Microsoft does holds a digital event On March 21st, entitled “Advancing a new era of business with Copilot”. Possible announcements include potentially new Surface devices. branded as the first AI PC. It will be already a second Windows hardware event — and the first major Surface Pro launch — without former product director and longtime keynote Panos Panay. went to Amazon last year. Here’s everything we can expect to see at the company’s first launch event in 2024.
Company describes event breaks down “Copilot, the latest implementation of artificial intelligence at scale in your environment with Windows and Surface.” There are conflicting reports about what we will see in late March.
Windows Center claims The OLED Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 will headline the event, with their improved processors enabling “greater performance and efficiency” than their predecessors. However, a report The Verge suggest This month’s event will feature only the business and commercial-focused versions of the devices – with more subtle upgrades than the consumer versions. The outlet claims that consumer variants with a “bigger redesign” will follow later this spring.
Allegedly, the new facilities will be powered Intel Core Ultra or Snapdragon X Elite silicon with next-generation neural processing units (NPUs) for advanced AI tasks. The Intel variants are expected to launch in April, while the Arm-based Snapdragon versions are expected to launch a few months later in June. If the reports are true, this will be the first time The Surface Laptop line Arm-based version included.
The Surface Pro 10 is rumored to switch from LCD to an anti-reflective OLED display, at least on the consumer models. The device will be brighter than the Surface Pro 9’s screen and will support HDR content. Meanwhile, the Surface Laptop 6 is rumored to have slimmer display bezels (with rounded corners) and a touch-sensitive panel. Its updated port selection is said to include two USB-C and one USB-A on the left side.
Trade / business models (which may be all we see at this month’s event) are rumored to include options with a built-in Common Access Card (CAC) reader and up to 64GB of RAM.
Whether at this month’s event or later, the new consumer Surface Pro and Surface Laptop are expected to drive Microsoft’s push for AI PCs running Windows 11. They will reportedly be among the first to include the on-device version Copilot. Other rumored AI features include real-time captions and translations, upscaling and frame rate smoothing for games, improved Windows Studio Effects, and a feature called AI Explorer. It is reported that both devices will be included Special Copilot switch.
AI Explorer is rumored to include a built-in graph that can be searched using natural language. Maybe it looks like a third party Rewind AI software This feature for macOS will let you browse your device with Copilot, recording everything you see and do. This will allow you to ask the assistant things like “Find me that thing about dinosaurs” and see every moment in your computer’s history related to them. (It can be a privacy nightmare if not managed properly, but expect Microsoft to offer security safeguards like encryption and completely on-device processing.)
The feature is also claimed to “understand context, help you start projects or workflows, and even suggest tasks based on what’s currently on the screen.” Other rumored features include the ability to tell Copilot to remove backgrounds for on-screen images from third-party apps in the Photos app.
The AI features, which are not expected to be exclusive to Surface devices, will arrive in this year’s annual feature update for Windows 11 (version 24H2), which is expected in the fall. Windows Center noted that it’s unclear whether Microsoft will discuss the features at the March event.
Engadget will have full coverage of Microsoft’s announcement on March 21 at noon ET.
