Microsoft today unveiled a new line of AI-focused PCs equipped with advanced AI features such as Recall, a tool that keeps track of everything you've ever done on the screen so you can easily return to it later.
Microsoft was especially keen to show how its new ARM-based PCs can beat Apple's M3 MacBook Air, both in pure performance as well as battery life. The debate between Mac and PC got very heated in this presentation.
Microsoft “Apple Silicon” moment?
Microsoft's new AI-focused PCs are branded “Copilot Plus PC.” Copilot is the company's artificial intelligence assistant. The new Copilot Plus Surface and Copilot Plus Surface Pro laptops were unveiled, and other key manufacturers have promised to offer their own Copilot Plus models in the near future.
The key feature of these Copilot Plus PCs is the Neural Processing Unit (NPU). This makes complex AI tasks possible, such as the new Return feature. Recall will constantly monitor everything that happens on your screen and make it searchable. Even something like a live Zoom call will be automatically transcribed and saved for your future use. Microsoft has sought to mitigate privacy concerns by communicating that this all happens locally on the device and is therefore private.
Top Comment by Dave Peterson
I can't wait to see benchmarks for these new Windows computers with Qualcomm chips. If Qualcomm finally releases a chip that runs as fast on Windows as Parallels does on Mac, I'll be impressed.
View all comments
Microsoft's new Surface Laptop and Surface Pro feature new Snapdragon Elite X chips from Qualcomm. As such, they require ARM-ready apps, which is why Microsoft has announced support from companies like Adobe for a completely native ARM creative toolset.
The new devices are said to have better battery life than Apple M3 MacBook Air, and faster performance. Not to mention touch screens, of course. The Surface Pro also features an OLED display, allowing it to compete with Apple's M4 iPad Pro.
9to5Mac' s Take
Microsoft gave an impressive presentation today. It showed off powerful hardware and incredibly useful AI features, such as using super resolution to restore old photos.
Of course, these new Copilot Plus computers still run Windows, which is a deal-breaker for many. But I'm interested to know from the upcoming reviews whether all of Microsoft's claims about beating the M3 MacBook Air are true. And I'm even more interested to see what Apple will answer about artificial intelligence at WWDC in a few weeks.
