So, hey - how about that second wave of Copilot+ features? Microsoft is adding more tools to its AI-powered range to make them more appealing to customers. Copilot+ devices are Microsoft's big gamble with the AI scene, so it really wants people to "click" with AI and use it to make their lives better.

The only problem is, the second wave of Copilot+ features really hasn't done much for me. And I don't think it's going to do anything for anyone else, either. So, while I held the position that people shouldn't buy a Copilot+ device for Copilot, here's why I still stand by that judgment, even after the second wave.

1 You don't need AI to make Windows Search suck less

There are third-party apps that do it for free

One of the new features in the new Copilot+ wave is AI-powered search. As Rich Woods reports in the article linked above:

Some folks at Microsoft have spoken to me several times about how crazy it is that it's easy to search the internet, but it's somewhat hard to search your PC.

And I agree - sometimes finding something on your Windows PC is like pulling nails. The thing is, you don't need an AI tool to make it better, let alone purchase a new PC. There are third-party apps out there like Everything that can handle the job for you for free.

In fact, that rings true with a lot of Windows pain points. Some people really can't stand the Windows 11 Start menu, but you can tweak it using third-party software. Checking out alternative apps and finding the one that really resonates with you is always a lot better than buying an entirely new device just so that an AI model can pick up the slack.

2 Recall is finally here, but is it really worth it?

It's the flagship feature, but I'm not excited about it.

So remember Recall? It's that one feature that takes screenshots of your desktop and stores the information it sees into a database. That way, it can remember the actions you performed on your PC and "recall" them when you ask it what you did previously. It was meant to come along on the first wave, but it ran into a snag (read: stored sensitive user information in plain text) and had to be withdrawn.

Well, Recall is now back and better than ever. Well, more like, back and acting like it should have acted in the first place. According to Microsoft, all of the privacy-related issues have been sorted, and you can now disable Recall and manage the screenshots it takes of your desktop. So that's a plus.

The thing is, I'm still not entirely sold on the concept of Recall. If you told me I had Recall secretly running in the background of my PC for a week and I could now use it to recall anything I'd like, I'd have no idea what I'd actually ask. If I wanted a website I visited before, I have my browser history. Apps usually have a document history to re-find that one piece of work you've lost, and instant messaging apps have chat logs you can go back to. Yes, Recall reads your chat logs, too - it's a little creepy.

3 Buy a Copilot+ device for the hardware, not for Copilot+

Think of Copilot+ as an added bonus - or at worst, bloatware

You may have noticed that in my analysis of a Copilot+ device, I've only been focusing on the Copilot+ features themselves. I haven't said anything about how the actual devices perform, or what's under the hood. And there's a good reason why I haven't - it's because they're the real reason you should buy a Copilot+ device.

Copilot+ devices don't run on typical CPU architecture. Instead, it uses Qualcomm's Arm processors, which aims to speed things up a bit. Before 2024, the state of Windows on Arm was pretty dire, and there was little reason to use it. However, presumably spurred on by the potential of Copilot+ taking off, 2024 became the year that Windows on Arm finally hit its stride. Microsoft is even releasing Arm-based ISOs for people to grab, so it's never been better to use Qualcomm hardware on a Windows machine.

Maybe ditch the Copilot and fly solo for this one

If you want to give Arm-based computing a try, there's nothing wrong with getting a Copilot+ device. You'll have a shiny new Snapdragon X chip in there, and it'll do the job just fine. However, despite the new wave of features, I still struggle to recommend that you should get a Copilot+ for the titular feature. It just doesn't have the "wow" factor that we were hoping would come with an AI-driven operating system.