It’s been a very long time since I’ve used a laptop computer with a display screen bigger than 13 or 14 inches for any size of time. It is so refreshing to have the room to unfold my apps out … even when the machine now not matches in my backpack. Perhaps with the ability to suit your bag underneath the seat in entrance of you is overrated.
In comparison with the cavalcade of 13- and 14-inch laptops that cross my desk, the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Ultra, with its 16-inch touchscreen (2,880 x 1,800 pixels), is a behemoth. Weighing in at 3.9 kilos (however solely 19 mm thick), it has a heft that’s backed up by its top-shelf specs, which embody 32 GB of RAM, a 1-terabyte SSD, and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card. The centerpiece is the brand new Intel Core Extremely 9 185H processor, the present top-of-the-line processor in Intel’s Core Extremely CPU lineup.
As benchmarks go, the Galaxy Book4 ran rings round all the opposite Core Extremely laptops I’ve examined in the previous few weeks for the reason that new chips launched, although none of these had an Extremely 9 or a discrete graphics processor. On some CPU-based checks, the system doubled up on the efficiency of the Lenovo X1 Carbon, and on graphics-based checks, I used to be repeatedly capable of get three to 5 instances the body charges I noticed on machines that used the Core Extremely built-in graphics processor. The Book4 is actually credible to be used as a gaming rig if desired. Plus with 12 hours and 43 minutes of battery life, as examined by way of my full-screen YouTube rundown check, you needn’t fret about being away from an outlet all day.
The bigger chassis offers Samsung room to squeeze a numeric keypad into the image, although I longed for full-size arrow keys when working with the machine. The responsive keyboard is paired with one of many largest touchpads I’ve ever seen on a laptop computer. At 6 x 4 inches, it’s significantly larger than a normal passport—arguably too huge, as there’s barely room on the left aspect of the touchpad on your palms to relaxation. I typically disliked working with this touchpad, as I discovered it each missed clicks and inadvertently registered unintended faucets a lot too typically.