Copilot Plus PCs compared: Dell vs ASUS vs Lenovo

You may have seen “Copilot Plus” branding on some, but not all laptops when you’ve been looking around to buy a new notebook recently. 

A Copilot Plus PC is still, at its heart, a Windows 11 PC; at this stage it’s mostly been applied to laptop computers. There’s not a particular reason why it couldn’t be applied to desktop models, but to date they’re rather thin on the ground.

What differentiates a Copilot Plus Plus PC is the presence of a higher-level Neural Processing Unit (NPU) than you’ll find in a standard laptop, enabling more advanced on-device AI processing features. 

The specification for Copilot Plus PCs is one of Microsoft’s creation, and it mandates a system capable of a minimum of 40 trillion operations per second, or 40 TOPS if you want the jargon side of matters. Along with that, a Copilot Plus PC must have a minimum of 16GB of RAM and 256GB of onboard solid-state storage. 

While the first crop of Copilot Plus PCs all relied on Qualcomm’s ARM-based Snapdragon X processors, you can now get a Copilot Plus PC with either ARM or x86-based CPUs; either Intel’s Core Ultra 200V “Lunar Lake” processors or AMD’s AI Ryzen AI 300 processors do meet the TOPS part of the Copilot Plus specification and can be sold as Copilot Plus PCs – or upgraded to Copilot Plus if they were shipped without Copilot Plus features pre-installed depending on your precise computing needs. 

The pitch for ARM revolves around better battery life, while the Intel-based x86 Copilot Plus PCs get full compatibility with existing x86-based Windows code where ARM has to make do with Microsoft’s Prism emulator to handle x86 code, sometimes with mixed results.

Copilot Plus PCs use all that AI grunt to enable a number of new features, including on-device language translation, automatic super resolution, Paint Cocreator for image manipulation and creation, Windows Studio effects for video calls and the somewhat controversial Recall feature that’s still only available to Windows Insider users. Outside those AI features, however, what you’re ultimately buying is still a Windows laptop – so which one should you consider?

Dell offers a range of Copilot Plus PCs, utilising either Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Plus or Snapdragon X Elite processors or Intel Core Ultra 5 or Core Ultra 7 processors, depending on your needs and the price you’re willing to pay.

Dell’s lowest cost Copilot Plus PCs come in its familiar Inspiron 14 and Inspiron 14 Plus lines, running on Qualcomm’s entry-level Copilot Plus processor family, the Snapdragon X Plus.

Want to know more about the Dell Inspiron Plus? We’ve reviewed it right here.

Stepping up the field, Dell’s Latitude line of laptops also incorporates Copilot+ ready models in the form of the Latitude 5455 and Latitude 7455, which also allows for Qualcomm’s higher tier Snapdragon X Elite as a CPU option:

The widest range of currently available Dell Copilot Plus PCs comes in its Dell Pro line of 13, 14 and 16 inch laptops, built around Intel’s Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 processor families:

If you’re after the most configuration options in a Dell Copilot Plus PC, that’s (at the time of writing) the Dell XPS 13, the only model that has both Qualcomm and Intel CPU options to pick from:

Like its competitors, Lenovo offers a growing array of Copilot Plus PC options, incorporating Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Plus/Elite CPUs as well as x86 based options from both Intel and AMD.

Lenovo’s lowest cost entry point into Copilot Plus PCs sits in its IdeaPad range; that makes sense as it’s long been one of the company’s more budget-centric offerings:

Staying in the more affordable space, but with larger screens a priority, there’s the Thinkbook 16, based around the more entry-level Snapdragon X Plus CPU:

Lenovo’s Yoga range of laptops comes in Copilot Plus flavours with your call around Intel, AMD or Qualcomm running the Yoga show:

The ThinkPad is the workhorse of the Lenovo world, and it’s been that way ever since Lenovo acquired the ThinkPad brand and laptop business of IBM. So it’s no surprise that the greatest number of Copilot Plus variants to pick from come in ThinkPad flavours:

ASUS’ position in the Copilot Plus PC world covers a lot more bases than its competitors, with options for everything from Business AI users to gamers – and with a lot wider range in its price points as well.

If you’re in the graphics design space, the relevant ASUS line of Copilot Plus PCs are its ProArt models:

ASUS was amongst the very first to launch a Copilot Plus PC back in 2024 via its Zenbook lines:

The lowest cost option in a Copilot Plus laptop from ASUS comes in its Vivobook line via the Vivobook S16:

To date, gaming and Copilot Plus PCs haven’t really meshed together all that frequently. That’s largely because the default integrated graphics on many Copilot Plus PCs – especially those driven by Qualcomm chipsets – just hasn’t been that great for higher-end gaming use. That doesn’t stop ASUS from offering up a range of Copilot Plus ready gaming laptops, at typical (i.e high) gaming laptop prices:

ASUS also offers up a range of commercial grade Copilot Plus models, including one of the very few Copilot Plus desktop machines in the form of the Asus NUC 14 Pro AI: