Finally, PCs Are Catching up With Apple's Amazing MacBooks

Microsoft is really pushing the AI aspect of its new Copilot Plus PCs hard, but that's missing the point entirely. With these new ARM PCs, the x86 PC is finally dying.

We'll get to the AI features in a moment, especially the Recall feature that the BBC is calling a "privacy nightmare." But the real reason to get excited about Microsoft's announcement is that it's finally getting serious about putting Windows onto ARM-based chips. This is the same kind of system-on-a-chip that Apple uses for its Apple Silicon Macs, iPads, and iPhones, and is the reason that those computers get insane power while sipping battery. And it's here for PCs.

"Apple does have some inherent advantages with their ecosystem (native iOS and MacOS syncing of content, services, and devices) and exceptional build and display quality, and up until now far superior battery life/weight ratios. But for the first time in a long time, I think Microsoft has a real shot at redefining what a portable computer can and should be," Stefan Weitz, Microsoft veteran and Co-founder at HumanX, told Lifewire via email.

ARM, Finally

PC makers have tried ARM-based chips before, but they haven't really come close to beating the usual AMD/Intel x86 architecture for performance. This has been partly due to the less-impressive chips available to PC makers but also to Microsoft's slow adoption of the new hardware platform.

"Software compatibility was a challenge. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X platform and Microsoft have been working to solve that challenge for the last few years, and the platform is finally ready," Olivier Blanchard, Research Director at The Futurum Group, told Lifewire via email.

"Microsoft finally has a system and product category with which to go after Apple, at least in the MacBook Air segment."

Now, though, Qualcomm has come through with its new Snapdragon X series processors, which rival Apple's M-series chips in the crucial aspect of performance-per-watt, and it looks like Microsoft is finally going all-in on ARM.

The MacBook's performance-per-watt is insane. It's why the MacBook Pro can run at full tilt on battery, and not slow down when unplugged like high-end gaming PCs. It's why you can get a day or two from your MacBook Air on battery power alone without needing to recharge. And now the PC world is catching up.

Microsoft has announced two sweet-looking Copilot Plus laptops. The Surface Laptop 7 is a rival to the MacBook Air. It's cheaper at $999 and has more base RAM at 16GB vs. the MacBook Air's 8GB and $1,099. It's also heavier and thicker than the MacBook Air.

The Surface Pro is the convertible tablet+keyboard option, also starting at $999, only you'll have to buy the keyboard and pen for another $450. Both Surfaces have touch screens, unlike any Mac, which is a huge selling point in itself.

Even more exciting is the slew of PC makers that have also announced laptops that use the new Snapdragon X chips. Dell, Asus, Acer, HP, Samsung, and Lenovo all announced new models this week, with shipping dates starting in June.

Of note are Lenovo's Yoga Slim 7x 14 and ThinkPad T14s, its "creative" and business laptops. Given that Lenovo is heavily supportive of Linux, these may be excellent machines for running ARM Linux, giving you all the advantages of MacBook Air-type machines but with an operating system you can own and control.

Privacy Nightmare

But ARM is only half the story. The new Qualcomm chips also include a neural processing unit to run AI tasks, the same idea as the Neural Engine Apple has been putting in its computers for years. Which brings us to AI.

It's one thing hyping AI services like ChatGPT and Sora, quite another to use precious CPU space for dedicated AI hardware. After all, do we really want AI in our computers? Not only is it environmentally disastrous, but it's also unreliable, and thanks to the large cloud component, it can leak your personal data.

That's why the UK's Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is concerned about Microsoft's headline AI feature, Recall. This feature remembers everything you do on your computer to feed the AI assistant and help you search your past activities. It also gives the AI context to help it do assistant-type tasks. But the part that has privacy advocates worried is that Recall takes a screenshot every few seconds, so it really does capture everything you do.

That's a possible security risk, but it is also a real danger to anyone in an abusive relationship. If an abusive spouse has access to the computer—which they probably do—then they can use Recall to find out everything their partner has done.

The AI-centric announcement has sullied the real news, then: that, for the first time in years, PCs are interesting again, and you don't need to buy a Mac to enjoy all-day battery life combined with amazing performance.