Microsoft has announced two hew ultra-thin Copilot+ PCs, the Surface Laptop 13-inch and Surface Pro 12-inch, designed with AI experiences and portability in mind. Both are powered by the Snapdragon X Plus processor for speed and long battery life. The Surface Laptop 13 is the “lightest, most portable Surface Laptop ever,” weighing just 2.7 pounds — nearly a pound lighter than last year’s model — making it light and small enough to be comfortably transportable in a backpack. The 2-in-1 Surface Pro is only 1.5 pounds without a keyboard.

The 12-inch keyboard, which folds back completely flat against the display for use as a tablet, costs an additional $149, according to specifications on subpages of Microsoft’s Meet the New Surface PCs landing page.

Although the pair fall under the Surface for Business line, their features and attractive pricing will hold appeal for a broader audience. “The Surface Laptop 13-inch starts at $899 while the Surface Pro 12-inch starts at $799 — huge price drops from their previous models, which both start at $1,099,” writes TechRadar. The Surface Pro also comes in a 13-inch version starting at $1,030.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor with integrated neural processing unit (NPU) delivers 45 TOPs (trillion operations per second) of local AI processing power. In a blog post, Microsoft Corporate VP of Surface Brett Ostrum says the new laptop is 50 percent faster than its predecessor, the Surface Laptop 5, adding that with the 8-core chip configuration it outpaced the MacBook Air M3 in a Cinebench Multithread test.

Pointing out that Microsoft’s testing took on the Apple M3 chip, TechRadar notes “we’ll need to see how this competes with Apple’s latest M4 chipset,” released last May.

The new Surface machines are billed “the most intelligent Windows PCs ever,” adding Copilot+ features that include settings that allow you to make requests in natural language. Third-party software like Moises Live (by Music.AI, which lets you individually control the levels of things like vocals and percussion) and Gigapixel by Topaz Labs (providing up to 16x AI upscaling) enhance the Copilot+ AI experience.

The Surface Laptop 13-inch promises up to 23 hours of video playback and up to 16 hours of active web browsing for unplugged work anywhere, while the Surface Pro 12-inch claims up to 16 hours of video playback.

The touchscreen on the Pro 12 has 2,196 x 1,464 resolution with up to a 90Hz refresh rate, and “the included Slim Pen can be attached magnetically to the back of the tablet, a feature that was not available on the previous model for convenient storage and charging,” writes CNET.

A 1080p front-facing video camera is part of the package, while the 13-inch Pro features a 1440p ultrawide front-facing camera. Both have 10MP rear cameras. The 13-inch Surface Laptop display offers 1,920 x 1,280 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate.

Both models are available for preorder now and will be available starting May 20.