Microsoft has priced the Surface Laptop Ultra — the first Windows laptop built on Nvidia’s Arm-based RTX Spark platform, at $2,599 in the US and ₹2,29,999 in India. Pre-orders opened Monday. Shipping begins October 16. The base model packs an 18-core N1X CPU, 5120-core Blackwell GPU, 24 GB of unified memory, and a 512 GB SSD. A top-tier configuration with a 20-core CPU, 6144-core GPU, 128 GB unified memory, and 1 TB SSD costs $5,899. Or ₹4,99,999 in India, making it the most expensive Surface laptop ever sold in both markets. It runs Windows 11 on Arm, not x86, and uses magnetic USB-C charging instead of Surface Connect. The 15-inch mini-LED HDR touchscreen hits 2,000 nits peak brightness. Connectivity includes three USB-C ports, USB-A, HDMI, full-size SD card reader, and a 3.5 mm jack. Microsoft is positioning the 128 GB memory pool as critical for local AI workloads. Large language models, image generation, real-time voice translation, without cloud dependency. Nvidia and Microsoft demoed Gears of War: E-Day running at 60 FPS, but no benchmarks or thermal data were shared. In pricing, the Surface Laptop Ultra undercuts HP’s RTX Spark lineup by $400: the OmniBook X 14 starts at $2,999, the 16-inch variant at $3,199, and their top trims reach $4,499 and $4,999 respectively. HP’s models ship with OLED displays (120 Hz) and higher default memory. Advantages Microsoft doesn’t match out of the box. No UK or EU pricing was disclosed. The Surface Laptop Ultra arrives just as Microsoft tightens enforcement of Microsoft Account sign-ins across Windows, Office, and Copilot, adding friction for users who previously avoided account linking. That policy shift isn’t new, but its timing alongside a high-end device built for local AI makes the tension sharper: a machine designed to keep data on-device, sold inside an ecosystem that increasingly requires cloud identity. Microsoft says the Surface Laptop Ultra will roll out globally starting October 16. But only the US and India prices are confirmed.