Don't be misled by retailers this Black Friday: Double-check for these AI specs on any Windows 11 Copilot+ PC

HP's OmniBook X Copilot+ PC. (Image credit: Future | HP)

If you're planning to get a new laptop and looking for a good deal during Black Friday, the following Cyber Monday, or another end-of-year sales event, be careful and understand what you're adding to your cart before purchasing because retailers will try to do whatever they can to lure you into making the purchase, even if that means not getting what you think you're purchasing.

If you're a tech-savvy user, you probably know about the current hardware trends and technological innovations, such as artificial intelligence (AI.) However, for most regular people, this isn't true.

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The problems with retailers

I was recently browsing the different laptop deals across the internet for a friend who asked me to help. However, quickly, I started noticing some odd visual queues that can be considered deceiving on product pages for some online retailers.

For example, with the official HP storefront, on some entry-level devices that are on sale for Black Friday, you can see the "Copilot" logo on the page, which clearly doesn't spell out "Copilot+ PC." However, it could make it confusing for users who don't understand technology as much as advanced users.

HP non-Copilot+ PC — (Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

On Office Depot (where in the past I had good luck finding hidden gems), for instance, you will find entry-level devices with the "Cloud Enabled AI" label, which doesn't mean much because any computer running Windows 11 or 10 can access AI services on the web, such as Copilot, ChatGPT, and many other chatbots.

Office Depot non-Copilot+ PCs — (Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

On the same page of deals, you could also find a laptop featuring a low-end Intel Pentium processor with 4GB of RAM as a "Cloud Enabled AI" PC.

Office Depot Cloud Enabled AI PCs — (Image credit: Mauro Huculak)

Of course, they are technically not saying something that isn't true, but it could be confusing for some people who may want to purchase a Copilot+ PC.

Also, I want to be clear that not every retailer is doing this. In fact, some online retailers have a specific section dedicated to "Copilot+ PCs," which explains to users what this category of device is and its benefits.

I'm only recommending paying attention when making a purchase, especially during the holiday sales events.

The tech specs of a Copilot+ PC

Surface Laptop 7 half closed showing Microsoft logo on the lid

Microsoft's Surface Laptop 7 Copilot+ PC. (Image credit: Windows Central)

If you are in the market for a Copilot+ PC, the hardware configuration has to meet some specific requirements.

Copilot+ PC discounts

Black Friday deals at Windows Central — (Image credit: Windows Central)

• Surface Pro 11 & Laptop 7
• Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge
• Dell XPS 13 (9345) OLED
• HP OmniBook X
• More Dell Copilot+ PCs

For example, at the launch of Copilot+PCs, the included processor needed to be one of Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus or Elite chips, which are high-performance mobile processors based on the ARM architecture designed for premium laptops and tablets.

Inside these processors, you will also find the NPU (Neural Processing Unit), which is the chip in charge of processing the artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) tasks. The NPU performance is measured in TOPS (Tera Operations Per Second), and an NPU that is compatible with the AI features coming to Windows 11 has to offer 40 TOPS or more.

AMD and Intel now also offer processors with an NPU built-in, which is the case for the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series and Intel Core Ultra 200V series. However, devices with these chips are still relatively new, and Microsoft is also prioritizing some AI features for the Qualcomm Snapdragon processors.

Another hardware characteristic of a Copilot+ PC is a minimum of 16GB of memory and at least 256GB of Solid-State Drive (SSD), but an NVMe drive is preferable. (If you can upgrade to a 512GB drive on a Windows device, you won't regret it.)

The computer also requires a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) version 2.0, Secure Boot, and you must enable BitLocker encryption on the device to run specific AI features, such as Windows Recall.

Here are some of the known AI PCs that can carry the "Copilot+ PC" label:

In conclusion, you need to stay alert on how devices are presented to you on the product page.

If you're shopping for a computer that will support the new wave of AI features on Windows 11 (such as Windows Recall, Live Captions, Auto Super Resolution, Windows Studio Effects, and more), you have to make sure that the device includes a processor with NPU built-in (Qualcomm Snapdragon X series preferable), 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage.