- Microsoft unveiled its new AI-powered Copilot+ PCs at a press event.
- Copilot+ PCs offer up to 20 times more AI power and 22 hours of battery life, according to Microsoft.
- Pre-orders start today at $999, with availability from brands like Microsoft Surface, Dell, and HP.
Microsoft's AI-powered PCs are here.
Microsoft just unveiled a new line of Windows PCs designed for AI at a press event Monday.
The new line, called Copilot+ PCs, is the fastest and most intelligent Windows model of a PC built yet, according to Microsoft.
"We have completely reimagined the entirety of the PC — from silicon to the operating system, the application layer to the cloud — with AI at the center, marking the most significant change to the Windows platform in decades," the company said in its announcement.
Microsoft is launching Surface Copilot+ PCs, with the new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, but it's also working with its hardware partners, including Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung, who will be launching their own Copilot + computers.
Pre-orders for the new PCs start Monday, with prices starting at $999.
Tightly integrated AI features
Natively integrated AI features are a key selling point for the Copilot+ PCs.
There are some cool-sounding AI features, including some powered by the on-device AI chips.
The most notable is "Recall," which Microsoft says is basically like if your PC had "photographic memory" and could remember everything you looked at on your PC, helping you quickly recall where you stored something.
"You can scroll across time to find the content you need in your timeline across any application, website, document, or more," Microsoft said. "Interact intuitively using snapshots with screenray to help you take the next step using suggested actions based on object recognition. And get back to where you were, whether to a specific email in Outlook or the right chat in Teams."
Microsoft says the PCs are up to 20 times more powerful for AI and also offer improved battery life, with up to 22 hours on a single charge. The new chip architecture combines CPU, GPU and high-performance Neural Processing Units (NPU) for efficient AI processing.
Copilot+ PCs also offer AI image generation with Cocreator, a feature powered by NPUs and SLMs to address what Microsoft says are the limitations of other cloud-based AI image generators, such as privacy concerns or the time it takes to process.
The feature also has a "creativity slide" so you can adjust the level of detail and style of the image. Users can also use Restyle Image to edit personal photos while combining image generation tools.
The new PCs offer live captions which work across all apps and video platforms to translate "any audio that passes through your PC" into English captions in real time. The feature translates over 40 languages and even functions offline.
Copilot+ PCs also come with a Copilot key on the keyboard, which provides quick access to AI. This will streamline access to an AI agent, including the upcoming GPT-4o from OpenAI, for more human-like voice interactions.