Microsoft says its 2026 Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 13 won't be marketed as Copilot+ PCs, even though they still clear the previous hardware bar. Surface vice-president Brett Ostrum confirmed that the company is backing away from the label on the new models, including those powered by Snapdragon X2 Plus, after using it on Surface PCs released in 2025 and earlier.
These are not called Copilot+ PCs. They do meet all the requirements of our previous bar for what Copilot+ devices are. We still lean into the narrative around AI on the edge and being able to have a hybrid solution out there.
The old requirements include an NPU rated at least 40 TOPS, 16 GB of memory, and 256 GB of storage. Recall, Click to Do, and Live Captions remain available on compatible devices, but they depend on suitable hardware.
Recall was delayed after security researchers criticized the feature, and Microsoft later reworked how it works. Windows Central's Zac Bowden wrote that the branding had not resonated with the market and that Microsoft and PC makers were pulling back from it.
Qualcomm senior vice-president of compute Kedar Kondap said manufacturers can offer the same NPU-based experiences without using the Copilot+ PC name.
The purpose for Copilot+ PCs was to be able to deliver [NPU] experiences. So it was to define a certain category of devices with a certain bar and metric, like for example, a 45 TOPS NPU... So from that perspective, it's more offering the same experiences, probably without just using [Copilot+ PC] terminology now.
Could Microsoft keep consumers interested in Surface AI features after dropping the Copilot+ PC branding, especially following the backlash over Recall?
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