This week saw the launch of Copilot+ PCs – basically, Windows 11 laptops powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X chips that feature an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) that’s specifically designed to handle complex AI (artificial intelligence) tasks.
The idea of AI in the device is certainly very interesting (as is the technology behind it) and the benefits are compelling: you don’t need an internet connection and security is much higher since you’re not sharing information with the companies that provide the AI tools – all should remain encrypted on your laptop.
On the eve of the launch of the PC Copilot+ devices, I was skeptical about how revolutionary these new laptops will actually be. It didn’t help that Microsoft brought one of the key features – the Copilot AI assistant itself – to Windows 11 already in the form of a beta. While quick access to an AI chatbot from within the operating system was new at first, after trying it a few times I never used it again. I just couldn’t see how it could make my everyday life any easier.
The fact that the other major selling point of Microsoft’s Copilot+ PCs, the Recall feature, has been dogged by controversy surrounding privacy concerns – with many people understandably concerned that by taking snapshots of your computer’s activity every minute or so, Microsoft is collect one big amount of sensitive information – and the company’s past actions haven’t helped put people at ease about it.
In fact, the negative response to Recall was so intense that Microsoft pulled the feature from launching alongside PC Copilot+ devices, instead making it available to Windows Insiders, who can test it before a wider release later. late.
This led to the rather odd spectacle of Microsoft (and later, other manufacturers like Samsung, who have also launched Copilot+ PC products) having to wax lyrical about a feature that we all know has been delayed due to of user concerns.
However, when I went to visit Microsoft on Tuesday for the launch of the Copilot+ PC, the team was in full force, telling me that the Copilot+ PCs are an ‘inflection point’ in the history of computing and technology and as revolutionary as IBM first. PC and the rise of smartphones.
Bold words, of course, and I wanted to see how revolutionary these devices are. Since Tuesday, I’ve been using the new Surface Laptop every day as my primary computer, and I’ve already found one big change that could really shake up the laptop industry and give Microsoft a device to challenge with really MacBooks again – but there is nothing to do with AI.
HE why?
Of course, with all the hype surrounding the Copilot+ PC AI features, so I was keen to see if they were as essential as Microsoft and others have told me they are. However, to be frank, they left me with the same mixture of fear of the raw technology and bewilderment about how it will be useful.
One of the more interesting implementations is Cocreator, a new AI-powered feature now found in Windows 11’s iconic Paint app. You can make a simple drawing (which Paint is usually used for), then type a request (like eg describe what the drawing is and what style you want the image to be) and using a slider you can adjust how much the AI changes your image – with the results displayed in a second panel.
It’s certainly impressive, especially considering that all of this is being done in a basic free app, also using the laptop’s built-in NPU to do it all.
But after that impressive initial impression, I was once again left wondering what good this would do for me. It’s a fun diversion, sure, but I just can’t see it being that useful for my day-to-day life. Maybe graphic designers and artists might like it, but then I doubt they’ll use a basic application like Paint to work. And while the results were impressive when a hasty scribble turned into something more distinct, the images produced by Cocreator were still clearly AI-made – and most professionals likely wouldn’t want to rely on such designs.
The co-pilot also remains a disappointment. It can now be called up with a press of a dedicated Copilot button that’s part of the keyboards that come with Copilot+ PC devices, but even when I open it quickly, I struggle to think of ways to use it to its full potential. It doesn’t help that it feels like a separate app, rather than integrated with other apps – so it just feels like using it is another step – complicating tasks instead of simplifying them.
At work we use Slack, an instant messaging app that allows our global team to stay in touch. So, I thought I’d ask Copilot to “write me a general greeting message to my colleagues on Slack”.
Here’s what Copilot replied: “Hello team! A friendly reminder for tomorrow off our site. Please come in comfortable clothes. We offer breakfast and lunch. See you at 9 am!”
While the tone of the message is broadly what I was looking for, if nothing like what I would actually write on Slack to my team, the fact that he invented an off-site event and then promised that food would be provided definitely meant something which I might not use – I would have to rewrite almost everything in the Copilot app, then copy the text into the Slack app to post it. How is this supposed to save me time?
A few days later I was sitting in a presentation and had a great idea how Copilot could help me – so I asked it to transcribe the presentation using the Surface Laptop’s microphone, which could save me from typing frantically trying to to record everything that is being said.
Unfortunately, Copilot wasn’t able to help, telling me it couldn’t transcribe and couldn’t even receive live audio. She suggested that she could take OWN notes and summarize them for me – which wouldn’t help much.
Instead, I used a feature in Microsoft Word to record the audio and transcribe it. I then copied and pasted the transcript into Copilot to summarize – a crafty solution to getting what I needed… or so I thought. Instead, Copilot told me that the text was too long, so I can only summarize some of the presentation. The result was good, but because it couldn’t transcribe the entire presentation at once, it was pointless – not to mention I was once again copying and pasting text between Copilot and various apps while also typing out prompts. for HE to follow.
Everything seemed like more effort than it was worth, the opposite of what was promised. I barely used it after that, apart from asking what the UK standard door size is (long story), which I could have googled anyway.
So are PC Copilot+ devices like the Surface Laptop a noble failure? Of course not – I have plenty really liked about the Surface Laptop – but the Copilot is not one of them.
ARM is the game changer
Much has been made of the Snapdragon X chips – both the Elite and Plus variants – and how thanks to their NPUs reaching 45 TOPS (Trillion Operations Per Second) they are able to handle AI-intensive tasks with ease – but while using Surface Laptop , which is powered by the 12-core Snapdragon X X1E80100 chip, I was much more impressed by the other benefits this ARM-based chip offers the Copilot+ PCs that have them.
Most impressive of all is the increased battery life these chips provide. I’ve become increasingly frustrated with the poor battery life of even the best Windows laptops. Not only do they seem to drain battery life quickly, but they are pretty poor at draining battery life even when not in use. All too often, I’ve taken my work laptop to a meeting, only to find when I opened it that the battery was dead – even though the last time I used it there was plenty left.
This has led me to use MacBooks almost exclusively these days. Thanks to their ARM-based chips (M1, M2, M3), the best MacBooks can last much longer than Windows 11 laptops, while maintaining their charge even when not in use for a while – but with Copilot+ PC, it can make all the difference.
I charged the Surface Laptop about two and a half days before writing this, and in that time I’ve been using it on and off throughout the day, including testing AI features, participating in (many) video calls, recording and transcribing a presentation and general web browsing. With many Windows laptops in the past, I would probably have to charge at least once a day. Even if I didn’t need to, past experience makes me worried about traveling without pre-charging my work laptop. Yes, distance anxiety doesn’t just affect people with electric cars – Windows laptop users get it too. With the Surface Laptop, not only have I not had to charge it for days, but it’s still over 30%.
This is an absolute game changer for me, as while battery life has improved massively, it hasn’t come at the cost of performance. So far, I’ve been able to run every Windows 11 app — thanks to Microsoft apparently figuring out how to make those apps, which are designed to run on Intel and AMD chips, work on ARM chips.
The power efficiency of the Snapdragon X chips also means that the Surface Laptop is thin and light – and most importantly, it doesn’t heat up quickly which means there’s no annoying fan noise. The laptop has been essentially silent while working, again a big difference from Windows laptops I’ve used in the past.
This, more than any AI feature, has me seriously considering switching to a Windows laptop. You’re getting build quality and performance that matches MacBooks, with great battery life. And for all the grief I give Microsoft for some of its more insufferable choices when it comes to Windows 11, I still feel more comfortable using that operating system than macOS. Sure, Apple’s OS is definitely better than Microsoft’s, but I’ve been using Windows since the days of Windows 3.1, and that means I know how the OS works and how to debug and use solutions when necessary. I’m less used to macOS and its sometimes strange way of doing things. Oh, and the Surface Laptop comes with a touchscreen, something Apple seems to refuse to bring to its MacBooks, despite my time using the iPad Pro (M4) and the Magic Keyboard proving that a touchscreen MacBook it could work. Instead of waiting for Apple to agree, I can just use the Surface Laptop.
So despite Copilot’s importance in Microsoft’s eyes, it’s not the most impressive thing about Copilot+ computers – it’s the hardware. These devices could transform the laptop market, just not in the way Microsoft thinks.
You may also like
#week #Copilot #laptops #future #reasons #Microsoft
Image Source : www.techradar.com