Galaxy Book4 Edge (Snapdragon X Elite) - Real-world REVIEW!

Howdy KZbin,
All right! Five days in, heavy use, I think I'm finally ready to offer my full opinion on what works, what doesn't, and what surprised me the most when it comes to Samsung's first Snapdragon X Elite product.
Though I spent decades as a professional reviewer of laptops and other products before that, as always, this will not be your conventional review. There are plenty of benchmarks available from plenty of sources who do a great job with those; my job today, by contrast, will be to boil it all down and condense this into a perfectly digestible, balanced, and realistic take on a product that I purchased with my own money, with no allegiances to any manufacturer or any company.
There's not a lot of editing that goes into anything I produce-it's all in fun, but I hope you'll find it uncommonly insightful given my background. Questions? Comments? If you appreciate my content, it means the world to me if you'll subscribe, so that way when I post my next video several months from now (bwahaha) you'll be the first to hear about it! ;-D
thanks, Steve

[@eds464]

Finally someone putting it on best power efficiency. I understand one's use case differs. But it makes more sense on battery to put in best power efficiency. Even with mid to high brightness that's impressive. For my use case I could see myself getting past 15hrs.

[@SubSolar]

What kind of battery life are you getting on balanced mode?

[@bassyey]

Damn, that's impressive if it can actually reach that. I'm looking into this device. I already have a M2 mac mini and want to get a laptop. No, I don't want macos again because I want to try new things!

[@OtherSteve]

​@@SubSolarI'm getting 7 to 9 hours on Balanced, mid to high brightness.

[@OtherSteve]

​@@bassyeyI agree. And it really is fast enough on best power efficiency mode when unplugged that you just don't have to care about it unless you're doing something seriously heavy duty while away from the outlet. It still feels snappier than my i5 12th gen, and that's despite the benchmark scores. I really think that everyone who is assuming you need to stay in balanced all the time is missing the point.

[@andyH_England]

95% of average ultrabook users are not into tech, where they will change the battery mode for every task they do. They will keep it in the default balanced mode, always the de facto battery measurement method. It is fair and reasonable not to have it in performance mode 24/7 and get 2-3 hours SOT; ditto low-power, as it is not reflective of general consumer use. The low-power mode may turn off 120Hz as well or reduce screen brightness and underclocking, turning off boost. I did try it on my Galaxy Book3Pro as there was a noticeable performance hit.

[@doctorqwerty]

Good review

[@bassyey]

It's probably the same as the coating in S24 Ultra. It was so good. I tested in stores and stores are bright. I was only able to afford S24+ but it came with a anti-reflecting screen protector, and it's great too. Probably my favorite feature this 2024.

[@OtherSteve]

Agreed. It's a huge addition to a laptop also - because matte screen coatings, as great as they are, do absolutely mute color and contrast, and they're even not ideal in some outdoor or very bright situations due to the diffusion of otherwise acute light sources into bright hazes on the screen (which can make viewing the screen more irritating even in spite of the lack of actual acute reflections). It's so good, I may have to hang onto this laptop even in spite of the keyboard.

[@The1neo34]

The way I am using my 16" 80-100 galaxy book 4 edge is basically as a really nice content consumption device, and also as a thin client. I have a server with a workstation VM running good old x86 windows 11. This seems to be a fantastic device for this given all of the bits and pieces with battery life and screen quality etc.

[@OtherSteve]

I am really thinking about keeping it in spite of the keyboard issue. It's so good in so many other ways, and no one else has this screen coating.

[@The1neo34]

@@OtherSteve Hah I get that! It is a shame the chips are getting such bad press with traditional use cases as from my own use it is awesome. over 10 hours battery life for me every day!

[@andyH_England]

In its own bubble, the X Elite is solid. But with AMD coming in a few weeks, followed by Intel in September, and M4 in October, we will see that outside that bubble the X Elite looks rather disappointing in comparison.

[@The1neo34]

@@andyH_England Will certainly be interesting to see! But for me if those intel/amd chips that perform well get very hot even when idle (like most of my laptops up to this point) then I am not interested!

[@akin242002]

Too many driver issues outside of MS apps. However, it could be updated and fixed by the holiday shopping season. Early adoptors are going to struggle. Late adopters will reap all the rewards.

[@OtherSteve]

Yup. Being a tech consultant by trade, this is exactly why I felt I had to invest in one. I had no way to know what to recommend to clients otherwise!

[@andyH_England]

Many legacy apps on Windows and old peripherals may never get driver updates. So, I would warn against any assumptions. I would question anyone upgrading knowing that the software or hardware they use currently needs to be fixed, as there is no guarantee it will ever work.

[@nafeeahnaf6296]

Getting the 16 inch Book 4 edge with the 84-100 top of the line X Elite variant, hoping it is quieter, has much better battery life and just doesn't burn me from getting insanely hot compared to my 12th gen i5 intel Asus Vivobook that spins the fans in full speed from just having a few tabs open and watching KZbin along with getting only 4 to 5 hours of battery life which is just trash. I always take my laptop to classes and libraries and hate needing to take a charger everywhere.

[@OtherSteve]

I think you will come away thoroughly impressed with the SoC.

[@LeHung-sr9qd]

I like this practical review. You even have a same thought considering between surface pro, slim 7x and this edge4. I changed from iphone to ss24 ultra recently and love it especially the screen. I'm intending to sell my macbook m1 pro to this new Snapdragon chips. It looks interesting Come down now yo surface pro 11 , book7, slim 7x and this edge4. I love oled screen therefore the slim 7x and this edge 4 really tick all of my box. The only downside from slim 7x is the 90hz screen because I'm afraid that I already got used to the 120hz on the mac pro. Is the 90 hz gonna be noticeable? Would you recommend this edge4 for the compatibility with my ss24ultra? or the slim 7x for price/performance ?or the surface pro 11 for portability? Thank you for the great video. Already subbed

[@OtherSteve]

I actually have an S23 Ultra and I have to say, I do really enjoy the phone connectivity features more than I had expected I might prior to purchasing this thing. I'm about to put together an addendum video also regarding the AI features (which I felt I needed to address separately), but one of the cooler features that presumably all of these laptops offer is the Windows Studio Voice Focus, which allows you to isolate your voice and negate background noise when speaking through your laptop. I have used this to take calls all morning for work and everyone says I sound crystal clear... which is *super* awesome. The Samsung file sharing and screen mirroring also work seamlessly between the two devices, so yeah, maybe it's worth seriously considering this laptop first and foremost due to that and -- again -- the incredible anti-reflective screen finish. As for refresh rates, I doubt you'd notice. Studies have shown that going from 60 Hz to a higher refresh rate is noticeable for most people, but 90 Hz to 120 Hz is barely noticeable at all. Thanks for the sub by the way :-)

[@TaylorABell]

​​@@OtherSteve you will not notice 90hz to 120hz... As long as you don't have 60hz you're good. Actually my dad is an eye doctor. I asked him this same question last year and he said the human eye physically tell a difference between 90-120gz. 60hz to 90hz is where the human eye can tell a difference. Samsung apps are a game changer nobody talk about. It makes all the difference in the world if you plan on keeping a Samsung device and a Samsung laptop.

[@LeHung-sr9qd]

@@OtherSteve the edge4 seems to be the right choice when i alr have samsung phone but the price lenovo offers such a steal. i can get 32 GB ram version slim 7x with the same price for the edge4. The edge4 has better chip though but 10% does not matter much. it's really difficult though.

[@LeHung-sr9qd]

​@@TaylorABell thanks for the advice. the edge4 seems to be the right choice.

[@tranquil87]

​@@TaylorABellIt has never been about the human eye but the fluidity of movement. The response time is felt. If you play a first person shooter game in 90hz vs 180hz you can easily tell.

[@andyH_England]

Avoiding the elephant in the room that few business users should be buying these chips currently, my experience with the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro quality control (QC) has been outstanding. They are reliable and well-built, with continuous updates fixing issues in the early days. They have taken knocks, and generally, I would recommend them on QC. But...I'm not too fond of the keyboard, especially the 16-inch one. The trackpad is frustrating, and the speakers are woeful. For those quality-of-life features, I would not recommend Samsung laptops.

[@OtherSteve]

I would say the speakers on this laptop are good overall. I think there have been substantial improvements on this particular model; they aren't Macbook or Yoga, 9i/XPS/Latitude level, but they're definitely well above average.

[@abdulrahmanal-khaldi5035]

Thank you for the clarification. Is it possible to add a larger SSD, such as a Samsung Book Pro 3, because I changed the size of the SSD from 512 to 2 TB?

[@OtherSteve]

Unfortunately not. It is soldered eUFS storage.

[@abdulrahmanal-khaldi5035]

@@OtherSteve thank you

[@andyH_England]

Samsung Snapdragon Elite laptops are the only ones that do not have upgradeable storage as they use the same principle as Apple; if these SOC are good enough for smartphones and tablets then they are good enough to be moved to laptops lock stock and barrel.

[@abdulrahmanal-khaldi5035]

@@andyH_England This is not a good feature. The inability to upgrade storage space is based on the principle of Company financial gain. Pay more and you get more space. This isn't good for me.

[@andyH_England]

@@abdulrahmanal-khaldi5035 I am not saying it is a positive for some, but the majority do not care (ultrabook market). I concede that pro and gaming devices may need the ability to add storage, though people generally buy desktops for that.

[@aacdallas88]

It sucks when you have to wonder if you're going to return it or not bc I'm in the same boat with mine too right now. I like the laptop but I'm not in love with it. Unfortunately, i ordered the new M7D monitor along with it and that definitely had quality control issues which I'm in the process of returning/repurchasing.

[@OtherSteve]

Samsung's QC needs work. They have all the ingredients...

[@andyH_England]

I must admit that I have used Intel Galaxy Book Pros 2&3, and the keyboard and trackpads are the worst. I would never recommend them to even my darkest enemy. There are better X Elite machines if you are a keyboard warrior and want a quality touchpad.

[@ovyarad]

Can i run Sketchup pro on windows arm and how is it?? Thanks...

[@sham8996]

what do you mean by shine on the keyboard? can it be cleaned, or are the letters fading off?

[@OtherSteve]

The matte coating is wearing off within a few days of ownership (I do type a lot for work).

[@sham8996]

@OtherSteve Thanks for the reply. So, just to clarify. When matte coating is removed, it becomes difficult to read letters in bright light? Backlight won't help? Do you think we can apply any aftermarket product to make matte finish last longer ? Thanks

[@OtherSteve]

@@sham8996 I think it has to be *really* bright light to truly notice it, such as the spotlight shining from above in this particular video. I don't want to oversell this problem; it concerns me that it wore so quickly, but it's not a dealbreaker in 90% of use cases I'd say. Right now, for instance, I'm indoors, with PAR30 LED spot bulbs shining from 10 ft overhead (spread angle 40 degrees) and it's not noticeable at all. Maybe in the sun it's a problem? Right now it's cloudy, so I can't say, but I'll try to remember to report back after the sun comes out.

[@sham8996]

@OtherSteve thank you so much. This is reassuring, I was scared that my wife would be mad if KB became unreadable. Especially in Canada, samsung introduced a crappy return policy with these new laptops. Once opened, we can't return them.

[@bassyey]

If you're into mechanical keyboards, this is called keycap shine. Occurs in ABS plastic. Mainly because of our natural skin oil. Look up pictures of it. But I can't believe this laptop had that shine so fast. It shouldn't be that fast.

[@Eli-t5c]

Have you been using it to watch videos online? I got the 16" one, and noticed random issues playing videos on browsers both Firefox and Chrome (sometimes the video plays fine, sometimes there's just a green screen with audio, sometimes the whole page blanks out for a second, seems to be fine after I turned off hardware decoding, wondering if this is a driver issue that'll get fixed). Also the laptop startup takes 5-10 seconds before the Samsung boot shows up, maybe the laptop I got has hardware issues.

[@OtherSteve]

I haven't spent too much time on video, no. But yeah, if disabling hardware acceleration corrects it, this does sound like a driver (or possibly video memory) issue. Since video memory is shared on this device, you should be able to run a Windows Memory Diagnostic to see if there are any memory issues to rule that out. If it doesn't fail, it's likely a driver-level problem of some sort.

[@Eli-t5c]

@@OtherSteve O good idea, didn't think to check the memory, strange my Windows doesn't have that, maybe it's not ported to ARM yet, but unfortunately or fortunately I did a pass with memtest from passmark and didn't see any ram issues

[@Vee-Wee]

Two questions: 1. How does Prism emulation performance and efficiency compare with Rosettta 2? Does it take more battery hit (comparatively)? 2. Do ×86 applications which do not require any kind of drivers able to run flawlessely? I am seeing mixed reviews from everyone so it is difficult to determine.

[@OtherSteve]

1. While I can't directly compare, I will say I really haven't noticed much of a difference when operating Prism-emulated apps. I use a decent number of them (primarily TeamViewer), and they work as well as they do on x86 machines for the most part. Efficiency hits seem minimal at worst. 2. No, not that I can tell. However, if they *do* require drivers normally to operate (for instance, anti-cheat software, or professional stuff like R-Studio Technician data recovery connecting to DeepSpar hardware), I don't believe they will work at all until the equipment/software manufacturer/publisher provides an updated ARM64 driver. #2 is why I don't think these laptops can be daily drivers... yet. They cannot fully replace an x86 machine. However, they serve as a phenomenal sidekick to the usual setup, and I can tell you that the next time I'm on the road, this is the laptop that's going with me on the trip (assuming I don't return it for a different X Elite machine). Hope this helps!

[@Vee-Wee]

@@OtherSteve In case of #2, it seems the applications which require hardware access or even do hardware level operations will suffer from lack of arm support for next few years. Examples are anti-cheat tools (plays at kernel level), data recovery apps (at storage level), photoshop apps (so much legacy code is still written and maintained in assembly code and C), device requiring drivers, etc. Good review though. Hope you will also review other X plus and elite devices. X Plus looks value for money!

[@OtherSteve]

@@Vee-Wee I agree-I'm beginning to think X Plus may be the place to start for a lot of people!

[@asfonseca]

Hey, I know you mentioned the smudge issue on keyboards and used Apple's MacBooks as an example. The same behavior can be observed on Apple's MacBook keyboards. So, I think that comparison might not be entirely fair. You see, I've used different MacBook models over the years, and I can tell you that Apple isn't exactly the best when it comes to laptop keyboards. Remember those faulty Butterfly keyboards they had for a while? Those were a real pain!

[@OtherSteve]

Oh, don't get me wrong; Apple isn't immune from slipping up, either. But between the first video I posted (with the unit I received that had a green bar down the right side) and the fact that *5 days in* we're already seeing this sort of wear on the keyboard, I'd say Samsung's QC is quite a ways behind Apple's unfortunately. This is also to say nothing of their support (both technical and customer service), which is, in my experience, *absolutely abysmal*. As in, among the worst I've ever experienced -- and trust me, I deal with tech companies *a lot*. ;-) I really hope they can improve in these areas because, as I said, they have many of the other ingredients already in place. They *need* to work on these two things intently to truly compete like they should.

[@asfonseca]

@OtherSteve I would really like to know if there is a difference in the quality of Samsung's technical and customer support between the United States and South Korea. I'm curious about that.

[@asfonseca]

@OtherSteve A smart move by Apple was to make technical support a business in itself, not just a necessary after-sales service. Apple makes a lot of money from its support business. This certainly helps it provide differentiated services in this area.

[@OtherSteve]

@@asfonseca Yeah. They have vertically integrated in as many ways as possible: OS, software, hardware, silicon/chipsets, support. They know how to collect the 💰

[@asfonseca]

Lately, Apple has also been trying to collect too much. I have been an Apple product user for over 20 years, and I must confess that none of the current products appeal to me. In addition to being outdated, Apple's ridiculous lock-in strategy has made me lose all interest.

[@Money-Fast-Plan-a]

You're a beacon of positivity! 🌟 -- "The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.."

[@joel_subash]

Most of the this is not because of snapdragon. I also had the same issue on my Intel pc too.

[@inamulbhuyan]

Snapdragon X Elite ❤❤

[@TaylorABell]

Do all the viewers a favor and show each and every Samsung app that connects the phone and pc. ie Samsung notes, Samsung browser.

[@andyH_England]

Just a point of reference, my M2 MB Airs get between 18-20 hours SOT at 33% brightness during office, browser, and media consumption. I was disappointed that even the Vivobook X Elite, running the lowest SKU with a 30% larger battery, struggled to get more than 12 hours of SOT. I think that the main selling point of battery life is moot due to the upcoming AMD and Intel (M4 as well), so why buy Snapdragon laptops when the Galaxy Book5 Pro has the same design, and the new Intel will be priced competitively, have none of the legacy issues, and be as efficient?

[@OtherSteve]

Well - and I could be wrong here - but I personally don't think it *will* be as efficient. It will likely compare, but the combination of fan noise, heat, power, and battery life that this thing yields I don't believe will be achieved via improvements in single generation by Intel. Do I wish the battery was even longer? Yeah, I think I'd appreciate a truly worry-free 12+ hours on high brightness. But honestly, it's already very close to the point where I don't have to care about it - and for me, that's good enough to give it a pass. Most Intel laptops with the same capability would either be slow or noisy or warm, and they certainly wouldn't be as portable/lightweight. I think this chipset represents a sea change in the chipsets of PC laptops, and it's very likely going to light a fire under both Intel and AMD that had gotten fairly dim recently.

[@SubwayZ]

i am so mad that they did not release proper gpu drivers yet...even though they are ready they didnt release the adreno software/contol panel...i am so mad about this you cant even imagine....i have a macook pro m3 pro for multimedia and some games, emulation and work and it literally cost me the same as this laptop....it is such a goddamn joke man i bought this notebook to have a super slim and portable oled windows laptop and i got this....btw. i really liked your review and you derver more attention....do a bit more cuts, maybe use some good background music and your channel will grow in no time! you have a great energy and you dont talk about irrelevant stuff but i have to correct you about the stuff you said at the end....it has great gaming capabilities, it can perform better than intel or amd even with their integrated stuff....the only issue is the drivers which qualcomm didnt release in time...

[@OtherSteve]

Is it all driver-level for certain? If so, that's news to me. I had long been expecting a mind-blowing CPU (we got it) with thoroughly pedestrian GPU capabilities. I hope you're right as it'd be pretty interesting if this thing was able to up its game on the GPU side as well. Honestly though I think it's a bit unfair to expect perfection out of such a chipset right from the outset. Apple's vertical integration means that they're capable of launching a more-than-half-baked ARM chipset without all of the growing pains, but Qualcomm is an outsider and does not make their own hardware or the Windows OS. The interaction and cooperation between the various constituents is surely what has led to the speed bumps along the way. We are effectively beta testers, and I knew what I was in for. That's why I bought it - I have to be prepared to discuss these matters with clients! By the way, thanks for watching and subbing, and for the advice! :-)

[@jakejoyride]

does it have headphone jack ?

[@OtherSteve]

yes

[@Karansingh-mf6bg]

What we can do about keyboard.

[@OtherSteve]

All that comes to mind is a keyboard protector. It's unfortunate. However, I will say it is only noticeable in bright light. In normal use, it's hard to tell unless you are moving around the laptop while looking at it. That doesn't excuse the problem of course. It's a shame because there's a lot of other positive stuff going on here, most notably the overall design, feel, thermal engineering, and anti-reflective display coating.

[@Karansingh-mf6bg]

@@OtherSteve we still need a video on battery bro...,, Can you do that for us?

[@OtherSteve]

@@Karansingh-mf6bg kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIvck3and5mGpLs

[@OtherSteve]

Once I get a chance to test these settings for a few days of real-world use, I'll come back with more. But this alone should be very helpful I hope... I think we can probably easily expect 10+ hours out of the average workload on Quiet + Balanced if the readings I got in the video are to be trusted and extrapolated out over a day's use.

[@chrism1051]

Nice practical review. I've noticed real world battery review much better than Intel, contrary to battery tests using scripts like noteboobcheck where it isn't much better than Intel

[@OtherSteve]

Not sure how NBC's results ended up the way they did, but I suspect power modes foul play of some sort. Maybe it wasn't tweaked to the correct profile. I used to write for NBC for 10 years - a great website!

[@andyH_England]

I have seen some reviews showing real-world tests, and Marks Tech showed that X Elite gets 4-5 hours of SOT. Max Tech did a Surface Laptop versus MB Pro 14, and the Surface was easily beaten. Also, Luke Miani did one recently, and the MB Air M2 killed X Plus in battery life on media and intensive SOT. Now, the sponsored reviews are finished, and they were seemingly only allowed to show battery life if they were watching a 1080p video at 100 nits with the volume off. We see why Qualcomm was very quiet about battery life in their multi-million dollar ad campaigns. Real-life battery life for proper multitasking mixed workflows is considerably lower than suggested in the sponsored reviews and marketing spiel.

[@chrism1051]

@@andyH_England Yeah I saw that. Results are all over the place. Theverge reviewers of the surface laptop 7 got impressive battery life when using mainly arm native apps. Seems the emulated apps take a toll, saw some redditors saying as much as 3x.