Microsoft launches lower-priced AI laptops with Qualcomm chips

By Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Microsoft on Tuesday said it will release a new laptop and tablet with chips from Qualcomm at lower prices than before, aiming to get new AI features to a broader set of customers.

The newest Surface 13-inch laptop and Surface Pro 12-inch tablet will go on sale on May 20, with the laptop starting at $899 and the tablet starting at $799.

Both will feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus chips, and they will be priced slightly between competing products from Apple such as its MacBook Air, which starts at $999 and its iPads, where Air Pro models start at $649 and $999.

But Microsoft's new offerings will be its lowest-priced yet with support for what it calls "Copilot+" features that it introduced last year. That bundle of features includes things like the ability to ask how to change the computer's settings as a natural language question rather than sifting through settings menus or the ability to ask for an AI-generated first draft of a word document.

Microsoft has set performance computing chip requirements for the new Copilot+ label, which has meant that most of those AI features are only available on machines that cost $1,000 or more.

Pavan Davuluri, corporate vice president of Windows and Devices at Microsoft, said the new Surface devices are aimed at getting those features to a broader set of users, especially students or young professionals at the start of their careers.

"We think these new Surface Pro and laptops are for a set of customers for whom affordability is going to be important," Davuluri told reporters during a press briefing on April 28.

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San FranciscoEditing by Shri Navaratnam)

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