Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon chips have quickly turned Windows on Arm into a viable platform. We’ve tested more than a half-dozen laptops with the new processors, and even the weakest chips rival Intel and last-generation AMD in CPU performance and beat them in battery life. But I’ve been itching to get a laptop with Qualcomm’s fastest Snapdragon processor to see if it could do more. I saw the high-end model in action on a demo machine back in April, and it looks like it will be chip Help usher in a new era of faster, more energy-efficient Windows PCs and challenge Apple’s MacBook Air M3 in ways Intel or AMD can’t.
That chip – the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 – is only available in one Copilot Plus PC: Samsung’s Galaxy Book4 Edge. It’s Samsung’s thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptop, designed for a mix of everyday web browsing, business and creative work, and runs Windows Copilot Plus AI apps like Live Captions and Cocreator. The Edge has similar features to the Intel-based Galaxy Book4 Ultra, such as an AMOLED display and a fingerprint reader, but it also offers faster ports and faster Wi-Fi.
The X1E-84-100 chip is expected to be 20% faster than the next model. Samsung has a chance to make laptop This showcases the full potential of the platform. Instead, its chip performance is woefully inadequate for even the thinnest chassis. The Book4 is still a decent laptop, but you don’t need to buy the best chips to get it – and you’re actually better off saving some money.
Surprisingly portable
Bulky, unwieldy 16-inch laptops are almost a thing of the past, making larger screens an increasingly attractive option. Book4 Edge further pushes the limits of 16-inch machines. It’s one of the few 16-inch laptops that’s less than half an inch thick and weighs less than 3.5 pounds, making it one of the most portable large laptops available. It doesn’t strain my back when I carry it in a shoulder bag, and its weight is spread over a larger area than some of the lighter, smaller Copilot Plus computers I’ve tested, so it feels I can use it more flexibly. It’s easier to hold so I’m not afraid of dropping it.
The Edge’s build quality is solid. Its metal chassis is completely solid, the lid doesn’t flex when you open or close the laptop, and the hinges hold the lid securely no matter how you tilt it. Aesthetically, the machine’s gray buttons blend perfectly with the silver body. Samsung says the body color is actually royal blue, but I didn’t see any blue.
The keyboard is responsive but unobtrusive. I like that the keys aren’t too shallow and don’t make a lot of noise, especially for a heavy-fingered typist like me. But they are insensitive. The actual compression felt slower and gentler than I expected. I don’t dislike them entirely, but after typing on the Asus Zenbook S 16, a competing 16-inch laptop that’s nearly the same size and weight, I don’t want to go back to Samsung.
disappointing performance
The Book4 Edge is perfect for work, school, or any environment where you need a fast, reliable machine to handle basic operations. The laptop can launch programs a bit faster than many AMD- or Intel-based machines, and it can handle a bunch of browser pagination or streaming movies, too. But because Samsung prioritized design over performance, it missed the opportunity to showcase the best capabilities of Qualcomm’s fastest Snapdragon chip.
The base Book4 Edge model comes with a Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor, but the high-end model I reviewed came with an X1E-84-100 chip, which is expected to be 20 percent faster. It should also be able to increase the maximum clock speed of both cores from 3.8GHz to 4.2GHz.
I monitored the X1E-84-100’s clock speed during testing. Even on our most rigorous multi-core benchmark, its 12 cores didn’t hit 4.2GHz. Samsung didn’t tell me how much power it provides to the CPU in the Book4 Edge, but it’s clearly not enough. I also track power consumption during the benchmark. In my testing, the Book4 Edge never drew more than 35W from the wall; every other laptop I’ve tested with a Qualcomm chip drew closer to 50W.
Like many processors, the Snapdragon X Elite chip operates over a fairly wide power band: give it more power and it’ll run faster. It also generates more heat. The thinner the laptop, the less space the cooling system has to dissipate heat, so less power can be supplied to the processor. By reducing the chip’s power consumption, Samsung can control temperatures and make the chassis thinner. Fortunately, the fact that the Book4 Edge isn’t hitting maximum clock speeds doesn’t have any impact on how it feels in day-to-day use. It’s still about as fast as other Snapdragon X Elite laptops we’ve tested.
But when I compared its benchmark scores to laptops with lower-grade Snapdragon chips, such as the Dell XPS 13 and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x, I was disappointed to see lower scores; the Book4 Edge’s multi-core Performance is 13% to 16% slower than those laptops respectively. The Edge is currently the only laptop with Qualcomm’s fastest processor, and I want to see it fly!
long battery life
The advantage of the laptop not running at full speed is that it’s quite power efficient: I usually get about 14 hours of battery life on a single charge. I was able to use it for nearly two full workdays while loading Microsoft Edge with dozens of tabs, streaming music, writing, and making the occasional video call. I set the laptop’s power mode to its most efficient setting, but there was no change in the Book4 Edge’s responsiveness. (I didn’t find a significant difference in power consumption between efficiency mode and performance mode.)
What impressed me most about this laptop’s battery life is that it lasted so long on a relatively small 61.8Wh battery, showing just how energy-efficient Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor is. How efficient is it? Take the nearly identical 16-inch Galaxy Book4 Ultra, for example, which comes with an Intel Core Ultra chip and a 76Wh battery. Even with an 18% smaller battery, the Book4 Edge lasts about 20 minutes longer. Yes, chips are just that efficient.
Its 2880 x 1800 (3K) AMOLED display also helps save power. It has about half the pixel count of a 4K monitor, so the laptop doesn’t have to work as hard to power it. But there are still plenty of pixels to keep images looking clean and sharp, while producing plenty of accurate, vibrant colors. It’s a happy middle ground that doesn’t sacrifice image quality for battery life—a big reason why displays with similar resolutions are starting to appear more frequently in productivity and gaming laptops.
Compelling base model
The Book4 Edge is a great, thin, and lightweight laptop for people like students who need a big-screen machine that can handle multiple open apps with ease. It has great battery life, a nice screen, and looks great. I just don’t understand why Samsung put the most powerful Snapdragon X Elite chip into a laptop and then didn’t take advantage of it. There’s no reason to buy the $1,750 model I tested; the $1,450 base model with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 chip is a better deal.
The Snapdragon processor makes the Book4 Edge one of the thinnest and lightest 16-inch Windows laptops, with outstanding battery life and performance. But power users who need a Windows laptop for creative work or gaming will still be better off with an AMD or Intel computer. These machines will have better app compatibility and better graphics performance, even if you have to sacrifice at least a few hours of battery life. For example, Asus’ Zenbook S 16 starts at $1,699. It has faster performance, comes with more RAM, and costs a bit less than the Book4 Edge, but it’s about a third of a pound heavier and has about 11 hours of battery life instead of 14 hours.
The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge is an excellent laptop that has all the bells and whistles it needs. But I haven’t seen what Qualcomm’s most powerful Snapdragon X Elite chip is capable of.
Photography: Joanna Nelius/The Verge
