Microsoft is betting that the next laptop you buy will come with a dedicated AI chip, a Copilot key where the right-Ctrl button used to be, and a marketing label called Copilot Plus.
The reality is messier, and most Americans walking into a Best Buy this weekend have no idea what they're actually paying for.
Copilot Plus PCs are defined less by what they can do and more by a spec sheet: 16GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a neural processing unit (NPU) capable of 40 trillion operations per second.
It's supposed to handle AI tasks locally — no cloud, no subscription, no data leaving your machine.
In practice, the flagship features have been shedding promises like a bad haircut.
Recall, the tool that snapshots everything on your screen so you can search your own digital history, was delayed, reworked, and shipped as an opt-in after security researchers howled.
Live Captions translate audio in real time, which is genuinely useful.
Cocreator draws images from your doodles, which is fun for about ten minutes.
Then you realize you're using a feature that could run just as well on the cloud.
Tech giants need a reason for you to upgrade.
So the industry invented a new category, slapped an AI label on it, and started training shoppers to feel outdated.
Qualcomm, Intel, and AMD all raced to ship chips that hit that magic 40 TOPS number.
Apple, notably, sat this one out — its M-series chips have had neural engines for years without making a federal case of it.
A decent Copilot Plus machine runs $1,000 to $1,400.
Strip away the AI branding and you're often looking at a mid-range laptop with a slightly better webcam.
That's not nothing, but it's not a revolution either.
If you're in the market for a new laptop anyway, buying a Copilot Plus model is fine — you'll get modern efficiency and a decent chip.
Most of them are still half-baked, and the ones that work are quietly available elsewhere.
The NPU sitting idle in millions of machines right now is the clearest sign that the software hasn't caught up to the hardware.
This is how the tech industry works: ship the silicon first, figure out the use case later.
Our take: Copilot Plus is a real shift in hardware and a mostly empty promise in software.
Buy the laptop you need, not the badge Microsoft wants you to want.
Final Thoughts
The AI will catch up eventually — but you shouldn't pay a premium to be a beta tester for features that get reworked every few months.