AI-powered Windows laptops: Our hands-on review

In the past few months, a handful of new laptops from brands like Asus, Dell and Lenovo have all released one cool new feature: An AI-powered suite of tools crafted by Microsoft. This new tech makes almost any everyday task faster and smarter — whether it comes to tracking down files, shooting off a text message, gathering research, editing photos, managing a schedule, summarizing long emails, translating between languages, creating transcriptions and summaries of audio recordings, or surfing the web. 
Is a Copilot+ PC laptop actually worth it? I tested the Asus Vivobook S15 CoPilot+ PC, Asus Zenbook S 16 and HP Omnibook X AI laptops. All three are ideal laptops for everyday use, but for that extra level of durability, the new Zenbook S 16 is the way to go. It also offers a 16-inch display, is lightweight (3.31 pounds), thin (0.43 inches), offers a beautiful aesthetic, supports Wi-Fi 7 — and it’s water resistant, too.
Operating system: Windows 11 Home | Display size: 15.6 inches | Display type: OLED | Display resolution: 3K (2,880 x 1,620 pixels) | Refresh rate: 120Hz | Max. brightness: 600 nits | Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon X1 Elite | GPU: Qualcomm Adreno | AI engine: Qualcomm AI | Neural engine: Qualcom Hexagon NPU 45TOPs | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB | Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 | Battery life: Up to 18 hours | Webcam: Full HD with Windows Hello support | Ports: 2x USB 4, 2x USB 3.2 Type-A Gen 1, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x Audio jack, 1x microSD card slot | Speakers: Harman/Kardon with Dolby Atmos support | Dimensions: 13.88 x 8.93 x 0.58 inches | Weight: 3.13 pounds
The Asus Vivobook S15 Copilot+ PC was one of the first laptops to integrate Microsoft’s Copilot AI tools and features. Just tap the Copilot button and get instant access to AI-powered answers and functions.
The Vivobook S15 Copilot+ PC offers cutting-edge hardware specs and the latest AI, but the price point is actually on the low side for what it offers — starting at just $1,170 on Amazon. This computer is incredibly thin (0.58 inches) and lightweight (3.13 pounds), so it’s easy to transport. The 15.6 inch OLED display offers plenty of on-screen real estate and the ability to showcase more than 1.07 billion colors with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.
These laptops provide all-day battery life, plenty of RAM, and advanced built in speaker systems with Dolby Atmos support. They also include professional-quality microphones and a high-resolution webcam, which is great for video calls.
Operating system: Windows 11 Home | Display size: 16 inches | Display type: OLED | Display resolution: 3K (2,880 x 1,800 pixels) | Refresh rate: 120Hz | Max. brightness: 500 nits | Processor: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 | GPU: AMD Radeon 880M | AI engine: AMD Ryzen AI | Neural engine: AMD XDNA (up to 50 TOPS) | RAM: 24GB | Storage: 1TB | Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4 | Battery life: Up to 10 hours | Webcam: 1080p | Ports: 1x USB Type-A, 2x USB Type-C, HDMI 2.1, SD 4.0 memory card slip, 3.5 millimeter audio jack | Speakers: 6x Harman/Kardon with Dolby Atmos support | Dimensions: 13.92 x 9.57 x 0.43 inches | Weight: 3.13 pounds 
For students, content creators, remote workers or just average computer users, the Zenbook S16 is literally the perfect Windows laptop. It’s durable, water-resistant, offers a sleek design, runs very quietly, and offers the latest Copilot AI functionality. 
You also get a beautiful 16-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, six speakers, a powerful microphone array, a 1080p resolution webcam, quick-charging capabilities and up to a 10-hour battery life.
Between the CPU, GPU and NPU, the Zenbook S16 offers enough processing power to handle virtually any task — from school-related work, online learning and research, to advanced gaming or content creation. And it looks pretty sweet, too. In fact, this is the first laptop to be made using a material called Ceraluminum. This is an extremely durable fusion of ceramic and aluminum that until now has been widely used in the aerospace industry because of its strength, scratch resistance, lightness, temperature resistance and tactile feel. You also get a backlit keyboard with the new Copilot key for activating the AI assistant. An extra-large touchpad that makes interacting with the laptop extremely comfortable.
Of course, the computer comes with all of the latest Windows and Asus security and privacy tools already baked into the laptop and operating system. Beyond just the design, it’s the Copilot AI functionality that makes this laptop particularly useful and downright fun to use.
Operating system: Windows 11 Home | Display size: 14 inch touchscreen| Display type: LED ISP | Display resolution: 2.2K (2,240 x 1,400 pixels) | Max. brightness: 300 nits | Processor: Snapdragon X Elite (3.7 GHz, 12 cores) | GPU: Qualcomm Adreno | RAM: 16GB | Storage: 1TB | Wireless connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E (or Wi-Fi 7), Bluetooth 5.4 | Battery life: Up to 26 hours | Webcam: 5MP | Ports: 2x USB Type-C, 1x headphone/mic jack, 1x USB Type-A | Speakers: Dual speakers (stereo) | Dimensions: 12.32 x 8.8 x 0.56 inches | Weight: 2.97 pounds
Many of the newest Windows Copilot+ PC laptops have a few things in common, including they’re thin and lightweight. They also have a Copilot key integrated into the keyboard which provides quick access to a variety of AI-driven functions.
The Omnibook X AI features a touchscreen display, a good size touchpad and a backlit keyboard that’s comfortable to type on. Its dedicated NPU ensures excellent performance when taking advantage of Copilot AI functions. The laptop’s battery life is up to 26 hours, which is extremely impressive. Plus, using the quick charge feature, you can go from 0% to 50% battery life in about 30 minutes.
Packed into a laptop that weighs under three pounds is the computing power you need to handle your everyday personal, school or work-related computing tasks, plus easy access to the AI-driven functions which are continuously being expanded and improved by Microsoft. 
Once you press the Copilot key, you can quickly locate and access any files stored on the computer or in your OneDrive account, simply by describing it. You don’t need to remember a specific file name. You can also have the Copilot digital assistant help you compose text, proofread text you’ve written, transcribe and summarize audio recordings, translate content between languages, help you edit photos, create original artwork using text-based prompts, and much more.
The core configuration of the Omnibook X AI will meet the computing needs of most users, but if you purchase the computer directly from HP’s website you can custom configure it by upgrading its processor and storage. While not water resistant, like the Asus Zenbook S16, this laptop does offer a longer battery life and is highly customizable. 
Start with the new Copilot key to quickly activate the AI tool.
CoPilot+ PC laptops are among the fastest Windows laptops out there right now. Their architecture includes a CPU, GPU and NPU that work together. Use your voice or your keyboard to find anything on your computer more quickly. You might say, “Find the file with my 2024 personal budget.” 
The Recall tool can sort through thousands of emails, files, folders, photos and documents to locate what you’re looking for incredibly quickly. You don’t need to remember a specific file name. You can search using a keyword, date or description that’s related to the file, photo or stored content you’re seeking, whether it’s in your laptop or OneDrive cloud account.
The AI also can help you create artwork using a tool called Cocreator (in Paint). Describe what you want using text or image prompts. And AI-fueled photo editing tool can generate professional-level results in minutes. This includes removing objects or backgrounds from images in seconds. Using the Restyle tool, you can say a sentence like, “Make the colors sharper,” and boom, it happens
Copilot can also make composing, editing and summarizing text simple. You’re not just limited to your native language either. Text can be translated into more than 40 languages, while videos can display real-time captions in any of more than 40 languages. One handy feature is that you can record conversations, classes or meetings and have Copilot transcribe and then summarize those audio recordings quickly and with a high level of accuracy.
During video calls, the Windows Studio Effects tools use AI to adjust lighting and sound, add an on-screen teleprompter feature, enhance voice clarity and allow special effects, backgrounds, blurs and filters to be used in real time.
In addition to Windows, the AI tech is also embedded into some of the biggest apps you probably use every day, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, Chrome, Spotify, Zoom, WhatsApp, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Blender, CapCut, LiquidText, Affinity Suite and DaVinci Resolve. We’ll be seeing more major app releases supporting AI later this year.
The Asus Vivobook S15 Copilot+ PC and Asus Zenbook S 16 offer all of the computing power someone could want. They provide a traditional laptop design (so there’s no touchscreen, stylus support or two-in-one functionality). These laptops come bundled with Windows 11 Home and have the convenient Copilot key located to the right of the spacebar. The HP Omnibook X AI, however, offers a 14 inch touchscreen display.
The backlit keyboard on both Asus laptops is larger than most, which makes typing easier. In the Vivobook S15, Asus even threw in a numeric keypad on the right and a dozen function keys along the top of the keyboard. Like any of the new Copilot+ PC laptops, the AI tools are available whenever you need them.
In the preinstalled Photos app, there’s now an AI icon. This launches the Restyle Image feature. Simply type how you’d like your photo to look. The Creativity slider then helps you adjust the intensity of the edit tool or style. While the slider goes from 1 to 100, anything over 10 often has too much of an impact on the photo. This is also the case when selecting any of the style presets, like Fantasy, Anime, Surrealism or Watercolor.
As I was tinkering with the AI photo editing features on both laptops, I discovered that they work better on some photos than others. Several of the Style presets, like Renaissance, transformed the subject of a photo into something else entirely.
Meanwhile, launching Copilot and selecting the Notebook option is an easy way to access the AI tool for composing content. Enter a few sentences describing the content you want to compose and the style you want it written in. 
The AI-powered suite is all about saving time. If you stumble onto a webpage with a lot of text, Copilot can summarize it in seconds. That said, the summaries are not always 100% accurate or even relevant, so for now at least, you can’t fully rely on what’s generated for you. 
Clearly, we’re still in the early days of using AI in everyday computing. But it’s easy to see the potential for where this technology is headed.
For some people, sure. What you can do today using Copilot is a giant leap forward when it comes to managing some everyday tasks and keeping the information you need at your fingertips. 
Plus, as your computer gets to know your habits and preferences, it’ll automatically handle certain tasks, like scheduling, for you, while helping you communicate more effectively using email, text messaging and video calling. That said, when I asked the laptops to compose text based on specific prompts, they consistently did an impressive job.
For example, after I activated Copilot on the HP Omnibook X AI laptop, I entered the prompt, “Write a 200 word poem, in the style of Dr. Suess, about the wonders of using a Copilot+ PC laptop.” Here’s what it generated in mere seconds:
Even if you don’t plan on using the latest AI tools right away, they’ll be available down the road. 
According to Microsoft, Copilot+ PC laptops were designed with privacy and security in mind. Sensitive data is protected by industry-leading security and compliance controls. In fact, Copilot works with other Microsoft tools to help strengthen your online security. However, you may need to tweak your laptop’s data permissions and policies to get the most protection from the integrated security tools and features.
The Microsoft website states, “Microsoft doesn’t retain prompts or responses when using Copilot. Prompts and responses are maintained for a short caching period for runtime purposes. After the browser is closed, the chat topic is reset, or the session times out, Microsoft discards prompts and responses. Chat data sent to and from Copilot with commercial data protection is encrypted in transit using a Transport Layer Security protocol (TLS 1.2+) and at rest using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES-128). Microsoft has no ‘eyes-on’ access to it. Because Microsoft doesn’t retain prompts and responses, those prompts and responses can’t be used as part of a training set for the underlying large language model.”
One important thing to consider when using CoPilot to generate original content is that this AI tool creates content based on language patterns found throughout the internet. Thus, results can be very similar to existing internet content. In addition, Copilot may generate the same or very similar content for multiple people who are using Copilot in the same way and with the same prompts.
Thanks to Microsoft’s Copilot Copyright Commitment, if you are challenged on copyright grounds for content created using Copilot, Microsoft will assume responsibility for the potential legal risks involved. Microsoft has incorporated filters and other technologies into its AI-driven tools that greatly reduce the likelihood that Copilot will return infringing content. These technologies build on and complement Microsoft’s work to protect digital safety, security, and privacy. 
Computers from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and Samsung are all offering this AI-powered suite. Many of these laptops support the latest Wi-Fi 7 protocol for super-fast internet connectivity. They’re also thinner, lighter and faster than most traditional Windows laptops. Most weigh less than 3.5 pounds and are powered using one of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X series or AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX processors.
Here are the latest laptops that are Copilot+ PC computers: