The first round of so-called AI PCs has finally arrived, and Microsoft even has new branding for them: Copilot+PC. The company introduced its lineup of AI PCs, all laptops, at a media event held at its corporate HQ on Monday. The event introduced the public to the concept of an AI PC and included the first details on what these PCs can do that a "regular" computer can't, or can't do as well. Microsoft is billing these computers as the fastest and most intelligent PCs ever made, with all-day battery life.
Microsoft says the entire presentation will be available at 2 p.m. PST for anyone to view. The big news is that the whole lineup of AI PCs runs on Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite SoC, which must be a tough pill for Intel (and AMD) to swallow. Before this event, both companies introduced neural processing units (NPUs), so it is fascinating that Microsoft launched this new category of PCs exclusively with Qualcomm. Microsoft says this new breed of AI PCs will be able to do things no computer could before, thanks to new AI-powered features. According to Microsoft, the key is not just the NPU but the combination of features running on large language models in the cloud and small models on-device.
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 "recall" something regardless of whether it was an email you read, a website you visited, or a document you examined. You can control how long the timeline for these memories is and remove certain sites from being cataloged. All the data stays on your PC for enhanced security. It's also bringing "live captions" to Windows 11 and AI enhancements to Image Creator, and it's announcing 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 Microsoft says the Qualcomm NPU offers 40-45 TOPS of performance, roughly 4x that of the NPU in 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 AMD, its Zen 5 mobile platform.
According to Microsoft, all laptops can be pre-ordered beginning today. Pricing starts at $999, and they will be available on June 18.
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