I love the battery life, design, performance, and weight of Samsung Galaxy4 Edge, which I acquired in June 2024. But software compatibility is a sticking point nearly two years later. The laptop packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 processor. Not all applications—too few, actually—run natively om the ARM architecture.
In contrast, compatibility is nearly universal for Windows 11 on x86 chips. Intel’s newest microprocessors are more competitive with ARM, particularly enabling long battery life. Samsung releases new Panther Lake laptops on March 11, 2026, and I seriously consider getting one. ARM is broken for too many applications.
Case in point: Nikon’s NX Studio software simply won’t load on the Edge, despite Microsoft promises about the utility of Prism emulation. So, for months, I limped along using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Microsoft Photos for post-production work.
I still possess Surface Laptop Studio, specifically for application compatibility. But the Microsoft computer is sluggish, and the battery life is abysmal. I can count on about two hours charge for heavy workloads or Zoom video conferences. That’s not good.
But I could edit the Featured Image in NX Studio on the Surface laptop. This mass of people is one of the rightful rejects from the University Heights Fall Festival shoot, where I carried Nikon Zf and NIKKOR Z 24-200mm f/4-6.3 VR lens. Vitals: f/7.1, ISO 100, 1/400 sec.; 3:35 p.m.
Monochrome makes a throwaway photo into a lively and engaging moment. I applied the filter in NX Studio, on x86. ARM is a bust.