AI-Powered PCs: The Next Evolution in Computing

Copilot+ PCs explained: AI Windows meets Arm laptops

Microsoft has developed a new version of Windows 11 for the Arm architecture. Here's what you need to know about it. Exciting times! Microsoft recently announced at its developer conference about artificial intelligence, a new laptop class with significantly more powerful Snapdragon X CPUs, and its new operating system for the Arm architecture all sounds really promising. This is also true in view of the fact that Apple took this step very successfully and consistently years ago. In the meantime, the entire Mac model range has been converted to Arm CPUs from its own production; models with Intel x86 processors are no longer offered. The fact that Microsoft is now announcing a similar step together with the important computer manufacturers Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung is therefore definitely a sign of things to come. On the other hand, as a long-time IT observer, it is almost alarming when Microsoft once again announces a "new PC era." The company had already promised the same thing with Windows RT in 2012, but less than two years later, "the new generation of PCs on the Arm platform" was already history. The last devices with Windows RT were then withdrawn from the market. Certainly, times have changed a lot since then and today's Arm CPUs can hardly be compared with those of the past. The strength of Apple's Arm chips compared to those from AMD and Intel on the so-called x86 architecture can be seen, among other things, in the fact that they work faster with the same number of cores and still consume less power. As a result, the notebooks last longer on a single battery charge. This alone does not guarantee success for the new system and the new computers. After all, one of the strengths of Windows has always been its compatibility with legacy software. However, this has yet to be proven, as some of the existing applications in the new Windows on Arm run on an emulation. In the best-case scenario, users won't even notice this, not even in terms of speed. In the worst case, however, some software might not run at all, and for many Windows users this is likely to be a no-go and therefore a conscious decision against the Arm architecture. Until recently, Microsoft's promise that "most existing apps and tools will run smoothly on new Arm devices" could not be verified. After the experience of the past two decades that only every second Windows version is successful -- this applies to XP, 7, and 10 and stands in contrast to the ME, Vista, 8, and 11 editions in between -- the next one could now succeed again. As I said, exciting times. Further reading: Good news! Most apps I've tried on Microsoft's Copilot+ Surface just work After this categorization, let's take a detailed look at what Microsoft presented at the end of May. Much of the company's developer conference centered on artificial intelligence and the associated new Copilot functions and versions. At the same time, AI was and is at the center of the new PC hardware with CPUs based on Arm architecture and the associated new Windows version. After the flop of Windows RT, such devices have only been available from Microsoft as absolute niche products. Now Redmond is making a new attempt to counter the increasing competition from Apple. The new "Windows on Arm" will initially only run on laptops with processors from Qualcomm. In other words, the company that is already extremely successful with chips for smartphones. In line with this, Microsoft is launching its own devices in the new "Copilot+ PC" class: The Surface Laptop as a classic notebook and the Surface Pro as a detachable device with a touch display and detachable keyboard. Further reading: Microsoft Surface Pro (2024) review: A tantalizing glimpse of the future Both models are powered by either the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip with 10 cores or the Snapdragon X Elite with 12 cores. The Surface Pro with a 13-inch display starts at around $1,200, depending on the amount of main memory and SSD. The Surface Laptop is available with a 13.8-inch or 15-inch screen, with prices also ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 depending on the features. Microsoft is not sparing with superlatives for the new device class and calls them the "fastest, most secure and most intelligent Windows PCs ever built." The new system architecture consisting of CPU, graphics processor, and the additional high-performance NPU (Neural Processing Unit) should lead to an "unprecedented level of performance." A "Copilot+ PC" is up to 20 times more powerful and up to 100 times more efficient at AI tasks compared to a 12th-generation Intel Core i7 configuration. Microsoft also promises an all-day battery life: Videos should run for up to 22 hours on a single charge, while surfing the internet should be possible for over 15 hours. In addition to at least 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 256GB SSD, a powerful AI processor is a prerequisite for classification as a "Copilot+ PC." Microsoft does not specify more precise requirements for the CPU, but the integrated NPU alone should deliver at least 40 TOPS, or 40 trillion operations per second. Initially, Microsoft and the other manufacturers will only be using Qualcomm's Snapdragon X chips. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and Samsung have announced a total of 16 AI notebooks for the summer, with some of the new devices expected to be available as early as June. Later, "Copilot+ PC" computers with CPUs from AMD and Intel are also set to follow; however, both manufacturers will continue to rely on the previous x86 architecture, supported by powerful Nvidia graphics. Although the operating system for the new AI notebooks is also called Windows 11 and looks the same as the previous one, technically they are two different systems with different instruction sets. While Windows, with a few exceptions, has so far mainly run on x86 hardware, mostly with processors from AMD and Intel, the newly introduced variant works exclusively on the Arm architecture. This is another reason why it is only supplied pre-installed and not sold separately. In the coming months, it will be important to pay attention to the version status. While Windows on Arm will be released immediately as version 24H2, the same version of traditional Windows will not follow until the autumn. The new features that the autumn update will bring for all Windows 11 users include a new installation routine, native support for Wi-Fi 7, the use of Android phones as a webcam, the integration of the PC Manager optimization tool, the "sudo" superuser command familiar from Linux, the pack option in 7z and TAR formats, improved energy and quick settings for network, airplane, and night mode as well as the mobile hotspot. Microsoft also wants to end the coexistence of the two parallel Teams versions with Teams. Finally, the AI assistant Copilot will soon be available on Windows 11 PCs in the EU for installation as an app from the Windows Store. In addition to the aforementioned changes in version 24H2, Windows on Arm offers additional new functions. Thanks to the high computing power of the NPU chips, various AI tasks will in the future be executed locally on the device and therefore much faster than before. Finally, latencies over the network will be eliminated. Important: This new feature, known as Recall, is not currently included in Copilot+ PCs. This is because Microsoft has withdrawn Recall following protests. It remains to be seen what will happen with Recall. Read more about this here: Microsoft pulls Recall from initial launch of Copilot+ PCs. Other AI-supported programs will also benefit from the integrated Neural Processing Unit in the future. With Restyle, Paint, which is integrated into Windows, will receive a new function that changes the style of existing images. There is also the improved tool for generating AI images, which has been renamed Image Creator. The Live Captions function will in the future translate the sound of audio and video content in real time; the translations will be displayed as subtitles. The free AI assistant Copilot and AI-supported software from third-party providers, including the Adobe software Photoshop, Lightroom, and Express, will also benefit.

Thinking of buying a new laptop? AI PCs are here.

Gearing up to buy a new computer? Get ready to hear a lot about AI. Over the last few weeks, Dell, HP, Samsung, Lenovo and other PC makers released nearly a dozen new Windows laptops, all packing AI processors and features. Microsoft calls them "Copilot+ PCs" -- a nod to its Copilot AI chatbot -- and you're going to see a lot of them this year, both online and at retail stores. With prices starting at $999, some of these new types of PCs can seem like tantalizing deals, whether for you or someone heading off to school this fall. But after testing Microsoft's Surface Laptop and Lenovo's Yoga Slim 7x, one thing seems clear: The reasons an AI PC might suit you well may not have anything to do with AI. Here's what you should know about them before you jump in. What is an AI PC, exactly? Basically, it's tech industry slang for a computer with a processor that has a specialized part called an NPU, or neural processing unit, that's tuned to run artificial intelligence features directly on your PC. Think of it this way: Imagine you're back in school and you desperately need help with calculus. You could try to power through it, but the smart move is tapping a math-fiend pal to help you crunch numbers. In this case, that buddy is the NPU, except instead of helping with differentials, it's doing the calculations that help generate wacky images on the fly. While they don't look it, Microsoft's current batch of Copilot+ PCs are pretty distinct from the Windows computers you've used. That's thanks to an interesting chip choice: These PCs use processors from Qualcomm rather than Intel or AMD, which means they run a bit differently. This is mostly a good thing, but there are some downsides -- more on those later. What can this AI do for me? Here's what you have to look forward to, ranked from my most used to the least. -- Studio Effects for your webcam. Some Windows 11 PCs already have these, which you can use to blur your background while on video calls. Microsoft tweaked the feature for Copilot+ PCs to include a tool for making your eyes look like you're staring straight ahead, even while you're glancing off to the side to read your notes aloud. Creepy? Possibly, but I don't think anyone on the other end of my Zoom calls has caught on yet. -- A chatbot companion. Microsoft's Copilot chatbot is already part of Windows 11, but now you can press a dedicated button on your keyboard to start talking to it. The catch? It's really not that different from just talking to it on a website. And in some ways, Copilot is actually less capable here than before. On Windows 11 PCs that don't have these fancy new chips in them, you can ask Copilot to interact with some of your computer's settings -- say, for switching to dark mode or setting timers. That's totally gone from Copilot+ PCs, which is a bummer for anyone hoping their parents could ask an AI to tweak their computer instead of calling over and over. -- Live captions and translations. Like Studio Effects, some Windows 11 PCs could already generate live captions of whatever audio is playing. Now, the feature will translate audio in 44 languages to English on the fly -- or at least that's the idea. At their best, the translations are a bit stilted, and the captions pop up just late enough to make following along tricky. And at worst, well, they don't make sense. -- AI art assistance. If your MS Paint skills were as lacking as mine, you can now use the Paint app's co-creator tool to help -- just describe what you want to see, and use the usual brushes and colors to guide the AI along. It's genuinely neat, and something I'd love to see a child get familiar with it, but far from essential. You can also just turn things over to AI entirely with an Image Creator feature -- except you have to be connected to the internet and have a Microsoft account to do it. You may as well ask ChatGPT to do it for you in the first place. -- Recall. This tool, which takes screenshots of everything you do on your PC so AI can help jog your memory, was supposed to be the flagship feature of these Copilot+ computers. Oops. It's not here yet. An uproar from security researchers who found that the feature was both turned on by default and stored potentially sensitive data insecurely forced Microsoft to pump the brakes. Are these AI PCs actually worth it? They can be, even if the AI stuff is a disappointment. Because of the chips you'll find in these Copilot+ PCs, you can expect to see some really nice battery life. Take the Surface Laptop ($999 and up) I've been testing: After putting it through a full day's worth of writing, taking video calls, trying out games and editing photos, it often had between 20 and 30% charge left before I shut its lid for the night. On days mostly spent in a web browser, meanwhile, I could use the laptop for eight hours straight without even hitting the 50% mark. That's just fantastic for a Windows laptop, and I can't overstate how nice it is to just do your thing without feeling battery dread. And that's especially true considering my test machine -- a higher-end Surface Laptop model -- felt snappy and responsive through nearly everything I threw at it. I say "nearly" because some things I tried simply didn't work. Blame an interesting chip quirk. All of the apps you've ever used on a Windows computer were designed for one underlying foundation, or "architecture," but Qualcomm's chips use a different one. And that means apps you want to use sometimes won't run. In my case, that's mostly been games: They see a processor they don't expect and refuse to start. Thankfully, these PCs are clever enough to "translate" older apps to run on the new chips' architecture, but you may run into bugs and extra power drain as a result. If you mainly live in a web browser, you don't have much to worry about. But if you rely on any Windows apps or utilities -- especially older ones that may not get updated -- you'll want to hold off on a Copilot+ PC until you can make sure that the software works the way it needs to. Apple went through similar app growing pains when it switched its computers over to Apple Silicon chips in 2020, and it's doing just fine on the other side. Microsoft and its partners are in a similar position now: Even without great AI tools, these so-called AI PCs are undeniably good at the stuff that matters -- and they stand to get better with time.

Snapdragon X Elite processors explained | 91mobiles.com

If you take a look at your desktop's cabinet or beneath the keyboard deck of your laptop, you'll likely notice a sticker from either Intel or AMD, indicating the processor brand powering your machine. However, in the coming days, you can expect to see an increasing number of laptops featuring a new, albeit familiar logo. We are, of course, referring to Qualcomm's Snapdragon brand, which is best known for powering millions of smartphones. That said, the company is hoping to get a slice of the PC biz with its X Elite and X Plus range of SoCs. While this development bodes well for consumers, it can also confuse a lot of buyers. So, let's take a closer look at Qualcomm's latest offering and how it sets itself apart from the current crop of processors powering Windows PCs. As prefaced previously, Snapdragon X is a new range of processors that will power Windows laptops. So, instead of, say, a Core Ultra 5 125H or an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS processor, vendors can now outfit their machines with a Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 SoC. We know, the name is a mouthful. Thankfully, Qualcomm has only announced four processors in the X series thus far, so you should be able to differentiate between them without too much hassle. Take a look at the table attached below for a glimpse into the entire lineup. Much like Intel and AMD, Qualcomm has also segregated the processors into different performance tiers. You can break down the name of each processor to understand where it slots in the lineup. Take the X1E-84-100, for instance, which is the fastest processor of the lot. Here, the '1' denotes the first generation of Snapdragon X processors. The 'E' and 'P' act as crucial indicators for the end consumer, signifying if the SoC is from Qualcomm's premium Elite line or more gettable Plus line. Up next is '84', which is the SKU number. Per Qualcomm, the higher this number, the better. This will help users compare processors within the same tier. With the basics out of the way, let's dive deeper. As prefaced previously, the X1E-84-100 sits at the top and offers 12 Oryon cores. Incidentally, two of the twelve cores in the X1E-84-100 and the X1E-80-100 support Dual-Core Boost technology and can turbo up to 4.2GHz and 4.0GHz respectively. In addition, the entire lineup comes with a dedicated NPU with 45TOPS of computing prowess. All SoCs also support speedy LPDDR5x RAM running at up to 8,448MT/s. By now, you must be wondering why the industry is celebrating the launch of a handful of new processors. After all, Intel and AMD routinely develop processors, although the announcements mostly fly under the radar. Well, unlike the current crop of Intel and AMD processors, Qualcomm's Snapdragon X range doesn't use the x86 architecture. Instead, the X Elite and X Plus processors are ARM-based Systems on a Chip. In other words, Windows laptops are receiving similar treatment as MacBooks when Apple introduced its in-house M series of SoCs which also utilise ARM-based architecture. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X range hopes to be the torchbearer for a new era of Windows laptops -- laptops that, among other things, offer impeccable battery backup and unmatched performance. Now, if you frequent tech forums, then you'll immediately notice an issue with Qualcomm's bold statements -- compatibility. You see, ARM-based processors don't gel well with apps designed for x86 systems and vice versa. As one can imagine, this limits the laptop's utility and even affects its performance when running non-native apps. Thankfully, Microsoft is rolling out a Windows update (24H2) which should sort out most of these performance niggles. The update introduces Prism, a translation layer similar to Rosetta on Mac which should improve the performance of non-native, emulated apps on your ARM PC. In theory, you should be able to run most apps on a Snapdragon X-based PC just as you would on an Intel/AMD-backed machine. To sum up, Qualcomm has introduced a new processor range that uses a completely different architecture and requires a translation layer to run the bulk of apps. From an end consumer's point of view, this can seem like a step in the wrong direction, considering Intel / AMD processors gel well with all apps from the get-go. So, what gives? Well, tightly integrating all core components on a SoC has its benefits. Qualcomm claims its Snapdragon X range is faster and more efficient than competing processors from Intel, AMD, and Apple's stables. You can refer to the graph above, wherein the company's X Elite SoC outperformed Intel's Core Ultra 9 185H and the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processors in the Geekbench 6 benchmark. At the same time, it could do so by drawing much less power. It also lasted much longer in a Video playback test. According to Qualcomm, a laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite processor offered 60 percent better battery life than an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H-powered device in local video playback using the VLC media player. Note that laptops powered by Intel's Core Ultra 7 155H already offer good battery life. For instance, the Galaxy Book4 Pro 360 can last over 10 hours in PCMark's Battery Video loop test. Needless to say, Qualcomm's slated improvements would ensure we are no longer slaves to a Windows laptop's feeble battery backup. These laptops also come with the fastest NPU with better-sustained performance and offer faster app launch times compared to Intel's Core Ultra 7 155H processor. Initially, there might be a risk of some apps being unsupported or poorly optimised on these laptops. However, the situation isn't all that bleak. In fact, Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon X range natively supports hundreds of the most used apps, including those in Microsoft's Office suite and other notable tools like Photoshop, Lightroom, DaVinci Resolve, Slack, Teams, and more. You can also visit worksonwoa to get a comprehensive list of all games supported on ARM devices. As of the writing of this article, the list comprises 1,200+ games, including titles like Baldur's Gate 3, F1 2022, and more. Moreover, as more developers get on board and offer more natively-supported apps, the situation should improve drastically, and quite quickly too. AI has been the buzzword this year, and you'd be right to assume that the upcoming Snapdragon X-powered laptops are infused with AI smarts, too. On that note, most of the debutants, including ASUS' Vivobook S 15 and the Dell XPS 13, fit the criteria for Microsoft's Copilot Plus PCs, and their dedicated NPUs facilitate features like enabling Live Captions that can translate any live or prerecorded audio in real-time. They can also use the CoCreator or Image Creator in Paint to leverage generative AI and whip up artsy photos. Windows Studio effects also deserve mention, as they seamlessly integrate with many communication apps like Teams and allow users to add background blur or use features like auto-framing during video calls. Microsoft's Recall feature, controversial for taking snapshots of the screen every few seconds, can also be enabled to quickly find stored photos or text excerpts on your PC. In addition, the new Snapdragon laptops can also supercharge features within certain applications. For instance, these PCs can cut down the time it takes to apply visual effects like Magic Mask in DaVinci Resolve Studio. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X range of processors power a number of thin-and-light laptops. ASUS' Vivobook S 15 is among the first in India to use the Snapdragon X Elite platform. However, other laptop makers will be announcing their contenders in the space soon.

Microsoft's AI PCs are now Available in India

Copilot+ PCs have the most powerful Neural Processing Units (NPUs) in the PC category today. Microsoft and Surface introduced the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever: Copilot+ PCs, available for pre-orders in India starting July 11th, 2024. Powered by Snapdragon® X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors, Copilot+ PCs have the most powerful Neural Processing Units (NPUs) in the PC category today. With over 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), these NPUs power new AI experiences to boost productivity and unleash creativity. Available for pre-orders at retailers including Amazon, Croma, Reliance Digital, Vijay Sales, and select multi brand stores, customers can now experience groundbreaking performance and cutting-edge AI capabilities at an introductory price of INR 113, 900. At the core of the Copilot+ PC experience lies a quantum leap in computing, with power, performance and breakthrough AI experiences that empower users to work smarter, create more, and achieve new levels of productivity. "We see AI PCs as a transformative opportunity that can disrupt the PC market. With new advanced AI experiences integrated into the devices, it will enable users to do things they can't on any other PC, helping them be more productive, creative and communicate more effectively," Shruti Bhatia, Country Manager, Modern Work & Surface, India & South Asia, said. The new Copilot+PC Surface devices are available for pre-orders starting July 11, 2024, via retailers including Amazon, Croma, Reliance Digital, Vijay Sales, and select multi-brand stores.