Benchmarked: Galaxy Book S is thinner, lighter, faster than MacBook Air

[Redaktion]

One of the reasons Microsoft has been pursuing Windows on ARM is that these devices have shown the ability to deliver outstanding battery life. In fact, Samsung claims that its Galaxy Book S can deliver up to 25 hours of continuous video playback. The Galaxy Book S also happens to be the first Snapdragon 8cx-powered laptop on the market and its performance on Geekbench 5 shows that it also offers excellent performance.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Benchmarked-Galaxy-Book-S-is-thinner-lighter-faster-than-MacBook-Air.453633.0.html

[Mazarin]

Interesting, but the Macbook Air runs a full OS. Speed does not matter (and this comment also applies to the iPad Pro) if it can't run the apps you need.

[naw]

@Mazarin  what are you talking about, it runs W10

[Martin82]

Interesting, but the Macbook Air runs a full OS. Speed does not matter (and this comment also applies to the iPad Pro) if it can't run the apps you need.

Actually it can run more apps than the Macbook, because it supports both arm-based and x86-based apps

[Anon]

Notebookcheck themselves had already stated in their previous article " to avoid running the x86 version of Chrome in emulation" - means that this device might not be optimized yet to run any x86 application, even x86_x64.

Our option is minimum since right now, since only a few Windows applications are developed to be natively running on ARM/ARM64 based processor.

So yes, MacBook Air clearly has an advantage in here.

[xpclient]

Does that thinner and lighter come at the cost of throttling? How are the thermals?

[Puppy]

But 16:9 aspect ratio and TN display - no way.

[fasddsadasdas]

That is a benchmark. I want to see how they compare when running actual stuff like Photoshop, browsers, games, etc.
Sure, we all know ARM cpus score great in benches and Apple own A13 is faster than most i5/i7s. Now that doesn't mean the score in benchmark translates into actual usage performance.

[Gobrel]

I have my doubts that people in the market for a notebook like the MacBook Air will run Photoshop or other demanding applications. It is rather a device for light tasks like office or browsing.

Windows on ARM has already native Edge (Chromium) and native Firefox and office runs in a hybrid ARM/x86 mode with great performance.

My only gripe is the 16:9 screen, 16:10 should be the bare minimum.

[S.Yu]

There needs to be standardized testing of video playback, otherwise decoders and settings could greatly affect the load, and the quality of the playback itself. Even mobile players like MX Player have multiple playback modes, and even though they often all do their job, i.e. is compatible, the playback quality is visibly different between different modes on certain videos, and the power draw is tangibly different from how the phone warms in certain modes but doesn't in others.

[Janice G]

Now why would anyone pay over a grand just to do light tasks like web browsing and using office programs? Lol

The REAL smart money is not buying either for these prices.

Plus, as most attacks are on PC, MacBook would still most likely last longer than the Galaxy book

[JMaca]

But 16:9 aspect ratio and TN display - no way.

It's TFT, IPS and TN are both types of TFT (as well as other technologies like PLS).

I'd be almost certain it's IPS.

[Sanjiv Sathiah]

The panel is definitely IPS with wide viewing angles and rich colors. Agreed you can debate about aspect ratios, but the display is absolutely top notch.

Why does every laptop need to be able to fulfill every function you might want to use it for? Clearly, the Galaxy Book S/MacBook Air are targeted a particular segment of the market and for those users they are an ideal blend of performance and function - the Galaxy Book S arguably being the better option. If it doesn't suit your needs, don't buy it. But don't bag it either, just because it is not for you (or even most users).

There are some other benchmarking tools that I've found can be run natively on the Galaxy Book S that give a better sense of its real world performance -- I will run them and post a follow up article. In every day use so far, I can say that it is not lacking for performance. Windows on ARM/Snapdragon 8cx is the real deal. It is only going to get even better from here.

[Guspaz]

Considering the virtual non-existence of native Windows ARM apps right now, x86 benchmarks would be far more interesting on this thing, to get an idea of how it will perform in the real world, since the vast majority of software users will run will be emulated.

Right now, it's true that there are a handful of apps that are ARM native, but in many cases it won't be the software that people normally use. Asking somebody to change all their software to unfamiliar equivalents is a serious knock against a product, and is in some ways worse than a Windows user and giving them a mac: at least they can run most of the same software they're familiar with on the mac.

When I think of the software that I use on a Windows machine on a regular basis (Chrome, Discord, Photoshop, Netflix, Visual Studio, Media Player Classic Home Cinema), none of them are currently available as ARM native, AFAIK. Ironically, Visual Studio can compile to ARM64, it just can't run directly on it.

[voxnulla]

If you just want to run Windows, sure.. I can understand why somebody would want to expose themselves to that OS for legacy reasons.. but on ARM? Nah.. I'd rather even run OSX Snow Leopard on a C2D machine.