The Galaxy Book 4 Edge is the first Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptop from Samsung. It went on sale this week across the globe with prices starting at $1,349. There’s a lot that the Galaxy Book 4 Edge has gone for it, but it’s handicapped in some crucial aspects as well.
This largely stems from the use of the ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite chipset, which while being very powerful and efficient, presents some limitations due to the Windows operation system not fully being able to leverage the ARM architecture.
Windows app limitations remain on the ARM-based chipset
Conventional PC chipsets are based on the x86 architecture with the software compatibility to match. There’s always the risk of software not working as it should on ARM-based chipsets, which is why Microsoft came up with Prism, an emulation layer that it said will make apps run “great,” whether native or emulated.
That doesn’t appear to be the case, though, as Samsung has warned customers in South Korea and only in South Korea that the Galaxy Book 4 Edge can’t run a handful apps as games such as Fortnite, League of Legends, Halo Infinite, Google Drive, several Adobe apps and may even be incompatible with some printers. The websites of some Korean financial institutions may also not be accessible on the laptop.
This isn’t Samsung specific, though, as similar limitations will also be present on any Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptop. This is simply a matter of a lack of compatibility on Windows apps with the chipset architecture. Hopefully, either Prism will improve enough with time to iron out these issues or developers will step up their efforts to support Windows on ARM chipsets.
The transition from x86 to ARM was always going to take time but it looks a lot more possible this time around. It was much more seamless for Apple users when the company shifted from Intel’s x86 architecture to its ARM-based chipsets, highlighting once again the benefits of exercising control over the chipset design and software.