Dell recently unveiled two new Copilot+ PCs powered by the Snapdragon X platform. These include the Dell XPS 13 with Snapdragon X Elite SoC and Dell Inspiron 14 Plus powered by the Snapdragon X Plus SoC. Focused on power, efficiency and bringing on-device AI and GenAI experiences to masses, the new PCs are Microsoft’s fresh attempt at finally making Windows on Arm dream a reality.
At the recent launch event in New Delhi, India, Ritesh Bendre, Global Content Manager at Counterpoint Research sat down with Atul Mehta, Senior Director and General Manager for India Consumer Channel at Dell Technologies to talk about new Copilot+ PCs. They discussed key features and AI experiences, target audience of the new PCs and much more.
The Interview
Key Takeaways from the Discussion
Dell’s definition of AI PCs:
- AI PCs, compared to traditional PCs, feature an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) alongside CPU and GPU to offload AI related tasks.
- These PCs also come with a dedicated Copilot button for quick access.
- The Copilot+ PCs also offer up to 27 hours of battery life for the XPS 13, and up to 21 hours for the Inspiron 14 Plus.
Differentiating AI features of Dell Copilot+ PCs:
These PCs come with AI features like:
- Live captions with translation in up to 44 different languages, all happening on-device.
- Windows Studio Effects to add background blur to videos, auto-framing and more.
- Cocreation tools for AI generated images and more.
Dell’s target audience:
The Copilot+ PCs are designed to cater to a wide range of users, including:
- Professionals.
- Gamers.
- Content creators.
- Students and programmers.
Atul also highlighted that some of key factors users consider when choosing a laptop include multitasking, workload and processing requirements.
Positioning and future of AI PCs as per Dell:
- In terms of positioning, Dell acknowledges the premiumization trend in the PC industry, and these laptops are designed for premium users.
- Talking about the future of AI PCs, Mr. Mehta highlighted that growth in AI use cases over time will also fuel the explosion of these AI devices.
- Dell is excited to be one of the leading vendors in the AI PC market, and also across other categories such as all-in-one PCs, cloud solutions and data centers.
Analyst Takeaways:
- Battery life is one of the key-selling points for these Windows on ARM, Copilot+ PCs, and with Dell claiming up to 27 hours of backup on XPS 13, we will be looking forward to test and see how it actually performs in everyday usage.
- Compatibility with x86 apps has been a challenge for traditional Windows on ARM PCs, however, more compatible hygeine apps have been announced this time around where app developers have worked with Qualcomm and Microsoft to drive native development as well as run well on the Prism emulator. The stability and growth of apps will be something which will drive long-term success, for Arm based AI PCs.
- While Apple has been successful in completely transitioning away from the Intel x86-based compute platforms to ARM based Apple Silicon, it remains to be seen how long does it take for the ARM based Copilot+ PCs to gain considerable share in the x86 dominated PC market.
- Copilot+ PCs promises a step change in Windows PCs segment by bringing exceptional battery life and cutting-edge AI capabilities. It will be key to see how Microsoft, Qualcomm and OEMs together communicate these benefits to the average consumers and enterprises through channels strongly influenced by Intel.
- AMD and Intel with their upcoming CoPilot+ PC centric platforms will make a strong play to defend their market share slip away from Qualcomm Snapdragon X based Windows on ARM AI PCs.
- We forecast AI laptops will grow to over 70% of total PC shipments by 2027.
