The first round of so-called AI PCs has finally arrived, and Microsoft even has a new brand for them: Copilot+PC. The company unveiled its line of AI-enabled PCs, all laptops, at a media event held at its corporate headquarters on Monday. The event introduced the concept of an AI PC to the public and included the first details on what these PCs can do that a “normal” computer can't or can't do as well. Microsoft calls these computers the fastest and smartest ever made, with all-day battery life.
microsoft says The full presentation will be available at 2 pm PST for anyone to view. The great news is that the entire line of AI PCs runs on the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC, which must be a tough pill for Intel (and AMD) to swallow. Prior to this event, both companies introduced neural processing units (NPUs), so it's fascinating that Microsoft launched this new PC category exclusively with Qualcomm. Microsoft says this new generation of AI PCs will be able to do things no computer could do before, thanks to new AI-powered features. According to Microsoft, the key is not just the NPU but the combination of functions running on large language models in the cloud and small models on the device.
The renewed Surface and Surface Pro are part of the first wave of AI PCs, thanks to Qualcomm's X Elite SoC and Copilot.
Credit: Microsoft
The first of those new features is called Recall, and Microsoft says it's like a PC with “photographic memory.” The feature remembers everything you do on your computer, allowing you to quickly “remember” something regardless of whether it was an email you read, a website you visited, or a document you examined. You can control the timeline length of these memories and remove certain sites from cataloging. All data remains on your PC for added security. It also brings “live captioning” to Windows 11 and AI improvements to Image Creator, and announces Arm versions of popular apps like Adobe Photoshop, DaVinci Resolve Studio, and others.
Microsoft announced AI PCs from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung, along with its own Surface PCs. What's notable is that Microsoft says the Qualcomm NPU offers between 40 and 45 TOPS of performance, about 4 times that of the NPU on Intel's Meteor Lake and much more than the ~16 TOPS provided by AMD's Ryzen AI. However, Microsoft says it will also offer AI PCs with Intel and AMD CPUs, starting with Lunar Lake for Intel and “Strix” for AMDits Zen 5 mobile platform.
According to Microsoft, all laptops can be pre-ordered starting today. Pricing starts at $999 and they will be available on June 18.
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