AMD and Intel are getting Copilot+ access through Acer's new Swift AI and TravelMate AI PCs

What you need to know

• Acer has announced an expansion to its Copilot+ PC lineup at IFA 2024, including the Swift 14/16 AI and TravelMate P6 14 AI.
• AMD's Ryzen AI 300 and Intel's new "Lunar Lake" Core Ultra mobile chips are on board, and they're expected to receive access to Copilot+ features for free in November.
• The AMD-powered Swift 14 AI is expected to launch in NA and EMEA markets in September starting at $1,199.99. It's coming to Australia in Q4 2024 starting at $2,799 AUD.
• The Intel-powered Swift 14 AI is hitting NA, EMEA, and AUS markets in September starting at $1,199.99/€1,299.
• The business-focused TravelMate P6 14 AI powered by Intel is coming to NA and EMEA market in January 2025 starting at $1,499.99/€1,349.

IFA 2024 is officially set to kick off on September 6, but that hasn't stopped a bunch of major PC manufacturers like Acer from revealing new hardware ahead of the show. I covered Acer's new Predator and Nitro V gaming PCs and the new Swift 14 Go AI with Qualcomm's new 8-core Snapdragon X Plus SoC in separate pieces, leaving only Intel and AMD systems to look at here.

AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm have all taken a spot in Acer's range of new laptops, and some of the biggest news here is the revelation that Copilot+ AI features — originally exclusive to Qualcomm systems since Copilot+ PCs first launched in May 2024 — are coming to AMD and Intel in November. 

The expansion had only been hinted at up to this point, but we now have it in writing that Intel and AMD are getting Copilot+ access in November for Intel Core Ultra Series 2 and AMD Ryzen AI 300 systems. If you're shy about working with Windows on ARM to get access to Copilot+, the new AMD and Intel options should be a welcome sight.

Let's take a look at the new laptops that Acer has unveiled, including the Intel-powered Swift 14/16 AI and TravelMate P6 14 AI, as well as the AMD-powered Swift 14 AI.

Acer's Swift 14 and 16 AI laptops are getting Copilot+ in November

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The new Swift 14 AI (SF14-51) and Swift 16 AI (SF16-51) are both AI PCs powered by Intel's new Core Ultra Series 2 mobile chips that were announced on September 3 at IFA 2024. They'll receive the full range of Copilot+ AI tools, including Windows Recall, Live Captions, Cocreator, and more, sometime in November. That's all thanks to the Neural Processing Unit (NPU) inside Intel's new chips that can hit up to 48 TOPS of power for local AI acceleration.

The smaller laptop offers Core Ultra 5 and Core Ultra 7 options, while the larger laptop adds the (so far) lone Core Ultra 9 288V option. All chips have the same eight-core total, split between Performance (P) and Low-Power Efficient (LPE). All Core Ultra 5 and Ultra 7 chips run at a 17W TDP, while the Core Ultra 9 reaches 30W.

Both the 14- and 16-inch models focus on mobility, so don't expect anything beyond Intel's updated and integrated Arc graphics. Intel says it has achieved a "massive leap in graphics" with its new chips, bringing a DirectX 12 Ultimate GPU with Intel XeSS and Intel XMX AI engines. 

I wouldn't suggest treating these laptops as dedicated gaming platforms, but it's clear that Intel wants you to be able to enjoy lighter titles at a decent frame rate. The laptops come with up to 32GB of LPDDR5x-8448MHz RAM, set up in a dual-channel config but soldered to the board. The Swift 14 AI tops out at a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, while the Swift 16 AI goes up to a 2TB capacity.

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Because these are Intel-based systems, the port selection revolves around dual Thunderbolt 4. Both laptops also offer two USB-A, HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5mm audio jack. For wireless connectivity, Wi-Fi 7 delivers a fast and reliable connection, while Bluetooth 5.3 can easily handle your favorite laptop accessories.

Acer's AI PCs now come with the new AI logo on the lid, but they also have an AI activity light on the touchpad. I'm not completely sold on the latter feature, as it lights up anytime Copilot or the NPU is in use. I imagine it's a gimmick that we'll only see for a short while until AI PCs are no longer such a hot topic.

I do love the sleek look of these laptops, and even the larger 16-inch model only weighs 3.3 pounds (1.5kg). That's achieved with an aluminum lid and what I assume is a plastic base, in line with some of Acer's other Swift models. 

The laptops each have a 1440p webcam with an IR sensor for Windows Hello and human presence detection (HPD), and the camera only gets better with Windows Studio Effects and Acer's own PurifiedView 2.0 tool. As for the displays, you're looking at 3K or 2K OLED in the 14-inch model, with an extra 2K IPS option if you'd like to spend less. The 16-inch model has a 3K OLED touch display. I've been won over by OLED laptops after testing a bunch this year, so it's great to see Acer including them here.

The Swift 14 AI (SF14-51) is expected to launch in NA, EMEA, and AUS markets in September, with prices starting at $1,199.99/€1,199/$1,899 AUD. The Swift 16 (SF16-51) is coming to North America in October starting at $1,199.99. It's also coming to the EMEA market in December starting at €1,299 and Australia in Q1 2025 starting at $1,999 AUD.

Acer also has an AMD-powered Swift 14 AI with Copilot+ capabilities headed our way

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AMD's Ryzen AI 300 chips built on the Zen 5 architecture were announced in June 2024, and they've proven to be powerful while also offering excellent battery life — just look at what Windows Central Editor Ben Wilson discovered in his ASUS Zenbook S 16 review.

I don't imagine those two highlights will change in the Swift 14 AI (SF14-61), which is essentially an AMD variant of the Intel-based Swift 14 AI I already wrote about above. The AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 processor has 10 cores, 20 threads, and a boost frequency of up to 5.0GHz, all running at a base 28W TDP.

Perhaps the biggest news surrounding the AMD-based laptop is the upcoming access to Copilot+ AI features in Windows; we're now expecting both AMD and Intel to be unlocked sometime in November. The Ryzen AI 9 365 is the lesser of the new AMD chips — the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 has 12 cores, 24 threads, and a 5.1GHz boost clock — but it still has an NPU with 50 TOPS to handle Copilot+ demands.

Thanks to the laptop's 75Wh battery (which drops to 65Wh if you don't get an OLED display), Acer estimates about 27 hours of video playback or up to 19 hours of web browsing on a charge. Those numbers are undoubtedly inflated, but you should still expect well more than a workday of life from a charge.

There are three screen options here, with the top option being OLED with a 2880x1800 resolution, 500 nits brightness, 100% DCI-P3 color reproduction, and DisplayHDR True Black 500 support. There are also a couple of IPS screens, one with the same 2.8K resolution and the other with a 1920x1200 resolution. Both hit 400 nits brightness, but only the higher resolution has a 120Hz refresh rate.

The Swift 14 AI (SF14-61) is expected to launch in NA and EMEA markets in September, starting at $1,199.99. It will also launch in Australia in Q4 2024 starting at $2,799 AUD.

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The TravelMate P6 AI is a secure business laptop with Copilot+

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I saved what I consider (perhaps surprisingly) the best for last. It's rare that I get the most kicks out of a business laptop, but the TravelMate P6 14 AI (TMP614-54) has some notable specs and features.

What stands out the most to me is the 2.18-pound (0.99kg) starting weight. That's thanks to a carbon fiber chassis that has undergone MIL-STD-810H durability certifications, which is exactly what you want to see in a business laptop that's used while traveling or in the field. Acer includes its "Dust Defender" feature to help keep detritus out of the internal hardware.

Beyond the standard Copilot+ features arriving later this year for the Intel Core Ultra NPU, the TravelMate P6 14 AI has its own human presence detection (HPD) for the 1440p IR webcam, a local AI assistant, a LiveArt 2.0 photo editing tool, and GIMP/Stable Diffusion plugin support for easier AI creation of photos. 

Along with Windows Studio Effects, Acer offers its own PurifiedView 2.0 kit that improves your picture quality when video conferencing. For professionals, Acer's full range of tools can help IT departments manage the PC while keeping your data safe. 

Circling back to the laptop's physical properties, it boasts up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 268V CPU with NPU capable of 48 TOPS of power for local AI acceleration. It's also available with up to 32GB of LPDDR5x RAM and up to a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. The system runs on a 65Wh battery that Acer claims hits up to 14 hours in MobileMark 2025's benchmark; even taking a third of that estimate out will result in a full workday without a charge.

Ports include dual Thunderbolt 4, USB-A 3.2, HDMI 2.1, and a 3.5mm audio jack. As for wireless connectivity, Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 are on board. The TravelMate P6 14 AI is expected to launch in NA and EMEA markets in January 2024, starting at $1,499.99/€1,349.

Copilot+ coming to Intel and AMD is a big deal for all Windows users

IFA 2024 kicked off in a big way for fans of AMD, Intel, and Copilot+. Whereas the only way to get access to Copilot+ was through a laptop with a Snapdragon X System-on-Chip (SoC), Microsoft's announcement that it's bringing Copilot+ to systems with AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chips in November signals the end of Qualcomm's lockdown.

With Copilot+ AI tools requiring a chip with an NPU capable of at least 40 TOPS of power for local AI acceleration, only Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chips made the cut for the first few months after the Copilot+ program was unveiled.

It's unclear what sort of agreement Qualcomm and Microsoft had, as even AMD announcing its new Ryzen AI 300 chips with a 45 TOPS NPU a couple of months ago didn't break up the exclusivity. However, now that Intel has unveiled its Core Ultra Series 2 chips with a 48 TOPS NPU, we're going to see Copilot+ in many more laptops.

That leaves NVIDIA kicking sand in the background despite the company's GPUs offering far more AI potential than AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm chips. NVIDIA did announce in June that it's bringing Copilot+ to RTX-enabled devices, but so far there's no confirmation. 

Baby steps are still steps, and I'm glad that more people will now be able to test out Copilot+ features like Live Captions, Cocreator, Windows Studio Effects, and Windows Recall on an x86-64 system.