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The new AI-powered Windows laptops are great for students: Our hands-on review

By Jason R. Rich

Edited By Leslie Gornstein

Updated on: August 8, 2024 / 3:53 PM EDT / Essentials

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Are the new AI-powered Windows Copilot+ laptops worth it? Our hands-on opinion — Asus

Are you headed back to school and want the power of AI to make your school life easier? A handful of new laptops just dropped from brands like Asus, Dell and Lenovo, and they all have one new cool thing in common: An AI-powered suite of tools crafted by Microsoft.

Thanks to Microsoft's latest AI integration, new Copilot+ laptops make almost any everyday task faster and smarter -- whether it comes to tracking down files, shooting off a text, gathering research data, editing photos, managing a schedule, dealing with emails, or surfing the web.

But, with a price in the four figures, is the new lineup worth it? I tested the new Asus Vivobook S15 CoPilot+ PC and Asus Zenbook S 16 laptops. Both are perfect tools for high-school and college students, but for that extra level of durability, the new Zenbook S 16 is the way to go. It also offers a 16-inch display, is lightweight (3.31 pounds), thin (0.43 inches), offers a beautiful aesthetic, supports Wi-Fi 7-- and it's water resistant, too.

Asus Vivobook S15 Copilot+ PC laptop: At a glance

The Asus Vivobook S15 CoPilot+ PC is one of the first laptops to integrate Microsoft's CoPilot AI tools and features. Just tap the Copilot button and get instant access to AI-powered answers and functions.

The Vivobook S15 Copilot+ PC offers cutting-edge hardware specs and the latest AI, but the price point is actually on the low side for what it offers -- starting at just $1,170 on Amazon. This computer is incredibly thin (0.58 inches) and lightweight (3.13 pounds), so it's easy to transport. The 15.6 inch OLED display offers plenty of on-screen real estate and the ability to showcase more than 1.07 billion colors with a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut.

These laptops also feature all-day battery life, plenty of RAM, and advanced built in speaker systems with Dolby Atmos support. They also include professional-quality microphones and a high-resolution webcam, which is great for video calls.

$1,170 at Amazon

Asus Zenbook S 16 Copilot+ PC laptop: At a glance

For high school and college students, the Zenbook S16 is literally the perfect Windows laptop. It's durable, water resistant, offers a sleek design, runs very quietly, and offers the latest CoPilot AI functionality.

You also get a beautiful 16-inch OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, six integrated speakers, a powerful microphone array, an 1080p resolution webcam, quick charging capabilities and up to a 10 hour battery life.

Between the CPU, GPU and NPU, the Zenbook S16 offers enough processing power to handle virtually any task -- from school-related work, online learning and research, to advanced gaming. And it looks pretty sweet, too. In fact, this is the first laptop to be made using a material called Ceraluminum. This is an extremely durable fusion of ceramic and aluminum that until now has been widely used in the aerospace industry because of its strength, scratch resistance, lightness, temperature resistance and tactile feel. You also get a backlit keyboard with the new CoPilot key for activating the AI assistant, and an extra-large touchpad that makes interacting with the laptop extremely comfortable.

Of course, the computer comes with all of the latest Windows and Asus security and privacy tools already baked into the laptop and operating system. Beyond just the design, it's the CoPilot AI functionality that makes this laptop particularly useful to students.

$1,400 at Best Buy

What is Microsoft Copilot+ PC and what does it actually do?

Start with the new Copilot key to quickly activate the AI tool.

Use your voice or your keyboard to find anything on your computer more quickly. You might say, "Find the file with my 2024 personal budget." The Recall tool can sort through thousands of emails, files, folders, photos and documents to locate what you're looking for incredibly quickly.

The AI also can help you create artwork using a tool called Cocreator (in Paint). Describe what you want make using text or image prompts. And AI-fueled photo editing can generate professional-level results in minutes. This includes removing objects or backgrounds from images in seconds. Using the Restyle tool, you can say a sentence like, "Make the colors sharper," and boom. It happens

Copilot can also make composing, editing and summarizing text simple. You're not just limited to your native language either. Text can be translated into more than 40 languages, while videos can display real-time captions in any of more than 40 languages.

During video calls, the Windows Studio Effects tools use AI to adjust lighting and sound, add an on-screen teleprompter feature, enhance voice clarity and allow special effects, backgrounds, blurs and filters to be used in real time.

In addition to Windows, the tech is also embedded into some of the biggest apps you probably use every day, including Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Outlook, OneDrive, OneNote, Chrome, Spotify, Zoom, WhatsApp, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom, Blender, Affinity Suite and DaVinci Resolve. We'll be seeing more major app releases supporting AI later this year.

How Copilot+ PC performs on the Asus laptops

The Asus Vivobook S15 Copilot+ PC and Asus Zenbook S 16 offer all of the computing power someone could want. They provide a traditional laptop design (so there's no touchscreen, stylus support or two-in-one functionality). These laptops come bundled with Windows 11 Home and have the convenient Copilot key located to the right of the spacebar.

The backlit keyboard on both laptops is larger than most, which makes typing easier. The Vivobook S15 Asus even threw in a numeric keypad on the right and a dozen function keys along the top of the keyboard. Like any of the new Copilot+ PC laptops, the AI tools are available whenever you need them.

In the preinstalled Photos app, there's now an AI icon. This launches the Restyle Image feature. Simply type how you'd like your photo to look.

The Creativity slider helps you adjust the intensity of the edit tool or style. While the slider goes from 1 to 100, anything over 10 often has too much of an impact on the photo. This is also the case when selecting any of the style presets, like Fantasy, Anime, Surrealism or Watercolor.

As I was tinkering with the AI photo editing features on both laptops, I discovered that they work better on some photos than others. Several of the Style presets, like Renaissance, transformed the subject of a photo into something else entirely.

Meanwhile, launching Copilot and selecting the Notebook option is an easy way to access the AI tool for composing content. Enter a few sentences describing the content you want to compose and the style you want it written in.

The AI-powered suite is all about saving time. If you stumble onto a webpage with a lot of text, Copilot can summarize it in seconds. That said, the summaries are not always 100% accurate or even relevant, so for now at least, you can't fully rely on what's generated for you.

Clearly, we're still in the early days of using AI in everyday computing. But it's easy to see the potential for where this technology is headed.

Is having a Copilot+ PC worth it?

For some people, sure. What you can do today using Copilot is a giant leap forward when it comes to managing some everyday tasks and keeping the information you need at your fingertips.

Plus, as your computer gets to know your habits and preferences, it'll automatically handle certain tasks, like scheduling, for you, while helping you communicate more effectively using email, text messaging and video calling. But I wouldn't rely on the AI for summaries or pro-level photo editing. That said, when I asked the laptops to compose text based on specific prompts, they consistently did an impressive job.

Which laptops offer Copilot+ PC?

Computers from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and Samsung are all offering this AI-powered suite. Many of these laptops support the latest Wi-Fi 7 protocol for super-fast internet connectivity. They're also thinner, lighter and faster than most traditional Windows laptops. Most weigh less than 3.5 pounds and are powered using one of the new Qualcomm Snapdragon X series or AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX processors.

Microsoft Surface Pro Copilot+ PC — Microsoft

Here are the first laptops that are Copilot+ PC computers:

Asus Vivobook S15 ($1,170 and up) - Features a 15.6-inch 3K OLED resolution display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 100% DCI-P3 color gamut
Asus Zenbook S16 ($1,400 and up) - Provides a beautiful, thin and lightweight design, a stunning 16-inch OLED display, six speakers, and all of the latest Microsoft AI tools.
Dell Inspiron 14 Plus ($1,100 and up) - Offers up to a 21-hour battery life and a 14-inch QHD+ display.
Dell XPS 13 ($1,100 and up) - Offers a 13.4-inch FHD+ display.
HP Omnibook X 14 ($1,200 and up) - Enjoy up to a 26-hour battery life and a 14-inch, 2.2K resolution touchscreen.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x ($1,199 and up) - You get a 14-inch, 3K OLED display offering a maximum brightness of 1,000 nits.
Microsoft Surface Laptop ($1,000 and up) - Experience up to a 20-hour battery life and a 13.8-inch or 15-inch HDR touchscreen.
Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition ($1,000 and up) - Two-in-one laptop with a detachable keyboard, up to 14-hour battery life and a 13-inch OLED (or LCD HDR) display.
Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge ($1,350 and up) - Includes a 14-inch or 16-inch AMOLED 2x display and between a 18- and 22-hour battery life.

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Jason R. Rich

Jason R. Rich (www.JasonRich.com) is an internationally recognized consumer technology expert with more than 30 years' writing experience. He's also an accomplished author and photographer. One of his most recently published books, The Remote Worker's Handbook: How to Effectively Work From Anywhere ($24.99, Entrepreneur Books) is now available from Amazon and wherever books are sold.

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