Microsoft launches Surface Laptop Ultra at $2,599, shipping 16 October

Microsoft announced on 7 October that its Surface Laptop Ultra will start at $2,599 and release on 16 October, at a Windows and Surface keynote in San Francisco. The base configuration includes an 18-core CPU, 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage. Preorders opened the same day, with the priciest model reaching $5,899.99.theverge.com

The announcement matters because it gives a price and ship date for a machine Microsoft has teased for months, positioning it at the premium end of the laptop market alongside Apple's MacBook Pro. Microsoft and Nvidia are both targeting creative software, gaming and local AI tasks with the device. Microsoft has described the laptop as a "builder class PC," aimed at developers and AI researchers rather than typical PC users.

What the laptop costs and ships with

The Surface Laptop Ultra runs on Nvidia's RTX Spark chip, an Arm-based processor supporting up to 128GB of unified memory — memory shared between the processor and graphics so data does not have to be copied across. The chip is capable of up to one petaflop of FP4 AI compute, a measure of quadrillions of low-precision arithmetic operations per second used in AI inference.theverge.com

Microsoft says the laptop has 2.5 times more thermal capacity than any of its previous notebooks, meaning it can move more heat away from the chip. The company also claims the device delivers 99 percent of its maximum performance even when unplugged, unlike most Windows laptops, which slow down on battery power. Storage is user-upgradable, with the SSD topping out at 2TB on Microsoft's product page.

The machine ships with a 15-inch Mini-LED PixelSense Ultra touchscreen with a 3:2 aspect ratio and up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness — roughly twice the brightness of a typical laptop display. The haptic touchpad is 30 percent larger than on typical 15-inch Surface notebooks. Ports include three USB-C, HDMI, USB-A, a full-size SD card reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

What the screen and ports offer

Charging uses what Microsoft calls Magnetic Connect, combining magnetic attachment with a USB-C jack while still transmitting power, video and data, replacing the proprietary Surface Connect port. The aluminium chassis measures 18mm thick and weighs 4.5 pounds, available in platinum and nightfall. The Engadget hands-on reviewer wrote that it "feels better than any other Windows laptop I've held before."

Configurations split into two main options: an RTX Spark N1X chip with an 18-core CPU, or a 20-core CPU variant. RAM starts at 24GB in the base model, tops out at 32GB for the base configuration, and reaches 128GB when paired with the 20-core processor. The priciest $5,899.99 model includes 128GB of RAM, a 20-core CPU and 1TB of storage.

How it compares with MacBook Pro

Microsoft claims the Ultra delivers 6.2 times faster video generation, 4.3 times faster image creation and reaches the first token 2.1 times faster than a MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro chip. The first token is the time an AI model takes to produce its first unit of output. These are Microsoft's own claims, not independently verified figures.

What Microsoft claims against MacBook Pro

Alongside the laptop, Microsoft announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a mini PC for developers, available for preorder at $5,999 ahead of shipping in November. The company also shared Windows updates, including "Hybrid Intelligence" features that let Copilot use files on a Windows PC to take actions, and a new search experience for quick actions from the search bar. Preorders for the Surface Laptop Ultra are open now, with the release date set for 16 October.engadget.com