News Samsung's Snapdragon Elite X-powered Galaxy Book4 Edge will reportedly cost as much as premium Intel and Apple alternatives

[Admin]

Samsung has announced its next ARM-based laptop, known as the Galaxy Book4 Edge, that will arrive with Qualcomm's new Apple M2 destroying Snapdragon Elite X with 12 Oryon performance cores.

Samsung's Snapdragon Elite X-powered Galaxy Book4 Edge will reportedly cost as much as premium Intel and Apple alternatives : Read more

 

[Alvar "Miles" Udell]

So the TL;DR is: If you work with AI, buy it, else buy anything else because the Intel 14900HX and Apple M3 beat it otherwise for less money.

 

[ivan_vy]

tbf it must be compared with Apple M3, Intel 14000 and AMD 8000 not last gen iterations, new CPUs are AI focused with NPU.
Also comparison with wattage for battery life, thermals for sustained performance and price/perf ratio.
let's wait for real world scenarios and hope it's a worthy contender.

 

[SonoraTechnical]

Of course it's going to cost as much as premium offerings from Apple and Intel.... Samsung Galaxy branding has star power.... They'd be foolish not to exploit it... If it doesnt beat them... no worries... you have v 2.0 (see Fold.. which didn't really get it right until v 3.0).

 

[Notton]

Ooph, US$2000 is a hard pill to swallow for something that doesn't have the full Windows x86 ecosystem.

However, IDK if a Galaxy Book is the best metric for pricing, as they tend to have premium pricing considering the specs.

 

[PEnns]

Of course it's going to cost as much as premium offerings from Apple and Intel.... Samsung Galaxy branding has star power.... They'd be foolish not to exploit it... If it doesnt beat them... no worries... you have v 2.0 (see Fold.. which didn't really get it right until v 3.0).

I guess you forgot the part where Android fans call people who pay Apple prices "lemmings".

And furthermore, to put Samsung in the same Apple & intel league and claim it has "star power" is a big stretch.

 

[jlake3]

tbf it must be compared with Apple M3, Intel 14000 and AMD 8000 not last gen iterations, new CPUs are AI focused with NPU.
Also comparison with wattage for battery life, thermals for sustained performance and price/perf ratio.
let's wait for real world scenarios and hope it's a worthy contender.

At approximately $2000 USD you're well above the entry point for an M3, and now up against the base model of M3 Pro.

And on the PC side you can get a LOT of hardware for $2000, AND not have to run through a translation layer.

For a company who's previous Snapdragon 7c and 8xc weren't exactly runaway successes, they really seem to think they're up there with the best and can demand premium prices.

 

[usertests]

That's what I was afraid of. Same failed strategy again.

So the TL;DR is: If you work with AI, buy it, else buy anything else because the Intel 14900HX and Apple M3 beat it otherwise for less money.

When do these launch? Because AMD Strix APUs will have around the same or better AI performance by Q3/Q4.

 

[Sluggotg]

I would love to see a review when they come out. Can it handle gaming? Obviously there is no independent benchmarking right now, so we will see. If it is as good as they say, it could be a winner.

 

[purposelycryptic]

Do these benchmarks really matter, when 99% of PC software is written for x86, meaning you'll never actually see the native performance they are showing?

 

[purposelycryptic]

So the TL;DR is: If you work with AI, buy it, else buy anything else because the Intel 14900HX and Apple M3 beat it otherwise for less money.

If you're working with AI, you're probably not working on it on a laptop, period, but a workstation, and definitely not on one of these wafer-thin, ultra-lightweight fashion-statement machines.

This isn't an AI development machine, it's something you write some notes on while you're on your way to your development machine.

 

[Notton]

When do these launch? Because AMD Strix APUs will have around the same or better AI performance by Q3/Q4.

Snapdragon Elite X is supposed to launch in June 2024.
Although, it remains to be seen if it's a hard launch or soft launch.

For example Intel Ultra series launched on 2023 Dec 14, but the laptops using U9H didn't show up until end of Feb. The U7H/U5H just started to show up this week. Some SKUs aren't even listed as a purchasing option.

As for AMD 8040 series, I am only seeing a single 8945HS laptop with it. The 8040 series, like Intel Ultra series, was launched back in December too.

 

[usertests]

As for AMD 8040 series, I am only seeing a single 8945HS laptop with it. The 8040 series, like Intel Ultra series, was launched back in December too.

Point taken, although the 8845HS is functionally identical to that chip, just 100-200 MHz off (8840HS is more substantial, dropping a further 500 MHz in base clock).

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:AMD_Ryzen_Mobile_8040_series

 

[PlutoDelic]

I have a Tab S8 Ultra, and a Tab S9+. I love them, they're bloody powerful devices at whatever i throw at them.

If Samsung were to make an ARM Laptop, there's only one problem i see, Windows.

Apple has its own full control over its eco system. Samsung does so too in Tablets/Phones because Android is Open Source. If they think of going One UI with DeX on these machines, they actually may deliver, there's a solid DeX fanbase out there, but trying to do this with Windows will take a lot of bloody time.

During my two or three interactions with Windows ARM, it was just horrible. Hardware may get strong enough to support Windows to the point that it just maybe feels "stable", but the competition is far off in performance.

 

[paradyne]

Do these benchmarks really matter, when 99% of PC software is written for x86, meaning you'll never actually see the native performance they are showing?

But 95% of the time, 95% of users are in a browser, office, teams, visual studio etc.etc. All of which are ARM native now.

 

[bolshevik420]

But 95% of the time, 95% of users are in a browser, office, teams, visual studio etc.etc. All of which are ARM native now.

At which point, you don't need a 2000 dollar machine, lol. Doubly so a 2000 dollar machine that does nothing better than its competition.

 

[ezst036]

I'm curious to see more about power consumption. Still bummed it's tied to laptops only.(or tabs/phones)

 

[JamesJones44]

For a company who's previous Snapdragon 7c and 8xc weren't exactly runaway successes

These SoCs are very different than a Snapdragon 7c and 8xc which are basically generic ARM SoCs with little to no customization. These are closer to Apple's Apple Silicon M series SoCs since they are produced from members of the teams that worked on the A/M series for Apple.

 

[JamesJones44]

Do these benchmarks really matter, when 99% of PC software is written for x86, meaning you'll never actually see the native performance they are showing?

Microsoft has already released several tools to easily cross compile applications written in .NET. C/C++, Java, etc. have had cross compiling tools for a while. The x86 phobia is pretty unfounded in today's software landscape.

 

[Notton]

Some companies, like discord, don't even offer an x86 app for ChromeOS.
I guess they expect you to run their client through the web app?

 

[bit_user]

else buy anything else because the Intel 14900HX and Apple M3 beat it otherwise for less money.

For sure, don't get an Intel HX laptop if you don't like laptops that are big, heavy, loud, or have poor battery life!

 

[bit_user]

Do these benchmarks really matter, when 99% of PC software is written for x86,

The 1% of software that most people spend most of their time using (i.e. web browser, MS Office, video conferencing, etc.) are ported and optimized for ARM.

Yeah, not gaming... but a lot of people either don't play games or stick to casual ones. Furthermore, gaming performance is a non-issue for the corporate and educational markets. I don't expect Qualcomm will be trying to push its new CPUs into gaming laptops, any time soon.

At which point, you don't need a 2000 dollar machine, lol. Doubly so a 2000 dollar machine that does nothing better than its competition.

First, @paradyne included Visual Studio in that list. Compiling code is the main thing I do that really eats CPU cycles. My current development machine is an i9 Alder Lake, and I'd gladly take more power if I could get it.

Second, have you seen any $2k laptops that aren't gaming machines? Lots of corporate execs like thin & light + good battery life, which are things that really matter when you're walking around with a laptop all day or doing much business travel.

 

[jlake3]

These SoCs are very different than a Snapdragon 7c and 8xc which are basically generic ARM SoCs with little to no customization. These are closer to Apple's Apple Silicon M series SoCs since they are produced from members of the teams that worked on the A/M series for Apple.

Read the rest of my post. The point was that they do not have a proven track record in this space, but seem to think they can charge just as much or even more than their established competitors.

Maybe they’ve got a decent chip on their hands, but it’s a bold move to position it above Apple Silicon and Intel offerings when they have rounding-error marketshare in laptops and their last two launches fizzled.

 

[bit_user]

Read the rest of my post. The point was that they do not have a proven track record in this space, but seem to think they can charge just as much or even more than their established competitors.

Fully agree. Qualcomm can't be trying to price its laptop SoC's like it's Apple. This wouldn't be the first time, though - just look at what the Lenovo X13S launched at!

it’s a bold move to position it above Apple Silicon and Intel offerings when they have rounding-error marketshare in laptops and their last two launches fizzled.

"Bold" is one word for it! I'll just point out that premium pricing hasn't served them well in this space, so far. Of course, this time they are offering a value proposition that arguably validates the pricing strategy, but I somehow doubt it's quite good enough.

It's a good thing (for Windows/ARM) that Microsoft's exclusivity agreement with Qualcomm expires, soon.

 

[NinoPino]

Do these benchmarks really matter, when 99% of PC software is written for x86, meaning you'll never actually see the native performance they are showing?

Yes it matters because OS, office applications, Web browsers, video players and encoders and a lot of other useful applications, all will have native CPU support.
When you can browse the web, watch films, edit documents and read emails, you have covered 99% of users. 😀