Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra borrows two ideas straight out of Apple's playbook, a Mini-LED display and a magnetic USB-C charging port, and according to Notebookcheck's review, neither one quite lands the way Microsoft hoped.
The laptop was one of several high-end machines built around Nvidia's new RTX Spark processors that launched last week, alongside devices like the Asus ProArt P16. Microsoft leaned hard on the display and charging port during its product presentation, and both drew obvious comparisons to the MacBook Pro.
A bright panel with a catch
Notebookcheck's testing found the Surface Laptop Ultra's Mini-LED panel can hit up to 2,000 nits of brightness, which sounds like a win on paper. But the panel does not support local dimming, a feature that lets a display control brightness in small zones to produce deeper blacks and better contrast. Without it, Notebookcheck says black levels and contrast both suffer, and the panel's response times run slow too.
The result, per the review, is image quality that falls short of both the MacBook Pro's own Mini-LED screen and the OLED panels most other premium laptops now use. That gap looks worse given where the industry is headed: Apple itself is expected to switch to OLED for its upcoming MacBook Ultra, according to Notebookcheck, leaving the MacBook Pro as one of the last holdouts for Mini-LED among major laptop makers.
Magnetic charging, wobbly hinges
The magnetic USB-C charging port fared a little better. Notebookcheck's review says it works as intended, though the right-angle connector design isn't ideal for every setup. Build quality otherwise impressed the reviewers, with a premium chassis and high-quality keyboard and trackpad. The hinges, though, felt a bit too loose for Notebookcheck's liking, and the 15-inch laptop runs on the heavy and thick side.
Battery life landed in average territory at just over 10 hours in Notebookcheck's testing, not a strong number for a laptop built around efficiency claims, though the review notes the Asus ProArt P16 with the same RTX Spark chip did slightly worse on that front.
Where this leaves the Surface Laptop Ultra
Taken together, Notebookcheck's review paints a laptop that nails the fundamentals, fit, finish, typing feel, while stumbling on the display choice that Microsoft chose to highlight. Pairing a Mini-LED panel without local dimming against the growing wave of OLED premium laptops looks like a tougher sell than Microsoft's marketing suggested.
Notebookcheck says it's still working through reviews of the other RTX Spark laptops that launched alongside the Surface Laptop Ultra, and expects the comparisons to get sharper once those are in. For now, the Surface Laptop Ultra's biggest fight may not be with the MacBook Pro at all, but with the rest of this new RTX Spark laptop generation.
RRFiled by The Reviews Roundup Desk
What the reviews are saying: verdicts on new devices from the outlets that tested them, summarised and credited to each. This desk does not test products itself.
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