Microsoft introduced Copilot+ PCs, a new category of Windows devices designed with advanced artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. These new PCs feature powerful new silicon capable of performing over 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS), promising improved performance and efficiency.
Copilot+ PCs are designed to support a range of AI-driven features. These include Recall, which helps users quickly find and remember what they saw on their PC, Cocreator for generating and refining images in near real time, and Live Captions, which translate audio from over 40 languages to English.
New devices from Microsoft and its partners
These features are built into devices from Microsoft Surface and OEM partners like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung. The starting price of these devices is $999 with official availability starting June 18.
Microsoft has collaborated with top OEMs and its own Surface range to launch the first Copilot+ PCs. These include the all-new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, which feature updated designs, improved performance, and new AI experiences.
The new Surface Laptop offers options between a 13.8-inch and 15-inch screen, up to 22 hours of local video playback, and comes in four colors. It includes a haptic touchpad, an AI-enhanced camera, and premium audio features.
The Surface Pro, known for its flexibility as a 2-in-1 laptop, has been updated with more speed and battery life. It introduces an optional OLED with HDR display and an ultra-wide field of view camera, ideal for Windows Studio Effects. The new Surface Pro Flex Keyboard offers improved stability and integrates Surface Slim Pen storage and charging.
Innovations in AI and hardware
The development of Copilot+ PCs marks a significant evolution in PC design, integrating AI directly into hardware and software. Microsoft claims these PCs are up to 20 times more powerful and 100 times more efficient for AI workloads compared to previous models. They also reportedly outperform Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air by up to 58% in sustained multithreaded performance.
These PCs combine the CPU, GPU and a new high-performance neural processing unit (NPU). This combination, enhanced by extended language models (LLMs) running in Azure Cloud, facilitates fast and efficient AI processing.
Battery life is another standout feature, with Copilot+ PCs offering up to 22 hours of local video playback or 15 hours of web browsing on a single charge. This efficiency is attributed to the optimized architecture and acceleration capabilities of the AI.
Microsoft highlighted performance improvements for native Arm64 experiences, including Microsoft 365 apps like Teams, PowerPoint, and Outlook. Other popular apps, such as Chrome, Spotify, Zoom, and WhatsApp, also run natively on Arm, providing better performance and efficiency. The new Prism emulator ensures compatibility with a wide range of applications, whether native or emulated.
Security is another objective of Copilot+ PCs. Each device comes with the Microsoft Pluto Security processor enabled by default, as well as new Windows 11 features and updates designed to improve user security and privacy.
AI-powered user experiences
The integration of AI into Copilot+ PCs introduces several new user experiences. Recall solves the common problem of finding information stored on a PC. It allows users to intuitively search across apps, websites and documents, using clues they remember.
Cocreator leverages the power of NPUs to make it easy to create and edit images directly on the device. This tool integrates with apps like Paint and Photos, allowing users to generate new images by combining ink strokes with text prompts. AI algorithms optimize for high-quality output, making the creative process more intuitive and efficient.
Live subtitles with live translations make audio content accessible in real time by converting it into English subtitles. This feature works on all video apps and platforms, even offline, supporting over 40 languages.
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