Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra is now available to preorder from $2,599, with deliveries set to begin October 16. The new model targets developers, AI researchers and creators that need to run demanding AI workloads locally rather than relying entirely on cloud services.
At its core is NVIDIA’s RTX Spark N1X platform, offered with 18-core or 20-core processors. The entry configuration has 32GB of unified memory, while higher-end versions reach 128GB. That memory is shared by the CPU and GPU, although Microsoft notes that the entire capacity is not automatically available to the graphics processor.
Microsoft lists up to 6,144 GPU cores and up to one petaflop of FP4 AI compute for the laptop. It also says the system can retain 99% of its peak performance on battery power, a claim that will need verification outside the company’s own testing.
The company’s internal benchmarks put Surface Laptop Ultra at 6.2 times faster for video generation and 4.3 times faster for image generation than a MacBook Pro with M5 Pro. Microsoft has not provided independent results to validate those comparisons.
The laptop has a 15-inch PixelSense Ultra touchscreen with a 3:2 mini-LED panel and peak HDR brightness of 2,000 nits on a 10% screen window. It supports finger touch but does not work with either the Surface Pen or Slim Pen.
Ports, storage and magnetic charging
The aluminum chassis is about 18mm thick and weighs roughly 2kg. Its haptic touchpad is 30% larger than the one on the Surface Laptop 8th Edition. Microsoft’s new Magnetic Connect charging system attaches a charging cable magnetically to a USB-C port and is designed to detach when snagged; the port remains usable for data, video and standard accessories.
- Two additional USB-C ports
- HDMI output
- USB-A port
- SD card reader
- Audio jack
- Replaceable SSD storage, with capacities up to 2TB
Microsoft also announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a compact desktop with 128GB of unified memory. It is priced at $5,999 and is scheduled to begin shipping in the United States in November.
The Surface Laptop Ultra’s real position against Apple’s high-end MacBook Pro line and other AI workstations will depend on independent testing of Microsoft’s local-generation and battery-performance claims.
