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Microsoft is set to hold an event on May 20 where it is expected to announce ARM laptops in the Surface line, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X series chips. Alongside, the US-based technology giant is expected to announce updates related to its artificial intelligence platform Copilot, improvements and new features to its Windows 11 platform, and consumer variants of the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6. Here is everything Microsoft is expected to announce at its event on May 20:
Microsoft event: Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Surface devices
While Microsoft launched the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 for Businesses in March, the consumer-facing variants are expected to be significantly different.
On the hardware front, the business-oriented Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 were powered by Intel Core Ultra processors. The consumer-facing variants of these two Surface models would likely be powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series chips are specifically designed for laptops and feature a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for running artificial intelligence (AI) models on-device. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in February, Qualcomm demonstrated the capabilities of its Snapdragon X Elite chip by running a 7+ billion parameter multimodal AI model on-device. Qualcomm said that its NPU is up to 3x faster than competing x86 chips from Intel.
Apart from the new chip, the Surface devices are expected to feature changes in other departments as well. The consumer-centric Surface Pro 10 is expected to sport an OLED display rather than an LCD panel. Expected changes on the Surface Laptop 6 include slimmer bezels and rounded edges similar to the Surface Laptop Studio. The Surface Laptop 6 may get a new haptic touchpad.
Microsoft event: More Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered laptops
Alongside its Surface devices, Microsoft is expected to introduce ARM laptops from Windows partners such as Lenovo, Dell, and Asus. There have also been reports suggesting that Samsung might unveil a Snapdragon-powered Galaxy Book 4 variant at today’s event, too.
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Microsoft event: Windows 11 24H2
In February, Microsoft announced that its annual update for Windows will not be Windows 12 but an improved Windows 11 version called “24H2”. While the company did not specify what changes the new version brings, it is likely that the Windows version 24H2 will bring optimisations for running Windows smoothly on ARM-based chips. Along with software optimisations, Microsoft would likely announce new AI tools and features with on-device processing, leveraging the NPU on the Snapdragon and Intel Core Ultra chips.
