After all the hype around Copilot+ PCs and the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite X chips that power them, many have been wondering about the extent of Intel and AMD’s response — and how well they’d be able to pull it off. Well, with the announcement of HP’s AMD Ryzen AI 300-powered OmniBook and Asus’ first Intel Lunar Lake laptop, we have at least one of our answers.
Just a month or so after the release of the first Copilot+ PCs, new Intel and AMD-powered AI PCs have been announced and they’ll be ready to run Copilot+ features — as soon as Microsoft lets them. The first, the HP OmniBook Ultra, will go on sale in August and — on the outside — is very similar looking to last month’s Snapdragon-powered OmniBook X. It has the same 14-inch display and a very similar chassis, but the chip on the inside is very different.
With 55 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of AI performance, the Ryzen AI 300 processor beats Qualcomm’s 45 TOPS NPU — but we all know that’s not what’s really important. As an x86 chip, the Ryzen can run any app or game you could want on Windows without having to worry about emulation, but the real question is — how long can it run them for in terms of battery life?
Setting AI aside for a moment, the other big point of interest with the Snapdragon chips is their Arm architecture and the massive battery life improvements it provides. Some surveys are even suggesting it’s the battery life that’s truly driving Copilot+ PC sales in the first place.
If AMD can’t match Qualcomm’s power efficiency, or at least substantially improve on their own older chips, it could be a bit of a hard sell. Just imagine people making the decision between two Windows laptops that have almost the same AI capabilities, but one can last many hours longer than the other. The choice is painfully obvious.
The exact same problem could play to Intel, perhaps even more so since it usually loses out to AMD’s mobile chips in terms of battery performance. Asus’ new Lunar Lake laptop, the ExpertBook P5, doesn’t actually namedrop the processor in the currently released specs. But considering its 45+ TOPS, most people have already agreed that the “next-generation Intel Core Ultra” inside this laptop could only be Lunar Lake. With its 2.5K 144Hz display, military-grade aluminum chassis, and up to 3TB of storage, the laptop has plenty to offer.
Once Microsoft releases the software update that allows non-Qualcomm PCs to run Copilot+ features, there won’t be a lot of differences between the AI experiences these PCs offer. That’s why the battery life instead might become the deciding factor for a lot of buyers — so we’re waiting with bated breath for more details and benchmarks.
The absolutely absurd idea of putting a touchscreen display on a mouse isn't exactly new. Turtle Beach already did it with its Command Series MC7, which features a 2.25-inch control screen. But apparently, even that wasn't ridiculous enough for Arctic Fox Technologies. Its new Super Mouse looks like someone took the chunky old Atari ST mouse, slapped a touchscreen and scroll wheel on it, and called it an upgrade.
The result is a rather unusual-looking mouse that is now on Kickstarter, starting at $199. And as ridiculous as it looks, some of its features are genuinely intriguing.
Apple is less than a day away from launching its highly anticipated OLED MacBook Pro with a touch-sensitive screen. But it appears that the upgrade is going to cost a pretty penny. According to a report by Bloomberg, Apple is reportedly eyeing a starting price of $2,899 for the 14-inch MacBook Pro, while the 16-inch version could start at $3,399 in the US.
"At $2,899, the 14-inch model would mark the highest starting price for a new MacBook Pro model, surpassing the $2,799 Apple charged for a 17-inch version introduced in 2006," says the report. The report claims that Apple is targeting a minimum price hike of $400 for its upcoming redesigned 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models.
I've spent a good amount of time digging into the spec sheet of the new M6 MacBook Pro (14-inch), and for all intents and purposes, this is a classic Apple "chip and connectivity" refresh. It's not a full redesign. The chassis, Liquid Retina XDR panel, speakers, ports, and battery, all of them carry over unchanged.
However, the M6 brings more cores, stronger on-device AI, higher memory bandwidth on the larger configs, and modern wireless. Here’s the practical rundown of what actually improved, and whether those gains are worth your money.