Microsoft drops Copilot+ PC branding for new Surface models

Microsoft spent the better part of two years trying to make “Copilot+ PC” a thing. The branding, launched in mid-2024, was supposed to be the consumer’s shortcut for identifying which Windows machines could handle AI workloads locally. That experiment is now over. The new Surface Pro 12-inch (2nd Edition) and Surface Laptop 13-inch (2nd Edition), announced at the Snapdragon Summit on September 23-25, carry no Copilot+ PC branding whatsoever. From premium label to quiet burial Brett Ostrum, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for Surface, confirmed the branding’s removal in interviews published September 25. Microsoft’s dedicated Copilot+ PC landing page now redirects to a more generic page highlighting “performance PCs.” The original Copilot+ PC program set a minimum threshold of 40 TOPS (trillion operations per second) for a device’s neural processing unit. That was the hardware floor Microsoft deemed necessary for running AI-accelerated tasks like image generation, live captions, and the controversial Recall feature directly on a laptop. Both new Surface models feature Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Plus processor with an 80 TOPS NPU, double the original minimum requirement. The repla...