2024, the year of intelligent Macs and AI PCs

To understand this better, let us look at the detailed overview of the evolution of AI PCs in 2024:

Intel started AI PCs, and Qualcomm gave them a boost

A compact and premium windows laptop. (Image credit: Vivek Umashankar/The Indian Express)

The first bunch of AI PCs were powered by the 1st generation Intel Core Ultra processor with a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU). However, the performance of this NPU was quite limited at 11 trillion or tera operations per second (TOPS), and this meant the AI experience on these machines was also quite limited.

Then came a major announcement from Microsoft, a Copilot+ PC branding. While the laptops with Copilot+ PC branding looked almost similar to their contemporaries, powered by an Intel or AMD, on the inside, these were a bit special and were the first set of Windows laptops, powered by Qualcomm-made Snapdragon X Elite/Plus chips based on the ARM architecture instead of x86.

While the ARM-based Copilot+ PCs seemed like the perfect alternative to Intel/AMD-powered laptops, in terms of performance and efficiency, they had one major flaw – app compatibility. While some developers were quick enough to port their x86 apps to ARM, some x86 apps were emulated to work like native apps, while a few of them, especially those which have not been updated for a while simply crashed, a narrative that helped customers to stick with the x86.

On top of that, Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC project isn’t a smooth sail either. Even after a year of announcements, Microsoft is yet to deliver some of the AI experiences such as Recall, the headline feature of Copilot+ PC, which has been scrutinised for compromising personal data. A few months later, with the launch of Intel Lunar Lake chips and AMD Ryzen AI chips, the Copilot+ PC branding was no longer a Qualcomm-Microsoft exclusive deal.

The Copilot+ branded AI PCs came with a processor with a dedicated NPU with at least 45 TOPS of AI performance, capable of running smaller language models locally on the machine. However, there aren’t many first-party user-facing applications or services that can currently make use of this hardware, except for a few services like Microsoft Teams.

All this development in 2024 did create more options for customers, and in a way, it also confused a lot of them. Considering the entry-level price of the AI PC is still on the higher side of around Rs 1,00,000, an AI PC currently remains an expensive affair, even when compared to a Mac, and that’s surprising.

Apple became the silent AI PC killer

MacBook Pro is Apple’s most powerful laptop to date. (Express photo)

While Apple limited its AI features to the iPhone 15 Pro, the rollout of Apple Intelligence on Macs was a completely different story. Even MacBook Air M1, launched in 2020, received the full set of Apple Intelligence features just like the latest MacBook Pro M4 (review), launched a few months back.

Unlike an AI PC, where one has to buy a brand new machine, possibly launched this year, a user with a fairly recent Mac could get the complete AI experience from Apple, given it is powered by an M series chip. Not just MacBooks, even the Mac mini, Mac Studio, iMac, and Mac Pro are also part of the AI-enabled Mac family.

Considering one can pick up a MacBook Air M1 for around Rs 60,000, and a MacBook Air M2 for around Rs 70,000, these are relatively cheaper options that also offer excellent performance, a great screen, premium build, and long-lasting software support. By delivering AI features to older Macs, Apple also ensured that one wouldn’t have to upgrade to a newer model to gain artificial intelligence.

Overall, 2024 has been a fantastic year, especially for those who were shopping for a future-proof laptop, whether a PC or Mac. With CES 2025 right around the corner, the improvement in performance, especially on the AI front, will be generational, unlike in 2024, where we got a solid hardware update that will remain relevant for the next few years.