Windows on Arm has become a viable platform very quickly thanks to Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon CPUs. After testing more than six dozen laptops with the new processors, we found that even the least capable model outperforms last-generation AMD and Intel in terms of CPU speed and battery life. To find out if it can do any more, though, I’ve been dying to get my hands on a laptop equipped with the fastest Snapdragon processor made by Qualcomm. When I saw the top model running on a demo system back in April, it looked like the chip that would help usher in a new era of Windows PCs that are faster and more power-efficient and can rival Apple’s MacBook Air M3 in a way that neither AMD nor Intel had been able to.The Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 chip is exclusive to Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge, which is the only Copilot Plus PC that can use it. Designed for ordinary web browsing, a combination of business and creative work, and running Windows Copilot Plus AI tools like Live Captions and Cocreator, this is Samsung’s thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptop. AMOLED display and fingerprint reader are two characteristics shared by the Edge and the Intel-powered Galaxy Book4 Ultra, but the Edge also has quicker ports and Wi-Fi. It is claimed that the X1E-84-100 chip will outperform the subsequent model by up to 20 percent. Samsung was given the opportunity to create a laptop that fully exhibited the capabilities of the platform. Rather, in order to have the thinnest chassis possible, it underpowered that chip to the breaking point. The Book 4 still has a decent laptop, but you don’t have to acquire the greatest chip to get it; in fact, you’d be better off saving the money.
Surprisingly portable
Larger screens are becoming a more enticing option since 16-inch heavy, hardly portable laptops are almost completely obsolete. The Book4 Edge further tests what can be done with a 16-inch device. Being one of the few 16-inch computers that weighs less than 3.5 pounds and is less than half an inch thick, it is among the most portable large laptops on the market. Compared to some lighter and smaller Copilot Plus PCs I tested, its weight is spread across a bigger area, so carrying it in my shoulder bag doesn’t hurt my back and I feel like I can be more agile. Since it’s more manageable, I don’t mind dropping it.The construction of the Edge is strong. The laptop’s hinge maintains a solid hold on the lid no matter how far you tilt it, the metal chassis is completely stiff, and the lid doesn’t flex when you open or close the device. The machine’s gray keys complement its silver body in a pleasing way. Although Samsung claims that the body color is a sapphire blue, I fail to see any blue in it.
The keyboard is not particularly striking, but it is snappy. Being a heavy-fingered typist, I appreciate that the keys are not overly shallow and that they don’t produce a lot of noise. However, they are lethargic. I wasn’t prepared for how much softer and slower the real press felt. Although I don’t really detest them, I don’t want to switch back to Samsung’s after typing on the Asus Zenbook S 16, a competitor 16-inch laptop that is almost the same size and weight.
Disappointing performance
For business, school, or any other setting where you only need a quick, dependable laptop to do the basics, the Book4 Edge would be ideal. The laptop can manage many tabs in the web and streaming movies equally as well, and it launches programs slightly faster than many rival AMD or Intel-based computers. However, Samsung missed the opportunity to showcase the full potential of Qualcomm’s fastest Snapdragon chip since it put design before performance.
The higher-end Book4 Edge model I examined includes the X1E-84-100 chip, which is advertised to be up to 20% faster than the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 found in the base model. Additionally, it should be able to increase two of its cores’ maximum clock speeds from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz.
During testing, I kept an eye on the clock speeds of the X1E-84-100. Not even one of its twelve cores reached 4.2GHz in our most demanding multicore benchmarks. The precise amount of power Samsung is providing to the CPU in the Book4 Edge is unknown, but it is obviously insufficient. I monitor power usage while running benchmarks as well. In my testing, the Book4 Edge never pulled more than 35W from the wall; all other laptops I tested that had a Qualcomm CPU pulled closer to 50W.
The Snapdragon X Elite chips, like many others, have a fairly broad power range of operation; increase the power and it will perform faster. Moreover, it will generate additional heat. You may give the processor less power in a slimmer laptop since there is less space for the cooling system to release heat. Samsung maintains control over the temperature and a tiny chassis by providing the chip with less power. Thankfully, the Book4 Edge’s inability to reach its maximum clock speed has little bearing on how it feels to use on a daily basis. Similar in speed to the other Snapdragon X Elite laptops we examined, it continues to operate at that level.
However, I was disappointed to see worse results when I compared its test scores to those of laptops with less powerful Snapdragon CPUs, such as the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x and Dell XPS 13. The Book4 Edge performed 16 to 13 percent worse in multicore tasks than similar laptops. I wanted to watch the Edge, which has the fastest processor from Qualcomm right now, perform!
Long battery life
The laptop has the benefit of being somewhat power-efficient; on average, I could get around 14 hours of battery life on a single charge. I managed to utilize it for almost two whole workdays, putting hundreds of tabs on Microsoft Edge, writing, playing music, and occasionally taking video calls. The laptop was running in its most energy-efficient mode, but it didn’t affect how responsive Book4 Edge was. (I couldn’t observe a discernible change in power consumption between performance and efficiency modes.)
The laptop’s battery life most impressed me because it was able to stay so long on a very modest 61.8Wh battery, demonstrating how power-efficient Qualcomm’s Snapdragon CPUs are. To what extent is it effective? Think about the almost same 16-inch Galaxy Book4 Ultra, which sports a 76Wh battery and an Intel Core Ultra processor. It is outlasted by roughly 20 minutes by the Book4 Edge, although with an 18% smaller battery. Yes, the chip really is that effective.
Power conservation is also aided by its AMOLED, 2880 x 1800 (3K) display. It requires less electricity from the laptop because it has about half as many pixels as a 4K display. However, there are still enough pixels to provide a wide range of accurate, vivid colors while maintaining a crisp, sharp image. Because it strikes a good balance between battery life and image quality, comparable resolution screens are beginning to appear more frequently in laptops intended for both productivity and gaming.
A compelling base model
For someone like a student who needs a big-screen laptop that can easily manage numerous open apps, the Book4 Edge is a decent, thin, and light laptop. It looks good, has a decent screen, and has a great battery life. I simply don’t understand why Samsung equipped a laptop with the most potent Snapdragon X Elite processor and then chose not to utilize it. The $1,450 base model, which comes with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 CPU, is a far better deal than the $1,750 variant that I tested.
The Book4 Edge, with its Snapdragon CPU, is among the lightest and thinnest 16-inch Windows laptops available, offering excellent performance and battery life. However, power users would still be far better off with an AMD or Intel laptop if they need a Windows laptop for gaming or creative work. Even though you will, in fact, be giving up at least a couple hours of battery life, those devices will have greater graphics performance and app compatibility. The Zenbook S 16 from Asus, for example, is priced at $1,699. It is somewhat more expensive, has more RAM, and performs faster than the Book4 Edge. However, it weighs roughly a third of a pound more and only lasts for about 11 hours on a charge as opposed to 14.
With everything that it has to offer, Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge is a fantastic laptop. However, I’m still in the dark about the capabilities of Qualcomm’s most potent Snapdragon X Elite CPU.
Joanna Nelius’s photography from The Verge