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Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: one of the best Pro laptops around just got better

5:05 pm | November 7, 2024

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Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) : Two-minute review

Apple's MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 is the full package, a near-perfect blend of price, performance, and utility. The M4 is the base edition of the newest and most powerful generation of Apple silicon (it's the same chip that's already running in the iPad Pro 13-inch) but it's still bursting with power, and more than capable of doing most of the heavy-lifting you want from a pro-level portable machine, as ready to edit raw photos and 4K video as it is to stand in as an able gaming console.

I've long been a fan of the MacBook Pro design, especially since Apple refined it by removing the Touch Bar, a neat innovation that never reached its full potential. My M4 Pro review unit, supplied by Apple, is a sleek-looking Space Black that's both elegant and wonderfully functional. The Magic Keyboard is still a typing gem, and I love the massive trackpad and all that space for resting my hands. And the stereo speakers that straddle the keyboard deliver powerful, crisp, and clear audio that could provide the soundtrack for your party in a pinch.

When I think about the reasons why you'd buy an M4 14-inch Mac Pro over the cheaper M3-running MacBook Air, the list is smaller than when I've compared the Pro and Air options previously, but there are a handful of standout features that make this MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024) a near-perfect choice.

Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024) REVIEW — (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

For starters, you have the ports. Where the Air tops out at a Thunderbolt 3 port, you get a trio of speedy Thunderbolt 4 ports with the MacBook Pro (you'll need to upgrade to the M4 Pro model for Thunderbolt 5). You also gain the SD card slot, an instant bonus for photo and video professionals. The larger body and ever-efficient 3-nanometer system-on-a-chip (SoC) means a promised 24 hours of battery life – for a Pro-level system, that's unheard of. Naturally, real-world usage times varied widely in my testing based on activity (AAA gaming can quickly eat up battery).

The biggest difference between Air and Pro might be the display. This Liquid Retina XDR is an inch larger than the MacBook Air's, and it offers a nano-texture option (an extra $150 / £150 / AU$230), something I highly recommend for cutting down on reflections in almost any situation.

With the MacBook Pro 14-inch M4, Apple has created a pro-grade portable that impresses in every respect. It joins Apple's pantheon of outstanding laptops, and is set to take a well-deserved place at or near the top of our best laptops rankings.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Price and availability

Starts at $1,599 / £2,149 / AU$3,199
Nano-texture (which you want) will run you another $150 / £150 / AU$230

Apple unveiled the M4 MacBook Pro 14-inch on October 30, along with the new MacBook Pro 16-inch, Mac mini, and iMac. All these new Macs are running variations of Apple's M4 silicon.

Pricing for the M4 MacBook Pro 14-inch starts at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499 for the base configuration, which comes with the standard M4 chip and 16GB of unified memory. If you want the M4 Pro chip, pricing starts at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,299, while the M4 Max model starts at $2,399 / £2,399 / AU$3,999.

My Space Black review unit is the base model (10-core M4, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage) but with one key enhancement: the aforementioned nano-texture Liquid Retina XDR display coating, which costs an extra $150 / £150 / AU$230.

Value score: 4/5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Specs

The MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) comes in three main configurations: our test unit, the base M4; a pair featuring the M4 Pro chip with options of 16- or 20-core GPU and up to 1TB storage; and at the high end, the M4 Max model, which offers one configuration with a 14-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 32GB of unified memory, and 1TB of SSD.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Design

Virtually the same design as the previous model
All the key ports you need
Fantastic screen

Over the last few years I've become an unabashed fan of Apple's increasingly iconic laptop design. Where competitors often try different and sometimes odd design flourishes, Apple carefully peeled away all but what matters, leaving a MacBook Pro that looks and feels as if it was carved from a couple of pieces of 100% recycled black aluminum. Nothing feels like, or works like, it was left to chance. That impression starts when you put your finger under the lip of the display and flip open the clamshell to reveal the screen and keyboard. That hinge is as sure as it gets, offering the perfect blend of tension and smooth movement.

At 3.4lbs / 1.55kg. the MacBook Pro 14 M4 is not the lightest laptop or even the lightest MacBook. The excellent MacBook Air holds that distinction, and if you prize portability over power you might be reading the wrong review. On the other hand, the MacBook Pro 14 is by no means heavy (the 16-inch MacBook Pro, by contrast, weighs nearly 5lbs / 2.27kg).

Folded close, the MacBook Pro 14 is just 0.61 inches tall, 12.3 inches wide, and 8.71 inches deep. It slips into my backpack and, even though I'm used to carrying the M3 MacBook Air, I mostly forget it's there.

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Apple hasn't adjusted the ports since the M2 MacBook Pro, which is fine with me. We still have the HDMI-out port if you want to extend your display to a giant, high-resolution screen. Next to that is one of the three Thunderbolt 4 ports and an SD card slot, which I used to transfer some raw images from my DSLR. On the opposite side is the MagSafe charge port, two Thunderbolt 4 (40Gb/s) ports, and the 3.5mm headphone, although I generally connect my AirPods Pros 2 for audio. If you need Thunderbolt 5's 120Gb/s throughput speeds you'll want to upgrade to an M4 Pro chip.

The full-sized backlit Magic Keyboard is a pleasure to use (I'm composing this review on it), with ample travel and a satisfying typing feel. It includes the arrow keys and a full line of function keys. On the right side of that is the Touch ID power and sleep button. During setup, it took me a few moments to register my index finger which I now use to unlock the laptop and log into some online services. Below the keyboard is the massive, nearly 6-inch diagonal, and very responsive Forcetouch trackpad.

One of the benefits of a larger laptop is that Apple can fit a pair of speaker grilles on either side of the keyboard. They provide fantastic sound, especially when playing spatial audio (try Territory on Netflix).

The system features a pair of four-inch vents, one on each side. You usually won't hear the fan until you play AAA games or run benchmarks.

Design score: 5/5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Display

It's gorgeous
Better brightness for SDR
The coating you want

While it might look like Apple left the Liquid Retina XDR display from the M2 MacBook Pro untouched, there are a couple of noteworthy differences. But let's start with what's the same.

It's still the same mini-LED technology offering a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and one billion colors with a P3 wide color and ProMotion with up to 120Hz refresh rate. The resolution is still nearly 4K at 3096 x 1964 pixels. However, Apple has boosted the brightness a bit, with SDR content now getting up to 1,000 nits. HDR still gets a peak brightness of 1600. These numbers primarily matter outdoors, where you might be battling back the sunshine, and I found that the display was quite effective at remaining viewable and usable in direct sunlight. I attribute this, however, only in part to the heightened SDR nit capabilities.

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My screen came with the optional nano-texture coating. This adds a fine texture across the entire screen that's meant to diffuse direct sunlight (the MacBook Pro comes with a special cloth for cleaning the screen). It costs an extra $150 / £150 / AU$230, but it's transformative technology. Not only does it effectively kill outdoor reflections, it also transforms how streaming and gaming content looks on the display. No more desk and overhead lamp bulbs peaking into the frame. No more window light killing your gaming groove. I honestly wonder why all laptops, Macs and otherwise, do not come with this texture. It's a game-changer.

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Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 nano texture — The nano texture helps make the screen viewable in direct sunlight. (Image credit: Future / Lance Ulanoff)

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The 14.2-inch screen is big enough for lots of side-by-side app work. It's the perfect canvas for photo editing in Adobe Lightroom and video work in FinalCut Pro. but is also well suited to lighter productivity (like my efforts to write this review), email, and web browsing. It's not a touch screen because Apple refuses to bring that technology to Macs, even as the touch-friendly iPad Pro becomes more and more Mac-like. The trackpad is large enough that I don't miss touching a screen (as I did for years for Microsoft Surface Pro) but I can't help but wonder how a MacBook Pro with a touch, and Apple Pencil-friendly, display would alter the way we use this laptop.

The other display change relates less to what you'll see on the Liquid Retina XDR panel and more to how others will see you through it. Apple has upgraded the FaceTime camera, which sits at the top of the display in a cutout notch, with a 12MP ultrawide that supports its Center Stage technology. Center Stage takes the full 12MP ultrawide frame and narrows the viewport so that you are always centered in the frame. It doesn't matter if you lean left or right or get up and walk around the room, Center Stage will follow. It's a useful feature in FaceTime – I tested it on a call with my wife who wondered why I kept moving around – and also on Zoom, where it worked well but was not useful in a broadcast video situation, so I turned it off. Center Stage did not work for me in Google Meet, where I conduct most of my video meetings.

Display score: 4.5/5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Performance

M4 has the Pro power most need
macOS Sequoia is flexible and easy to use
AAA gaming on a Mac is real

Benchmarks

Here’s how the MacBook Pro 14-inch (2024) performed in our suite of TechRadar and Future Labs benchmark tests:

Cinebench R23 CPU: Single-Core: 2,180 Multi-Core: 13773
Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core: 3,845; Multi-Core: 15,136
Geekbench AI: Single: 4,764 Half Precision: 7,837 ; Quantized Score: 6.357

PugentBench Photoshop: 10,542
PugentBench Premier Pro: 4,618
Blender: Monster: 115.8; Junkshop: 73.17; Classroom: 188.1
Battery Life (web site surfing rundown): 18 hours and 31 minutes

The last time we reviewed a 14-inch MacBook Pro, it was running an M2 Pro. The base M4 inside my test unit has similar but not equal specs. It's still a 10-core CPU, but where the M2 Pro had a 16-core GPU, the M4 starts with 10 cores. However the M2 chips were all built on a 5-nanometer process, and the M4 line is on the more efficient three nanometers, which could lead to a better combination of power and efficiency.

The Neural Engine, which handles a lot of onboard machine learning and AI tasks, still has the same 16 cores.

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Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 FPS test — The FPS ranged from low 40s to mid 60s on Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Image credit: Future)

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Apple is now backing all of its new Macs with at least 16GB of RAM. This pays dividends in AI (Apple Intelligence is on board) and graphically intense operations like ray tracing, which helps make games like Lies of P look incredible on the MacBook Pro 14.

In benchmark testing, I found the numbers in line with the M4 performance I saw from the iPad Pro 13 inch. Geekbench 6.3 numbers measurably exceed those of the M3 in my MacBook Air.

When I played Shadow of the Tomb Radar, Steam's internal frames per second counter showed I got anywhere between 42fps and 62fps. To my eyes, there was no tearing or dropped frames.

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Numbers only tell you so much, and what matters most is real-world experience. I did do a fair amount of gaming on this MacBook Pro. As I noted above, the nano-texture screen makes games look amazing. In my Lies of P sessions (I connected an X Box controller via Bluetooth), I took note of the rich atmospherics, from rain to fire, and the level of detail that never descended into unwatchable blurs. Gaming on the MacBook Pro benefits from macOS Sequoia's Game Mode, which prioritizes gaming tasks for truly smooth and responsive performance.

In FinalCut Pro, I edited four 4K 30fps streams at once, which played back smoothly in full-screen preview. However, when I tried the same thing with four 4K 120fps video clips shot on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, full-screen playback started dropping frames – an on-screen message confirmed this. It was one of the rare times I found the limits of Apple silicon.

Editing raw photos in Adobe Lightroom is a breeze. It's also worth noting that I rarely shut down other apps while I performed these operations, and as I noted earlier, the only times I heard the fans were during console-grade gameplay and Cinebench 23 benchmarking.

Keep in mind that my tests were all with the base M4 Apple silicon; imagine what you can expect from the M4 Pro and M4 Max.

Connectivity is mostly what you would expect, with support for Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E. I am a bit disappointed, though, that Apple didn't future-proof the laptop a bit with Wi-Fi 7 support.

Performance score: 5/5

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Software

macOS 15.1
Some Apple Intelligence

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macOS Sequoia (macOS 15.1) has a lot to offer. There's the new Passwords app, which gives you a full-blown application for managing your passwords, and there's the updated Notes, which can now transcribe recordings. It's not as good as the transcription in Voice Recorder on Android (it doesn't identify multiple speakers) but it's still useful.

There are now Highlights in Safari that can take a 3,000-word-plus New Yorker article and boil it down to a one-paragraph summary. I worry that loses the nuance of such a piece, but if you're in a hurry...

There's also iPhone Mirroring, which lets you access and control your iPhone from the MacBook Pro. It's supposed to be useful when you don't have access to your iPhone (maybe it's just in another room), and I found it easy to connect an iPhone 16 Pro and then have a virtual version of the iPhone on my MacBook Pro 14 desktop. What's even wilder is how I can control the phone from the desktop system. I can message, browse the web, and even drag and drop between the desktop and the iPhone interface. I did notice that while I can open the iPhone camera, I cannot use the MacBook Pro 14 to take a picture with the phone.

Apple Intelligence is here within macOS 15.1, in the form of a redesigned Siri that supports Type to Siri and which can be dragged around the desktop. I found that I could ask Siri how to do things with the MacBook Pro, like find my Wi-Fi settings and opening an app like Notes.

Apple Intelligence puts email summaries at the top of email, and the writing tools are embedded throughout the system. In Notes, I asked the Writing Tools to rewrite my lengthy meeting notes. It did a really good job of boiling it all down to a concise bullet list, which I could also easily undo. This could be very useful.

This is not all of Apple Intelligence. There's no Image Playground for instance, but that will show up with macOS 15.2, possibly by early December.

A taste of AI

During my testing, I did install the macOS 15.2 Developer Beta so that I could get a sample of this MacBook Pro 14 M4's Apple Intelligence capabilities. Because this update is not intended for the public, my thoughts on this dev beta were not considered as part of my final software, performance and overall review score.

First, I was excited to see Clean Up now inside of the Photos app. It works just as it does in iOS 18 on the iPhone, and was useful for removing some unwanted items from my photos.

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Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024) Apple Intelligence — (Image credit: Lance Ulanoff)

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ChatGPT's Siri integration, which I had to enable, is quite smooth, and looks and works as if it's a part of Siri. I used it in the Type to Siri mode, entering my prompt about how to create a goods presentation. The answer I got from ChatGPT through Siri was solid.

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Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024) ChatGPT Siri integration. — (Image credit: Future)

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Image Playground, the generative AI image tool which lives in an adorable kitty app icon in the Dock, is also part of this beta, but it's still gated by an invite and, as I write this, I still await mine.

Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Battery life

Rated for 24-hour video streaming
Lasted more than 18 hours in our tests
Battery life is dependent on activity

The MacBook Pro 14 M4 is, according to Apple's promises, perhaps the first truly all-day laptop, rated to last up to 24 hours on a charge. Naturally, that's if you do nothing but stream seasons 1 through 3 of Stranger Things. Once you start adding in activities like web browsing, and emailing, Slack, gaming, and photo and video editing, those numbers change.

In our Future Labs tests, we found that we could get 18.5 hours of web browsing, which is two hours more than Apple is promising. Once I started gaming, though, battery life took a fast tumble; the system is clearly hard at work rendering the exquisite detail in Lies of P. I heard the fans going full-blast, and noticed the bottom of the laptop got quite warm. My advice is if you want to use the MacBook Pro 14 M4 as a gaming rig, keep the included 70W charger and woven USB-C to MagSafe cable close by.

Speaking of that charger; when I drained the system to zero, I was able to use it to recharge the MacBook Pro 14 M4 to 43% in 30 minutes. That's a bit less than the 50% I was expecting. To fully recharge, it took more than an hour.

I've had incredible battery experiences with the MacBook Air and its M3 chip. I can already see that, in normal use, the MacBook Pro 14 M4 is a sun-up-to-sun-down kind of system. That's impressive, and a big win for Pro fans.

Battery score: 4.5 / 5

Should you buy the Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024)?

Buy it if...

You want portable power without breaking the bank
The MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) is a good blend of performance, portability, and reasonable price.

You want sunrise-to-sunset battery life
You can easily get a day of activity with the power-sipping system

You’re Team Apple
There are great benefits to adding a MacBook when you already have an iPhone and an Apple account.

Don't buy it if...

You want the ultimate performance
This is a baseline M4, but the new MacBook Pro comes in M4 flavors that run up to the new M4 Max and a 16-inch display.

You need a touch screen
No MacBook offers it. Try an iPad or a Surface Pro.

You have a 2024 MacBook Pro
Apple hasn't redesigned the MacBook Pro, and the M2 and M4 performance numbers are not that far apart.

MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 (2024) review: Also consider

If our Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024) review leaves you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

Apple MacBook Air (M3, 2022)
The follow-up to one of the best laptops ever released, the 2022 MacBook Air is svelte and sleek, with a larger screen and the same outstanding battery life. If you want a MacBook, but don't need the power of the MacBook Pro 14-inch, this is the one to get.

Check out our Apple MacBook Air (M2, 2022) review

Dell XPS 13 Plus
Its sleek and slim design, combined with a gorgeous OLED screen, great sound quality, and lattice-free keyboard embodies the luxury inherent of an Ultrabook. However, it’s also prone to overheating, and the touch bar is annoyingly inaccessible.

Read more: Dell XPS 13 Plus review

How I tested the Apple MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024)

I spent more than a week with the MacBook Pro 14 M4 (2024)
I used it as an everyday productivity, creativity, and entertainment device
I ran benchmarks

Apple provided me with the base MacBook Pro 14 M4 system, and I used it every day to test and help craft this review. I set it up as a work system, and as one for production and play. I used it indoors and outdoors.

Two-minute review

The new Mac mini (M4, 2024) doesn’t just prove that good things come in small packages – it also confirms the old adage that good things come to those who wait.

That’s because ever since Apple’s rather strange decision to debut the M4 chip in the iPad Pro in early 2024, myself – and I’m sure other Mac fans – have been not-so-patiently waiting for Apple devices that can take full advantage of the M4 chip (as good as the iPad Pro is, you can only run iPadOS apps on it – which by their very nature are not that demanding).

The fact that Apple has launched a new Mac mini that not only comes with the new M4 chip (or the more powerful M4 Pro), but has redesigned it to be smaller than ever – while also keeping the price of entry the same – is incredibly exciting. In my review of the Mac mini (2023), I gave a rare five stars and called it the best mini PC you can buy, and even before the launch I was banging on about how any rumored new Mac mini for 2024 would be more exciting than new MacBooks.

Now that I’ve actually got the Mac mini (M4, 2024) in my hands (and on my desk), I’m pleased to say that I’ve not been disappointed, and once again the Mac mini is the most affordable way to get into the Mac ecosystem, while also proving that if you’re looking for a small form factor desktop PC, there’s not a single Windows 11 PC out there that can even come close.

Perhaps the best news (apart from the mere fact that the M4 Mac mini exists) is that Apple has kept the price of the base model at just $599 / £599 / AU$999, a welcome decision that—combined with the new design and improved specs—means the Mac mini is now better value than ever. If you’ve been keen to join the macOS ecosystem but can’t afford a MacBook or iMac, then the Mac mini remains an excellent choice.

Mac mini M4 in studio — (Image credit: Future)

For people after even more power, there’s an M4 Pro model as well that costs $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,199. Both models come with 16GB unified memory as standard (double the amount as the previous model), and will receive Apple Intelligence AI features as they are rolled out.

Not only do you get the latest slice of Apple Silicon with the new Mac mini, but it has also had a major redesign – its biggest in over a decade – making it more compact than ever. It’s seriously impressive how small the new Mac mini is, and it makes placing it in any room of your home (or office) easier than ever. Thanks to two USB-C ports at the front, the Mac mini (M4, 2024) is an ideal mini PC for your front room – especially as gaming is a renewed focus for Apple. This could be the closest we ever come to an Apple games console – and with a price tag below the PS5 Pro, this could be the start of a resurgence for Mac gaming.

From my time with the Mac mini I was incredibly impressed with the performance of this tiny PC. The latest version of macOS, Sequoia, ran smoothly, and even advanced tasks such as video editing were handled with ease – and the Mac mini kept virtually silent throughout. The model I reviewed is the M4 version, and to be honest it performed so well for all the tasks I used it for that I would recommend this model over the far more expensive M4 Pro iteration.

So, Apple has done it again: it’s released the best small form factor PC in the world, and I can’t see Windows 11 or Linux alternatives coming close to the build quality, performance and value for money of the new Mac mini for a long, long time. If ever.

Mac mini (M4, 2024) (M4 Pro, 2024) review: Price and availability

Starts at $599 / £599 / AU$999
Same price as M2 model
M4 Pro model much more expensive at $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,199

When the Mac mini (M4, 2024) was announced and pre-orders went live on October 29, 2024, one of the most pleasant surprises was that the base M4 model comes with the same price tag as the M2 model - starting at $599 / £599 / AU$999.

The M2 Mac mini already represented excellent value for money – it would be extremely difficult to find a compact Windows 11 PC at that price range that offered the same level of performance – so the fact that you’re getting an upgrade in both performance and design for no extra cost is something to applaud – though if you recently bought an M2 Mac mini, you might feel a bit aggrieved.

The M4 chip inside the Mac mini is the same as the one in much more expensive devices, including the iPad Pro (starting at $1,299 / £1,299 / AU $2,199), iMac ($1,299 / £1,299 / AU$1,999) and 14-inch MacBook Pro ($1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499). Sure, with the Mac mini you don’t get a screen, nor do you have the ability to work on it while traveling, but offering the same amount of power for around half the price still represents incredible value for money.

The M4 chip features up to a 10-core CPU (4 performance cores and 6 efficiency cores) and a 10-core GPU, up from the 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU of the base M3 chip (Apple never released a Mac mini with the M3, it should be noted), and supports up to 38 trillion operations per second (TOPS) in its 16-core neural engine (Apple's version of an NPU) - so when Apple Intelligence, the company’s generative AI (artificial intelligence) feature does come to macOS, the M4 Mac mini will be more than prepared.

It’s not just the M4 chip that brings a performance upgrade, as the base model now comes with 16GB of unified memory, twice that of the M2 Mac mini’s base model. Not only does this mean the new Mac mini is much better at multitasking (as there’s more memory to support multiple apps running at once), but it’s also more future-proof.

You can also get the new Mac mini with the more powerful M4 Pro chip, which starts at $1,399 / £1,399 / AU$2,199. That’s quite a price jump, and while the M4 Pro is certainly a promising bit of silicon on paper, it’ll have to really outperform the M4 to justify the price difference.

We’ve been sent the M4 version to review, and for the majority of people, that should be more than capable enough for the kind of tasks they’ll need this tiny PC to perform. Having the M4 Pro option is nice, despite the price hike, as you are getting a seriously powerful PC in a tiny and almost silent form factor.

There was also a brief moment between Apple announcing the new Mac mini and it revealing the new MacBook Pros with M4 Pro where the M4 Pro Mac mini was arguably the most powerful Mac device ever. Remarkable.

Value score: 5/5

Mac mini (M4, 2024): Specs

Mac mini (M4, 2024): Design

Brilliant, smaller design
Front USB-C ports are welcome
Power button placement is a bit awkward

The Mac mini (M4, 2024) has received its biggest redesign since arguably 2011, and it’s now what Apple calls its “smallest computer ever”.

Where the previous model had dimensions of 197 x 197 x 35.8 mm (7.75 x 7.75 x 1.41 inches), the new Mac mini (M4, 2024) measures just 127 x 127 mm x 50 mm (5 x 5 x 2 inches). When taking it out of the box, it’s seriously impressive how small it is, easily fitting in the palm of your hand. Placing it on top of the M2 model, the older Mac mini looked big and bulky – something I’d never have imagined, as that was an impressively small bit of kit when it launched.

The new Mac mini is a bit taller than the older models, but if that’s the sacrifice that had to be made in order to shrink the overall footprint of the PC, while packing it with the latest tech, then it’s one I’m happy with. It’ll easily fit behind a monitor, and even in front of a screen, it’s unobtrusive enough that you’ll hardly notice it. Its small size also means you can plug it into your TV and it won’t look out of place in your lounge. For anyone holding out for an Apple games console, the Mac mini (M4, 2024) could end up being as close as you’re going to get.

As if to prove that the new Mac mini can be just as at home in a lounge as in an office or studio, it now comes with two USB-C ports at the front, alongside a headphone jack for easy access.

New Mac mini M4 in a studio — (Image credit: Future)

At the rear there’s a power port (impressively, despite the tiny size, there’s no bulky external PSU), an Ethernet port and an HDMI that’s capable of up to 8K at 60Hz, or 4K at 240Hz.

There are also three additional USB-C ports. While the front USB-C ports are limited to USB 3 speeds (10Gb/s), the three on the back are much faster. With the M4 model, the rear ports are Thunderbolt 4, with speeds of up to 40Gb/s. If you go for the M4 Pro model, those are upgraded to Thunderbolt 5, with speeds of up to 120Gb/s.

While it’s a shame that the front USB-C ports are slower than the rear ones, if you’re mainly using them for plugging in and charging peripherals, they’ll be fine, leaving the rear ports for tasks that need faster data transfer speeds – such as external hard drives or additional screens.

While the new design is a triumph on the whole, one element of the redesign has caused controversy – the placement of the power button. Rather than being on the rear right-hand corner of the Mac mini, as with previous models, it is now located on the bottom of the Mac mini by the rear left-hand corner. While the Mac mini is raised from the surface you place it on by a circular air vent bottom-center of the PC, you still need to lift it up to reach the button. As the new Mac mini is so small and light, and there are no moving parts inside, this isn’t too much of a problem, though if you’ve placed the Mac mini in a TV cabinet or somewhere where it’s hard to reach, it could be frustrating.

There are workarounds – you could just put the Mac mini to sleep rather than shutting it down, and waking it up by moving the mouse or tapping the keyboard, but even Macs need to be fully powered down every now and again. You could also use the Wake-on-LAN feature of macOS, which allows you to turn on the Mac mini by sending a command over the internet, though again you’ll need the Mac mini to be asleep, not fully turned off.

It’s certainly not the end of the world, but it’s not one of Apple’s better design choices. Placing the power button on the top or front of the Mac mini might ruin the aesthetics, but would have been easier to reach – or even having the power button still on the bottom, but on one of the front corners would have helped.

The new Mac mini only comes with the device itself and a power cord. Any other cables or peripherals will need to be bought separately (though if you’ve already got, say, an HDMI cable and a mouse and keyboard, then that shouldn’t be too much of a burden).

If you need peripherals to go with the Mac mini you can buy the Magic Keyboard for $99 / £99 / AU$149, the Magic Trackpad for $129 / £129 / AU$209, and the Magic Mouse for $79 / £79 / AU$149. These have had slight design changes as they now use the universal USB-C cable to plug in and charge, rather than Apple’s proprietary Lightning cable, which is good to see.

Sadly, Apple didn’t take the opportunity to move the charging port of the Magic Mouse – it’s still located at the bottom of the mouse, which is a baffling design choice as it means when you plug it in to charge you can’t continue using it.

Of course, you don’t need these new peripherals as any Mac-compatible mouse or keyboard (which is any mouse or keyboard, basically) will work – though there’s no full-size USB A port anymore, so if those peripherals aren’t USB-C or Bluetooth, then you might need to buy an adapter.

Design score: 4.5/5

Mac mini (M4, 2024) review: Performance

Excellent performance
Virtually silent
Can even play some games

Once upon a time I was rather worried that Apple had fallen out of love with Macs, and especially the Mac mini, as the company seemed far more enamored with its iPhone and iPads, leaving its Macs to make do with incremental hardware updates within increasingly outdated designs.

Then Apple dumped Intel and made its own chips, starting with the M1 in 2020, and my doubts have pretty much vanished, as every major Mac device has not only been upgraded to an M-series chip, but they’ve also had noticeable redesigns as well, proving that Apple is committed to its Mac lineup. So, it’s with some relief that the Mac mini has not just got the latest M4 (and M4 Pro) chips, but also a major redesign as well, as it’s likely to be one of Apple’s more niche products.

It shouldn’t be – since getting M-Series chips, the Mac mini has become the best small form factor PC you can buy. Small PCs with either Windows 11 or Linux simply cannot match the build quality, performance, and price of Apple’s tiny machine, and with the M4 chip, that gap has become even wider.

Along with the 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU of the M4, the chip contains 28 billion transistors, up from 25 billion in the M3, but is still built on the same 3nm process node from TSMC, so a generational leap is out of the question.

In synthetic benchmarks there’s around a 20% increase in CPU performance when using Geekbench 6, though GPU performance upticks are more modest, with between 5% - 14% increases in benchmarks.

While any increase is always welcome, those kind of numbers mean if you have an M3 Mac mini, you won’t really see any major differences in performance, so upgrading might not be worth it (unless you absolutely have to have the smaller design of the newer Mac mini, which I wouldn’t blame you for).

Where things do get interesting when comparing performance between the M3 and M4 Mac mini is when it comes to AI – both artificial intelligence and Apple Intelligence. With the M4, Apple has included another 16-core Neural Engine dedicated to machine learning and AI tasks, and in AI benchmarks the results are pretty remarkable, with around a 35% increase in performance over the M3. Whether or not Apple Intelligence, or AI in general, will usher in the computing revolution we’ve been promised by many manufacturers has yet to be seen, but at the very least you know that if you buy an M4 Mac mini (or any M4 device), you’ll be in good stead should you wish to use future AI tools.

According to Apple, the M4 chip is capable of 38 TOPS - that's 38,000,000,000,000 operations per second – which is incredibly impressive and means on-device AI tasks should run well. However, the Snapdragon X Elite, like the M4 an ARM-based chip built for Windows 11 devices, offers 45 TOPS. That difference in operations per second isn’t huge, and it might not even be noticeable, especially when comparing Windows 11’s Copilot AI tool to Apple Intelligence, but it’s worth noting.

Apple Intelligence is introduced to Macs in macOS Sequoia 15.1 – and you’ll need to update the new Mac mini to get that version – thankfully, it’s quick and easy process.

The model I review here is the Mac mini with M4 chip, 16GB of unified memory, and a 512GB SSD. For day-to-day tasks, where I used the Mac mini for writing this review, browsing the web and general admin, it worked brilliantly. The operating system – macOS Sequoia – booted quickly, and every app I used loaded speedily and ran smoothly.

We’re now four years on from when Apple made the major move from Intel-based hardware to ARM-based, and that has allowed pretty much every major Mac application to make the move as well. This means it’s now very rare to have to use Apple’s Rosetta 2 tool, which allows apps made for Intel Macs to run on modern Apple Silicon Macs. That tool was essential in the early M1 days, and it meant you could still run your apps with minimal impact to performance.

Now that almost every Mac app, including those from third parties, runs natively on Apple Silicon means they can fully take advantage of the power of the M4 chip (though Steam, the popular store and launcher for PC games, still requires Rosetta to run).

Benchmarks

Here’s how the Mac mini (M4, 2024) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Cinebench 2024 CPU: Single-Core: 161; Multi-Core: 833
Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core: 3,838; Multi-Core: 14,838
Blender: Monster: 391; Junkshop: 187.6; Classroom: 185.2

One of the best things about Apple’s M-class chips is that the company has made a big commitment to making them as power-efficient as possible, and while this might benefit MacBooks more, as it means they can enjoy longer battery lives, the Mac mini also benefits, as the more efficient M4 chip runs cooler, which allowed Apple to shrink the body of the Mac mini – and it also means the built-in fans that are used to expel hot air when the components are being used rarely kick in. For almost all of my time using the new Mac mini, it was virtually silent. This is great when using it in an office or studio, and it also makes it an ideal mini PC for the front room.

Even when switching to more intensive tasks, such as editing videos in Adobe Premiere Pro, the Mac mini kept pace brilliantly as I added 4K footage and scrolled between scenes. When it comes to gaming, the Mac mini (M4, 2024) was surprisingly good – on high graphical settings, it ran Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 44fps, well above the 30fps I consider to be minimum for a game to be playable, and with a bit of tweaking I think you’d get to 60fps.

Running Total War: Warhammer 3 at Ultra scored just 22.1fps, however. This game is more strenuous on the CPU rather than the GPU, though when I set the visual settings to low it hit 55.4fps. These are modern and ambitious games, so for a compact PC that’s not designed for gaming at this price, that performance is pretty darn great, and you have access to a huge library of Mac games through Steam and other platforms. Throughout playing, the Mac mini remained completely silent.

While the M4 model isn’t going to trouble the PS5 Pro any time soon when it comes to playing games, the fact that such a small device can still give a decent experience is pretty cool, and I assume the M4 Pro model is an even more competent gaming device, though for the price that is a lot steeper than any console - and even many gaming laptops.

Apple has also made a big deal about the M4 chip and its AI abilities, and from my tests it's... fine. Apple Intelligence is in its infancy, so I could not try out all the features that are coming, but I was able to edit a photo in the included Photos app and use the AI-powered Clean Up feature to remove elements from a photo. It worked as well as you might expect these early AI features to perform - it was quick and easy to do, but the background the AI generates in order for the objects you select (by painting over them with a brush) left mistakes and errors that mean it's far from perfect, and you can easily tell AI has been used.

From the AI tools so far, they are interesting yet not essential - bascially the same problem many AI tools have at the moment. For the Mac mini's part, it performed those AI feats all on-device, and they were done quickly and speedily. This is an area where I can see the Mac mini improving.

Performance score: 4.5/5

Mac mini (M4, 2024): Should you buy it?

Buy it if…

You want an affordable Mac
This is the cheapest way to get into the Mac ecosystem, and it's worth every cent thanks to excellent performance and a gorgeous design.

You're looking for a mini PC
Put simply, if you want a small form factor PC, this is the one to get. No Windows 11 mini PC can come close.

You've been waiting for an Apple console
Thanks to its compact size, you can easily fit this below (or behind) a TV, and it does a decent job of playing games, though the M4 Pro model may offer a better experience with modern titles.

Don’t buy it if…

You want a gaming PC
While you can play a growing library of Mac-compatible games, if you want to play the latest titles at high definitions and graphical settings whacked up to the max, buy a dedicated gaming PC instead.

You like to tinker and upgrade your PCs
Due to the size, and Apple's general disdain for allowing its customers to open up their devices, this is not a PC you can upgrade yourself. A barebones mini PC like a NUC will be much better.

First reviewed November 2024

Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024): power refined

5:00 pm |

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Macbooks | Tags: Australia, UK, US | Comments: Off

Two-minute review

Apple’s new MacBook Pro 16-inch isn’t a revolutionary release like the new, smaller, Mac mini (M4, 2024), and instead is more of a specs refresh for the company’s most powerful laptop.

So, you don’t get any new design tweaks with the new model – but you do get the very latest M4-series chips which represent the pinnacle of Apple’s mobile hardware.

This is good news for people who are looking for an incredibly powerful workstation laptop that offers exceptional build quality and the kind of performance that many desktop PCs would struggle to achieve. For those of us who have been waiting for the M4 chip to show up in a device that can take full advantage of its power (this year’s iPad Pro, which debuted the M4 chip, is limited by running iPadOS, an operating system designed for tablets, with rather basic apps to match), the 16-inch MacBook Pro Apple announced in October 2024 could be just what you’ve been waiting for – though there are caveats.

Both of the new 16-inch and 14-inch MacBook Pros feature, for the first time, the M4 Pro and M4 Max (depending on configuration), which are even more powerful versions of the M4 – which has already proved to be a powerful chip in its own right. The model Apple sent me to review comes with the M4 Pro, a chip with up to a 14-core CPU consisting of up to 10 performance cores and four efficiency cores, and a GPU with up to 20 cores (twice that of the base M4 chip).

While this isn’t the most powerful Apple chip (the M4 Max comes with a CPU with up to 16-cores, featuring 12 performance cores and four efficiency cores, and a GPU with 40 cores), the M4 Pro will likely be more than enough for people who want a laptop that can handle professional tasks such as code compilation, 3D animation and video editing.

For people who just want a laptop for browsing the web, creating documents, and editing home movies and photos, this will be complete overkill. As the core balance of the M4 Pro shows, with more performance cores than efficiency ones, Apple’s focus with the new 16-inch MacBook Pro is all about extreme performance (the chip will switch between cores depending on the kind of task you’re doing – if you want a lot of power, the performance cores are used, for lighter use, the efficiency cores kick in).

16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro chip in a studio being used — (Image credit: Future)

This means unless you’re a creative professional, the 16-inch MacBook Pro (M4 Pro, 2024) really won’t be for you. And, with a starting price of $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999 for the base configuration, which comes with the M4 Pro chip and 24GB of unified memory, this is the kind of investment that you should think very carefully about. That’s even more true of the M4 Max model, which starts at $3,499 / £3,499 / AU$5,699. Sure, you’re getting one of the most powerful laptops in the world for that price, but if you’re not going to need that kind of power, you’ll just be wasting money.

If you’re the kind of person who needs the very latest and most powerful hardware you might also be tempted – but don’t forget that it’s very likely we’ll see an M5 model next year. Should you buy the new MacBook Pro 16-inch, however, you should be confident in the knowledge that you’ll not need to upgrade again for a very long time.

For anyone hoping for a major redesign, then you will be disappointed. One thing I’ll say in Apple’s defense here is that the current design of the MacBook Pro 16-inch is pretty great – there’s not much I’d actually change about it. Even though the screen isn’t OLED (rumors suggest we could see that in 2026), the Liquid Retina XDR screen remains one of the finest you can get in a laptop – and there is at least a new nanotexture coating option that reduces reflections and screen glare, which will be welcome for people looking to use the new MacBook Pro out in daylight, or in brightly lit offices or studios – though this does come at an extra cost.

So, once again Apple has created an absolutely phenomenal laptop… that I can’t really recommend to everyone. If you’re a creative professional who is looking for a portable workstation to chew through some seriously taxing tasks, then this could be an excellent investment that could even save you money in the long run (with projects completing faster, you can take on more clients, and you won't need to buy a new laptop for many, many years).

That said, if you own an M2 Pro or M3 Pro model, the M4 Pro doesn’t offer enough of a performance leap to justify buying a new MacBook Pro just yet. The best move in that case would be to wait a few more years. If the M6 Pro MacBook Pro in 2026 does indeed come with a major redesign, then an upgrade is more justifiable, as the performance improvements should also be more noticeable. This isn’t a knock on the M4 Pro – it’s just that the M2 Pro and M3 Pro are just so good, you really shouldn’t feel like you need to upgrade just yet.

If you don’t need the kind of power that the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) offers, then I strongly recommend you look at the 15-inch MacBook Air (M3, 2024) instead, which is far more affordable, offers excellent performance and is all wrapped up in Apple’s iconic build quality and design.

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review: Price and availability

Starts at $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999
Same price in US as M3 model
Cheaper in UK and Australia than M3 model

It should come as no surprise that the new MacBook Pro 16-inch is a very expensive laptop. This is a workstation designed for professional use and packed with some of the most powerful and cutting-edge mobile technology you can get, along with a gorgeous and expansive 16-inch screen.

Still, with a starting price of $2,499 / £2,499 / AU$3,999 for the M4 Pro model with 24GB of unified memory, this is one heck of an investment and one that should be carefully considered.

As with previous MacBook Pros, there’s scope to configure the 16-inch MacBook Pro before you buy by adding more memory and a larger SSD (up to 128GB of memory and 8TB of SSD storage with some models), but the price rises exponentially. You can also get a base model with the more powerful M4 Max chip, which starts at $3,499 / £3,499 / AU$5,699, and again you can up the memory and storage.

You can also add a nano-texture display which reduces reflections and screen glare, which may prove very helpful for people who work in industries where graphics are essential (such as photography, digital arts, and filmmaking), but this is also an additional cost – it’ll add $150 / £150 / AU$230 to an already high price tag.

Interestingly, while the base model of the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) remains the same price as the M3 Pro and M2 Pro models launched at in the US ($2,499), in both the UK and Australia the new M4 Pro base model is actually slightly cheaper by £100 and AU$300.

If you want something more affordable, your options are limited. There’s no 16-inch MacBook Pro with the base M4 chip – you’ll have to go for the 14-inch MacBook Pro for that. The smaller model, which starts at $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,499 for a configuration with the M4 chip and 16GB of unified memory now occupies the space the now obsolete 13-inch MacBook Pro used to – a more affordable pro device with more modest specifications for people who want more power than a MacBook Air can provide, but without costing the sort of astronomical figures that high-end MacBook Pros demand.

The 14-inch model with M4 Pro starts at $1,999 / £1,999 / AU$3,299, so if you want to save $500 and don’t mind a smaller screen (the rest of the specs are the same as the 16-inch model), then this is worth considering.

Compared to Windows 11 alternatives, there’s the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8, which costs around $1,000 / £1,000, and offers some decent specs and a solid build quality, and a gorgeous screen – plus it’s a 2-in-1 laptop which you won’t get with any MacBook.

Other Windows 11 workstations offering similar performance are around the MacBook Pro’s price, such as the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED, which comes with a second screen built above the keyboard (think the Touch Bar, but much larger). While this could also be dismissed as a gimmick, both Asus and Lenovo show that Windows 11 laptops have a far larger variety of form factors and designs.

Value score: 3.5/5

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024): Specs

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024): Design

No new design
Screen remains one of the best in a laptop
Awkward to use when commuting

Once again, Apple has kept the design of the MacBook Pro unchanged – so from first glance you won’t really notice any difference. It’s still got the rather chunky dimensions of 14.01 x 9.77 x 0.66 inches (356 x 248 x 17mm) and a weight of 4.7 lbs and 2.2kg. While it’s a stylish-looking laptop with that unmistakable Apple aesthetic, this is a large laptop that a lot of people might struggle with.

Whilst writing this review on the MacBook Pro 16-inch, I traveled into London on the train, and the sheer size of the laptop made using it on the drop-down desk quite awkward – it certainly made me miss my 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The size of the MacBook Pro 16-inch is understandable, as there are a lot of powerful components that need plenty of airflow to keep cool, and the large screen also means the overall size of the laptop needs to be on the bigger side. But if you’re looking for a portable laptop you can whip out while commuting, you may be better off looking at the 14-inch model, or going with a MacBook Air.

That said, when walking around with the MacBook Pro in my backpack, it didn’t feel uncomfortably heavy – and the 16-inch screen really is a joy to work on.

Superficially, port selection for the 16-inch MacBook Pro seems the same, with a MagSafe 3 port for attaching the power supply, two USB-C ports, and 3.5mm headphone jack on the left-hand side, and a USB-C port, HDMI and SDXC memory card slot on the right.

This is a decent selection of ports, though not mind-blowing. The memory card slot continues to be a welcome inclusion for photographers and videographers, as you won’t need an adaptor, and the HDMI port makes plugging the 16-inch MacBook Pro into a monitor, TV, or projector incredibly easy. The lack of USB-A ports means if you have older peripherals you’ll need an adapter to use them.

On the surface the ports may seem the same, but Apple’s made quite a drastic change with the USB-C ports, which are now all Thunderbolt 5 compatible. This offers far faster data transfer speeds (up to 120Gb/s) than the Thunderbolt 4 ports included in the previous model (which offered up to 40Gb/s). While Thunderbolt 5 devices are currently few and far between (and quite expensive), it does set the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) up as a future-proof device – and if you work with very large files, this new standard will be very welcome.

On the other hand, if you’re perfectly happy with the speeds your current USB-C SSD offers, then it’ll work just as well with the new MacBook Pro, and Thunderbolt 5 is backward compatible.

The 16-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display remains the same (with mini-LED, 1,000 nits sustained brightness, wide color P3 gamut, ProMotion technology) as previous models. The screen offers a sharp image quality thanks to its 7.7 million pixels, resulting in a pixel density of 254ppi (pixels per inch). However, you can now configure the new MacBook Pro 16-inch to come with a nano-texture surface, which gives the screen a matte quality that minimizes reflections and glare.

The model of MacBook Pro that Apple sent me to test came with that nano-texture surface, and in the bright overhead lights of our London office, the effect was subtle yet pleasant – there was no glare or reflections, and I can imagine outside in direct sunlight the MacBook Pro 16-inch is just as comfortable to use (as it’s October and I’m in the UK, direct sunlight isn’t really a thing).

Whether or not it’s worth the extra $150/£150/AU$230 will really depend on personal taste and professional needs. While the nano-texture isn’t an upgrade that will immediately wow you, it can be useful if you work in bright environments. You might also feel that when spending the kind of money Apple is asking for the new MacBook, an extra $150 isn’t too egregious – and remember, once you’ve bought the MacBook Pro, you won’t be able to add the nano-texture.

This leads to an ongoing complaint about Apple devices. While there’s no doubt they look great, they are very difficult – if not impossible – to open up and repair. Upgrading components is also out of the question. While the fact that the unified memory is part of the M4 chip, so adding additional memory isn’t possible, it’d be nice to be able to add extra internal storage, for example.

Of course, this has never been the way Apple does things, but when even its competitors like Microsoft are getting better at allowing users to upgrade and fix their devices, Apple is increasingly out of touch – and the difficulty fixing a faulty MacBook Pro sits uneasily with Apple’s eco-friendly messaging in other departments.

There’s one final change to the design of the new MacBook Pro 16-inch that people might miss at first – but it’s a doozy. The webcam has been overhauled with a new 12MP ultra-wide sensor. Using the Center Stage feature, the MacBook Pro crops footage and uses machine learning to keep you centered on the screen – even if you move about. This is the first time Center Stage has been added to a MacBook – in the past the feature has been limited to iPads and the Studio Display monitor.

It works well, and while it’s far from essential if you sit still when on video calls, it’s nice to see it included in a MacBook. Even more impressive is the Desk View feature, which allows you to simultaneously record footage of yourself as normal, while also recording footage of your desk.

For tutorials, unboxing videos, and more it’s a nice feature and it’s very clever how the webcam captures the footage at the same time using a single camera – usually, you’d need to use two separate cameras for the different angles. This solution is easy and elegant, and while the quality of the footage won’t compare to using two external cameras, it’s a cool feature to have.

Overall the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) design doesn’t contain many surprises, but the ones it does are pretty nifty. If you’re after a more innovative laptop design, however, then you may still be disappointed.

Design score: 4/5

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review: Performance

Not a massive leap over M3 Pro
Still very impressive performance
Handles even the most intensive tasks well

Unlike the 14-inch model, there’s no base M4 option with the 16-inch MacBook Pro, making the M4 Pro-toting model the ‘entry level’ choice. It features a 14-core CPU with 10 performance cores four efficiency cores, and a 20-core GPU.

The base model also comes with 24GB of unified memory with a bandwidth of 273GB/s, and you can configure it to come with 48GB (though you’ll need to up the M4 Pro chip to the model with a 16-core CPU).

If you go for the M4 Max, that starts at 36GB of memory and can be configured with 48GB, 64GB, and 128GB. Memory bandwidth is also increased to 410GB/s for the 14-core CPU M4 Max and an absolutely huge 546GB/s bandwidth for the 16-core CPU model.

Putting jargon aside, any model of this year’s MacBook Pro 16-inch is going to offer excellent performance for pretty much any task. According to Apple’s own numbers (which should obviously be taken with a degree of salt), you should see around two to three times the performance of an Intel MacBook and double that of the M1 Pro MacBook. The gap between the M3 Pro and M4 Pro is less pronounced, which considering the M3 Pro only came out last year, is not too surprising.

Benchmarks

Here’s how the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

Cinebench 2024 GPU: 9,122
Cinebench 2024 CPU: Single-Core: 175; Multi-Core: 1,688
Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core: 3,956; Multi-Core: 23,030
Blender: Monster: 873.2; Junkshop: 470.9; Classroom: 420.5
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 21 hours and 32 minutes

The model of 16-inch MacBook Pro Apple sent me to review is the version with a 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, and 48GB memory – so essentially the mid-range model.

In our benchmark tests, the M4 Pro MacBook Pro saw a decent bump in numbers compared to an M3 Max model, such as in Geekbench 6, where the multi-core score was 23,030 compared to the M3 Max’s 21,345. Not a groundbreaking difference, admittedly, but it shows a reliable increase in performance between generations. I certainly wouldn’t recommend anyone with an M3 Pro MacBook Pro – or even an M2 Pro – shelling out to upgrade to the M4 Pro model based on these results.

Of course, synthetic benchmarks only tell a part of the story, and in my time using the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024), I was extremely impressed with the overall performance. macOS Sequoia ran fast and smooth, and there was no sign of lag or slowdown even when I had several apps open at once (including the Chrome web browser with almost 20 tabs open).

The new MacBook Pro 16-inch, as with previous models, is pretty overkill for day-to-day tasks. Still, it’s good to see those essential tasks performed so effortlessly – and there was not a single crash or error during my time using it – something I can’t always say about similarly-priced Windows 11 devices.

Apple’s complete control over both the software and hardware of MacBooks has again paid dividends, and even if you don’t like the way the company does some things, there’s no denying that it often results in extremely polished and dependable products – like the new MacBook Pro.

For more demanding tasks such as video editing, the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) again barely broke a sweat as I stitched together 4K footage in Premiere Pro. To be honest, to really make use of the power of the M4 Pro – let alone the much more powerful M4 Max – you’re going to need to be a professional filmmaker or 3D animator working on Pixar-quality productions. Everything I threw at it barely gave the new MacBook Pro pause.

Of course, this is a great thing – it’s a workstation laptop that can rival pretty much any desktop PC and can handle even the hardest workloads. But then, there’s always that nagging feeling that you’re not making the most of it. It’s a strange contradiction that in the end is a testament to what Apple continues to achieve with its M-class chips.

Throughout my time, the fans barely kicked in, so while Apple’s focus with the M4 Pro is more about performance than efficiency, this is still a very efficient machine that is virtually silent when in use.

Performance score: 5/5

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review: Battery life

Over 21 hours in benchmark test
Slightly shorter than previous model
M4 Pro focuses on performance over efficiency

Ever since switching from Intel chips to its own M-class silicon, Apple’s MacBooks have benefited from industry-leading battery lives. While Windows 11 laptops are slowly catching up (especially ones with the new Snapdragon X Elite chip, which like the M4 Pro is ARM-based), if you want a laptop that can go through an entire workday without charging (and isn’t a basic Chromebook), then modern MacBooks are the way to go—and the new 16-inch MacBook Pro is no exception.

Thanks to a combination of the efficient M4 Pro chip and a larger body that allows Apple to include a bigger battery, the 16-inch MacBook Pro offers one of the longest battery lives of any MacBook or Windows laptop.

In our tests, it lasted a huge 21 hours and 32 minutes – an absolutely incredible result that suggests you could go multiple workdays on a single charge. However, it didn’t quite match the battery life of the M3 Max 16-inch MacBook that I reviewed last year, which lasted for 24 hours and 35 minutes in similar circumstances, but that could be down to the M4 Pro’s emphasis on performance over efficiency.

Still, it’s an incredible result considering the power on offer. I worked on the M4 Pro model for an entire train journey from Bath to London (around an hour and a half – England really is quite a small country), and the battery levels hardly dipped. It’s a workstation laptop that you can feel confident working on without having to search for a power supply, and when on battery power, it doesn’t feel like performance is sacrificed either.

Battery life score: 5/5

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024): Should you buy it?

Buy it if…

You need a powerful workstation for heavy duty creative tasks
The MacBook Pro 16-inch with M4 Pro is one of the most powerful laptops out there, and will make short work of even the most demanding tasks.

You haven’t got an Apple Silicon Mac yet
If you’ve not experienced Apple’s M-series chips the new 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro is a brilliant showcase of why Apple Silicon has proved to be so revolutionary for not just MacBooks, but laptops as a whole.

You want a laptop that can go multiple days without charging
The battery life of the new MacBook Pro 16-inch can last almost an entire day of constant use - and that means you could work on it for multiple work days on a single charge.

Don’t buy it if…

You don’t need ultra-performance
While it can be tempting to go for the highest of the high-end when buying a laptop, the MacBook Pro 16-inch is a big investment - and it offers a level of performance that most people simply won’t need - go for an M3 MacBook Air or the new Mac mini M4 instead.

You want a compact laptop
The MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) is a large laptop, and while that has its benefits (bigger battery, nice large screen to work on), it’s a bit too big to work on when commuting or traveling.

You have an M3 Pro or M2 Pro MacBook
The M4 Pro is an upgrade over its predecessors, but not enough to make owners of the past two generations of MacBook Pro need to upgrade - they remain excellent laptops that continue to perform brilliantly.

MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) review: Also consider

If our Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro) review has you considering other options, here are two more laptops to consider...

MacBook Pro 14-inch M4 Pro 16GB
If you like the sound of the M4 Pro-powered 16-inch MacBook Pro, but are worried that the screen (and overall size of the laptop) is too large, then check out the 14-inch model, which offers similar performance but in a smaller (and slightly cheaper) package.
Check out our MacBook Pro 14-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review

MacBook Air 15-inch (M3)
After a large-screen MacBook but don't need the power, and can't afford, the 16-inch MacBook Pro? Then consider the 15-inch MacBook Air. The M3 chip remains a great performer, and it's a lot less expensive, yet still offers that Apple build quality and design.
Check out our MacBook Air 15-inch (M3) review

How I tested the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro)

Spent several days testing and using the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro)
Ran our suite of benchmark tests
Used it to work while commuting

Ever since I received the new MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024), I've been using it as my main laptop for working on. This included day-to-day tasks, such as writing up articles in Microsoft Word and sending emails, as well as browsing the web in both Chrome and Safari (with multiple tabs open) - both at a desk in an office, and on a train travelling between cities.

I’ve been testing MacBooks for many years at TechRadar, including all the previous MacBook Pro 16-inch models, including the Intel-based one, and that experience has helped inform this review.

First reviewed November 2024

Mous Day backpack: a lightweight but still impressively protective tech-friendly backpack

7:23 pm | October 10, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Comments: Off

Mous Day backpack one-minute review

The Mous Day Backpack is the brand’s latest addition to its newest line of products – tech-first backpacks – and it’s a fantastic option for commuters who also want a bag that’s both relatively rugged and stylish.

Whether you’re a tech fanatic or simply in need of a solid backpack to get you to and from work with your laptop, the best backpack should be lightweight while still offering solid protection, keeping your back cool on busy public transport, but also displaying some stylish flair. I’ve been using the Mous 25L backpack for about a year now, and it’s been a real boon for traveling. Unfortunately, though, it’s just a bit too bulky and heavy for day-to-day use – so I was thrilled to learn the brand was introducing the slightly smaller 20L Day Backpack that’s a bit lighter at just 1kg.

Priced at $149.99 / £149.99 / roughly AU$240, the Mous Day Backpack arrives in four color options: Sage (green), Marine (blue), Stone (gray) and Midnight (black). I opted for the Sage colorway, which with its contrasting gray accents, offers a stylish yet understated finish.

Mous Day backpack on a sofa — (Image credit: Future)

The materials are all water-resistant (420D recycled nylon and coated 600D polyester), meaning any contents will be protected from light rain and showers. The bag has an adjustable, sewn-in strap with a minimum strap length of 22 inches / 56cm and a max of 32.67 inches / 83cm, plus the back panel is padded to offer a comfortable experience all day long; however, this does mean it can get a little hot.

The Day Backpack’s greatest asset is its inclusion of nine compartments – although, of course, this doesn’t compare to its older sibling’s seventeen. You’ll find three on the outside, two zipped compartments on the outside of the case (one on its right-hand side at the front, and the other at the back), plus a water bottle pouch.

Open up the G-hook lid fastening and unzip its central base-to-lid YKK zip to reveal the main bag and the remaining compartments; two sleeves and a zipped pocket with two slip pockets sewn in. According to Mous, the laptop sleeve, which is the back-most pocket, is 14.9 x 11.6in / 380mm x 295mm (H x W), while the tablet pocket is 13.38 x 10.4in / 340mm x 265mm.

To protect your kit further, the bag has an elevated base, meaning that the edge of your device remains 1.18in / 30mm above ground, offering some drop and impact protection. However, unlike the Mous 25L backpack, there’s no AiroFoam, meaning extreme drops could still pose a risk of damage to any tech within – so no launching this bag down any stairwells.

The zip, it appears, isn’t for everyone. Personally, I love it – not having to rummage around from the neck of my backpack to the bottom every time I need to find my charger or whatever other odds and ends I’ve haphazardly launched into my bag is a huge boon.

However, whenever I opened my backpack on public transport, people looked on with a mix of horror and amazement as I practically gutted my bag. Among my friends and colleagues, there was a similar mix of intrigue, enthusiasm and disturbance – but most agreed that, at the very least, it’s a useful mechanism and that the discrete lining concealing it also retains the backpack’s overall stylish appearance. It will come down to personal taste, but I love it.

In my experience, the only slight design flaw is that, when more full, the Day Backpack’s embedded side panel magnets aren’t strong enough to snap the lip of the lid closed tightly, meaning that if the bag tips over, it’s possible smaller or loose contents may spill out. That’s only happened to me once, and in fairness, I was really pushing that 20L capacity to its limits – but it’s worth highlighting.

Mous 25L backpack: Specs

Should you buy the Mous Day backpack?

Buy it if...

You need a tech-focused commuting backpack, but not necessarily a rugged one

Rugged protection is often above and beyond what the average tech-fanatic will need, but if you still want some of the thoughtful design and protection inclusions, the Mous Day Backpack is an excellent choice.

You want both form and function from your backpack

In all four color options, the Mous Day Backpack is chic and simple, while still offering great functionality thanks to its nine compartments.

You hate rummaging around in your bag

While drawing and quartering your backpack may feel a little odd at first, the full-length zip is an excellent addition if you often find yourself fishing around for loose items in your bag.

Don't buy it if...

You want to regularly fill it to the brim

Personally, I don’t trust the magnets and lid to fully protect all of my kit from slipping out of the sides when it’s full, so I’d say the capacity of the bag is more like 18L than 20L.

Mous Day backpack: Also consider

How I tested the Mous Day backpack

I used the Mous Day backpack for a month
I made several long-haul journeys, as well as everyday trips, with it
I dropped it with my laptop inside... more times than I'd like to admit

I used the Mous Day 20L backpack for a month as my main commuting backpack, as well as my main travel bag for conferences and creative getaways. Inside, I stashed my laptop, iPad, various cables, headphones – name a gadget, it was in there – and I found its protections and compartments to be robust and useful.

During testing, I encountered various weather conditions from heatwaves to torrential rain, meaning I was able to test the bag’s environmental protections, too. To test its capacity and utility, I filled it with 2-3 days' worth of clothes while travelling, which is roughly the amount I’d expect a 20L backpack to be able to hold.

First reviewed October 2024

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition review: all AMD, but is it any good?

11:02 pm | October 4, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Tags: AMD, Total War | Comments: Off

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition: Two-minute review

ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Gaming Advantage Edition gaming laptop resting on a countertop with lid open — (Image credit: Future / Jeremy Laird)

Asus has gone with all-AMD hardware build for its new Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (FA617XS) gaming laptop. As an Asus TUF model, that probably makes sense. After all, TUF is Asus's more accessible gaming brand.

Despite that, the specs and hardware look good. You get AMD's excellent Phoenix APU with eight Zen 4 CPU cores, plus AMD's latest entry-level mobile GPU, the AMD Radeon RX 7600S.

Screen-wise, it's an expansive 16-inch IPS panel with 240Hz refresh and 2,560 by 1,600 pixels. It's a really punchy, crisp, and responsive display and definitely one of the highlights of this Asus lappie. Along with those headline features, there's 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD.

As for build quality, the base unit is all plastic but very sturdy with the exception of a whiff of flex just above the keyboard bed. Meanwhile the screen lid is alloy and lush to the touch. All told, it feels exactly like what it is, the slightly more affordable option from a premium brand.

The same goes for performance. For the most part, it's about on par with an RTX 4060 laptop in games. The proviso, of course, is that applies to conventional raster games. Enable ray tracing and the Nvidia GPU will have quite the edge. Nvidia graphics also offers superior scaling and frame generation technology.

It's worth noting that AMD's Smart Access Graphics tech which switches between the integrated and dedicated graphics can be slightly flakey. Still, the APU makes for fantastic battery life for web browsing and movies of well over 10 hours.

So, this is a pretty nice machine overall. But the more highly you value the gaming experience, the harder it is to ignore the obvious-for-a-reason Nvidia RTX 4060 options among our best gaming laptop options.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition: Price and availability

How much does it cost? £949.99
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the UK (other configurations available in the US and Australia)

The Asus TUF A16 FA617XS is currently only being offered in the UK for just under £950, but you can find some of the other configurations in the US and Australia for around the $1,000 range (closer to $2,000 AUD).

It's not a bad price for the overall specifications, build and performance. The only problem is that you can get similar laptops with Nvidia RTX 4060 graphics for only slightly more money, such as the Acer Predator Helios 16 and HP Victus 16. That's probably where we'd spend our cash.

Value: 4 / 5

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition: Specs

The Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition FA617XS comes in just one configuration (though the TUF A16 Gaming Advantage line has four configurations to choose from).

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition: Design

Solid build
Decent materials
Slim bezels

Asus has gone with its signature TUF design language, which means fairly gamery without being overtly adolescent. The Asus TUF A16 FA617XS's screen lid is made from lush alloy, which is a nice touch, while the rest of the system is hewn from sturdy plastic, including a particularly tough textured bottom cover.

The keyboard is smooth and tactile with a nice solid bed. The only exception is a whiff of flex in the top cover, just above the keyboard. The trackpad is nice and big, too, with a super-slick surface - it's nice to use. Incidentally, the keyboard is limited to white backlighting. There's no programmable RGB, but that's reasonable at this price point.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition laptop keyboard and trackpad — (Image credit: Future / Jeremy Laird)

Asus has designed slim bezels for a 90% screen-to-body ratio. That's handy on a 16-inch laptop when it comes to maintaining portability. This isn't an excessively big or heavy system by gaming laptop standards.

Less successful is the port placement. The mix of USB4, USB-C and USB sockets, plus HDMI and LAN is fine. But they're all on the side of the chassis along with the barrel connector for the main power supply, which is located slap bang in the middle of the left side. Some ports of the rear of the chassis would be far preferable, albeit the TUF's screen hinge design precludes that.

Design: 3.5 / 5

Image 1 of 2

Asus TUF Gaming 16 Advantage Edition laptop left-side ports — (Image credit: Future / Jeremy Laird)

Image 2 of 2

Asus TUF Gaming 16 Advantage Edition laptop right-side ports — (Image credit: Future / Jeremy Laird)

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition: Performance

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Gaming Advantage Edition laptop with a closed shell — (Image credit: Future / Jeremy Laird)

Decent all-round performance
Great screen
An RTX 4060 would still be preferable

Let's deal with the obvious question right away. How does the AMD Radeon RX 7600S GPU stack up? It's basically a slightly cut down version of the desktop 7600 and it typically performs just below an Nvidia RTX 4060 mobile GPU in most games, though on occasion it can be a bit quicker.

The catch is that if you enable ray tracing in any game, such as Cyberpunk 2077 as an obvious example, the frame rates really do go south and much more so than with an RTX 4060.

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition: Benchmarks

Here's how the Asus TUF A16 FA617XS performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Night Raid: 56,533; Fire Strike: 22,648; Time Spy: 9,354; GeekBench 6: 2686 (single-core); 12281 (multi-core)
Total War: Warhammer III (1080p, Ultra): 64 fps; (1080p, Low): 144 fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (1080p, Ultra): 53 fps; (1080p, Ultra RT): 11; (1080p, Low): 78 fps
Dirt 5 (1080p, Ultra): 75 fps; (1080p, Low): 150 fps
TechRadar Movie Battery Life: 11h:03m

The Nvidia GPU also offers superior resolution scaling, plus better frame generation. So, for gaming, it's clear enough that a laptop with the RTX 4060 would be preferable. That said, the Asus TUF A16 FA617XS will handle pretty much any game at 1080p max settings (bar ray tracing) at a reasonable lick. For demanding titles, you're looking at about 60fps.

Of course, this laptop has a lovely 2,560 by 1,600 screen, and at that resolution you'll see the frame rates drop into the high 30s. You can, of course, use AMD's FSR scaling to improve that at a slight cost in terms of image quality. Arguably, that high-res screen is a bit more than the AMD GPU truly cope with. But it is a really gorgeous thing, super sharp thanks to all those pixels, fast in terms of both response and refresh, accurate and pretty bright. It's a clear cut above you're average budget gaming laptop screen, that's for sure.

Elsewhere, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS is all the CPU you're ever going to need, with eight powerful AMD Zen 4 cores and plenty of clockspeed with up to 5.2GHz boost speed. There's a quick 1TB SSD, too (though with SSD prices now so low, a 2TB drive would be nice), and 16GB of fast DDR5 RAM. Gaming aside, this thing has all the performance you could reasonably ask for.

Performance: 3.5 / 5

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition: Battery life

Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition gaming laptop resting on a counter with its lid open — (Image credit: Future / Jeremy Laird)

Super-efficient AMD APU
Excellent battery life for a gaming laptop

Battery life obviously isn't normally a strong point for most gaming laptops. But this is where the Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (FA617XS)'s all-AMD technology really pays off. Thanks to the AMD APU's integrated graphics and Smart Access Graphics GPU-switching tech, which allows the TUF to automatically swap between the integrated GPU and the dedicated Radeon RX 7600S chip, this laptop is capable of well over 10 hours of light use and media consumption away from the mains. That's very impressive.

Battery life: 4.5 / 5

Should I buy the Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition?

Buy it if...

You want decent battery life

This Asus's all-AMD hardware makes for great battery life of well over 10 hours, much better than your average gaming laptop.

You appreciate a decent screen

There's no OLED panel, no mini-LED backlight, just a really nice 1600p IPS panel running at 240Hz for a rather lovely gaming experience.

Don't buy it if...

You want the best gaming features

Laptops with Nvidia's RTX 4060 GPU have better overall features, including superior upscaling and better ray-tracing performance.

You want future-proof performance

The AMD Radeon RX 7600S GPU has reasonable performance today, but there's not much spare for future more demanding games.

Also consider

If our Asus TUF A16 FA617XS review has you thinking about other options, here are two laptops to consider...

Acer Predator Helios Neo 16

Acer's afforable 'Neo' gaming laptops are a good match for Asus's TUF models, with sensible pricing and good performance. This laptop also offers a nice display and good thermal performance - just be prepared for the fans to get noisy when you're gaming on it.

Read our full Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 review

View Deal

HP Omen 16

The new HP Omen 16 is a great choice for people looking to game on a budget. The slight snag is that it suffers from a variety of hardware and software quirks that may rub some people the wrong way.

Read our full HP Omen 16 review
View Deal

How I tested the Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition

I gave the Asus TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (FA617XS) a solid workout for a full week of gaming and general computing. It took over all duties from basic web browsing to loading up my full Steam library and watching movies.

Games-wise, I ran all my favorites from Counter-Strike 2 to Cyberpunk 2077. It was interesting to get a feel for how this AMD GPU compares to the familiar RTX 4060 from Nvidia. Mostly, it's good news, but in the end, all those extra Nvidia features are hard to argue against.

Testing battery life was interesting, too. With most gaming laptops, you can almost see the remaining charge indicator shrink in real time. But this thing just kept on trucking. Seeing it show well over 90% after the first hour of movie playback was a revelation. Clearly, this laptop lasts longer than the vast majority of gaming portables.

First reviewed December 2023

HP EliteBook X review: can it stand up to the ‘most powerful’ AI laptop claims?

2:30 am | September 28, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops | Comments: Off

The HP EliteBook X was easily one of the highlights of the HP Imagine 2024 event, showcasing that despite the tech giant launching high-performing AI PCs with the latest in AI-powered CPUs and NPUs, it's not satisfied resting on its laurels. Instead, HP continues to push the envelope in terms of specs and performance, attempting to give us the best laptop on the market.

The EliteBook X was touted as the "most powerful AI device" available right now and, judging from the specs that HP has provided us with, I'm inclined to agree. At the very least, this AI PC outfitted with an AMD chip does feel like an evolution in terms of design as well as hardware.

HP EliteBook X: price and availability

As of right now, we don't have either an official price point, release date, or availability for the HP EliteBook X. However, judging from previous HP AI PCs, the laptop should be available in the US, UK, and Australia at the very least.

HP EliteBook X: specs

Here are the specs for the HP EliteBook X at a glance.

HP EliteBook X: design

silver AI laptop — (Image credit: Future)

The outside of the laptop is a beautiful light silver, almost white, color. The chassis is lightweight yet feels sturdy and the hinges are solid. Opening it up, it has a standard keyboard with well-sized keys with a nice snap as you type, along with a responsive touchpad that's the perfect size.

One of the best features of the laptop is the fact that it has a manual switch for the webcam, which is ideal for proper security as it ensures that potential hackers can't hack into it and spy on you. It also has a pretty solid port selection, easily one of the best for an AI laptop so far, including two Thunderbolt 4 with USB Type-C ports, one Type-C port, one USB Type-A port, one headphone and mic combo jack, and one HDMI port. If it had an ethernet cable port and an SD card slot, it would be perfect.

It also has a lovely display, with two options for an LED screen and an OLED screen. One is a WUXGA (1920 x 1200) display and the other is a 2.8K (2880 x 1800). Both feature 400 nits, though the former has sRGB 100%, a touch screen, and a 120Hz refresh rate.

Not only does it boast an aesthetically pleasing design, but a sustainable one as well. According to HP, the EliteBook X is built with 60% of its major parts containing recycled material including up to 80% recycled aluminum in the covers, 21% recycled cooking oil in the bezel, 30% ocean-bound plastic on the speaker box, a heat plate made with 50% recycled copper, and 100% sustainable materials on the packaging.

HP EliteBook X: performance

Image 1 of 2

Image 2 of 2

The most promoted part of the HP EliteBook X is that it has the highest performance of any AI PC currently on the market. Normally this claim would be hyperbole at best and completely unfounded at worst, but the fact that HP currently has the only NPU that runs at a staggering 55 TOPs as well as a much higher speed memory makes it clear why this boast is most likely true - for now.

That said, we can't fully verify these claims as of yet, at least until we get our hands on an EliteBook X and thoroughly test it ourselves.

It does have another feature that's sure to keep performance running as high as possible, which is Wolf Security. It comes with a host of tools and programs that will protect this laptop including external attacks and cyber threats. As a bonus, Wolf uses the NPU for AI security, which reduces the load on the CPU and GPU and prevents slowdown.

There are other features as well including a hyperbolic cooling system that should prevent overheating, Suresense to protect your laptop from malware, and Smart Hibernate that detects if the laptop is in a bag. Both are powered by an accelerometer sensor. Finally, there's Onlooking detection which blurs the screen when someone approaches the laptop.

HP EliteBook X: early verdict

HP EliteBook X laptop open on a table — (Image credit: Future)

Though we still have yet to properly formulate a final verdict, so far the HP EliteBook X looks and sounds promising. Visually it's a beautiful laptop that's easy to transport with a stunning display. Its performance looks to match its appearance, fitting a ton of power in its thin frame.

I'm most excited to get my hands on an AMD-powered AI PC to see how well it compares to both Qualcomm and Intel's own chips. Coupled with it supposedly being the most powerful AI PC, it'll be fascinating to see how well that claim holds up. Regardless, this is definitely one laptop to keep an eye out for in the coming months.

Asus Zenbook S 14 review: the Lunar Lake laptop delivers power and beauty at a price

10:27 pm | September 27, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Windows Laptops | Tags: AI | Comments: Off

Asus Zenbook S 14: Two-minute review

The Asus Zenbook S 14 with its lid closed on a desk next to a cactus — Thin and powerful (Image credit: Future)

The Asus Zenbook S 14 has given us our first real look at what an Intel Lunar Lake laptop is capable of, and we’re definitely impressed by what we’ve seen.

Its ceralumium design is stunning, with the material boasting a rugged nature in a lightweight and slim package (coming in at 1.2kg / 2.7lbs and a thickness of 1.2cm / 0.5 inches). Best of all, it doesn’t get easily ruined by fingerprint smudges – something which can’t be said for many other laptops we’ve tested.

The 14-inch 3K 120Hz OLED display is also beautiful, offering a fluid experience as you scroll through page after page, and a great screen for watching a film after a busy day of work. Unfortunately, the 14-inch screen size can feel a little cramped the moment you want to run two windows side-by-side.

I also wish it had a few more ports. The five the Zenbook S 14 offers isn’t always enough, and I would have been happy to sacrifice some sleekness to sneak in an extra USB port and maybe an SSD card slot.

Performance-wise there’s less to complain about. In our benchmarks and real world tests, the Asus Zenbook S 14 performed very well, and we have no doubt it’ll serve you well as a productivity machine – even when you’re trying to complete several tasks on the PC at once.

Though if you’ve been drawn in by Intel’s boasts about Lunar Lake’s gaming performance, don’t get it twisted. While this machine can run titles like Cyberpunk 2077, you're not getting any higher than the lowest graphical settings, so if gaming prowess is something you value I’d highly recommend looking elsewhere (especially at this price - more on that in a moment).

The AI side of things are a little trickier to test right now, because while this machine is Copilot+ ready thanks to Lunar lake’s superb NPU, Copilot+ itself isn’t ready – the new features don’t arrive until November. Though when they do arrive, this laptop should have the specs to handle everything Microsoft wants to throw at it.

However this power and beauty comes at a price – $1,499.99 / £1,599 / AU$3,399 for the standard Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD storage model to be precise. And in the UK things can get even pricier; this review has us testing out the £1,749 model, which boasts a 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM, and an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V Processor.

Asus Zenbook S 14: Price and availability

How much does it cost? Starts at $1,499.99 / £1,299 / AU$3,399
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

The Asus Zenbook S 14 has a few model variants depending on where you live. The standard model available in the US, UK, and Australia costs $1,499.99 / £1,599 / AU$3,399 and nets you an Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor 258V, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD.

In the UK you can also find a more affordable £1,299 model which sports an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V Processor , 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. There's a top of the line model as well with a 1TB SSD, 32GB of RAM, and an Intel Core Ultra 9 288V Processor which costs £1,749. At the time of writing, there’s no word yet when these models (especially the souped up Ultra 9 model) will make it to other regions.

This review was conducted using the top of the line specs, so I can get a feel for what Asus’ best Zenbook S 14 model is capable of.

Asus Zenbook S 14: Specs

Asus Zenbook S 14: Design

The Asus Zenbook S 14 viewed from behind, showing off its back shell — Fingerprint free (Image credit: Future)

Ceralumium finish looks beautiful
Lightweight and durable
Too few ports

This slim and lightweight laptop (weighing in at 1.2kg / 2.7lbs and measuring just 1.2 cm / 0.5 inches thick) is ideal for sticking in your rucksack and carrying with you all day with little challenge.

But being lightweight doesn’t mean it isn’t durable. The Zenbook S 14 is clad in Asus’ new ceralumium material which it says combines the best properties of ceramic and aluminum to create a portable yet resilient laptop, which also looks gorgeous. Our Computing Editor Christian Guyton likened the laptop’s look and feel to an ancient Roman tablet in these regards and I can absolutely see where he’s coming from. Oh, and did we mention ceralumium is 100% recyclable, which Asus says is part of its more sustainable approach to making tech.

Beyond aesthetics, one of my favorite aspects of the new ceralumium finish is that it doesn’t get easily marked by fingerprints. My partner uses an older Asus Flip and the back is always looking smudgy. The Zenbook S 14 on the other hand is looking as clean as the day I unboxed it – if you ignore the touchscreen.

Speaking of, I love the touchscreen. I like to pretend I’m a laptop purist who just wants to rely on a classic mouse (or trackpad) and keyboard to navigate menus, but every time I try a touchscreen PC I find it so convenient, and I got so used to it with the S 14 that when I swapped back to my personal PC I actually tried to swipe on my regular monitor like a fool.

It’s time for me to accept that touchscreen laptops aren’t just a gimmick, though remember to clean your screen every so often.

And it’s worth keeping the screen clean as the 14-inch 3K 120Hz OLED display looks beautiful. It’s perfect for watching a movie or show after a long day’s work – with the OLED providing perfect contrast in those dark scenes that are tough to follow on typical LCDs – and the refresh rate makes scrolling through pages a more fluid experience. Though if you’re trying to run two windows side by side the 14-inch screen can feel a little cramped.

The Asus Zenbook S 14 viewed from the side to show off its HDMI, USB-C, and audio jack ports — Not too bad for ports on this side (Image credit: Future)

Ports-wise, the Asus Zenbook S 14 boasts five of them – an HDMI 2.1 port, two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, and a 3.5mm audio port on the left, and a 3.2 Gen 2 USB Type-A port on the right.

I would have liked at least one more USB Type-A port so I wouldn’t have to unplug my mouse whenever I want I want to use an external drive, and don’t feel the extra couple of millimeters it would have added would ruin the S 14’s sleekness. Granted, you can always supplement the Zenbook's ports with one of our picks for the best USB-C hubs as a simple solution.

Design score: 4/5

Asus Zenbook S 14: Performance

Lunar Lake performs well even under pressure
Ready for Copilot+ to launch

The Asus Zenbook S 14 I’ve been testing is powered by the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V chipset from its latest Lunar Lake chip release. Throw in 32GB of RAM and it’s no wonder this laptop was able to perform well in our benchmarks – save for an oddly disappointing Geekbench score, I ran it a few times and it performed consistently at this level.

Asus Zenbook S 14 review: Benchmarks

Here's how the Asus Zenbook S 14 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark: Night Raid: 28,199; Fire Strike: 7,124; Time Spy: 3,619
Cinebench R23: Multi-core: 9,195; Single-core 1,822
Geekbench 6.3: Multicore: 10,615; Single-core: 2,565
PCMark 10: 6,954
Crossmark: Overall:1,759 ; Productivity:1,596 ; Creativity: 2,127 ; Responsiveness: 1,334
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 20 hours, 22 minutes

Regardless, the Asus handled everything I threw at it with aplomb – even that one time I was listening in on a video team meet, while also running Lofi Girl’s YouTube livestream for some relaxing tunes, and had plenty of other tabs open in the background that I needed to help me research an article I was typing up.

It’s responsive too, booting up speedily and opening up apps without leaving me waiting around for noticeable periods. Though I did have some issues loading up some of the benchmarking tools when I started testing it – since then however, I can report I faced zero hiccups.

You’ll also find this machine is equipped with a powerful NPU (it can perform 48 trillion operations per second) for handling AI tasks, plus a dedicated button for calling on Windows Copilot (and Copilot+ when it launches later this year) when you want to talk with the chatbot. Asus says this NPU helps to deliver a 173% better AI performance compared with last gen’s Intel chips, so if you care about onboard AI efficiency, it’s an important factor to consider.

The Asus Zenbook S 14 viewed from its other side to show off one USB port — Another USB port wouldn't hurt (Image credit: Future)

While this laptop is not a gaming machine, I did give it a whirl with a few personal favorites including Marvel Snap and Cyberpunk 2077 to see how well it could do – the latter of which was the title Asus used in its announcement presentation to explain the performance improvements offered by the new Lunar Lake chipset.

With every graphics setting at its lowest option – at higher settings things were noticeably choppy – and my PC’s power settings at Best Performance, I was able to successfully explore Night City and complete a few missions without much issue. A dedicated external mouse is a must, and the laptop did run hot, but it did work even if the experience was a little rough around the edges.

If gaming is a priority, you’ll be far better served by the best gaming laptops, but if you like to occasionally amuse yourself every so often and aren’t concerned with graphical or performance excellence this Zenbook does a passable job.

Performance score: 4.5/5

Asus Zenbook S 14: Battery

When Asus announced its latest range of laptops, one standout feature was the Zenbook’s battery life, which under the company’s offline movie test conditions achieved a total runtime of 27 hours. In our version, we didn’t get quite as much juice out of it, but it was still phenomenally impressive – clocking in at 20 hours and 22 minutes.

In a more real world test, once it was back up to 100% battery I took it out on a press trip which had me traveling all day. I took my charger with me just in case, but ended up not needing it. The laptop easily survived the day trip, and went until about 3pm the next day, at which point the Zenbook S 14 alerted me that it was time to plug it back in because its battery was starting to run low.

Battery score: 5/5

Should you buy the Asus Zenbook S 14?

Buy it if...

You need a big battery
If you need a laptop that can easily go a whole working day without needing a recharge then this machine will serve you well.

You need something light and powerful
At 1.2kg / 2.7lbs and just 1.2 cm / 0.5 inches thick, this Asus machine is super portable, yet still manages to deliver a punchy performance.

You care about AI
Intel’s Lunar Lake chips pack a serious AI performance upgrade compared with last gen’s models. If this is an area you care about you’ll want a laptop that packs one like the Zenbook S 14.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
While this PC has a solid performance to back up its price tag, $1,499.99 / £1,599 / AU$3,399.00 isn’t cheap. If you’re on a budget you’ll need to wait for a sale or find a different laptop.

Gaming is a priority
Yes the Zenbook S 14 can technically run games like Cyberpunk 2077 (if you crank the graphics settings all the way down), but if gaming is near the top of your priority list, this ain’t the laptop for you.

You want plenty of ports
Slimmer laptops like this often sacrifice a few ports as they simply aren’t thick enough to accommodate them, and from my experience, one sole USB Type-A port can be inconvenient at times.

Also Consider

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M3)
The Apple MacBook Air 15-inch with M3 is one of the best lightweight laptops on the market, and its performance is top-notch too.

Read our full Apple MacBook Air 15-inch (M3) review

Dell XPS 17 (9730)
If you want a powerful laptop and aren't so concerned with portability, then the Dell XPS 17 is one to check out.

Read our full Dell XPS 17 (9730) review

How I tested the Asus Zenbook S 14

I tested the Asus Zenbook S 14 laptop for two weeks
Tested it using productivity and creative applications and benchmarks
Stress-tested the battery using the TechRadar movie test

With any new laptop, I start by swapping it in for my work PC so I can get a feel for how it handles day-to-day workloads and get it warmed up. I then pass it through the gauntlet of TechRadar benchmark tests to see how its processor handles them, and get a sense for how long the battery lasts.

Because it's a portable laptop, I also made sure to take the Asus Zenbook S 14 on any press trips or when I commuted into the office to verify if it's lightweight enough for this task. I also made sure to keep an eye on its ventilation, and how hot the machine can get especially with high-stress tasks.

To round things off, I made sure to play a mix of games on the machine, something I was especially keen to try after seeing Lunar Lake's gaming credentials boasted about in several conferences.

LG Gram 17: Two-minute review

The LG Gram 17 is a large but super-light and thin laptop, promising premium productivity performance in a portable package.

Design-wise, the LG Gram 17 is clean and sleek, keeping all its angles and surfaces as minimal as possible. As for build quality, the plastic body doesn’t inspire much confidence, although there’s no denying it saves weight. I found the hinge for the lid very loose, resulting in the display repeatedly rebounding on opening the laptop, which in my mind casted doubt over its durability.

The IPS display is certainly large, but it isn't exactly vibrant. Colors are rendered perfectly well, but LED and OLED displays are usually more impressive, even those with the same 2K resolution of the LG Gram 17. However, it does excel at preventing glare, as per LG's claims; I tried using it in various areas around my living space to produce some unfavorable angles for sunlight, and couldn't catch it out – it remained clear in most conditions.

In terms of performance, the LG Gram 17 handles the tasks it’s designed for with aplomb. The model on test was equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 and 32GB of RAM. It made short work of spreadsheet creation and word processing, and could deal with light photo editing. It also played back HD and 4K video content with ease.

During our benchmarking, it outperformed many of the best laptops – such as the Microsoft Surface 7 – for productivity. However, it wasn’t as impressive when it came to GPU workloads, including gaming. The Intel Arc GPU can’t match other high-end GPUs, such as the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 in the Dell XPS 17 (9730) we tested.

Mercifully, the LG Gram 17 is mostly free from the bloatware that can plague other Windows laptops. LG’s software suite is mixed in terms of usefulness, but it wasn’t too intrusive or resource-heavy. The most egregious app was LG Recovery and Update, but this only popped up occasionally, and offered desirable updates when it did – although it did fail to make clear that some updates will cause the system to shut down without notice.

The most useful tool in the suite is LG Gram Link, which allows you to connect mobile devices to transfer files and mirror screens both ways. You can also use it to control your mobile device with the LG Gram 17’s trackpad and keyboard. For the most part, all these functions work as intended, although lag and slowdown can be an issue at times.

The battery is very good for this class of laptop, lasting more than 12 hours in our tests, which involved a battery benchmark using PCMark, in addition to running a 1080p 30fps video on a continuous loop. For comparison, the Dell XPS 17 (9730) only managed a little over nine hours, while the Microsoft Surface 7 quit after 10 hours.

One of the major problems with the LG Gram 17, though, is the noise and heat it generates under load. This was apparent even during setup, with the fans whirring up near the start of the process. The low-pitched hum would then elevate during heavy workloads, to the point of becoming distracting. The underside and the keys also became very hot to the touch, giving me cause for concern.

Another issue that severely hampers the LG Gram 17 is the keyboard. Although I usually welcome the inclusion of a number pad, here it forces the character keys too far to the left, creating an awkward typing position. It also means the palm of your right thumb rests on the trackpad, with movements being registered as cursor swipes and sometimes even taps. In addition, the keys, while they feel satisfying and pleasant to tap, can sometimes fail to register, especially the "o" key, which caused me no end of frustration.

This is a hotly contested space, and you'd expect the LG Gram 17 to deliver on its premium promises given the price it commands. However, there are simply better value alternatives that offer not just lightning performance, but also a better design and user experience.

If you’re after a large laptop with plenty of power, then the Dell XPS 17 (9730) is a solid choice. If you want a smaller form factor but still want performance, then our current pick as the best laptop around, the Microsoft Surface 7, would be a great alternative.

LG Gram 17: Price & availability

back of LG Gram 17 — (Image credit: Future)

£1,999 (about $2,640 / AU$3,910)
Available in three colorways
High-end specs

The LG Gram 17 costs £1,999 (about $2,640 / AU$3,910) and is available now. It arrives in your choice of three finishes – black, white, or charcoal gray – and it can be had with between 16-32GB of LPDDR5x RAM, and a 1TB or 2TB NVMe SSD. As for graphics, you have a choice of either an Intel Arc or Intel Iris XE Graphics GPU.

At this price, the LG Gram 17 is competing in the premium sector, rubbing shoulders with the likes of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 – which, in our view, is the best business laptop . That machine is superbly built with an excellent keyboard and display. Specs-wise, it does come in behind the LG Gram 17, and so do its costlier range-topping variants. However, the ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 8 is durable and built to last, delivering your money’s worth.

At the other end of the market sits the Acer Travelmate P4, which can be had for as little as $400. For that, you do get lesser specs, with older CPUs and no NVMe SSD options, but we still found it to be a very competent performer.

If you desperately want a 17-inch display, then we think the Dell XPS 17 (9730) is the best laptop with a large screen. It’s also replete with Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs, perfect if you’re after serious gaming and content creation pedigree.

LG Gram 17: Specs

LG Gram 17 closed on desk — (Image credit: Future)

LG Gram 17: Design

Close-up of LG Gram 17 trackpad — (Image credit: Future)

Very light for a large laptop
Number pad compromises ergonomics
Keystroke and trackpad issues

As with many Windows laptops in recent years, the LG Gram 17 takes design cues from Apple’s MacBook line. It keeps to a minimal aesthetic, with clean edges and surfaces unsullied by unnecessary bulges or protrusions.

However, almost immediately on opening its lid my confidence in the build quality of the LG Gram 17 was sapped. The hinge is incredibly loose, meaning the display ricochets like a pendulum. It could be argued this is the price you pay for such an effortless mechanism, but I don’t think this bodes well for its longevity.

In fact, the premium feel is lacking from the entire chassis – although, again, this may be the sacrifice for keeping the LG Gram 17's weight down. And for a 17-inch laptop, it's impressively light and thin, which makes traveling with it far less hassle than it otherwise would; it slotted nicely into my backpack for my commute to the office, and I didn’t feel overburdened. There’s no doubt that as large laptops go, the LG Gram 17 is one of the most portable around.

The keys are compact and well made. The trackpad is highly engineered and large, too, with a very smooth surface that creates little friction. This makes for pleasant and precise swipes and gestures.

As fond as I am of number pads, incorporating one in the LG Gram 17 does compromise its ergonomics. It means the character keys are forced over to the left, which I found made the typing position more awkward, with my right hand closer to the left than I’m used to.

It’s welcoming to see a large screen that isn’t compromised by a thick bezel. What's a shame, though, is how much the bezel protrudes on the LG Gram 17, with the display itself set quite far back – another area where you can tell corners have been cut, and where it fails to live up to the sleekness of Apple’s laptops, despite its attempts to emulate their style.

LG Gram 17 keyboard — (Image credit: Future)

The display itself uses IPS technology, which produces a fine enough image. However, it fails to impart a level of sharpness you'd expect from the 2L/ WQXGA resolution. On smaller screens that same resolution looks sharp and sleek, but that fidelity starts to deteriorate once it’s stretched out to 17-inch. However, what can be said in its favor is its anti-glare properties, which do indeed help to retain visibility even in bright sunlight.

As for port selection, the LG Gram 17 has two USB-C and two USB-A ports, the former pair on the left and the latter on the right. There’s also a headphone output, a microSD card slot, and an HDMI port. Oddly, the latter is located before the USB-C ports, meaning that your charging cable will be plugged in closer to the front than you'd expect, which might upset those who are particular about cable management.

The keys are well damped with just enough travel, making for a snappy and satisfying feel. However, all too frequently my keystrokes would fail to register, in particular when hitting the "o" key, for reasons I struggle to fathom. As a conservative estimate, I'd say that more than half the time presses would result in nothing appearing on-screen.

Another typing issue is the aforementioned position of the character keys. As well as making the hand position awkward, it also resulted in my right thumb palm resting on part of the trackpad. Occasionally, this would cause swipes and taps to register.

For any laptop, these two issues pose a major obstacle for getting work done. However, for one such as the LG Gram 17, designed with productivity in mind, it’s close to unforgivable. These may just be personal issues, with others unaffected; but I’ve never had typing issues to this degree on other laptops I’ve tried.

Conversely, I also experienced too many occasions where the trackpad would fail to register taps I performed deliberately. However, in other aspects, the trackpad is great to use. It’s smooth and accurate, while swipes and gestures are easy to perform consistently, thanks to the responsiveness.

LG Gram 17: Performance

The LG Gram 17 is fast when it comes to performing most productivity tasks. Everything from knocking out spreadsheets and word processing to low-key photo editing is within reach. And, when it comes to downtime, video playback is fast and smooth, even with 4K content. The Intel Core Ultra 7 certainly appears to live up to expectations.

LG Gram 17: Benchmarks

3DMark: Night Raid: 16,752; Fire Strike: 6,131; Time Spy: 2,908
Cinebench R23: 1,595 (single-core); 9,746 (multi-core)
GeekBench 6.3: 2,198 (single-core); 11,358 (multi-core)
PCMark 10 (Home test): 6,039
PCMark 10 (Battery test): 5,477
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 12 hours, 12 minutes

For more intensive workloads, the LG Gram 17 is somewhat inconsistent. In our benchmarking tests, it scored well on office-based tasks. It beat the Microsoft Surface 7 in the PCMark Home test, although it did lose to it in GeekBench single- and multi-core tests with considerably lower scores.

For more graphics-heavy workloads, scores weren’t so great either. The LG Gram 17 still beat the Surface 7, but in our Dell XPS 17 (9730) review, this laptop performed far better – not exactly surprising, given the LG Gram 17 I had to test came with an Intel Arc GPU, rather than an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 featured in the XPS 17 (9730) we tested.

Thankfully, the LG Gram 17 keeps the bloatware to a minimum, with only a handful of LG apps preinstalled. Most of these function well for the most part, and refrain from eating into performance or bombarding you with notifications. The LG Recovery and Update can intrude at times with notifications; but, thankfully, most of them are worthy of your attention.

Other LG apps include ThinQ, which, quite frankly, seemed redundant, only letting me contact support; and LG Gram Link, which lets you connect with your mobile device, allowing for file sharing to screen mirroring. Both function well, although the mobile app did have trouble connecting to my network until an update fixed the issue.

LG Gram 17 right side ports — (Image credit: Future)

Mirroring my phone screen on the LG Gram 17 worked well, but keyboard and trackpad inputs were sluggish. You can also duplicate and extend the LG Gram 17 display on your smartphone, and this is more responsive, although I think it would be better to mirror on a tablet than a small smartphone screen. Using the keyboard and trackpad to control my phone was also responsive during my tests, although for some reason I wasn’t able to scroll web pages on the Chrome mobile app.

One of the chief annoyances I had with the LG Gram 17 was the noise. Occasionally – and especially when setting up – there would be a low-end hum, elevating to a higher pitch and louder volume under more intensive workloads. I was almost convinced it was the sound of a hard disk, as it sounded very similar.

After the initial setup, fan noise became less frequent, but would still rear its ugly head from time to time. In addition, the base of the LG Gram 17 would also on occasion become hot, which would be uncomfortable if using the machine on your lap. Sometimes, even the keys themselves became hot to the touch. This was a real cause for concern, and didn’t instill me with much confidence to use the LG Gram 17 for heavy workloads over long stretches.

As far as the speakers go, they perform well enough, offering a balanced sound without distortion. They don’t have much impact, but compared to most other laptops, they acquit themselves admirably.

LG Gram 17: Battery

LG Gram 17 left side ports — (Image credit: Future)

Although LG doesn’t provide a figure for the battery life of the Gram 17, it does claim it to be “ultra-long”. During my tests, I found it could handle more than a whole day’s worth of work.

I tested the battery life by using the 3DMark benchmarking tool, as well as playing a 1080p 30fps video on a loop. From a full charge, the LG Gram 17 lasted an impressive 12 hours and 12 minutes before shutting down.

This means the LG Gram 17 eclipses the Microsoft Surface 7, our current pick as the best laptop overall, which lasted about 10 hours during our tests. It also beats our pick for the best large laptop, the Dell XPS 17 (9730), which managed 9 hours and 5 minutes.

Should you buy the LG Gram 17?

LG Gram 17 Intel Evo sticker — (Image credit: Future)

Buy it if...

You want something large but light
It’s impressive how the LG Gram 17 manages to fit a big display in such a light package, making it a lot easier to travel with than you might expect.

You’ll be using it for work
The LG Gram 17 handles office-based tasks well, including intensive ones. It’s also very capable of entertaining you with its hi-res content streaming pedigree.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a budget
There’s no getting away from it: the LG Gram 17 is expensive, and there are cheaper alternatives out there that offer the same performance.

LG Gram 17: Also consider

How I tested the LG Gram 17

Tested for one week
Performed various tasks and benchmarking
Plentiful experience with PC laptops

I tested the LG Gram 17 for about a week, trying out its features and functions. I used it for a variety of tasks, from streaming video and editing photos, to general productivity and browsing. I also worked with it on a desktop and my lap on a sofa, and in various lighting conditions, too. I commuted with it to test its portability.

I put the LG Gram 17 through TechRadar’s benchmarking procedure, which involves using multiple tools repeatedly to test laptops and desktops as thoroughly as possible. These emulate various workloads, from productivity and content editing to gaming.

I have plenty of experience with laptops of all varieties, from Windows machines, MacBooks and Chromebooks. I also have experience testing tablets and using desktop PCs for gaming.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Two-minute review

The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i solves a problem for that small subset of users always frustrated with the limited amount of screen most laptops offer. And while using an external monitor is the easiest and most mainstream way to solve that problem, you’re either dealing with one that stays at home, or is an extra item to carry with you as is the case with the best portable monitors.

The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i then is probably among the best laptops for those who want to be able to compose an email or article without having to switch over to a different window to look something up. It’s also great for anyone looking to do some light photo editing that feels restricted on a regular notebook.

Though it’s among the best Ultrabooks, in my estimation at least, it’s not the most powerful. Since it utilizes integrated graphics, it’s not quite there for those hoping to also edit videos on the road. And that’s a pity considering the price tag that this comes with, but that’s also the price you pay for having two gorgeous screens, a chic aesthetic, and a bunch of accessories that can turn this laptop into a pseudo-desktop experience.

Basically, this laptop is a fantastic computer experience that some will absolutely love and most will find to be too much computer. For me, it’s just about perfect.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Price and availability

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i laptop closed — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

How much does it cost? Starting at $1,980 / £1,965 / AU$4,499
When is it available? Available now
Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK and Australia

In short, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is expensive. Yes, you’re paying for not one, but two OLED touchscreens with high resolutions, as well as the unique form factor. There’s also been plenty of care put into its design and aesthetics, not to mention that it comes with a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and stylus along with a keyboard carrying case that turns into a stand.

But, its under-the-hood specs are not that of a $2,000 / £2,000 computer, so it does feel overpriced, even if OLED panels are going to increase the price of any computer that they come with. At least, the upgrades are fairly benign as going from 16GB of RAM to 32GB is $57 difference and going from a 512GB to a 1TB SSD is just $30.

Of course, if you’re in the UK, you have to accept both upgrades in tandem, but it’s only a £55 difference. If you’re in Australia, you’re unfortunately limited to the most basic model.

Currently, there’s really only one laptop to compare the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i to (discounting its previous iteration that’s basically the same thing with a slightly weaker processor and different port selection). That laptop is the ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED. It starts at basically the same price point – $1,999.99 / £1,999.99 (about AU$3,134.28) – but has a slightly different approach to the whole two-screen setup, where one is smaller than the other and you can’t switch between a landscape and portrait mode like you can with the Yoga Book 9i. If you want to a deeper dive between the two models, we did put the Asus Zenbook Pro Duo and the Yoga Book 9i’s previous version in a head-to-head comparison.

Value: 4 / 5

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Specs

The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is fairly limited in upgrades. There’s just one CPU, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U, as well as its integrated graphics on offer. The only real customizations or upgrades available are with the RAM and SSD, where you can choose between 16 or 32GB and 512GB or 1TB, respectively.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Design

Gorgeous inside and out
Comes with bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and stylus
Limited amount of ports

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i open in landscape mode with one monitor atop the other — The Yoga Book 9i can be used in landscape mode (pictured) or portrait mode. (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

Whether opened or closed, the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is gorgeous. Its metallic Tidal Teal colorway covers not only the outer shell of the laptop itself, but the Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and stylus that come with. The whole setup is almost as pretty as its two bright, vibrant OLED screens, connected by a thin panel housing the dual two-watt speakers.

Speaking of, those panels are touch-sensitive. This allows you to interact with it digitally (as in your fingers), with the stylus, or to place it in “laptop mode” so that the lower screen sits where a keyboard would typically sit. This way, you don’t have to carry all the extras with you if you don’t. You would just use a particular eight-finger tap gesture to pull up a virtual keyboard.

To go along with the touchscreens, this is essentially a 2-in-1 notebook, so you can flip into tablet mode, which disengages one of the screens, or place it in tent mode, etc. However, I prefer using the stand, which doubles as the keyboard cover and carrying case to prop up the two screens. You can use the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i in either landscape mode, where one screen sits atop the other, or in portrait mode, where they’re side-by-side. I prefer the former, though I can see the latter being very useful to programmers or anyone needing to see two different windows next to each other.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i laptop in portrait mode, with one monitor next to the other — Yoga Book 9i in portrait mode (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

It’s a unique experience, really only hampered by its price. And while I’ve heard of some having issues with the previous generation when in laptop mode, because programs would pop up in front of the virtual keyboard, I have not had that happen to me.

Laptop mode really only falls short insofar that using a virtual keyboard kind of stinks. There’s no tactile feedback and you’re probably going to have to look at it to know where all the keys are. At least it pulls up a virtual trackpad as well.

The Bluetooth accessories, however, are a pleasure to use. The keyboard is compact and clips on to the stand magnetically to stay stable. And though it’s tiny, its keys are not, so I never felt cramped typing on it. It’s not going to match up with the best mechanical keyboards, but it’s good enough to type up this article.

The mouse is fairly minimalist, but works as needed, not to mention feels fairly accurate. It also has the added benefit of being able to wirelessly connect to two devices, so you can use it with other laptops or computers if you like.

While I’m not a big stylus user, it was nice to the touch – they all have that textured aluminum feel - and seemed responsive during use.

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i laptop, closed, next to its Bluetooth accessories — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

The port selection here is a little bit of a letdown, especially considering that the previous iteration had a decent amount of variety. This version of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i falls squarely into the MacBook Air-style less is more camp with its three Thunderbolt 4 ports. There’s not even a headphone jack.

As far as physical controls go, there are just two – a power button and a privacy shutter button, the latter of which I appreciate being included.

Design: 4.5 / 5

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Performance

Great for day-to-day tasks, not so much for demanding ones
Two equally visually stunning screens
Surprisingly good sound for a laptop

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Benchmarks

Here's how the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark: Fire Strike: 4921; Time Spy: 2208; Night Raid: 18128

GeekBench 6.2.2: 2317 (single-core); 8887 (multi-core)

25GB File Copy: 16.37

Handbrake 1.6.1: 9:23

CrossMark: Overall: 1361 Productivity: 1386 Creativity: 1391 Responsiveness: 1206

Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p): 19.421 fps

Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 7:38:10

When it comes to the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i’s performance, it’s quite excellent for day-to-day tasks, powered by the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H and 16 or 32GB of RAM. I was able to have multiple tabs open at once, including having streaming video playing at the same time as I was doing work.

But, since it just has integrated Intel Arc graphics, it can’t do a whole lot of heavy lifting. If you think of this laptop as a unique Ultrabook with extra screen real estate, that’s not really an issue. If you want to do demanding tasks, such as video editing, you’re not really going to do it.

While you can certainly take a look at our benchmarks to confirm this, I did a little testing with video games. I found out that this laptop even struggles with older titles. Consider the fact that it manages under 20 fps in Sid Meier's Civilization VI.

Now, no one looking at this computer is going to think "gaming laptop," but it’s just a good way to test how much power this laptop has. If you do photo editing, you’ll be fine as long as you’re not converting or editing batch files. If you want to do video editing, this is probably not the way to go.

And that’s a shame because the two 13.3-inch OLED screens look so good. Not only does it have color coverage of 191.2% sRGB and 135.4% DCI-P3 through testing (Lenovo actually rates it 100% DCI-P3), but it has an incredibly accurate screen with a Delta E < 0.27 (the closer to zero the better).

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i laptop on a desk — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

The screens also have a VESA-certified DisplayHDR True Black 500 rating, so the contrasts in shadows really pop out. Both screens are pretty bright at 400 nits. If you want superlatives, the two panels look gorgeous, with an eye-poppingly wide range of colors.

Surprisingly, the sound quality is pretty good for a laptop. No, it’s not going to compete with external speakers, but typically laptop speakers sound hollow and like they’re coming from a small, thin box (because they are). Here, the sound is actually fairly full, just missing some low end.

If you’re considering this laptop for work and do a lot of video conferencing, know that the webcam is pretty sharp, though not the smoothest with a 1440p resolution at 30Hz.

Lastly, like every laptop these days, you have some AI functionality such as Copilot built in. The AI elements that anyone will notice are more of a Windows thing, and is still somewhat half-baked, so don’t use that for too much consideration when looking at this laptop.

Performance: 4.5 / 5

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i: Battery life

Decent but not great battery life
Slight drop in battery life going from laptop mode to dual-screen

When one thinks of Ultrabooks these days, long battery life is usually a given. However, with the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, you can’t quite expect to get 13 or 14 hours of use on a single charge. And if you think about it, it’s not surprising given that it’s powering two screens. On top of that, in my (anecdotal) experience, OLED panels seem to require a little more juice.

Still, the seven and a half hours that it can reach up to in laptop mode is pretty decent when keeping that in mind. The battery life drops down to six hours and 45 minutes in two screen mode, which is surprisingly minimal. You need to remember, however, that the second screen is still on and in use in this mode, though it’s usually just showing the virtual keyboard instead of something more active or vibrant.

Battery life: 4 / 5

Should I buy the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i?

Lenovo Yoga Book 9i in laptop mode — (Image credit: Future / James Holland)

Buy it if…

You want gorgeous screens

Two OLED screens are better than one, and the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i proves it. Plus, the extra screen real estate might be a game changer for certain people who need to have multiple tabs open at once.

You need extra screen real estate

You could get an external, portable monitor to pair with your laptop, but that’s cumbersome. With this laptop, you have two 13.3-inch screens that you can use in multiple modes.

You want something shiny

Let’s be honest, most of us want a device that looks good. If you’re willing to splurge, this laptop is an eye-catcher. No doubt, it will be for others if you pull this out at a cafe.

Don’t buy it if…

You don’t want to spend two grand

If you’re not willing to splurge or need to stretch your cash, this is not the laptop for you. A lot of what you’re paying for is the unique layout and two OLED panels.

You don’t want to deal with extra devices

While you can use the Yoga Book 9i in laptop mode, it really comes alive with all its accessories. However, if you want to travel light and not worry about keeping track of them all, get a more traditional means of computing conveyance.

Also Consider

If our Lenovo Yoga Book 9i review has you considering other options, here are two laptops to consider...

ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED

The ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED takes a slightly different approach to the whole two-screen thing. If you want a laptop without the need of carrying a mouse, keyboard, stylus, and stand, this might be the way to go. Unfortunately, it’s just as pricey.

Read our full ASUS Zenbook Pro 14 Duo OLED review

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3)

If that second screen is a nice addition but not that important, the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) might be a better way to go. It has excellent performance with a long battery life, and is a great looking laptop that’s incredibly lightweight.

Read our full Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) review

How I tested the LenovoYoga Book 9i

Tested for three weeks
Used it for work, gaming, and streaming
Used it in different modes

I used the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i for three weeks in a number of different ways. I broke it out it for work, including typing up this review (along with the requisite online research). I used it to stream video. I even did some light gaming, mainly running such as Poirot: The London Cases and Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst (which it basically couldn’t run). I used the different modes to see how the experience would change, played around with the HDR, and took the webcam for a whirl.

After spending time with the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i, it’s clear that this is perfect for those who want extra screen real estate without dealing with an external, portable monitor or those who want something a little different, whether as a status symbol or just something that offers a different experience.

I’ve spent the last few years reviewing tech gear for gaming and otherwise, where I’ve gotten a feel for what to look for and how to put a piece of kit through its paces to see whether it’s worth the recommendation.

First reviewed August 2024

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge review: zippy performance with a great display

7:00 pm | August 28, 2024

Author: admin | Category: Computers Computing Gadgets Laptops Windows Laptops | Tags: Microsoft Surface Laptop | Comments: Off

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Two-minute review

As Samsung's first Windows 11 Copilot+ PC, the Galaxy Book4 Edge has a lot going for it, including momentum in the space with more applications rolling out support. Still, though, the Book4 Edge has some pretty tough competition - some of which has the laptop beat in terms of design and battery life.

The Galaxy Book4 Edge impressed with its lightweight and thin build for the more prominent 16-inch size that we tested. The star, though, alongside plenty of ports, was the vibrant and immersive AMOLED display, which was great for word processing, image editing, building stories, and editing images – as well as for watching movies and TV shows or the occasional video call.

Performance, as we've come to expect from the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, was very impressive and made any task, aside from gaming, run smoothly. It also fixed the problem of a long wait to wake the laptop up from sleep. However, the Book4 Edge lacks overall battery life, so if you need a road warrior, you'd be better served by a Dell XPS 13 or Surface Laptop 7.

Even so, if you're after a big screen, the Galaxy Book4 Edge offers fast performance and deep integration with Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets, which other Copilot laptops cannot match. It's also heavily discounted, making the 14-inch or 16-inch models much more affordable.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Price & availability

How much does it cost? $1,349.99 / £1,399 starting for the 14-inch or $1,449.99 / £1,499 starting for the 16-inch
When is it available? Available now
Where is it available? Available in the US and UK

Samsung's Galaxy Book4 Edge is currently available directly from the technology giant and authorized resellers like Best Buy in either a 14-inch or a 16-inch size. Know that if you want 1TB of storage or the faster 3.8GHz Snapdragon X Elite processor, you'll need the 16-inch size.

The 14-inch with 512GB of storage, 16GB of RAM, and the 3.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite starts at $1,349.99 / £1,399, while the 16-inch with the same specs starts at $1,449.99 / £1,499. You'll need to pay more for the 3.8GHz processor and 1TB of storage at $1,749.99 or £1,699. For either model, though, Samsung is offering some substantial discounts.

It is also worth considering the Surface Laptop 7 since the 13-inch and 15-inch models are cheaper and have similar specs.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Specs

Specs: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Design

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge laptop's keyboard and trackpad — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

A big, expansive display housed in an ultra-slim, lightweight build
Plenty of ports
AMOLED screen is immersive and super punchy with colors

With a sleek aluminum build in a shade that Samsung has coined Sapphire Blue – truthfully mostly gray and silver with a dash of blue – the Galaxy Book4 Edge looks right at home alongside its other laptops. Mirroring Microsoft’s Surface Laptop lineup or many of Apple’s best MacBooks, the Book4 Edge also comes in two sizes: 14-inch or 16-inch.

I’ve spent several weeks with the bigger 16-inch, and while it offers an immersive experience from an AMOLED display, it’s strikingly lightweight and thin. Even with that large screen, it still feels very portable, thanks to a thin, tapered frame that allows for a good mix of ports. It's 0.48 inches thick and weighs just 3.4 grams, which makes it pretty lightweight for a laptop of this caliber. Furthermore, it’s a balanced weight that makes it easy to lift with just one hand and place on your lap for working on the fly.

However, with the 16-inch display, I’d say place it on a table at home or
a tray if you're out and about on a train or plane. The display here is one of my favorite aspects; Samsung has never been a slouch. Like Apple’s Mini LED Super Retina XDR displays on MacBook Pro, this AMOLED here is vibrant and punchy with colors but also delivers crisp, inky blacks for text. Everything pops, and if you’re into watching films or content on a laptop, it flies here well. It’s pretty accurate for image editing, and the boon over a Mac and competing laptops is the touch-enabled screen.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge's left-side port selection — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

You can easily connect to an external monitor if you need more real estate, though, as Samsung didn’t skimp on any ports here. The left side has an HDMI and two USB-C ports, while the right has a micro SD card slot, headphone jack, and USB-A port. The latter is nice to see on a modern, ultra-thin laptop in 2024.

Under the display in the main hull of the Galaxy Book4 Edge is a full-size keyboard with a function row and a number pad that feels cramped on the right hand side. It seems like a last-minute addition that didn't shake out in practice. The rest of the keys are a bit more expectedly sized and comfortable enough to type on, but there is significant travel here. To that effect, the keys don’t recoil a tremendous amount.

On the other hand, the trackpad is quite spacious and easy to navigate around the 16-inch AMOLED screen. With one swipe, you can quickly move a file from the top left to the bottom right.

So yes, any 16-inch laptop will be a behemoth, but Samsung’s approach was to slim it down and cut the weight. That’s effectively done here, so while the 16-inch Galaxy Book4 Edge is large, it has a bit of grace thanks to its lightweight and ultra-slim build that reminds me of Windows Ultrabooks from yonder.

Design: 4 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Performance

An open Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge resting on a countertop — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Copilot works well here
Deep integration with Samsung Galaxy phones and tablets for some really handy functionality
If the app is compatible, performance will fly

Like other AI PCs – including Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 or Dell’s XPS 13 – the Galaxy Book4 Edge is powered by Qualcomm’s latest and greatest, the Snapdragon X Elite. In short, Windows 11 really moves here. It’s faster to wake from sleep, it can last a heck of a lot longer in multi-day standby, optimized applications open much faster, and it feels a lot more instantaneous in everyday use.

Of course, aside from general performance, the chip is also here to power some of the new AI features under the Copilot brand; there is even the dedicated key sandwiched between “ALT” and the number keys. Pressing it instantly (I’d say well under a second) brings up the Copilot app, which lets you chat with the assistant. From there, you can select a style for conversation – creative, balanced, or precise – and you’re off. Copilot was quick in my testing to provide topical answers on events, fast calculations, and even less specific ones. It will also employ “Designer” using DALL-E-3 to create images, be it a turtle underwater or a particular style of art recreation of a favorite city. Regardless of the answer, you’ll want to double-check it, though, since it’s AI and misinformation is possible.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge screen open to Copilot features — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

One Copilot feature that’s missing is Recall, though, as Microsoft is still working on it. With this promised feature, Windows will take screenshots and create a history of sorts. In its original form, this would have happened automatically, which caused some outcry, especially from a privacy perspective. If you’re keen to try it now, it’s available via the Windows Insider Program, but it’s still in beta and isn’t designed for everyday use. When it does roll out, you’ll be able to opt in or out of it.

Performance here is mostly in line with other Copilot laptops, namely thanks to a similar, if not the same, Snapdragon X Elite processor inside. Applications open quickly, and tasks are completed promptly, especially for optimized software. You will still encounter applications that aren’t, though, even to the degree where you might not be able to install them. The hope is that adoption will continue to grow, and that developers will roll out updates; Adobe is already working on updating its suite beyond Photoshop.

Samsung did some legwork here, though, and rolled out some really nice ecosystem features. If you have a Galaxy phone, this likely makes the Galaxy Book4 Edge the best AI PC to invest in – that can be doubled down if you have a Galaxy Tab since that can be used to extend your screen – no cables required.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge screen open to Samsung apps — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Benchmarks

Here's how the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge performed in our suite of benchmark tests:

3DMark Steel Nomad: 586; Fire Strike: 6,003; Time Spy: 2,174; Wild Life Unlimited: 29,078
GeekBench 6.3: 2,935 (single-core); 15,818 (multi-core)
25GB File Copy: 24.59 seconds
HandBrake 4k to 1080p encoding: 5:00 minutes
CrossMark Overall: 1,485; Productivity: 1,411; Creativity: 1,590; Responsiveness: 1,409
Web Surfing (Battery Informant): 9:56:24
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, Ultra): 24 fps; (1080p, Low): 21 fps

These Samsung apps are built-in, but you can find them under the Galaxy Book Experience. Folks with a Galaxy Z Flip or S will be right at home with Samsung Notes, Studio, SmartThings, Quick Share, and Phone Link. This lets you seamlessly bring elements from your phone to your laptop, like texts appearing on both, using your keyboard to respond on either, and even quickly sharing files between the two devices.

It all works pretty seamlessly, but the star is being able to control your Galaxy phone on the Book4 Edge, just like the forthcoming iPhone Mirroring app for macOS Sequoia. It wasn’t without a hitch, and I did experience a crash, but when it works, it’s convenient, especially if you left your phone charging in another room.

Even with this Galaxy-specific experience running alongside other Windows apps, you’ll be hard-pressed to make this laptop slow down or get overly hot. As you’d expect from a Windows laptop with the latest Qualcomm chips, performance is fast, and that goes for productivity or creative experiences. This means that the Book4 Edge is suitable for work and play if compatible.

Performance score: 5 / 5

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Battery

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge's numpad and stickers — (Image credit: Future/Jacob Krol)

Doesn't last as long as other Copilot laptops

Performance boosts aside, the other promised advantage of a Copilot laptop is greatly improved battery life. The Surface Laptop 7 in our review hit the mark with 15 hours in our battery test, while the Dell XPS 13 hit up to 20 hours. The latter is the best we’ve tested out of these new Windows laptops and beats out the Galaxy Book4 Edge by quite a bit.

In our standard video playback loop to test battery life, Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge lasts just shy of 10 hours at 9 hours and 56 minutes. It could be the AMOLED display, the larger size, or a smaller battery cell inside, but that is not the longest battery life by any stretch of the imagination…especially at this price point.

However, in qualitative use, you can get a full workday out of it if you can top it off at some point, mainly if you’re pushing it a bit harder with specific applications, as that will drain the power faster.

One big advantage, though, as I noted above, is that it does wake up pretty instantaneously from sleep, whether that be after a few minutes, hours, or days. Gone are the days of waiting for this to reboot.

Battery score: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge?

Buy it if...

You want a big, vibrant screen
If you're looking for a large-screen laptop with excellent visuals, look no further than the Galaxy Book4 Edge. Its vibrant and punchy AMOLED screen looks great in nearly any viewing condition.

You're in the Samsung ecosystem
Unlike any other Copilot PC, the Galaxy Book4 Edge offers custom-made functionality that works with Galaxy phones and tablets.

Don't buy it if...

You want long battery life
If you want a long runtime that can easily last a day, even with more intensive use cases, you'd be better served with a Surface Laptop 7 or Dell XPS 13.

You want a smaller screen

If you don't need a large display, you'll save some money by opting for a 13-inch Copilot laptop like the Surface Laptop 7.

Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge: Also consider

If you're aren't sold on Samsung's Galaxy Book4 Edge, consider these three alternative laptops.

Microsoft Surface Laptop 7

Just like the Galaxy Book4 Edge, the Surface Laptop 7 comes in two sizes – 13-inch or 15-inch – with excellent performance from the Snapdragon X Elite chip, all packaged in a slightly more premium build.

Check out our full Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 review.

How I tested the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge

I've spent nearly a month using the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge for work with applications like Edge, Slack, AirTable, the Microsoft Office Suite, and Google Chrome, as well as for play with countless applications. TechRadar ran a set of qualitative benchmarks to gauge performance. I matched those with my everyday performance in several scenarios, including being connected to power or running off battery indoors and outdoors.

To get a feel for the design, I used it in various locations and tested traveling with it with three backpacks to get a sense of versatility. I also wrote this review and countless other stories using the integrated keyboard and viewing them back on the display. I paid close attention to the Copilot experience and others that use the NPU in the Snapdragon X Elite processor.

To get a sense of the ecosystem integration, I used the Galaxy Book4 Edge alongside a Galaxy S24 Ultra, a Galaxy Tab, and a Galaxy Z Fold 5 to test the functionality with experiences like Quick Share, working with Samsung Notes, and mirroring my phone screen to the laptop.