Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge Review: Snapdragon X Elite Screams

	Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge Laptop: Starts At $1,099; $1499 As Tested The fastest Qualcomm-powered portable we've tested to date delivers fantastic productivity, media and content creation experiences.
	Fantastic Native App Performance Amazing AMOLED Display Super Thin And Stylish Surprisingly Spatial Sound Excellent Battery Life	Keyboard Could Be Better Emulation Required For x86 Apps Lacking Game Compatibility

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When Apple made the switch from Intel CPUs to its own home-grown Apple Silicon using the Arm instruction set for its Macintosh systems, the swap was a resounding success. Both application performance and battery life were greatly improved over previous platforms. Though Microsoft had already tried Windows on Arm before, each of those attempts employed modest, mobile-oriented processors that really weren't competitive with Intel's and AMD's finest in the same way Apple's M Series CPUs are.

So here we are once more, this time with the first non-Apple, Arm architecture-based processors for Windows that present a real and credible challenge to legacy x86 supremacy. Enter Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite processor powering the new Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge that we're evaluating for you today.


That said, we're actually not going to talk at great length about the Snapdragon X Elite processor in the Galaxy Book4 Edge, here. That's both because we've already done so, and also because this is specifically a review of Samsung's new 16-inch laptop and not of the Snapdragon X Elite processor in general nor of the Windows-on-Arm ecosystem. However, there will be some discussion of both of those topics as it's inevitable in one of our first rodeos with this new breed of Copilot + PCs. 

Moving from an x86-64-based Windows laptop to an AArch64 machine running ARM64 Windows necessitates surprisingly few workflow changes for the casual user, but power users and in particular gamers may have more concerns. We're getting ahead of ourselves, though. First, let's check out Samsung's gorgeous Galaxy Book4 Edge laptop and what makes it tick.


Looking at the specifications, there are a few aspects that warrant mentioning. The first is that this machine is powered by the fastest Snapdragon X Elite processor that will find its way into mobile platforms this year. There is one more "X1E" model above this one, but that one's intended more for all-in-one desktop-like usage with an unlocked power limit, and it's currently only available in Qualcomm's Snapdragon X dev kit.. The Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 here is the exact same silicon as that model, with all pieces enabled, yet with a power limit more suited for a mobile form factor.

What is that power limit? Good question. Samsung didn't tell us, and it isn't listed anywhere in the specifications. Windows doesn't report it, and third-party tools like HWiNFO, OCCT, and even an ARM64 native build of HWMonitor aren't able to report that value for us on this machine. We can probably assume it's in the 25-35W range, though, based on how our machine performs compared to Qualcomm's 25W reference platform.

Other notable specifications of the new Galaxy Book4 Edge include the super-fast 8448MT/s LPDDR5X RAM, a simply gorgeous "Dynamic AMOLED 2X" touch display, a eUFS 4.0 SSD, and a generous 61.8-WHr battery. We'll have more analysis on many of these features and component selections, but we'll talk through each of those as we journey on in this review.

Inspecting Samsung's Galaxy Book4 Edge Design, Components And Build Quality

It's kind of hard to get an idea of this based on photos of the device floating on the page here, but the Galaxy Book4 Edge feels much smaller than its 16-inch frame. Though this is a 16"-class laptop with a 16:10 display and it's not a small system relatively speaking, thanks to its narrow bezels around Samsung's AMOLED display, as well as its ridiculously slim construction, it would feel more like carrying around a large tablet if it weren't for its footprint. 

At 3.5 lbs, the Galaxy Book4 Edge weighs a touch more than one of the main competitors we're using for direct comparisons in this review, the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo. It's considerably thinner, though, which gives the system a particularly dense feeling. It's not a bad thing, but just know that the exceptional thinness doesn't make it feel any lighter in a backpack or messenger bag.

The display itself is a vibrant and beautiful OLED panel with a 2880x1800 ("2.8K") resolution. Samsung also includes a number of color profiles for the screen that you can swap between if you prefer DCI-P3 coverage, Adobe RGB coverage, or simple sRGB color accuracy. The peak brightness, whether in SDR or HDR, is around 480 nits; while that's plenty bright even for outdoor usage, it's not really enough for us to consider this a "proper" HDR display. We do enjoy the 120Hz refresh rate, though.


There's absolutely nothing to see on the top of the laptop when it's closed, nor on the back of the system, except for an understated Samsung logo. There are not even any vents back here, nor obviously any I/O. A reflective (not illuminated) Samsung logo-mark is the only embellishment on the outside of the machine. To be honest, we like the clean design, but we also understand how this kind of understated look might not appeal to everyone.


Opening the laptop obviously gives you access to the keyboard and the touchscreen. People have varying opinons about touchscreens on non-convertible laptops, but this one works just fine as you'd expect, and the screen hinge is stiff enough that it doesn't cause excessive wobbling to use.

The keyboard is probably the weakest link in this laptop. It's a bit mushy and has relatively shallow key travel. Typing on this keyboard, we produced a higher percentage of errors than usual, so there's a bit of learning curve here that you might not have on other machines. Otherwise, it's serviceable but all-in, the keyboard is a bit of a buzz kill, which is a shame because we do like its layout quite a bit.

We also have to complain about the Copilot key, which takes up what would otherwise have been either another Windows key or a right-hand Ctrl button; either one would have been more useful, as the Copilot button actually does literally nothing on our system. Right out of the box, pressing it, or holding it and pressing other keys – neither got us any response.

On the other hand, the large trackpad works very well and feels great to glide your finger around on. There's a hotkey to disable it, but we found that the palm rejection is really very good and never needed to do so, even when using an external mouse.
This helpful image from Samsung gives you a look at all of the external I/O on this system. On the left side, a pair of USB Type-C ports offer USB 4.0 connectivity with all that entails; the ports are also used to charge the machine. That HDMI port says "HDMI 2.1" but don't be fooled; it's strictly a TMDS connection and doesn't support the newer HDMI 2.1 Fixed-Rate Link (FRL) standard.

Over on the other side, you get a UHS-II-capable MicroSD card reader, a full-sized USB 3.2 Type-A port, and a 3.5mm audio jack. We would have liked to have seen Ethernet on this system, but it's really just too thin. We also would have appreciated another USB Type-C port as well, so we didn't have to occupy one of our three USB ports for charging, but that's a complaint about many machines in this weight class, not just this system, so we can't hold it against Samsung.


Underneath the Galaxy Book4 Edge 16, there's a fair bit to see. At the bottom of the photo is the front of the laptop; there's a long notch in the bottom casing's front edge to make opening the lid to the system easier. The black slot-looking bits on either side are actually the side-firing speakers that offer a very impressive spatial soundstage with the help of Dolby Atmos spatial audio processing. There's some lacking low end bass response here as usual, but what can you really do in a half-inch-thick system?

The large rectangular vent seems to serve double duty as both intake and exhaust, so it's critical to avoid covering it up. That's probably why the four rubber feet are so tall; they add another 50% or so to the machine's Z-height, just like in the ports photo above. We suspect there are probably screws to dismantle this laptop under those feet, but they're simply glued on, so we suppose Samsung doesn't want anyone taking the machine apart. There's probably nothing much user-serviceable inside anyway; both the RAM and SSD are BGA components.

Alright, alright–we know what you came for. Head over to the next page to check out the benchmarks.