I dedicated an entire day to exploring the different AI programs available on the HP EliteBook Ultra with Copilot+ AI. My main question was whether these new AI PCs are worth it. The Copilot+ Snapdragon laptops offer improved performance and battery life. One of their key selling points is the onboard AI capabilities provided by the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU. But what exactly do the Copilot+ laptops offer in terms of features? Since Microsoft has recalled the Recall feature, which used to capture snapshots of a user's laptop activity, the AI Cocreate program in Windows Paint, live captions with AI language translation, enhanced Studio camera effects, and the Copilot AI assistant remain as the notable features. All other AI features of the Copilot+ laptops require third-party applications that are not preinstalled on the machine. These features include increased generative AI in Adobe Photoshop or gesture motion controls via Cephable. However, it seems that the enhanced AI features may not be as impressive as they sound. The Cocreate program in Windows Paint allows users to draw their own images, but it functions similarly to other text-to-image AI generation tools like Stable Diffusion available in Open AI's Dall-E 2, Figma, Adobe Firefly, Pixlr, and even Microsoft's Copilot assistant. Personally, I rarely have a need for image generation in my day-to-day activities. The Copilot+ live captions feature caught my interest, but it performs better in a quieter environment than in a crowded demo floor.

Even then, there are better translation options available through YouTube or most video chat apps. The Copilot+ live captions software struggles with accents and identifying languages, and it has a significant lag when translating slang. While it was fun to experiment with phrases in different languages and see if the system could accurately translate them from a distance, this isn't a feature that I see myself using frequently. The enhanced background blur studio effects can also be found in various video chat features like Google Meet and Zoom. Background blur is not a new technology. Although the NPU may make the background blur feature smarter when it comes to blurring objects or obscuring people passing through the frame, it's not something that is essential to have at this moment. The Copilot assistant, although useful, is not exclusive to Copilot+ PCs. It is also available on iPhones through Microsoft's new chatbot. However, it is worth noting that the performance and battery life of Copilot+ PCs, especially the HP EliteBook Ultra, are impressive. The EliteBook easily rivals the Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 in terms of performance and even outperforms it on certain benchmarks. Additionally, the EliteBook's average battery life of 16 hours and 1 minute is more than capable of competing against the MacBook Air. So, while the Copilot+ program is not a disappointment, the AI features alone may not be a compelling reason to upgrade to a new laptop at this time.