What you need to know
- Copilot+ PCs will soon support super resolution within the Photos app on Windows 11.
- Microsoft started testing the feature among Windows Insiders this week.
- Super resolution can enhance and enlarge images up to 8x, allowing people to print large copies of images or zoom in on photos without dropping picture quality.
- Microsoft is also testing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) within the Photos app.
Copilot+ PCs will soon be able to use AI to enhance and enlarge images through the Windows 11 Photos app. A feature called super resolution is now in testing among Windows Insiders in all Insider Channels. Super resolution uses the NPU of a PC to upscale images to up to eight times their original resolution.
"Super resolution is perfect for improving low-quality photos, preparing photos for large prints or displays, and tight cropping without giving up image resolution to zero into the content you want to focus on," explained Microsoft.
The super resolution feature lives within Photos Editor, which you can open by selecting the "Edit" icon when viewing any image. There, you'll see options for how much you want to upscale the image. The Photos app shows you the resulting resolution after upscaling.
We'll have to try the feature ourselves to see how well it performs, but a sample shared by Microsoft looks promising.
All Copilot+ PCs that you can buy today run on Snapdragon X processors, such as the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus. That will change soon, since select AMD and Intel processors are expected to receive access to Copilot+ AI features before the end of this year. AMD's Ryzen AI 300 chips built on the Zen 5 architecture and Intel's new Core Ultra Series 2 mobile chips will support Copilot+ AI tools, including Windows Recall, Live Captions, and Cocreator.
The Photos app on Windows 11 will also add Optical Character Recognition (OCR) support in the future. Windows Insiders can test that feature as well. OCR detects text within images, allowing you to copy that text to your PC's clipboard. The feature works with documents, notes, or screenshots and supports over 160 languages.
Microsoft also shipped a small handful of other fixes and improvements to the Photos app:
- In response to user feedback, we are launching single-click support in the Gallery. With this update, you can now open individual images with a single click to make navigation more efficient. If double clicking is your preference, it will still work the same as before.
- Enhancements to the Zoom feature now include large images automatically resizing to fit within the Viewer window and improved synchronization between the zoom slider and the zoom selection display.
- We implemented bug fixes for the Image creator and Restyle image features on Copilot+ PCs to improve overall quality.
🎃The best early Black Friday deals🦃
- 📺LG Curved OLED Monitor (32-inches) | $839.99 at Amazon (Save $660!)
- 🎮Amazon Fire TV Xbox Game Pass bundle | $74.99 at Amazon (Save $62!)
- 💻Alienware m16 R2 (RTX 4060) | $1,399.99 at Dell (Save $300!)
- 🔊2.1ch Soundbar for TVs & Monitors | $44.99 at Walmart (Save $55!)
- 💻HP OMEN Transcend 14 (RTX 4050) | $1,099.99 at HP (Save $500!)
- 🎧Sennheiser Momentum 4 ANC | $274.95 at Amazon (Save $125!)
- 📺LG C4 OLED 4K TV (42-inches) | $999.99 at Best Buy (Save $400!)
