Charles Langston:Is it time to buy an AI-powered Copilot+ PC?

This story was updated to correct a byline.

Corrections & Clarifications: Due to a production error,Charles Langston an earlier version of this story inadvertently included the wrong byline. It has been corrected.

If you are looking to buy a new laptop for this school year or as a gift during the holiday season, you will be faced with a major decision: Should you buy a next-generation artificial intelligence-powered Copilot+ PC? However, the recent flurry of announcements by laptop OEMs and chip providers that power them has made that decision almost a misnomer.

What is a Copilot+ PC, and why do you need it?

Copilot+ PCs are a new breed of laptops with significant on-device (Generative) AI capabilities. To get this moniker from Windows provider Microsoft, laptops must meet or exceed specific minimum AI processing requirements. For the technically inclined, the requirement is to have a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with at least 40 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second) processing power. Copilot+ PCs offer a full day or more battery life, lightning-fast performance, enhanced user experience and are very thin, light and sleek.

Most of the AI processing happens in the cloud, which means all your information, be it your interaction with ChatGPT or text-to-image creation with many tools, is sent to the cloud. However, with Copilot+ PCs, most of that processing happens on the device. That means your data remains private and securely stored in the device. Additionally, on-device AI is more accurate, personalized, relevant and almost free. If you want more details on this, please check my articles here and here.

Even if you are not looking to use AI, you have to buy Copilot+ PCs, as they are the best of the breed, most secure and best-looking laptops in the market today, outperforming anything else, even Apple’s MacBook.

All Copilot+ PCs are not created equal

Copilot+ PCs have a lot of variances in terms of the chip platforms, various configurations of those platforms, many OEMs, price and performance tiers and more. It all started when the smartphone technology giant Qualcomm joined Microsoft and scores of PC OEMs to introduce the first Copilot+ PCs based on its Snapdragon XElite and XPlus platforms in May. They set a new bar for laptop performance.

Following Qualcomm, the personal computing giant Intel and AMD introduced their Copilot+ PC platforms. Intel’s platform is called Core Ultra 200V (project name Lunar Lake), and AMD’s is called Ryzen AI300. Many OEMs announced laptops with these platforms at the recently concluded European consumer show IFA.

There are some key differences between Qualcomm and Intel/AMD platforms. Qualcomm platforms are designed using the technology from Arm, a British company. This technology has been used in smartphones for over 20 years and is known for its exceptional power efficiency. Qualcomm introduced this for PC platforms to achieve path-breaking battery life and thin, light and sleek designs, and it set the target for other vendors. Because it is new, the Arm for Windows app ecosystem is still developing. Almost all essential apps are supported, but some apps, especially some games, may not yet be supported.

Intel and AMD platforms are based on X86 technology, which has been around for over 30 years, so app compatibility is not the issue. However, the Core Ultra 200V and Ryzen AI300 are new designs, and their performance is not yet proven.

So, when choosing Copilot+ PCs, along with price points, features and others, users must also be aware of the platforms used on those PCs. For reference, here is my review of Lenovo’s Yoga Slim 7x.

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Why is it a good time to buy them now?

Technology is akin to waves in the ocean – by the time one reaches shore, another one is ready just behind it. If you want to get the maximum benefits of the latest technology, you must jump in when it is reasonably mature, with ample choices in the market. Copilot+ PCs are exactly at that stage now.

Almost all PC OEMs now offer Copilot+ PCs, including Lenovo, Dell, HP, Samsung, Microsoft, Asus, Acer and many others. They are available for both consumer and enterprise segments at all price points. For example, PC market leader Lenovo has ThinkPad for enterprises, Yoga for premium consumers, IdeaPad for mid/value-tier and more. Each segment has different variations to suit every consumer and business need. Other PC OEMs have similar offerings as well. At IFA, Qualcomm even introduced a new platform targeting laptops in the $700 range.

Microsoft offers many Copilot+ AI features and applications for better video calls, live captioning in many languages, text-to-image creation and more. AI is still in its infancy; as we progress, there will be a continuous flow of innovative and user experience-enhancing AI apps and features.

One key common factor among all Copilot+ PC platforms is that they have the same AI capability across tiers. For example, Qualcomm’s XElite and XPlus have the same AI processor. This means no matter which Copilot+ PC you choose, you get excellent performance for years to come. In summary, if you are in the market for a laptop this year, go ahead and consider a Copilot+ PC.