Latest news with #Copilot+
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Yahoo
Asus' New ProArt A16 Could Be the Best Laptop for Photo Editing
Asus has updated its ProArt A16 professional creative laptop with the latest graphics from Nvidia, combining high-end performance components with a gorgeous OLED display. Its 16-inch form factor ensures plenty of screen space, and with the latest neural processor from AMD, it has everything it needs to take advantage of Microsoft's Copilot+ features. The Asus ProArt range has been one of the premier professional, creative laptops for a few generations, and this latest edition doesn't pull any punches. It has one of AMD's most powerful mobile processors, the 12-core Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, and pairs it with the latest Nvidia mobile RTX 5070 graphics. This generation, the default memory configuration is 64GB, ensuring you have all the RAM you need for even the most demanding of tasks, and there's space for up to 3TB of fast NVMe storage. Credit: Asus The main upgrade this generation, though, is the display. Asus ProArt laptops are built around the idea of a gorgeous display, and the latest model meets the standard. It's a 16-inch, 3K (2,880-by-1,800) OLED panel, with a 16:10 aspect ratio, making longer documents and webpages more comfortable to read. This is a slightly lower resolution than the last-generation design, but it has a much higher refresh rate at 120Hz. That makes it better for 3D animation and for watching back high-paced videos, as well as for gaming in the off hours. It's fully VESA-certified and Nvidia Studio-validated to provide a stunning image, with incredible contrast, high brightness, and eye-catching color. This laptop has a powerful neural processor built into the CPU, offering up to 50 TOPS performance, and the GPU can manage several hundred TOPS of its own in supporting apps. This combination lets this laptop take advantage of new Copilot+ features recently integrated with Windows 11, as well as future AI releases Microsoft has planned. It can also run some of Asus' own AI-powered apps, like StoryCube and MuseTree, entirely locally. That lets you use generative AI at the edge, without any oversight, censorship, or data gathering by outside parties. Even with these new additions, the laptop remains relatively thin and light at just over half an inch thick and just over four pounds. You probably wouldn't want to use it on your lap for too long at that size, though. This laptop will be on sale soon with a starting price of $2,500. If you want to save a little, the last-generation option with an RTX 4070 and slower 60Hz (but 4K) display is still available. Elsewhere at Computex, Asus launched the fastest gaming monitor in the world, and an eGPU dock with Thunderbolt 5 support.
Indian Express
13-05-2025
- Indian Express
Windows 11 gets AI powered intelligent text actions and Settings app
Microsoft is rolling Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26120.3964 to the Beta channel, bumping up the version to 24H2 starting Monday. Available for those on the Insider channel, the latest build brings several bug fixes as well as some new AI experiences including the much awaited AI powered agent in the Settings app. Announced last week, Microsoft says the new agent in Settings is designed to help users find and change settings on their PC. Unlike normal searches, which take keywords as input, users will now be able to describe what they are looking for using natural language and help with things like 'how to control my PC by voice' or 'my mouse pointer is too small.' However, the new feature is currently limited to Copilot+ PCs with Snapdragon chipset and primary language set to English, with support for AMD and Intel powered machines coming soon. Microsoft is also adding a new dedicated FAQs section on the About page located under System in the Settings app, which the company says provides information about system configuration, performance and compatibility all in one place. Another AI powered Windows 11 feature called 'Click To Do', which Microsoft unveiled last year is getting an upgrade. Available for those with an AMD or Intel powered Copilot+ PC, the tech giant says users can now use the Win + mouse click or Win + Q shortcut to highlight a text block and get options like Summarize, Rewrite and Create a bulleted list. Powered by an on-device small language model called Phi Silica, the new intelligent text actions are only available when you select at least 10 words, the default language is set to English and the user is signed with a Microsoft account. As for Windows Insider users who have set their primary language to either French or Spanish, Microsoft says the Rewrite functionality is currently unavailable and will 'return in a future update.'
Telegraph
14-04-2025
- Telegraph
Dell Inspiron 14 review: A capable and convincing budget laptop
This article contains affiliate links. The products or services listed have been selected independently by journalists after hands-on testing or sourcing expert opinions. We may earn a commission when you click a link, buy a product or subscribe to a service. Our Rating: 8/10 Pros: Long battery life Sprightly performance Good build quality Cons: Colourless display Boomy speakers What is the Dell Inspiron 14? When it comes to the best laptops for everyday use, the Inspiron 14 is the cheapest 14-inch compact laptop you can buy from Dell. It's a modern, general-purpose machine designed for basic home and work tasks that's easy to fit in your bag and carry around. When it comes to the more technical side of things, you can choose from three processors (Intel, AMD and Qualcomm), and the Inspiron 14 supports features like facial recognition and has Microsoft's AI assistant Copilot+. It also has the newer USB-C ports, a backlit keyboard and an aluminium chassis, which aren't common in laptops costing closer to £600 than £1,000. How we test laptops I have been a technology journalist for over 15 years, testing everything from laptops and electric cars to tablets and audio systems. Over the years, I've used and tested devices running all of the major operating systems, settling these days with Windows, Linux and Android. Here I focus on five testing metrics: design and usability, keyboard and touchpad, display and audio, performance and configurations, and battery life. However, I don't just look at scores on a spreadsheet. I use the laptops I'm testing as my primary device, which in my case means a lot of typing, using them on the go, general web browsing, emails and other basic productivity, as well as gaming. This gives me a good idea of what the laptop is capable of, how long the battery lasts and how it can handle intense tasks. Why you can trust Telegraph Recommended Our tech experts continuously conduct in-depth, independent, real-world tests, scoring devices against pre-set testing metrics and industry benchmarks, so we can deliver definitive and comprehensive buying advice. Telegraph Recommended reviews are never shared with product manufacturers before publication, we don't accept payment in exchange for positive reviews, nor do we allow brands to pay for placement in our articles. Visit our Who We Are page to learn more. Design and usability Score: 8/10 The Inspiron 14 is not the most visually prepossessing of laptops thanks to a staid design and unadventurous colourway (it looks as though it was designed not to offend, rather than to impress). The aluminium chassis, while a rarity at this price point, makes it rather heavy for a 14-inch notebook (1.5kg) but the rounded profile and 16mm maximum thickness makes it easy to slip into a small backpack and carry around for the day. There's a good range of ports too, with two USB-C ports and a microSD card slot on the left hand side, and a USB-A and 3.5mm audio jack on the right. There's no HDMI port but the USB-C ports support DP AltMode video output so you can hook it straight up to a monitor if wanted. Surprisingly for a machine in this price bracket, the Inspiron 14 comes with a fingerprint scanner and an infrared camera so you can use Windows Hello facial recognition, showing the benefit of buying a laptop that's as much aimed at the business user as a casual one. And getting inside the Inspiron 14 is easy enough once you've removed the seven Philips screws holding the base plate in place. You can swap out the SSD, the battery and the wireless card, but you won't find space for a second SSD if you wanted to increase the storage. Keyboard and touchpad Score: 8/10 The Inspiron 14's keyboard is a conventional but capable affair with flat-topped keys and clear white-on-black graphics. The keys offer just the right amount of resistance and travel for my typing tastes and there's an effective two-stage backlight to help with typing in the dark. At 115 x 80mm, the plastic touchpad isn't the largest you'll find on a 14-inch laptop but it works reliably. The mechanical click-action on the lower half of the touchpad is clean and precise but I did find it rather noisy compared to other laptops I have used. The webcam delivers a crisp and colourful video feed and comes with the full suite of Microsoft's Studio Effects that automatically improve lighting and cancel noise during video calls, among other enhancements. I have encountered much worse webcams on laptops that cost twice as much, and this one comes with a manual privacy shutter over the lens, which is a bonus. Display and audio Score: 6/10 Cheap laptops often have awful displays and, while this one isn't dreadful, the screen is an area where the Inspiron 14 shows its humble status. The 14-inch screen is bright with a healthy contrast ratio, wide viewing angles and no strange shift in colour, even when you're looking at it from the most extreme angles. There's no annoying screen reflection because of the matt finish and while the refresh rate is a basic 60Hz, that's to be expected from a budget laptop. Where the Inspiron 14 falls down is its colour registration. It struggles to give you an accurate representation of the colours you should be seeing on the screen, which robs images and videos of their vitality. There's no support for HDR content, either. Despite this setback, the display is a solid performer when it comes to everyday tasks and scrolling through sites and social media. It also has two downward-firing 2-watt speakers that can get surprisingly loud. The sound can get a little distorted at maximum volume but the bass stays punchy across the board. Performance and configurations Score: 8/10 The Inspiron 14 is available with Intel, AMD and Qualcomm processors and while the Intel models are cheaper, they don't match the performance of the Qualcomm machines. They also lack a neural processor, which means they don't have Microsoft's CoPilot+ AI accreditation. Two Qualcomm models are available, one with the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 and running Windows 11 Pro for £749, the other using the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 and running either Windows 11 Home or Pro for £679 and £769 respectively. In the Cinebench R24 CPU test I ran, the X1P-42-100 Inspiron 14 scored 642 which is 50 per cent more than I'd expect to see from the most powerful Intel-powered model in the range and roughly the same as the most powerful but less efficient AMD version, giving you an idea of how much better the Qualcomm models are. Benchmark numbers aside, in everyday use, the Snapdragon Inspiron 14 feels fast with none of the pauses, hiccups or stalls that are often a feature of a laptop with a low sticker price. It's good to see Microsoft's CoPilot+ AI certification on a laptop this cheap, making it a great machine for anyone who wants to dip their toe into all things AI without spending too much. That's thanks to the neural processor that forms part of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chipset. When placed under severe stress, the fan noise never increases above a faint whoosh. The underside does get a little warm, but not unusually so. The 512GB SSD inside the Inspiron 14 proved to be a great performer returning sequential read and write data speeds of 4,026M/s and 2,212MB/s respectively. I've seen speeds barely a third as fast on some laptops with a similar price. Battery life Score: 9/10 Despite only having a 54Wh battery, the Inspiron 14 ran for 17 hours and 6 minutes in our video rundown test. That's an excellent result for a budget laptop and means you can leave your charger at home when you head out for the day without feeling like you will run out of juice. It's another area where the Inspiron 14 punches well above its weight. Windows laptops running on Intel's latest Arrow Lake H CPUs can do better but you'll have to pay several hundred pounds more to get one of those. Technical specifications Below, I've compared the Dell Inspiron 14's specifications against the MacBook Air 13 (M4). As you can see, the Dell doesn't hold back in terms of internals, despite the significantly lower asking price. If anything, this demonstrates the sheer value for money that could be achieved if you buy smart and opt for a Windows alternative instead. Should you buy the Dell Inspiron 14? Despite the issues with the colour on-screen, the Dell Inspiron 14 still offers a lot for its price with features like facial recognition, an aluminium chassis, a backlit keyboard often adding a lot to the overall cost. The key factor here though, is the inclusion of that Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset. This puts the Inspiron 14 in another power league to the dated or weak processors you usually have to tolerate at this price point and it has the added benefit of delivering great battery life. For the price, you can't ask for more. Yes, if: Your budget is tight You favour battery life above all else You need a laptop with a great build quality No, if: Display quality is your top priority You want a flashy-looking laptop FAQs Is running Windows-on-ARM a problem? In a word, no. Qualcomm's new Prism emulator means that the vast majority of x86 native programs will run perfectly well on ARM laptops while most popular programs are available in native ARM versions. What configurations does the Inspiron 14 have? You can choose from seven chipsets; Intel's Core i3-1305U, Core i5-1334U and Core 7 150U, AMD's Ryzen 5 8540U and Ryzen 7 8840U and Qualcomm's X1P-42-100 and X1P-64-100. All models have a 512GB SSD but the cheaper Intel models only have 8GB of RAM. What is the difference between the Intel and AMD models of the Inspiron 14 and the Qualcomm models? The cheaper Intel Inspiron 14's have less powerful CPUs and GPUs, while the AMD models have similar performance but they are less efficient and lack the neural processor that drives Microsoft's CoPilot+ service and supports the webcam's Studio Effects filters. What's the difference between the Inspiron 14 and Inspiron 14 Plus? The main differences between the Inspiron 14 and Inspiron 14 Plus are that the Plus model has a better display with 100 per cent sRGB coverage and a superior sound system with the speakers firing upward on each side of the keyboard. The Plus model is, however, more expensive with the Qualcomm models starting at £1,019 and Intel models at £819.
Yahoo
14-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AI PCs encouraging businesses to upgrade faster, targeting personalized employee experiences
In 2025, AI is starting to feel like a buzzword to the general public — but for a business, it's a day-to-day reality and the path toward accelerated growth. According to an IDC white paper that was sponsored by AMD, AI PCs are driving a major PC upgrade cycle. They're pushing businesses toward switching to PCs that integrate neural processing units (NPUs) to run AI tasks locally. The white paper is based on a survey which targeted IT decision makers (ITDMs). Taking place in November 2024, the survey comprised 670 respondents from large companies (500 employees and up) located all around the world. Many were from large corporations — 195 respondents were managers (or higher) in organizations with over 5,000 employees. There's also a broad range of industries here, including design and manufacturing, finance, and telecommunications. A whopping 73% of surveyed businesses say that the release of AI PCs in the last couple of years has had a major impact on their plans, accelerating the need to refresh their PC hardware. With that said, many of these companies still run on Windows 10 (58%), which will contribute to the urgent need to upgrade. Windows 10 is reaching the end of its life cycle, which means greater security risks for companies. However, 60% of companies that are still running Windows 10 plan to upgrade to Windows 11 AI PCs that support Copilot+. Of course, the businesses in question are already using AI in their day-to-day operations; 95% of the surveyed companies already use or test AI in the cloud. AI is widely applied in manufacturing (predictive maintenance), retail (AI-driven recommendations), finance (fraud detection), and healthcare (AI-enhanced diagnostics). As seen on the above chart, employees use AI for a lot of different tasks, including summarizing documents, content creation, and automation. The benefits of AI for businesses are plenty, and the decision-makers are well aware of that fact. They cite personalized user experiences (77%), enhanced data privacy (75%), and better security (74%) as the top advantages in a business setting. Companies also expect that AI will make the lives of their employees easier, with 82% of respondents saying that they expect AI to have a positive impact on their workforce. AI will eliminate repetitive tasks (as said by 83% survey participants), help employees shift focus to the important things (79%), and increase productivity (76%). Managers remain aware of the challenges in AI adoption, however. Data privacy concerns (36%), security risks (26%), high costs (31%), and regulatory compliance issues (25%) are among the top obstacles that companies need to face. Those risks are mitigated by the use of AI PCs, which process data locally instead of turning to cloud-based solutions. AMD plays a big role in the development of new AI PCs. The company says that it's working with OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo to build AI directly into their systems; it's also doing a lot of work on the software side to ensure that the most recognized AI applications are optimized for AMD-based PCs. This survey makes it clear that AI PCs are here to stay, and businesses are embracing that fact. With Windows 10 reaching end of life in October, we might see the adoption of AI PCs rise exponentially over the next year.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
AMD: Undervalued Powerhouse Ready to Rise
Having tracked AMD's (NASDAQ:AMD) journey quite closely, the recent fall of its stock price does not tell the whole story because, behind the scenes, AMD is working hard to redefine its role in AI, gaming, and mobile computing. Of course, at CES 2025, all of this was a powerful reminder of its potential, and innovations like the MI300X GPUs and Ryzen AI Max processors prove this company is very far from slowing down. This undervaluation and relentless innovation make AMD one of the most exciting long-term opportunities in the tech space. Warning! GuruFocus has detected 6 Warning Signs with AMD. CES 2025 has been the day when AMD showed these capabilities, innovating and leading across domains-from AI to gaming and down to mobile computing. Ryzen AI Max Series processors establish a new performance score for AI-powered laptops, introducing much more advanced technologies such as Copilot+ to an even larger population. Ryzen Z2 Series changed the guard in terms of what is possible with handheld gaming, it is Ryzen 9000 HX-Series that writes the new rulebook in terms of what's been possible from both mobile gaming and productivity. The Ryzen 200 Series showed that even with mainstream processors, AMD was quite serious about bringing more advanced features into everyday computing. From AMD, without a doubt, one of the brilliant leaps that stole the show and blew everybody away in this realm would have to be at the official CES 2025 unveil, where, with no hint of doubt in one's mind, their Ryzen AI Max Series mobile processor truly came forward to mark serious next levels in integrating a host of powerful AI into everyday consumer laptops right out the box. The goal of enabling intelligent portable systems for high-level computation in professional-grade use and conventional situations. Ryzen AI Max processors bring desktop-class performance with up to 16 "Zen 5" CPU cores, while AMD Radeon 8000S Series graphics complement it, providing high-fidelity visuals for both gaming and creation workloads. It also leverages a discrete AI engine, capable of driving an industry-leading peak of up to 50+ Tera Operations Per Second of AI processing for emerging AI workloads, such as Language Modeling, Image Generation, and Productivity applications powered by Copilot+, among others. Besides this, it also has fitted in up to 128 GB of unified system memory to seamlessly allow multitasking and productivity without burning the battery. Equipped with state-of-the-art AI performance and next-generation power efficiency, the processors establish new parameters of competition among thin and light laptops. Announcements of Ryzen AI Max processors detail the strategic efforts by AMD to push AI into the mainstream of consumer devices, while bridging high-end computing with daily convenience. More specifically, collaboration from leading OEMs such as Dell Technologies, which intends to fit and embed the AMD CPU into Dell's commercial desktop offerings and PCs, adequately demonstrates AMD's broad-market appeal in this next wave of innovation in computing. With the inclusion of AI, these are only embedded core technologies for mobile computing, executed to meet the expectations grown toward smarter or speedy gadgets, and also to take advances in AMD technology through AI-powered gadget leadership into consumer product realization. With this in mind, the development further cements AMD's commitment to delivering industry-leading solutions that push the envelope on efficiency and performance while setting Ryzen AI Max Series as the centerpiece for CES 2025. In fact, this represents an unmatched opportunity for AMD-inside the global trend from training to inference-accelerating demand to deploy pre-trained AI models into real-world applications. AI inference is basically the running of AI models to make predictions or derive insights. Efficiency, scalability, and cost-effectiveness are expected in this respect. It would further lead to a high-octane explosion from $780 billion to $990 billion in 2027, driven by large-scale and small-scale computing innovations. Growth is due to hyperscalers, enterprises, and independent software vendors making continued investments into differentiated technologies such as GAI, inference, and vertically optimized systems. With demands for both growing, AI workloads are anticipated to grow at a 25-35% CAGR through 2027, which is great news for AMD. With AMD's focused effort on AI inference-a high-growth market that's in desperate need of customized silicon and high-bandwidth memory-AMD is well positioned, says finance expert Sami Andreani, as it meets its MI300X GPUs. Capturing even a small portion of this-5% to 10%-could drive $5 billion to $10 billion annually and likely double its data center revenue today, placing AMD solidly as a formidable competitor in the evolving AI landscape. At today's price of $118, the 12-month consensus price target of $174.63, representing a 47% upside, but robust bull cases project this target upwards to as high as $250. Cheerily, underpinning a business of AMD's newer MI300X GPUs meant for AI inference workloads-25-35% CAGR into 2027-enabled by its next-generation chiplet architecture with advantaged cost and scalable options-an associatedly robust ROCm software stack in tow-perhaps there's nothing quite so poised in one bid at attempting the taking of space lead titles as uniquely AMD is positioned. Valuation metrics also support the growth story of AMD. Meanwhile, the forward P/E of 23.79 and a PEG ratio of 0.85 suggest that the stock actually is undervalued against its growth prospect-and most specifically, the rich valuation afforded to NVIDIA. Strong analyst sentiment points toward 16 Buy and 27 Outperform ratings out of a total 52 working towards reflecting confidence that AMD will continue delivering on that growth potential. Although the Price-to-Free-Cash-Flow and Price-to-Tangible-Book ratios do show some further room for operational efficiencies, these challenges are set to normalize in due course when AMD ramps up its production of the latest MI300X GPU and cements its position in the AI market. With the AI market bound to reach $990 billion by 2027, while AMD's next-generation MI300X GPU aims at fast-growing inference workloads, it may be in for surprise revenue uptick. Currently, AMD is undervalued to such an extent that long-term investors will have an excellent opportunity to participate in its growth. This article first appeared on GuruFocus. Sign in to access your portfolio
