Microsoft has opened pre-orders for the Surface Laptop Ultra, setting a $2,599 entry price for its first machine built on Nvidia's RTX Spark platform. The system ships October 16, arriving with a clear ambition: taking buyers away from Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro.
The base tier pairs an 18-core Grace CPU and a 5,120-core Blackwell RTX GPU with 24GB of unified RAM, offering an upgrade path to 32GB. For workloads that need massive memory, a separate 20-core variant starts at 32GB and scales all the way to 128GB of unified memory. Fully loaded, the top configuration reaches $5,899.
That pricing bracket lands right against Apple. At $2,599, the entry model undercuts the equivalent base 16-inch MacBook Pro by roughly $400. At the top end, the situation reverses, with Microsoft's 128GB flagship coming in roughly $900 higher than Apple's nearest comparable configuration.
Silicon and Displays
Microsoft spent much of its launch event comparing the machine directly to Apple's M5 Pro silicon. The company claims RTX Spark runs between 2.1 times and 6.2 times faster during AI workloads than the M5 Pro, while matching Apple's trick of sustaining full speed on battery power alone.
The display is a 15-inch PixelSense touchscreen running at 3270 by 2180 pixels with a 120Hz refresh rate. It hits peak brightness levels of 2,000 nits and supports Dolby Vision HDR.
Around the edges, Microsoft avoided Apple's single-minded port strategy. The chassis carries three USB-C ports alongside one USB-A connection, an HDMI 2.1 socket, a full-sized SD card slot, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. DisplayPort 2.1 output is supported over USB-C. For power, Microsoft built a Magnetic Connect plug that slips into a USB-C port and detaches safely under sudden tension, mimicking Apple's MagSafe setup.
The Software Question
Nvidia showed the hardware handling heavy tasks during demonstrations, including 90GB scenes in Unreal Engine 5 and 60GB local AI models. Microsoft also promised native RTX Spark support across hundreds of gaming releases, with Call of Duty scheduled later.
Still, the software transition remains the big hurdle for Windows on ARM architecture. Everyday emulation runs through the built-in Prism translation layer, but getting the advertised performance requires native code or dedicated tuning for RTX Spark. While creative software like Adobe Photoshop is ready, unoptimized programs will lean on emulation.
To push switchers across that line, Microsoft launched a trade-in campaign offering up to $1,000 back when parting with a MacBook. A trade-in on a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro yields $1,024 on Microsoft's online store.
Pre-orders remain open ahead of the October 16 rollout. Other hardware makers, including Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and MSI, are scheduled to introduce their own RTX Spark laptops shortly after.
CDFiled by The Computing Desk
Laptops, desktops, processors, graphics cards and the operating systems that run on them.
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