Anymore, every company (and their mother) seems to be slapping “AI” on their product marketing and charging you a boatload. Microsoft and its new line of Copilot+ PCs are no exception.
Let me give it to you straight: Microsoft is pushing these laptops hard, but in this case, what they sell isn’t exactly what you get. If you’re considering buying one, read this first.
What does ‘AI-enabled’ actually mean?
The newest Copilot+ PCs run on Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips. Sounds fancy, right? They have a CPU for computer processing, a GPU for graphics processing and a new NPU for neural processing, which is what they use to run their AI.
In plain English: These PCs can handle the computing load of AI functionality faster and with way better battery life. You’ll get a full eight hours of running AI features and double that for regular web browsing. That’s great for a PC.
Microsoft also loves to tell you their Copilot+ PCs perform at “45 TOPS,” short for trillions of operations per second. But, practically speaking, that’s a pretty murky stat. There are a lot of other factors that can affect your PC’s performance.
So, what can it do for you?
- Make it look like you’re paying attention: Its camera has AI eye-tracking (say that 10 times fast) that makes it seem like you’re making eye contact even if you’re multitasking.
- Push a button to chat: Microsoft’s Copilot AI bot is integrated into the OS, but it’s not much different than a chatbot in your browser. It also got rid of some functionality. In non-AI models, Copilot can adjust some PC settings for you; that’s totally gone in the Copilot+.
- Live translations and captions: Copilot+ can translate foreign-language videos in real time. This is great in theory, but the translations can be slow and don’t always make sense.
- Generate AI art: The Image Creator feature lets you generate images, but you’ll need an internet connection and a Microsoft account to use it. ChatGPT works just as well.
There’s a big catch
Some of the standard apps just don’t work. Since the latest Copilot+ laptops run on Qualcomm chips, they can struggle to launch older PC apps originally designed for Intel processors. High-end games might not run at all.
That’s not a trade-off I’d want to make — especially if I’ve just shelled out almost $1,000 for a top-of-the-line machine.
You might also remember Microsoft’s privacy issues with Recall, a feature that tracks everything you do on your computer. They scrapped it for now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they brought it back with a fresh coat of marketing paint.
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