AI
Microsoft quietly ditches "Copilot+ PC" branding despite hardware requirements unchanged
New Surface devices meet the certification bar but Microsoft and PC makers have stopped using the now-controversial label.
Ars Technica
Microsoft's push to establish "Copilot+ PC" as a standard for AI-capable hardware is effectively over. The tech giant has abandoned the branding on its latest Surface lineup, even though the new devices exceed the technical specifications that once defined the category.
The quiet retreat#
The latest Surface Pro and Surface Laptop models announced this week—both arriving October 13—no longer carry the "Copilot+ PC" designation, despite fulfilling all the original certification criteria. Brett Ostrum, Microsoft's corporate VP of Surface, confirmed the shift when speaking with Windows Central, explaining that while the devices "meet all the requirements of our previous bar," the company has moved away from using the label.
Microsoft's previous marketing materials—cached versions show a Copilot+ PCs landing page still active as of May—promoted the category as representing "the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever." That dedicated page now redirects to generic "performance PC" messaging, where Copilot+ branding appears only marginally.
What Copilot+ PCs were supposed to be#
When launched in 2024, the certification was designed to simplify purchasing decisions by guaranteeing devices met minimum hardware thresholds:
- 16GB of RAM
- 256GB of storage
- An integrated neural processing unit (NPU) capable of at least 40 trillion operations per second (TOPS)
The new Surface devices actually exceed these specs, running Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus processors with Hexagon NPUs rated at 80 TOPS.
Why the abandonment matters#
The retreat signals that the branding failed to resonate—or worse, became a liability. Kedar Kondap, Qualcomm's senior VP of compute, acknowledged the shift in a measured way, telling Windows Central that the "purpose" of the standard was always about delivering NPU experiences, not necessarily about enforcing a specific brand label. The hardware category persists, but the marketing wrapper has been discarded, allowing Microsoft and chipmakers to emphasize performance without the baggage of a label that struggled to gain traction among consumers.
