Battery Life is Driving Sales of Qualcomm Snapdragon Copilot+ PCs, Not AI

[AleksandarK]

The recent launch of Copilot+ PCs, a collaboration between Microsoft and Qualcomm, has taken an unexpected turn in the market. While these devices were promoted for their artificial intelligence capabilities, a Bloomberg report reveals that consumers are primarily drawn to them for their impressive battery life. The Snapdragon X-powered Copilot+ PCs have made a significant impact, securing 20% of global PC sales during their launch week. However, industry analyst Avi Greengart points out that the extended battery life, not the AI features, is driving these sales. Microsoft introduced three AI-powered features exclusive to these PCs: Cocreator, Windows Studio Effects, and Live Captions with Translation. Despite these innovations, many users find these features non-essential for daily use. The delay of the anticipated Recall feature due to privacy concerns has further dampened enthusiasm for the AI aspects of these devices.

The slow reception of on-device AI capabilities extends beyond consumer preferences to the software industry. Major companies like Adobe, Salesforce, and SentinelOne declined Microsoft's request to optimize their apps for the new hardware, citing resource constraints and the limited market share of AI-capable PCs. Gregor Steward, SentinelOne's VP for AI, suggests it could take years before AI PCs are widespread enough to justify app optimization. Analysts project that by 2028, only 40% of new computers will be AI-capable. Despite these challenges, Qualcomm remains optimistic about the future of AI PCs. While the concept may currently be more on the marketing side, the introduction of Arm-based Windows laptops offers a welcome alternative to the Intel-AMD duopoly. As the technology evolves and adoption increases, on-device AI features may become more prevalent and useful. The imminent arrival of AMD Ryzen AI 300 series and Intel Lunar Lake chips promises to expand the Copilot+ PC space further. For now, however, it appears that superior battery life remains the primary selling point for consumers.



View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[clopezi]

Obviously, the AI features look like gimmicks. However, a battery life like the one in Macbooks has been requested by users for years.

 

[Steevo]

If they used AI it could have collected data to see this answer, meaning that even the people selling AI aren't using it.

 

[Vayra86]

The market accidentally made a good product because the chip accidentally also saves power alongside its AI 'capability'.

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad. So these companies hire millions worth of marketing teams and innovative teams and all they really had to do was improve battery life.

Read between the lines here corporate. We don't need your upmarketed bullshit, we just want a proper productivity device that works well on the road.
And MS, for you that means a low-power optimized version of Windows. One that doesn't do all sorts of unnecessary shit nobody asked for. Take the hint pls. You can just copy over an LTSC build its okay.

 

[eidairaman1]

If they used AI it could have collected data to see this answer, meaning that even the people selling AI aren't using it.

Wont trust it, not sorry

 

[Aylimta]

People buy products for real important reasons instead of bullshit buzzwords, oh really..

 

[Chrispy_]

90% of users requesting laptops from me want the smallest, lightest, least powerful thing in the pool. They don't care that it's a five-year-old Core M3 with a 5W TDP, nor do they give the faintest care about AI stuff that isn't processed by a server in the cloud or our own datacenter. They just care that it's a light, unobtrusive fanless thing that runs for 12 hours on a battery charge and handles Web, PDF editing, Teams/Zoom, and maybe a remote desktop client occasionally to access more powerful hardware if needed.

Hell, an iPad with a keyboard would do if all of the common software in the AEC industry wasn't either absent or a heap of garbage on iOS.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Wait, people buy a computer based on its functionality, not based on marketing hype?

NOOOOOOOOOOO! WHHAAAA? I'm UTTERLY SHOCKED!

What next, a cheaper computer sells better?

 

[Bobaganoosh]

Oh hang on, I need to find my surprised face....hmmm...nope...can't seem to find it anywhere.

 

[ty_ger]

I thought just a few weeks ago we had reports that the famed battery life was actually really unimpressive and over-hyped. Not true? Or am I mistaken?

 

[R0H1T]

Oh hang on, I need to find my surprised face....hmmm...nope...can't seem to find it anywhere.

You probably would be with the upcoming Zen or even Intel chips. I expect further advances from both x86 makers to dominate this space! Apple could well have awoken two sleeping giants

 

[Seeprime]

The market accidentally made a good product because the chip accidentally also saves power alongside its AI 'capability'.

It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad. So these companies hire millions worth of marketing teams and innovative teams and all they really had to do was improve battery life.

Read between the lines here corporate. We don't need your upmarketed bullshit, we just want a proper productivity device that works well on the road.
And MS, for you that means a low-power optimized version of Windows. One that doesn't do all sorts of unnecessary shit nobody asked for. Take the hint pls. You can just copy over an LTSC build its okay.

Stockholders buy into the AI BS. That's all MSFT cares about.

 

[SRB151]

What I don't get is how much of the "battery life" advantage is marketing and perception vs. reality. I think it was Tom's Hardware that did a battery life test of snapdragon vs a few Intel cpus. The result? One of the Intel laptops came out at 15 hours vs. 16 for the snapdragon. Now, the Intel had a 5100 mah battery vs something like 2700 mah for the other, but the curious part is that the Intel laptop weighs less that the snapdragon, and was less money.

So, the battery life is better, but compared to what,, how much longer, what does it cost, and lastly, what hardware and software won't or runs dog slow on the snapdragon?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

The problem is most of the biggest players in the tech sector have all have a big miss in this space. MS missed hard on mobile, and they now get to be the app maker on other company's mobile OSes instead of being the mobile OS that everyone else has to run their apps on. None of them want to miss the AI window, and so they all shout "Me too" as loud as they can.

 

[simlariver]

What AI ? Phones have had ""AI"" for years now, everyone understands its a buzzword at this point.

 

[Steevo]

What AI ? Phones have had ""AI"" for years now, everyone understands its a buzzword at this point.

But but but…. It can make your pictures pretty….. and spy on you. Don’t you want your AI to inform the authorities? Don’t you want big brother to take care of you, ration your chocolate, shut down your smart home for wrongthink?

 

[trsttte]

I thought just a few weeks ago we had reports that the famed battery life was actually really unimpressive and over-hyped. Not true? Or am I mistaken?

Battery life on x86 laptops has been effectively broken - super broken if you have discrete graphics alongside integrated - for years due to bad sleep state implementation and windows crapfest of bugs. You won't see a difference on a battery test in any review because the normal test is to leave the laptop doing something until it dies, but I believe the snapdragon elite fixed - or mitigated might be a better word - the crapfest of bugs in windows so in real use you can see a big difference.

 

[Wasteland]

What I don't get is how much of the "battery life" advantage is marketing and perception vs. reality. I think it was Tom's Hardware that did a battery life test of snapdragon vs a few Intel cpus. The result? One of the Intel laptops came out at 15 hours vs. 16 for the snapdragon. Now, the Intel had a 5100 mah battery vs something like 2700 mah for the other, but the curious part is that the Intel laptop weighs less that the snapdragon, and was less money.

All else being equal, the Intel product in your example would require almost double the charging time. That's definitely a battery-life-related downside. I don't disagree, though, that battery life claims and even third party battery life testing are often flawed. @trsttte makes a great point about idle power, for example.

Regardless, I'll take battery life as a selling point over AI.

 

[InVasMani]

My take away is that obviously battery life benefits everyone on a mobile device. On the other hand AI isn't seen as beneficial in it's current state to many yet, but in time I fully expect that will more and more be seen as such to those that openly embrace the technology. It's really once AI reaches a point of being intrinsically beneficial to someone for any given purpose that they actively enjoy that they will start to perceive it much differently. For it really to be perceived well at the same time however it needs to meet a certain general threshold of quality. That's why perceptions on AI art and music are fairly mixed at this stage, but are showing more and more promise over time. I promise you that's true as I've seen it in real time over the course of a handful of months. I'll give you example. I showed a joke prompt of car stuff awhile back and this is what car stuff now looks like. Obvious the level details has changed by no small amount and yes that's a UFO possibly so you better drive quick.

Spoiler: VROOMIE ZOOOMIE ZIPPPIE ZAAAM!!!

 

[Chaitanya]

Funny thing is that currently none of applications are using the overhyped NPUs on "AI" CPUs. Also MS is a shell of its former self.

 

[Minus Infinity]

Microsoft won't care, and will double down on copilot BS even harder until us fools get the message loud and clear. AI is our future, no questions asked.

 

[watzupken]

Big tech are hyping up AI saying that it will be the driver for XXX hardware sales and save the world. But is that really the case? There is certainly usage for AI, i.e. ChatGPT, which I think is clear. Even I do use ChatGPT from time to time for some information. But would having an NPU on my computer help here? I don't think so. To me, having an ARM based processor is always about power efficiency, and it is clear this is the main reason why people are buying ARM base PCs or Macs. It is practicality that drives sales, not some fluffy promise of running AI on your computer "natively".

Battery life on x86 laptops has been effectively broken - super broken if you have discrete graphics alongside integrated - for years due to bad sleep state implementation and windows crapfest of bugs. You won't see a difference on a battery test in any review because the normal test is to leave the laptop doing something until it dies, but I believe the snapdragon elite fixed - or mitigated might be a better word - the crapfest of bugs in windows so in real use you can see a big difference.

There are tradeoffs to be made. If you want a powerful laptop, it will always come at the price of higher power draw. Assuming you want to game, any iGPU in a low power chip will struggle to match a dedicated GPU. So I don't think battery life on x86 is broken, but rather the focus is not so much on reducing power draw. This is especially the case with Intel processors until the recent focus on lowering power draw.

Windows is a Microsoft problem which I think will never go away. Over the years, the OS is getting more and more bloated and broken. I presume the reason is because they are not contented selling you an OS, but also actively sell you other services which they conveniently install it for you. In some cases, you can't even uninstall it. At this point, I am gradually moving away from Windows because I can't stand their practice.

 

[usiname]

All else being equal, the Intel product in your example would require almost double the charging time. That's definitely a battery-life-related downside. I don't disagree, though, that battery life claims and even third party battery life testing are often flawed. @trsttte makes a great point about idle power, for example.

Regardless, I'll take battery life as a selling point over AI.

I didn't watch the review, but normally double battery size mean double charging speed which make the charging time same for both devices on theory. You don't charge 100kw tesla for few days, but few hours

 

[trsttte]

There are tradeoffs to be made. If you want a powerful laptop, it will always come at the price of higher power draw. Assuming you want to game, any iGPU in a low power chip will struggle to match a dedicated GPU. So I don't think battery life on x86 is broken, but rather the focus is not so much on reducing power draw. This is especially the case with Intel processors until the recent focus on lowering power draw.

No, it's just broken. I'm not talking about the battery being short when gaming or doing anything, that would be understandable, the battery is just short always because laptop don't enter low power states correctly especially in hybrid gpu scenarios.

 

[kondamin]

as I would like a small power sipping box that is powerfully enough to do all I need and does t require me to pay the apple tax