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Photo: Asus

Following Microsoft’s Windows event, Asus announced its first Copilot Plus PC laptop, the Vivobook S 15 (S5507), driven by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X-series processors. Asus says the Arm-based chip will not only improve a few current Vivobook features but also make new AI-driven programs and workloads fly with 45 TOPS of neural processing power.
The new Vivobook S 15 will have the same OLED display as the previous Intel generation (15.6-inch, 16:9, 2880 x 1620, 120Hz refresh rate, and 600 nits peak HDR brightness), but this specific version will have a thinner chassis and display bezels. The S 15 is configurable with either a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite or 10-core X Plus processor, although the Elite chip will be the base version — the one with a slower integrated GPU and no dual core boost.
Both S 15 configurations can handle up to 32GB onboard memory and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage and have two USB-A ports, two USB 4.0 Type-C ports, one HDMI 2.1, an audio / mic combo jack, and a microSD card reader. There’s also Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
The Vivobook S 15 is Asus’ first device to come with its proprietary StoryCube app, which uses AI to sort, edit, manage, and export RAW photos and video files. Asus also claims the Snapdragon’s NPU power will speed up other AI workloads in applications like Windows Studio Effects and Cocreator.
Asus gears its Vivobooks toward digital artists, graphic designers, and other visual creatives as a budget-friendly alternative to its ProArt series. Some Vivobook Pros have standalone GPUs like ProArt laptops do, but the majority of Vivobook laptops use integrated graphics. The Snapdragon X series is Qualcomm’s rebuttal to Apple’s M-series chips, but we won’t know the true performance of the series until laptops ship. Starting its rollout with a Vivobook could be Asus flexing the new chip’s chops — or it could be the company hedging its bets.
The Asus Vivobook S 15 with a Snapdragon X Elite is available to preorder from select retailers right now but won’t ship until June 18th. The $1,399 version with 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage will be available only from Costco, but the $1,299 16GB / 1TB version will be available from multiple retailers. A Snapdragon X Plus model will arrive later this year, but there’s no word on how much that one will cost.

Photo: Asus

Following Microsoft’s Windows event, Asus announced its first Copilot Plus PC laptop, the Vivobook S 15 (S5507), driven by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X-series processors. Asus says the Arm-based chip will not only improve a few current Vivobook features but also make new AI-driven programs and workloads fly with 45 TOPS of neural processing power.

The new Vivobook S 15 will have the same OLED display as the previous Intel generation (15.6-inch, 16:9, 2880 x 1620, 120Hz refresh rate, and 600 nits peak HDR brightness), but this specific version will have a thinner chassis and display bezels. The S 15 is configurable with either a 12-core Snapdragon X Elite or 10-core X Plus processor, although the Elite chip will be the base version — the one with a slower integrated GPU and no dual core boost.

Both S 15 configurations can handle up to 32GB onboard memory and 1TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage and have two USB-A ports, two USB 4.0 Type-C ports, one HDMI 2.1, an audio / mic combo jack, and a microSD card reader. There’s also Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

The Vivobook S 15 is Asus’ first device to come with its proprietary StoryCube app, which uses AI to sort, edit, manage, and export RAW photos and video files. Asus also claims the Snapdragon’s NPU power will speed up other AI workloads in applications like Windows Studio Effects and Cocreator.

Asus gears its Vivobooks toward digital artists, graphic designers, and other visual creatives as a budget-friendly alternative to its ProArt series. Some Vivobook Pros have standalone GPUs like ProArt laptops do, but the majority of Vivobook laptops use integrated graphics. The Snapdragon X series is Qualcomm’s rebuttal to Apple’s M-series chips, but we won’t know the true performance of the series until laptops ship. Starting its rollout with a Vivobook could be Asus flexing the new chip’s chops — or it could be the company hedging its bets.

The Asus Vivobook S 15 with a Snapdragon X Elite is available to preorder from select retailers right now but won’t ship until June 18th. The $1,399 version with 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage will be available only from Costco, but the $1,299 16GB / 1TB version will be available from multiple retailers. A Snapdragon X Plus model will arrive later this year, but there’s no word on how much that one will cost.

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Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

iOS 17.5 arrived last week with one of the weirder problems we’ve seen — users reported that deleted photos on their iPhones and iPads were suddenly reappearing. Apple has refused requests to comment on the issue publicly, but on Monday afternoon it released iOS and iPadOS 17.5.1 updates to fix the problem.
According to the notes, “This update provides important bug fixes and addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.”

Screenshot: iPadOS

The supposedly-deleted photos popping to the top of user’s “recent” photos included nude pictures in some cases, and at least one person reported they reappeared on an iPad that had been erased and sold to someone else.
Users should obviously install the update ASAP, however it’s unclear how many people may be at risk of experiencing this, which images are likely to reappear, or what you can do about a device that’s no longer in your control. The Verge has reached out to Apple for a comment on the issue and we will update this article if we receive a response.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

iOS 17.5 arrived last week with one of the weirder problems we’ve seen — users reported that deleted photos on their iPhones and iPads were suddenly reappearing. Apple has refused requests to comment on the issue publicly, but on Monday afternoon it released iOS and iPadOS 17.5.1 updates to fix the problem.

According to the notes, “This update provides important bug fixes and addresses a rare issue where photos that experienced database corruption could reappear in the Photos library even if they were deleted.”

Screenshot: iPadOS

The supposedly-deleted photos popping to the top of user’s “recent” photos included nude pictures in some cases, and at least one person reported they reappeared on an iPad that had been erased and sold to someone else.

Users should obviously install the update ASAP, however it’s unclear how many people may be at risk of experiencing this, which images are likely to reappear, or what you can do about a device that’s no longer in your control. The Verge has reached out to Apple for a comment on the issue and we will update this article if we receive a response.

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Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images

Google is pouncing on Microsoft’s weathered enterprise security reputation by pitching its services to government institutions. Pointing to a recent report from the US Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) that found that Microsoft’s security woes are the result of the company “deprioritizing” enterprise security, Google says it can help.
The company’s pitch isn’t quite as direct as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella saying he made Google dance, but it’s spicy all the same. Repeatedly referring to Microsoft as “the vendor” throughout its blog post on Monday, Google says the CSRB “showed that lack of a strong commitment to security creates preventable errors and serious breaches.” Platforms, it added, “have a responsibility” to hold to strong security practices. And of course, who is more responsible than Google?

The company recommends that governments use “systems and products that are secure-by-design” (using new principles it recently committed to) and that public sector entities regularly subject their tech products and services to security recertification. More pointedly, Google says governments should avoid “using the same vendor for operating systems, email, office software, and security tooling.” Microsoft, of course, provides all of that and more to its massive base of enterprise customers.
Microsoft is still dealing with an ongoing breach from Midnight Blizzard, a Russian hacker group that has gained access to its executive communications and stolen source code from it. That and other breaches are cited by the CSRB’s April report as evidence the company had “deprioritized” enterprise security.
Microsoft is concerned and trying to win back trust. It isn’t clear what it will do to that end, but Nadella has urged employees to “do security” whenever they’re faced with a choice between that or other priorities, which seems like a good start.

Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo from Getty Images

Google is pouncing on Microsoft’s weathered enterprise security reputation by pitching its services to government institutions. Pointing to a recent report from the US Cyber Safety Review Board (CSRB) that found that Microsoft’s security woes are the result of the company “deprioritizing” enterprise security, Google says it can help.

The company’s pitch isn’t quite as direct as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella saying he made Google dance, but it’s spicy all the same. Repeatedly referring to Microsoft as “the vendor” throughout its blog post on Monday, Google says the CSRB “showed that lack of a strong commitment to security creates preventable errors and serious breaches.” Platforms, it added, “have a responsibility” to hold to strong security practices. And of course, who is more responsible than Google?

The company recommends that governments use “systems and products that are secure-by-design” (using new principles it recently committed to) and that public sector entities regularly subject their tech products and services to security recertification. More pointedly, Google says governments should avoid “using the same vendor for operating systems, email, office software, and security tooling.” Microsoft, of course, provides all of that and more to its massive base of enterprise customers.

Microsoft is still dealing with an ongoing breach from Midnight Blizzard, a Russian hacker group that has gained access to its executive communications and stolen source code from it. That and other breaches are cited by the CSRB’s April report as evidence the company had “deprioritized” enterprise security.

Microsoft is concerned and trying to win back trust. It isn’t clear what it will do to that end, but Nadella has urged employees to “do security” whenever they’re faced with a choice between that or other priorities, which seems like a good start.

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The Dell XPS 13 (9345). | Image: Dell

On Monday, Dell announced that it’s releasing five Qualcomm-configured laptops: the XPS 13 (9345), Inspiron 14, Inspiron 14 Plus, Latitude 7455, and Latitude 5455. That’s more than any other manufacturer has announced so far.
The new XPS 13 is powered by a midrange 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor with Dual Core Boost. (There will also be a 10-core X Plus version but only available in China.) The company says it will support up to 64GB of memory, up to 2TB of PCIe SSD storage (with a 4TB option post-launch), and three 13.4-inch display options: a 500-nit 1920 x 1200 non-touch IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate; a 500-nit 2560 x 1600 IPS touch display with HDR and a 120Hz refresh rate; and a 400-nit, 60Hz 2880 x 1800 OLED touch display with HDR.
All three configurations have a 1080p webcam that supports Windows Hello, and USB4 Type-C with DisplayPort 2.1 and Power Delivery. The OLED version will be slightly thinner than the IPS versions, at 0.58 inches compared to 0.60 inches, but all three will weigh the same 2.6 pounds.

Image: Dell
The Dell Latitude 7455.

The Dell Latitude 7455 will have the same Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chip options, but both configurations will be available for purchase in the US. This Dell laptop will support up to 32GB of memory, up to 1TB of M.2 2230 SSD storage, and a bunch of ports: two USB4 Type-C, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, microSD, audio jack, Windows Hello webcam, plus an optional fingerprint reader and optional external uSIM card tray for 5G connectivity.
There will be one display option — a 14-inch 2650 x 1600 IPS touch display — and both Latitude configurations will weigh 3.17 pounds and be 0.67 inches thick.
Lastly, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7441) will only come with a 10-core Snapdragon X Plus processor, 16GB of memory, 512GB / 1TB M.2 SSD storage options, and one display option: a 14-inch 2560 x 1600 IPS non-touch display with a 1080p Windows Hello webcam. Ports include two USB4 Type-C, one USB-A 3.2, one microSD card reader, and a headset jack. It will weigh around 3.17 pounds, depending on the configuration, and will be 0.58 inches thick.

Image: Dell
The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7441).

All five laptops (and more details for the ones not covered here) will release later this year, but the XPS 13 and Inspiron 14 Plus are available to preorder now. The XPS 13 starts at $1,299, while the Inspiron 14 Plus starts at $1,099.

The Dell XPS 13 (9345). | Image: Dell

On Monday, Dell announced that it’s releasing five Qualcomm-configured laptops: the XPS 13 (9345), Inspiron 14, Inspiron 14 Plus, Latitude 7455, and Latitude 5455. That’s more than any other manufacturer has announced so far.

The new XPS 13 is powered by a midrange 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor with Dual Core Boost. (There will also be a 10-core X Plus version but only available in China.) The company says it will support up to 64GB of memory, up to 2TB of PCIe SSD storage (with a 4TB option post-launch), and three 13.4-inch display options: a 500-nit 1920 x 1200 non-touch IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate; a 500-nit 2560 x 1600 IPS touch display with HDR and a 120Hz refresh rate; and a 400-nit, 60Hz 2880 x 1800 OLED touch display with HDR.

All three configurations have a 1080p webcam that supports Windows Hello, and USB4 Type-C with DisplayPort 2.1 and Power Delivery. The OLED version will be slightly thinner than the IPS versions, at 0.58 inches compared to 0.60 inches, but all three will weigh the same 2.6 pounds.

Image: Dell
The Dell Latitude 7455.

The Dell Latitude 7455 will have the same Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus chip options, but both configurations will be available for purchase in the US. This Dell laptop will support up to 32GB of memory, up to 1TB of M.2 2230 SSD storage, and a bunch of ports: two USB4 Type-C, one USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, microSD, audio jack, Windows Hello webcam, plus an optional fingerprint reader and optional external uSIM card tray for 5G connectivity.

There will be one display option — a 14-inch 2650 x 1600 IPS touch display — and both Latitude configurations will weigh 3.17 pounds and be 0.67 inches thick.

Lastly, the Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7441) will only come with a 10-core Snapdragon X Plus processor, 16GB of memory, 512GB / 1TB M.2 SSD storage options, and one display option: a 14-inch 2560 x 1600 IPS non-touch display with a 1080p Windows Hello webcam. Ports include two USB4 Type-C, one USB-A 3.2, one microSD card reader, and a headset jack. It will weigh around 3.17 pounds, depending on the configuration, and will be 0.58 inches thick.

Image: Dell
The Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7441).

All five laptops (and more details for the ones not covered here) will release later this year, but the XPS 13 and Inspiron 14 Plus are available to preorder now. The XPS 13 starts at $1,299, while the Inspiron 14 Plus starts at $1,099.

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The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9. | Image: Lenovo

Lenovo announced on Monday that it’s adding two Qualcomm-powered laptops to its portfolio: one new Yoga Slim and one new ThinkPad.
The Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9 is the creativity-focused laptop of the two. It will be configured with a Snapdragon X Elite processor, up to 32GB of memory, up to 1TB of M.2 SSD storage, three USB-C ports with Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4 support, and a 14.5-inch OLED touch display. The whole laptop will weigh just 2.8 pounds and be as thin as 0.51 inches, and it has a 1080p IR webcam that supports Windows Hello. Lenovo claims the Yoga Slim’s battery life will last multiple days, which, if true, could rival the MacBook Pro.
The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is, of course, business-focused. It will have the same Snapdragon chip, storage capacity, and webcam but will support up to 64GB of memory and one of three 14-inch display options: an IPS with up to 400 nits of brightness; an IPS touch display; or an OLED that covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, also with 400 nits of brightness.
It will also have a fingerprint reader, two USB-A and two USB4 Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an audio jack. It’ll weigh almost the same as the Yoga Slim (2.71 pounds) and also have multiday battery life, but it will be thicker at 0.67 inches.

Image: Lenovo
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6.

This isn’t the first time Lenovo has released a Windows laptop with a Qualcomm chip. In 2019, there was the Yoga 5G (called the Flex 5G in the US), which not only had a Snapdragon 8cx processor but also offered 5G connectivity. In 2022, Lenovo released the ThinkPad X13s with a Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, but it didn’t have a lot of software compatibility at the time. (Windows didn’t have a great reputation for emulating x86 programs on Arm, either.) It also ran warm and had few ports, an inflated price tag, and unimpressive performance compared to Apple, Intel, and AMD laptops.
Lenovo expects the Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9 to start at $1,199 and the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 to start at $1,699. Both will be available in June.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9. | Image: Lenovo

Lenovo announced on Monday that it’s adding two Qualcomm-powered laptops to its portfolio: one new Yoga Slim and one new ThinkPad.

The Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9 is the creativity-focused laptop of the two. It will be configured with a Snapdragon X Elite processor, up to 32GB of memory, up to 1TB of M.2 SSD storage, three USB-C ports with Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4 support, and a 14.5-inch OLED touch display. The whole laptop will weigh just 2.8 pounds and be as thin as 0.51 inches, and it has a 1080p IR webcam that supports Windows Hello. Lenovo claims the Yoga Slim’s battery life will last multiple days, which, if true, could rival the MacBook Pro.

The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is, of course, business-focused. It will have the same Snapdragon chip, storage capacity, and webcam but will support up to 64GB of memory and one of three 14-inch display options: an IPS with up to 400 nits of brightness; an IPS touch display; or an OLED that covers 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, also with 400 nits of brightness.

It will also have a fingerprint reader, two USB-A and two USB4 Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, and an audio jack. It’ll weigh almost the same as the Yoga Slim (2.71 pounds) and also have multiday battery life, but it will be thicker at 0.67 inches.

Image: Lenovo
The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6.

This isn’t the first time Lenovo has released a Windows laptop with a Qualcomm chip. In 2019, there was the Yoga 5G (called the Flex 5G in the US), which not only had a Snapdragon 8cx processor but also offered 5G connectivity. In 2022, Lenovo released the ThinkPad X13s with a Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, but it didn’t have a lot of software compatibility at the time. (Windows didn’t have a great reputation for emulating x86 programs on Arm, either.) It also ran warm and had few ports, an inflated price tag, and unimpressive performance compared to Apple, Intel, and AMD laptops.

Lenovo expects the Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9 to start at $1,199 and the ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 to start at $1,699. Both will be available in June.

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The OmniBook is on the left and the EliteBook is on the right. | Image: HP

Buying a laptop from a major maker like HP can be infuriating — mainly because there are too many options. HP and other laptop makers do this to give us all “choice,” but if you are the kind of person who uses “RAM” and “storage” interchangeably, those choices can be confounding — which might be one reason HP’s using today’s big AI and Windows on Arm moment to also clean up its whole lineup.
Gone are the Envys and Pavilions and Dragonflies, and in their places are the consumer-focused OmniBook and the corporate-oriented EliteBook and ProBook. In both cases, the idea is to simplify things for people who just want to buy a laptop.
Yet, you’ll still need a legend to fully decipher things. I’ll link the HP-provided charts below, but as an example, HP’s new “AI PCs” are called the HP OmniBook X AI and the HP EliteBook Ultra AI. Each of those is still a mouthful of a name. But boy, they’re some nice-looking laptops, too. The white OmniBook X AI is particularly eye-catching, and I found myself drawn to it the most when I got a quick hands-on with the laptops in New York City last week.

Image: HP
Yes, you need a chart to sort out the new lineup, but this still feels simpler than the way HP handled things previously.

I was there to get a rundown on the new exercise in branding and talk about what exactly HP means when it says AI PC. (I also got a look at the new laptops, but they weren’t powered on, and I didn’t take photos.) That’s a phrase that you’re going to hear bandied about a lot as Qualcomm launches its new Snapdragon X Elite processors and Microsoft leans further into the AI fad.
For HP, the biggest distinction between an AI laptop and a normal one is the neural processing unit, or NPU. It needs to be capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second. The new OmniBook X AI and EliteBook Ultra AI laptops both include the Snapdragon X Elite 12-core CPUs, which Qualcomm claims are capable of 45 TOPS — hence why they get the “AI” name.
When I asked Pierre-Antoine Robineau and Cory McElroy — VPs of HP’s consumer and commercial portfolios, respectively — what that would actually mean for normal people, they were quick to note that the AI revolution, as it were, is in its early days and that a big part of the appeal of these new laptops and later AI PCs is futureproofing. But they also noted it would be useful for those who rely on AI workflows today and would be able to help with things like translation and accessibility.

Many of HP’s AI features are fairly mundane. You’ll be able to access a prompt window for ChatGPT-3.5 on HP’s AI laptops using its built-in AI Companion software. That software also includes AI-powered performance optimization for the computer, similar to what Nvidia has been doing for years with DLSS. There’s also a new app called Poly Camera Pro that leans on what HP’s learned from its Poly videoconferencing brand to give you a bunch of AI-powered camera controls like blurred backgrounds, filters, and auto-framing. Crucially, Poly Camera Pro should work with any webcam, not just the built-in one, and should work with most major videoconferencing apps, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.
Beyond the new software features and Snapdragon processors, the OmniBook X AI and EliteBook Ultra AI are what you’d expect from HP’s high-end laptops. Both are thin (just 0.55 inches at their thinnest and 0.57 inches at their thickest) and pleasantly light (2.97 pounds). Both feature built-in webcam covers that are so nicely integrated that you wonder why they’re not standard on every laptop from every laptop maker. They both start at 16GB of RAM and have 14-inch 2240 x 1400 touch displays — though the OmniBook maxes out at 32GB of RAM, while the EliteBook tops out at 16GB.
McElroy claimed they’re about 17 percent faster than a similarly specced MacBook Pro with an M3 processor. HP chose to compare its new laptops to the MacBook Pro instead of the Air because both the MacBook Pro and HP’s laptops use small fans to keep their Arm processors cool, while the Air uses passive cooling.
As for battery life, those claims were similarly impressive. They said they’re getting about 22 hours of battery life when just playing back Netflix and a whopping 20 days of standby battery life.
The OmniBook X AI will start at $1,199.99 with 1TB of storage and begin shipping on June 18th. The EliteBook Ultra AI will start at $1,699.99 and begin shipping the same day.
There are still a lot of unanswered questions for HP, Qualcomm, and Microsoft when it comes to these new laptops. Are they really as fast as what Apple’s doing? Will “AI PC” actually matter to people? We’ll get more clarity closer to the launch of these laptops when we review them.

The OmniBook is on the left and the EliteBook is on the right. | Image: HP

Buying a laptop from a major maker like HP can be infuriating — mainly because there are too many options. HP and other laptop makers do this to give us all “choice,” but if you are the kind of person who uses “RAM” and “storage” interchangeably, those choices can be confounding — which might be one reason HP’s using today’s big AI and Windows on Arm moment to also clean up its whole lineup.

Gone are the Envys and Pavilions and Dragonflies, and in their places are the consumer-focused OmniBook and the corporate-oriented EliteBook and ProBook. In both cases, the idea is to simplify things for people who just want to buy a laptop.

Yet, you’ll still need a legend to fully decipher things. I’ll link the HP-provided charts below, but as an example, HP’s new “AI PCs” are called the HP OmniBook X AI and the HP EliteBook Ultra AI. Each of those is still a mouthful of a name. But boy, they’re some nice-looking laptops, too. The white OmniBook X AI is particularly eye-catching, and I found myself drawn to it the most when I got a quick hands-on with the laptops in New York City last week.

Image: HP
Yes, you need a chart to sort out the new lineup, but this still feels simpler than the way HP handled things previously.

I was there to get a rundown on the new exercise in branding and talk about what exactly HP means when it says AI PC. (I also got a look at the new laptops, but they weren’t powered on, and I didn’t take photos.) That’s a phrase that you’re going to hear bandied about a lot as Qualcomm launches its new Snapdragon X Elite processors and Microsoft leans further into the AI fad.

For HP, the biggest distinction between an AI laptop and a normal one is the neural processing unit, or NPU. It needs to be capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second. The new OmniBook X AI and EliteBook Ultra AI laptops both include the Snapdragon X Elite 12-core CPUs, which Qualcomm claims are capable of 45 TOPS — hence why they get the “AI” name.

When I asked Pierre-Antoine Robineau and Cory McElroy — VPs of HP’s consumer and commercial portfolios, respectively — what that would actually mean for normal people, they were quick to note that the AI revolution, as it were, is in its early days and that a big part of the appeal of these new laptops and later AI PCs is futureproofing. But they also noted it would be useful for those who rely on AI workflows today and would be able to help with things like translation and accessibility.

Many of HP’s AI features are fairly mundane. You’ll be able to access a prompt window for ChatGPT-3.5 on HP’s AI laptops using its built-in AI Companion software. That software also includes AI-powered performance optimization for the computer, similar to what Nvidia has been doing for years with DLSS. There’s also a new app called Poly Camera Pro that leans on what HP’s learned from its Poly videoconferencing brand to give you a bunch of AI-powered camera controls like blurred backgrounds, filters, and auto-framing. Crucially, Poly Camera Pro should work with any webcam, not just the built-in one, and should work with most major videoconferencing apps, including Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.

Beyond the new software features and Snapdragon processors, the OmniBook X AI and EliteBook Ultra AI are what you’d expect from HP’s high-end laptops. Both are thin (just 0.55 inches at their thinnest and 0.57 inches at their thickest) and pleasantly light (2.97 pounds). Both feature built-in webcam covers that are so nicely integrated that you wonder why they’re not standard on every laptop from every laptop maker. They both start at 16GB of RAM and have 14-inch 2240 x 1400 touch displays — though the OmniBook maxes out at 32GB of RAM, while the EliteBook tops out at 16GB.

McElroy claimed they’re about 17 percent faster than a similarly specced MacBook Pro with an M3 processor. HP chose to compare its new laptops to the MacBook Pro instead of the Air because both the MacBook Pro and HP’s laptops use small fans to keep their Arm processors cool, while the Air uses passive cooling.

As for battery life, those claims were similarly impressive. They said they’re getting about 22 hours of battery life when just playing back Netflix and a whopping 20 days of standby battery life.

The OmniBook X AI will start at $1,199.99 with 1TB of storage and begin shipping on June 18th. The EliteBook Ultra AI will start at $1,699.99 and begin shipping the same day.

There are still a lot of unanswered questions for HP, Qualcomm, and Microsoft when it comes to these new laptops. Are they really as fast as what Apple’s doing? Will “AI PC” actually matter to people? We’ll get more clarity closer to the launch of these laptops when we review them.

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Acer’s Swift 14 AI laptop arrives this summer. | Image: Acer

On Monday, Acer announced the pending arrival of its first Copilot Plus PC: the Swift 14 AI, which is the Qualcomm Snapdragon version of one of its popular laptops. It will come in two configurations, and both will support a slate of new AI features in Windows 11, like Recall, Cocreator, and Live Captions.
One configuration comes with the base 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor (the one without dual boost) and the other with the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus. Both have the same 45 TOPS neural processing unit, and both laptop models can be configured with up to 32GB of memory and 1TB of M.2 SSD storage.
Also, both will have a 14.5-inch (2560 x 1600), 120Hz IPS display, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 4, plenty of ports (two USB-C, two USB-A, and one HDMI), and a 1440p IR webcam.
The Swift 14 AI is the most significant change to Acer’s Swift lineup since the company renamed the Swift 5 to the Swift 14 in 2023. (It also renamed the Swift 3 to the Swift Go that same year.) It’s why there are currently so many Swift 14s in Acer’s lineup, including other AI PCs: the Swift X 14; Swift Go 14; and Swift Go 14 AMD. The only non-AI laptop is the vanilla Swift 14 because its CPU doesn’t have an NPU like the others.
The Acer Swift 14 AI comes to North America in July, starting at $1,099. But it’s arriving in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in June, starting at €1,499.

Acer’s Swift 14 AI laptop arrives this summer. | Image: Acer

On Monday, Acer announced the pending arrival of its first Copilot Plus PC: the Swift 14 AI, which is the Qualcomm Snapdragon version of one of its popular laptops. It will come in two configurations, and both will support a slate of new AI features in Windows 11, like Recall, Cocreator, and Live Captions.

One configuration comes with the base 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor (the one without dual boost) and the other with the 10-core Snapdragon X Plus. Both have the same 45 TOPS neural processing unit, and both laptop models can be configured with up to 32GB of memory and 1TB of M.2 SSD storage.

Also, both will have a 14.5-inch (2560 x 1600), 120Hz IPS display, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 4, plenty of ports (two USB-C, two USB-A, and one HDMI), and a 1440p IR webcam.

The Swift 14 AI is the most significant change to Acer’s Swift lineup since the company renamed the Swift 5 to the Swift 14 in 2023. (It also renamed the Swift 3 to the Swift Go that same year.) It’s why there are currently so many Swift 14s in Acer’s lineup, including other AI PCs: the Swift X 14; Swift Go 14; and Swift Go 14 AMD. The only non-AI laptop is the vanilla Swift 14 because its CPU doesn’t have an NPU like the others.

The Acer Swift 14 AI comes to North America in July, starting at $1,099. But it’s arriving in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa in June, starting at €1,499.

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Illustration: The Verge

Google’s data centers are expanding to support its AI ambitions, and a new project in Finland shows one way the company is trying to grapple with the environmental impact of that growth.
Google will drop €1 billion (roughly $1.1 billion) to expand its data center in Finland to “further unlock the potential of AI,” the company said in an emailed press release today. It includes plans to reuse heat from the data center to warm nearby homes, schools, and public buildings.
Its scramble to inject AI into Search and other products and services could derail the company’s climate goals
Already energy-hungry data centers are now even more energy intensive when used for AI. Reusing the server heat is one way to mitigate the effects that AI has on the power grid and environment. After all, if Google isn’t careful, its scramble to inject AI into Search and other products could derail the company’s climate goals and place added pressure on energy systems where it operates.
The announced expansion of its Finland data center comes on the heels of the Google I/O event last week that showcased Google’s search engine revamped with generative AI and a faster version of its Gemini model. AI was uttered no less than 121 times at the event, and infused into everything from vacation planning and scam detection tools to virtual assistants.
Training and running AI requires new and more powerful data centers, which risks stressing out power grids with soaring electricity demand. There’s also growing concern about fossil fuel power plants meeting that demand at a time when they need to be replaced with renewable energy to keep climate change from becoming a bigger disaster.
To literally take some of the heat off the expansion of its Finland data center, Google struck up a partnership with the municipality of Hamina and the city-owned energy provider Haminan Energia. By 2025, they plan to recover heat from the data center’s servers and send it to homes and public buildings in the area.

This is the first project of its kind for Google, which says it’s providing the heat free of cost. Google’s been reusing that heat for its own offices on site for nearly a decade. As the data center expands and uses more energy, Google plans to share that heat to meet 80 percent of annual heating demand for the local district. And since Google purchases carbon pollution-free energy to match 97 percent of the data center’s energy consumption, the heat it provides to Haminan Energia will also be considered a mostly clean source of energy.
To be sure, this is just one local step toward tackling a huge global challenge. Google hasn’t released an updated sustainability report since July 2023, before it was neck-deep in its Gemini era. But some of its competitors in the AI arena are already seeing their greenhouse gas emissions grow as they expand their data centers. Microsoft for one, has seen its emissions rise 30 percent since making a big climate pledge in 2020.
Google has pledged to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions, which involves capturing or offsetting as much planet-heating CO2 as it releases, by 2030. That gets a lot harder to do if its energy consumption is going through the roof thanks to AI.

Illustration: The Verge

Google’s data centers are expanding to support its AI ambitions, and a new project in Finland shows one way the company is trying to grapple with the environmental impact of that growth.

Google will drop €1 billion (roughly $1.1 billion) to expand its data center in Finland to “further unlock the potential of AI,” the company said in an emailed press release today. It includes plans to reuse heat from the data center to warm nearby homes, schools, and public buildings.

Already energy-hungry data centers are now even more energy intensive when used for AI. Reusing the server heat is one way to mitigate the effects that AI has on the power grid and environment. After all, if Google isn’t careful, its scramble to inject AI into Search and other products could derail the company’s climate goals and place added pressure on energy systems where it operates.

The announced expansion of its Finland data center comes on the heels of the Google I/O event last week that showcased Google’s search engine revamped with generative AI and a faster version of its Gemini model. AI was uttered no less than 121 times at the event, and infused into everything from vacation planning and scam detection tools to virtual assistants.

Training and running AI requires new and more powerful data centers, which risks stressing out power grids with soaring electricity demand. There’s also growing concern about fossil fuel power plants meeting that demand at a time when they need to be replaced with renewable energy to keep climate change from becoming a bigger disaster.

To literally take some of the heat off the expansion of its Finland data center, Google struck up a partnership with the municipality of Hamina and the city-owned energy provider Haminan Energia. By 2025, they plan to recover heat from the data center’s servers and send it to homes and public buildings in the area.

This is the first project of its kind for Google, which says it’s providing the heat free of cost. Google’s been reusing that heat for its own offices on site for nearly a decade. As the data center expands and uses more energy, Google plans to share that heat to meet 80 percent of annual heating demand for the local district. And since Google purchases carbon pollution-free energy to match 97 percent of the data center’s energy consumption, the heat it provides to Haminan Energia will also be considered a mostly clean source of energy.

To be sure, this is just one local step toward tackling a huge global challenge. Google hasn’t released an updated sustainability report since July 2023, before it was neck-deep in its Gemini era. But some of its competitors in the AI arena are already seeing their greenhouse gas emissions grow as they expand their data centers. Microsoft for one, has seen its emissions rise 30 percent since making a big climate pledge in 2020.

Google has pledged to reach net zero carbon dioxide emissions, which involves capturing or offsetting as much planet-heating CO2 as it releases, by 2030. That gets a lot harder to do if its energy consumption is going through the roof thanks to AI.

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Image: Allison Johnson

Just days after Apple’s OLED iPad Pro went on sale, Microsoft is bringing the same core display technology to its new Surface Pro. (Also, it’s now just called the Surface Pro; the company has seemingly done away with its numbering.) For the first time, Microsoft’s tablet will be capable of producing perfect blacks along with all the other benefits to contrast ratio, response time, and more that come with the move to OLED. The new panel also supports HDR output, the company said at its event.
The LCDs on previous Surface Pros (and on the business edition Surface Pro 10) were already impressive in terms of color accuracy and sharpness, but Microsoft always stuck to traditional backlighting, which limited just how deep the blacks could go. Now, with per-pixel control, the Surface Pro 10 can make movies and photos appear much more punchy and vivid.
Microsoft didn’t mention any peak brightness figures for the OLED Surface Pro. In the case of the iPad Pro, Apple is using a unique tandem OLED structure that allows for peak SDR brightness of 1,000 nits and HDR brightness that tops out at 1,600 nits.
Developing…

Image: Allison Johnson

Just days after Apple’s OLED iPad Pro went on sale, Microsoft is bringing the same core display technology to its new Surface Pro. (Also, it’s now just called the Surface Pro; the company has seemingly done away with its numbering.) For the first time, Microsoft’s tablet will be capable of producing perfect blacks along with all the other benefits to contrast ratio, response time, and more that come with the move to OLED. The new panel also supports HDR output, the company said at its event.

The LCDs on previous Surface Pros (and on the business edition Surface Pro 10) were already impressive in terms of color accuracy and sharpness, but Microsoft always stuck to traditional backlighting, which limited just how deep the blacks could go. Now, with per-pixel control, the Surface Pro 10 can make movies and photos appear much more punchy and vivid.

Microsoft didn’t mention any peak brightness figures for the OLED Surface Pro. In the case of the iPad Pro, Apple is using a unique tandem OLED structure that allows for peak SDR brightness of 1,000 nits and HDR brightness that tops out at 1,600 nits.

Developing…

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The new Surface Pro. It comes in blue! | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

Microsoft just announced the new Surface Pro, the latest in its lineup of tablet / laptop hybrid devices and the first in a new generation of what Microsoft is calling Copilot Plus PCs. The numbers are gone from the model numbers, which seems to signify a full reboot of the lineup. “Compared to previous Surface generations, it isn’t even close,” said Brett Ostrum, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Surface, at a launch event.
The consumer-focused Surface Pro has a lot in common with the business device Microsoft launched in March. That device had a 13-inch display, up to 64GB of RAM, the newly ubiquitous Copilot key, an improved keyboard attachment, and a 5G-capable option. It also has a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the chip that Microsoft relies on for a lot of its on-device AI features.
This new Pro is up to 90 percent faster than the previous model, Microsoft said, and has optional 5G. There’s also a new, optional OLED screen, “the best Surface camera ever,” Wi-Fi 7 support, and a new keyboard attachment called the Surface Pro Flex. It comes in four colors, including a very nice-looking new shade of blue.
The new Flex keyboard works both attached and detached to the Pro, and should be sturdier than the previous model. Microsoft says there’s also a new option with bold keys, and a 14 percent larger touchpad, in an effort to make the devices more accessible to more users.
The Surface Pro’s hardware has been solid for a while now — the full kit with keyboard and stylus can be expensive, and power users have been asking for more ports, but the Surface Pro 9’s design and build quality didn’t get much wrong. The problem, as ever, was the chip. You could buy a Pro 9 with a Qualcomm processor inside, which came with some extra camera features, 5G connectivity, and a series of pretty brutal performance tradeoffs. Windows on Arm has steadily improved over the years, but it was still a laggy, glitchy, problematic experience even in 2022. The Intel model offered significantly worse battery life but significantly better and more reliable performance.
The new Pro, in theory, is the best of all worlds. With the Snapdragon X processor lineup, Qualcomm has been promising that its chip is finally fast enough to rival Apple, AMD, and Intel. Microsoft appears to be confident that this is the year Windows on Arm works out for real. The company hasn’t said yet onstage which chip the new Pro is running, but it seems overwhelmingly likely to be the X.
All that performance exists in the service of AI, of course. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella kicked off Monday’s event by talking about building computers that “not only understand us but anticipate what we want” and said that the next phase of Windows and computing starts with Copilot. The event also included a new AI feature called Recall, more Copilot integrations in File Explorer, notifications, and elsewhere around Windows. With better devices, Nadella said, you can solve problems with latency and privacy, and give AI systems better power. He called Copilot Plus PCs “the fastest, most AI-ready PCs ever built.”

The new Surface Pro. It comes in blue! | Photo: Allison Johnson / The Verge

Microsoft just announced the new Surface Pro, the latest in its lineup of tablet / laptop hybrid devices and the first in a new generation of what Microsoft is calling Copilot Plus PCs. The numbers are gone from the model numbers, which seems to signify a full reboot of the lineup. “Compared to previous Surface generations, it isn’t even close,” said Brett Ostrum, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Surface, at a launch event.

The consumer-focused Surface Pro has a lot in common with the business device Microsoft launched in March. That device had a 13-inch display, up to 64GB of RAM, the newly ubiquitous Copilot key, an improved keyboard attachment, and a 5G-capable option. It also has a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), the chip that Microsoft relies on for a lot of its on-device AI features.

This new Pro is up to 90 percent faster than the previous model, Microsoft said, and has optional 5G. There’s also a new, optional OLED screen, “the best Surface camera ever,” Wi-Fi 7 support, and a new keyboard attachment called the Surface Pro Flex. It comes in four colors, including a very nice-looking new shade of blue.

The new Flex keyboard works both attached and detached to the Pro, and should be sturdier than the previous model. Microsoft says there’s also a new option with bold keys, and a 14 percent larger touchpad, in an effort to make the devices more accessible to more users.

The Surface Pro’s hardware has been solid for a while now — the full kit with keyboard and stylus can be expensive, and power users have been asking for more ports, but the Surface Pro 9’s design and build quality didn’t get much wrong. The problem, as ever, was the chip. You could buy a Pro 9 with a Qualcomm processor inside, which came with some extra camera features, 5G connectivity, and a series of pretty brutal performance tradeoffs. Windows on Arm has steadily improved over the years, but it was still a laggy, glitchy, problematic experience even in 2022. The Intel model offered significantly worse battery life but significantly better and more reliable performance.

The new Pro, in theory, is the best of all worlds. With the Snapdragon X processor lineup, Qualcomm has been promising that its chip is finally fast enough to rival Apple, AMD, and Intel. Microsoft appears to be confident that this is the year Windows on Arm works out for real. The company hasn’t said yet onstage which chip the new Pro is running, but it seems overwhelmingly likely to be the X.

All that performance exists in the service of AI, of course. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella kicked off Monday’s event by talking about building computers that “not only understand us but anticipate what we want” and said that the next phase of Windows and computing starts with Copilot. The event also included a new AI feature called Recall, more Copilot integrations in File Explorer, notifications, and elsewhere around Windows. With better devices, Nadella said, you can solve problems with latency and privacy, and give AI systems better power. He called Copilot Plus PCs “the fastest, most AI-ready PCs ever built.”

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