Microsoft opened pre-orders for the Surface Laptop Ultra on October 7, putting a price and a ship date on the Nvidia RTX Spark laptop it first showed off earlier this year. The 15-inch machine starts at $2,599 and begins shipping October 16, Pavan Davuluri, Microsoft’s executive vice president of Windows and devices, said at a company event in San Francisco, CNBC reported.
Price and Availability
The base configuration pairs 24GB of unified memory with a 512GB SSD and starts at $2,599, The Verge reported. Higher configurations climb to about $6,000, ZDNet reported. The laptop is available to pre-order from Microsoft.com and select retailers worldwide, with availability starting October 16, Microsoft said.
Microsoft is pricing it below Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro, which starts at $2,999, MacRumors noted. The company is also offering up to $1,000 back for eligible MacBook Pro trade-ins through November 23 in the U.S. and Canada, the Times of India reported. Microsoft says the Ultra targets creators, developers and engineers who run demanding AI, software development and 3D workloads.
What Is Inside
The Surface Laptop Ultra runs on Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip, which pairs a Grace Arm CPU with a Blackwell RTX GPU. It comes in two variants: an 18-core CPU with a 5,120-core GPU, and a 20-core CPU with a 6,144-core GPU, Gadgets 360 reported. Memory runs up to 128GB of unified memory on the higher-end version, and Engadget reported that Microsoft claims up to one petaflop of AI compute. The chip can run large AI models directly on the laptop, so users avoid cloud bills, CNBC reported.
The 15-inch mini-LED touchscreen reaches up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness, Engadget reported. Microsoft claims the display’s peak HDR brightness is up to 25 percent higher than the MacBook Pro with the M5 chip, according to GSMArena. The company says the laptop is under 18 millimeters thick and weighs under 4.5 pounds, according to its store listing.
The laptop has three USB-C ports, one of which supports Microsoft’s Magnetic Connect charging, along with HDMI, USB-A, an SD card reader and a headphone jack, Mashable reported. Microsoft calls Magnetic Connect the world’s first built-in magnetic USB-C charging on a laptop. It is essentially Microsoft’s version of MagSafe. Microsoft also says the new thermal design offers up to 2.5 times more thermal power capacity than previous Surface Laptops, according to Gadgets 360.
A Companion Dev Box
Microsoft also opened pre-orders for the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a compact desktop aimed at developers working with heavy AI workloads. It costs $5,999, is sold only through Microsoft.com in the U.S., and begins shipping in November, according to Microsoft’s announcement.
Why It Matters
CNBC said the launch shows that Microsoft remains committed to building its own PCs, even though it is not one of the largest device makers. The Surface Laptop Ultra is also the company’s flagship example of the Nvidia-powered Windows PCs that several makers showed at Computex in June, which we covered in our report on RTX Spark laptops and mini PCs. Our analysis of why RTX Spark is a platform bet explains what the chip means for Windows. Microsoft’s earlier Surface launches for companies are covered in our report on Surface Pro and Surface Laptop for Business.
