Windows 11 Photos app tests AI that increases photo resolution, but for few people

The Windows 11 Photos app can now use artificial intelligence to enlarge your photos and preserve their original quality. THE new feature available to testers only on Copilot+ computers.

The tool uses the Neural Processing Units (NPUs) of the processor in the computer to process the original image and create a higher resolution version quickly and efficiently.

In the edition released by Microsoft, the Photos super-resolution tool can enlarge a 750x501p resolution image to 4500×3006 (6 times larger). An image can be enlarged up to 8x.

In practice, Microsoft’s solution is very similar to resolution upscaling tools built into games, such as Nvidia DLSS or FSR. But for some reason (probably commercial) Microsoft has made exclusive access to Copilot+ PCs equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon X CPUs.

Not impressive results

The ZDNet website emphasizes that it managed to activate the tool on conventional computers at a certain time. However, this would prove to be an error in the tool’s deployment and access was soon cut off.

The results of the tests carried out by the vehicle were not impressive at all. The reporter reported that the result was blurry and quite grainy.

According to Microsoft, the new tool is available in version 2024.11100.17007.0 (or newer) of the Photos app, which is currently available to testers. The update is distributed via Microsoft Store.