Along with new Surface tablets and laptops, Microsoft announces new AI capabilities for its own software and third-party apps. Here are the top announcements from today’s pre-Build event.
Ahead of its Build developers conference, Microsoft today unveiled new AI-focused “Copilot+ PCs,” including a Surface tablet and laptop, as well as laptops and tablets from partners Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung.
The PCs all run Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite CPU, along with a state-of-the-art neural processing unit (NPU) for AI computations. Alongside the hardware are important new software capabilities, all of which center on Microsoft’s Copilot AI offerings. The technology is intended to finally make running Windows 11 on Arm palatable and desirable in terms of speed, compatibility, and support for on-device AI processing. Here’s everything Microsoft showed off today.New Surface Laptop and Surface Pro
In March, Microsoft unveiled the Surface Pro 10 for Business and Surface Laptop 6 for Business, and today we got consumer versions of Microsoft’s hardware.
The Surface Pro runs the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus processors. It comes with a 13.8- or 15-inch display and there’s an optional OLED with HDR technology option on the 13-inch. It has two USB 4 ports, Wi-Fi 7 support, and optional 5G support. A new Surface Pro Flex Keyboard is the first 2-in-1 keyboard designed to be used both attached or detached, Microsoft says.
Microsoft says the Surface Laptop is 86% faster than Laptop 5 and promises the « longest battery life on any Surface »—up to 22 hours on the 15-inch Surface Laptop and 20 hours on the 13.8-inch. This one also supports Wi-Fi 7.
The new Surfaces start at $999 and launch on June 18. Stay tuned for our hands ons.Prism Lets You Run Any Windows App on Arm PCs
Prism is analogous to Apple’s Rosetta 2 transcoding software that enables non-Arm software to run well on the newer Apple Silicon CPUs. Basing a PC on Arm makes for far better battery life, cheaper production, and smaller chips.
