Buying a Windows Laptop Is Harder Than Ever

Buying a Windows Laptop Is Harder Than Ever

• Copilot+ PCs offer premium hardware with NPUs for local AI processing, exclusive AI features, and energy efficiency advantages.
• Qualcomm processors currently power Copilot+ PCs, but Intel and AMD are set to enter the market with more powerful NPUs.
• While early adopters may benefit from Copilot+ PCs, regular Windows 11 laptops remain a budget-friendly and versatile option.

Purchasing a Windows PC wasn't tough until Microsoft unveiled Copilot+ PCs. Unlike the current-gen Windows 11 PCs, where you have a straightforward choice of processors and can pick your computer based on the features you want, this new breed of AI PCs packs a third component apart — an NPU. This Neural Processing Unit (NPU) unleashes the power to process AI tasks locally, improving performance in several areas.

But does an NPU make enough of a difference for you to delay your purchase and wait for Copilot+ PCs to become mainstream? Let's make this difficult choice easy for you.

What Constitutes a Copilot+ PC?

A Copilot+ PC includes a processor with an onboard NPU. To qualify as a Copilot+ PC, the NPU must offer a performance of 40 TOPS or more and have a minimum of 16GB RAM and 256GB storage. Copilot+ PCs are also designed with security and privacy in mind. Microsoft collaborated with chip manufacturers like Qualcomm to add a Pluton security chip, which is another mandatory requirement.

For now, only the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite/Plus processors offer an NPU powerful enough (45 TOPS) to qualify, and this ARM chip is the only choice for laptop manufacturers, at least for a while, before Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA jump into the mix and get their processors approved.

Most laptop manufacturers, including Acer, ASUS, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Samsung, and, of course, Microsoft, have released or will soon release Copilot+ PCs. With Microsoft's growing focus on AI, you should have multiple options available by the end of 2024 and early 2025.

How Are Current Windows 11 PCs and Copilot+ PCs Different?

There's a reason why Copilot+ PCs have premium hardware requirements: to ensure these devices can run an array of AI-powered features. Copilot+ PCs offer local AI features like Auto SR, Recall (which some consider a privacy nightmare), Cocreator in Paint, and many more that can only be handled by an NPU. These PCs have many Small Language Models (SLM) onboard, which helps the NPU process the tasks locally.

Will these features make a difference? That depends on what you are looking for. Let's take Auto SR, for example. It is an upscaling feature that ensures crisp visuals without compromising gaming performance. Since it relies on the NPU, it frees up the CPU and GPU to run the game. Otherwise, that burden would also fall on these components.

Locally processing the AI requests reduces the output time. In the official demo, Microsoft generated an image in Paint with text prompts and a basic outline in a few seconds. If you do that with Microsoft's Image Creator service or Copilot, the experience will be slower.

Both PCs run the same operating system, but the latter has several exclusive AI features, some of which you will find immensely helpful in daily usage. You can also leverage the NPU power in apps like Adobe, CapCut, and more. Another lucrative aspect of these Copilot+ laptops is performance and energy efficiency. With the Qualcomm processor, you can expect decent performance without worrying about excessive battery drain.

Do You Need an AI PC Right Now?

The short answer is no. Of course, if you want to become an early adopter of AI in Windows beyond what Copilot can offer, get a Copilot+ PC. It is designed with work and productivity in mind, though gaming is possible (but not a stellar experience).

Otherwise, a regular Windows 11 laptop remains an excellent option because you get variety here. Not to mention the fact that entry-level and mid-range Windows laptops won't meet the hardware requirements anyway. If you're on a budget or couldn't care less about Microsoft's AI features, there's no reason to splurge on an expensive Copilot+ PC.

Another attribute to consider is the processor variety available for current Copilot+ PCs. You can only buy ARM processor-powered PCs right now, which means significantly less app support. The only way to run non-compatible apps is via an emulation engine (Prism), so there will likely be some drops in performance. Granted, the situation will improve as app developers build ARM versions. But until they do so, you're spending thousands on a machine that won't offer the same software experience.

If you can, waiting is your best bet. Intel and AMD have announced new processors with more powerful NPUs than Qualcomm. Once OEMs integrate AI chips from Intel and AMD into their laptops, you will also have the choice of an ARM or x64 processor. There's also not a lot of variety at the moment, especially if you're looking for gaming machines.

Copilot+ PCs have changed the game and may very well lead the way to the AI-powered future we are all expecting. That said, they are still the equivalent of first-generation devices, and things will only get bigger and better from here. However, if you are stuck needing a new laptop during this odd transition period, it's unfortunate that buying a Windows laptop is now harder than ever.