, its off-center placement meant I ceaselessly moved the mouse or, worse, registered a click on when my palm merely rested down.
The trackpad can also be bodily, that means it presses down as an alternative of mimicking the feeling by haptic motors like within the MacBook Professional and Dell XPS. In consequence, after I wished to click on, drag, or faucet one thing, I needed to discover the “candy spot” on the trackpad to register it appropriately. In any other case, urgent too near the corners and edges would usually not register something in any respect.
Last thought
Though it’s straightforward to advocate the Samsung Galaxy Guide 4 Extremely Because the “MacBook Professional for Samsung customers,” a number of updates this 12 months, together with the Intel Core Extremely chip for AI functions, touchscreen show, and improved battery life, make the laptop computer a formidable alternative for nearly all MacBook Professional customers. Home windows. Simply remember that when you’re a content material creator who depends on full-size SD playing cards to switch pictures and movies, you may need to get one. dongle or docking station to work with the Galaxy Guide. There’s additionally no charging port on the appropriate facet of the laptop computer, so you may need to assume twice when inserting your self close to an outlet.