Galaxy Book 4 Edge review: the Snapdragon X Elite compared with Intel and AMD

Samsung is moving into Copilot+ with the Galaxy Book 4 Edge. I won’t go into the AI functions here – I’m going to concentrate on the hardware. I discovered a lot of nice stuff, but also one or two minor things that bothered me.

The Galaxy Book 4 Edge isn’t only lightweight on the scales at 1.16 kilogrammes, it also feels light to hold. It’s very slim – 10.9 millimetres – yet robust thanks to its aluminium casing. It’s a notebook that I like to carry around with me. But a few other things have to be right to completely win me over.

Lots of power with 3D rendering glitches

Samsung has installed the second most powerful version of the Snapdragon X Elite in the Galaxy Book 4 Edge, the X1E-80-100. The 12 processing cores clock up to 3.4 gigahertz. The even better version of the chipset reaches 3.8 gigahertz in multicore and 0.2 gigahertz more in dual core boost. The increase in performance isn’t likely to be relevant in most cases.

Like all Copilot+ PCs, Samsung relies on the integrated Adreno graphics from Qualcomm. Anything else would contradict the concept of a compact, lightweight notebook with long battery life. The Galaxy Book 4 Edge has 16 gigabytes of RAM.

I’m particularly interested in how the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 performs in the benchmark tests compared to its peers in another notebook. Are there big differences, or are all notebooks with the chipset equally good? I also want to know how it performs compared to the current top chips from Intel and AMD. However, the only AI chips that are currently available to me are the next generation from AMD – specifically the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 in the Zenbook S 16. The first notebooks with Intel Core Ultra 200V aren’t due to be released until November 2024, so I have to use the Core Ultra 9 185H in the Huawei MateBook X Pro for comparison.

There are limitations in that not all benchmark programs have been adapted for Qualcomm’s ARM chipsets. That’s why they don’t run on Copilot+ PCs such as the Galaxy Book 4 Edge. I miss PCMark in particular. But there are some comparable figures.

Geekbench 6: differences between CPU and GPU

Geekbench tests the single-core and multi-core performance of the CPU using simulated everyday scenarios. The benchmark runs on Windows (x86 and Arm), MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

The chipset in the Galaxy Book shows only a few differences from the X1E-80-100 from Microsoft’s Surface Pro. It’s noticeable that the CPU performs slightly worse in single and multi-core mode, but the GPU achieves better results.

The chips from Intel and AMD perform only slightly worse in the CPU tests – with the exception of Intel in the single core – but deliver better values with their integrated graphics chips. It should be noted, however, that the Snapdragon can outsource tasks such as upscaling games or rendering videos or images to the NPU.

Geekbench AI: not yet an established benchmark

Geekbench AI is a very new benchmark program designed to assess a device’s AI performance. It runs typical AI applications and assigns a score, with the option to measure the CPU and NPU separately. Like the conventional Geekbench, the AI version also runs on Windows (x86 and Arm), MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS.

Unsurprisingly, all CPUs perform worse than the AI-specialist NPUs, and the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H with the weakest NPU is ranked bottom.

However, I find it difficult to correctly assess the three values: «Single Precision score», «Half Precision score» and «Quantized score». The Intel chip actually outperforms the two Snapdragons in the SPS, while the AMD chip is way ahead. In the HPS, all chips – apart from the Intel, which is a long way behind – are more or less equal. In the QS, the Snapdragon leaves the competition in its wake.

Cinebench 2024: minor differences in rendering

Cinebench 2024 tests how well the processor renders 3D models and uses the Redshift engine (Cinema 4D’s standard rendering engine). It runs on Windows (x86 and Arm) and macOS.

With just one processing core, the Snapdragon has the edge, but when Cinebench uses multiple processing cores, the AMD chip comes out on top. The Intel chip has less of a disadvantage here than in the other tests. It’s also noticeable that the Galaxy Book crashes in the multi-core test and lags way behind. Even doing several runs didn’t change anything. I don’t have a definitive explanation for this. At best, it’s due to suspected weaker cooling performance.

During all the benchmark tests and normal use, I only heard the Galaxy Book’s fan when I put my ear to the ventilation holes on the underside of the notebook. If I sit in front of the laptop, I don’t hear it.

Very good battery life

I’d like to test the battery life using the Modern Office profile in PCMark. We actually use it for notebooks, but it’s not yet adapted for Arm chipsets. So, I have to make do with the software’s video test and fewer comparison values than I’d like.

The measured span of 13 hours and 36 minutes is pretty much out on its own. Compared to the 18 hours promised by Samsung, it’s a disappointment, but it’s still more than a whole working day.

My colleague Martin Jud recorded 11 hours and 57 minutes of video playback on the Surface Pro with the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100. And that’s with a slightly larger battery. The Surface Pro has 58 Wh, while the Galaxy Book 4 Edge has 55.9 Wh. However, he measured the display brightness at 400 nits and I used the 200 nits recommended for the test for (future) comparability.

The notebook is charged with up to 65 watts and comes with a suitable power adapter.

Nice touchscreen

Samsung has given the Galaxy Book 4 Edge a 14-inch AMOLED touchscreen in 16:9 format. The high resolution of 2880 × 1800 pixels ensures a razor-sharp image and the refresh rate is up to 120 Hertz. Gorilla Glass is also said to reduce reflections by 75 per cent and increase the contrast ratio by 50 per cent compared to conventional cover glasses.

This gave me hope that I’ll be able to work on the Galaxy Book on the patio at least occasionally, but sadly not. The display is great indoors, but it reflects too much outdoors. The brightness of 400 nits is also still too low, even on cloudy days.

I check the colour space coverage with the ColorChecker Display Plus from Calibrite and DisplayCAL. The result is good, but not perfect for all colour spaces, especially if you’re relying on 100% coverage.

• sRBG: 100%
• Adobe RGB: 95.6 %
• DCI-P3: 98.5 %

Basic range of ports

A slim notebook like the Galaxy Book 4 Edge doesn’t offer much in the way of ports. You can expect two USB-C ports with USB 4.0 – one of which is basically taken up by the power supply – and an HDMI 2.1 port. There’s also a 3.5 mm jack for headphones. Not much, but it could often be enough. A USB-A port is probably the most missed.

The Galaxy Book supports Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 7 wireless connections.

Supersmooth keystrokes and large touchpad

The keyboard has a backlight and pleasantly large keys. The key travel’s short and the pressure point’s supersoft. I don’t like that as much. I like clear pressure points on keyboards. The fingerprint sensor at the top right does its job reliably. Alternatively, I can also unlock the notebook using Windows Hello via facial recognition.

Samsung has equipped the Galaxy Book 4 Edge with a large touchpad. It only has buttons with a clear pressure point on the lower half.

Samsung only offers the Galaxy Book 4 Edge with a German keyboard. There’s no Swiss layout.