My week so far with Copilot+ PC laptops: They might be the future, but not for the reasons Microsoft wants
This week we saw the launch of Copilot+ PC devices β essentially Windows 11 laptops powered by Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon to feed.
The idea of ββAI on 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 the security is much higher because you don’t share information with companies that provide AI tools β it’s all necessary remain encrypted on your laptop.
Leading up to the launch of Copilot+ PC devices, I was skeptical about how revolutionary these new laptops will actually be. It didn’t help that Microsoft already brought one of its most important features β the Copilot AI assistant itself β to Windows 11 in the form of a beta. While quick access to an AI chatbot from the operating system was initially a novelty, I never used it again after a few tries. I just couldn’t see how it could make my daily life easier.
The fact that Microsoft’s other big selling point of Copilot+ PCs, the Recall feature, has been dogged by controversy surrounding privacy issues β with many people understandably concerned that by taking a snapshot of your PC activity every minute, Microsoft is creating a enormous amount of sensitive information β and the company’s past actions have not helped people feel more comfortable with it.
In fact, the backlash to Recall was so intense that Microsoft stopped launching the feature with Copilot+ PC devices, instead making it available to Windows Insiders, who can test it before a wider release later.
This led to the rather strange spectacle of Microsoft (and later other manufacturers such as Samsung who have also launched Copilot+ PC products) having to wax lyrical about a feature that we all know has been delayed due to user concerns.
Still, when I visited Microsoft on Tuesday for the Copilot+ PC launch, the team was in bullish form, telling me that Copilot+ PCs are a “watershed moment” in the history of computing and technology, and every bit as revolutionary as the first IBM PC and the rise of smartphones.
Bold words for sure, and I was keen to see how revolutionary these devices are. I’ve been using the new Surface Laptop as my main computer every day since Tuesday, and I’ve already discovered one big change that could really shake up the laptop industry and give Microsoft a device that can really challenge MacBooks again β but it has nothing to do with AI to make.
AI why?
Of course, with all the hype surrounding Copilot+ PC AI features, I was curious to see if they were as essential as Microsoft and others told me they are. But to be honest, they left me with the same mix of awe at the raw technology and bewilderment at how it will be useful.
One of the more interesting implementations is Cocreator, a new AI-powered feature that can now be found in Windows 11’s iconic Paint app. You can create a simple drawing (which Paint is usually used for), then type a prompt (for example, describe what the drawing is and what style you want the image to have), and a slider lets you adjust how much the AI ββchanges your image β with the results displayed in a second panel.
It’s undeniably impressive, especially considering this is all done in a basic free app, while also using the laptop’s built-in NPU to do it all.
But after that first impressive impression, I wondered again what use this would be for me. It’s certainly a nice distraction, but I don’t see it being that useful for my daily life. Maybe graphic designers and artists like it, but I doubt they would use a basic app like Paint to work on. And while the results were impressive at turning a rushed doodle into something more recognizable, the images created by Cocreator are still clearly created by AI β and most professionals probably won’t want to rely on such designs.
Copilot also remains a frustration. It can now be summoned with a press of the 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 take full advantage of it. It doesn’t help that it feels like a separate app, rather than integrating with other apps – so it just feels like using it is yet another step – complicating rather than simplifying tasks.
At work we use Slack, an instant messaging app that helps our global team stay in touch. So I thought I’d ask Copilot to “write a general hello message for my colleagues in Slack.”
This is what Copilot responded with: βHello team! A friendly reminder about our off-site tomorrow. Please come in comfortable clothing. We provide breakfast and lunch. See you at 9 o’clock!β
While the tone of the message is broadly what I was going for, the fact that it came up with an off-site event and then promised food would be provided meant nothing like what I actually agreed to in Slack my team would write that of course I could do that. don’t use – I would have to rewrite almost everything in the Copilot app, Than copy the text to the Slack app to post. How is this supposed to save me time?
A few days later I was sitting in a presentation and had a great idea about how Copilot could help me. So I asked him to transcribe the presentation using the Surface Laptop’s microphone, which could save me from frantically typing and trying to write everything down. be said.
Unfortunately, Copilot couldn’t help and told me it couldn’t transcribe or record live audio. It suggested it might last Mine notes and summarizes them for me β which wouldn’t help much.
Instead, I used a function in Microsoft Word to record and transcribe the audio. I then copied and pasted the transcript into Copilot to summarize it β a clever solution to get what I neededβ¦ or so I thought. Instead, Copilot told me the text was too long, so I could only summarize part of the presentation. The result was good, but because it couldn’t transcribe the entire presentation at once it was useless – not to mention that I was once again copying and pasting text between Copilot and various apps, while also copying prompts was typing for the AI ββto follow.
It all felt like more trouble than it was worth, the opposite of what was promised. I hardly used it after that, apart from wondering what the standard door size is in Great Britain (long story), something I could have just googled anyway.
So are Copilot+ PC devices like the Surface Laptop a noble failure? Certainly not β there is a lot I have Real liked the Surface Laptop, but Copilot isn’t one of them.
ARM is the game changer
Much has been made of the Snapdragon using the Surface Laptop, which is powered by the 12-core Snapdragon
Most impressive of all is the boost these chips provide to battery life. I’m becoming increasingly annoyed by the poor battery life of even the best Windows laptops. Not only do they seem to lose battery life quickly, but they are also pretty bad at losing battery life even when not in use. Far too many times I’ve picked up my work laptop to go to a meeting, only to open it to find the battery is dead – even though there was plenty left the last time I used it.
This has led to me using MacBooks almost exclusively these days. Thanks to their ARM-based chips (the M1, M2, M3), the best MacBooks can last much longer than Windows 11 laptops, while also retaining a charge even when left unused for a while β but with Copilot+ PC you can do all that change.
I charged the Surface Laptop for about two and a half days before writing this, and in that time I used it on and off all day, including trying out AI features, joining (many) video calls, recording, and transcribing a presentation and general internet surfing. Many Windows laptops of the past probably would have required me to charge them at least once a day. Even if it wasn’t necessary, past experiences make me worry about traveling without pre-charging my work laptop. Yes, range anxiety doesn’t just affect people with electric cars; Windows laptop users are also affected. With the Surface Laptop, not only have I not had to charge it for several days, it is still well over 30%.
This is an absolute game changer for me because while battery life has improved tremendously, it hasn’t come at the expense of performance. So far, I’ve been able to run every Windows 11 app β thanks to the fact that Microsoft has apparently figured out how to get those apps designed to run on Intel and AMD chips to run on ARM chips.
The energy efficiency of the Snapdragon The laptop was virtually silent during use, again a big change from Windows laptops I’ve used in the past.
This, more than any AI feature, has made me seriously consider going back to a Windows laptop. You get build quality and performance that matches MacBooks, with massive battery life. And for all the grief I give Microsoft over some of its more unpleasant choices when it comes to Windows 11, I still feel more comfortable using that operating system than macOS. Sure, Apple’s operating system is arguably better than Microsoft’s, but I’ve been using Windows since the days of Windows 3.1, and that means I know how the operating system works, how to fix bugs, and use workarounds when necessary. I’m less used to macOS and its sometimes weird way of doing things. Oh, and the Surface Laptop comes with a touchscreen, something Apple seems to be refusing to implement on its MacBooks, despite my time using the iPad Pro (M4) and the Magic Keyboard, which showed that a MacBook with a touchscreen 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, this isn’t the most impressive thing about Copilot+ PCs: it’s the hardware. These devices could transform the laptop market, just not in the way Microsoft thinks.