Microsoft’s most powerful laptop yet is now up for preorder. The Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599 and begins shipping Friday, Oct. 16, the company announced at its first Windows and Surface event in more than two years, held Wednesday in San Francisco.
It is the first Surface built on Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip, an Arm-based processor that combines CPU and graphics cores with one shared pool of memory. Microsoft pitches it at creators and developers who want to run serious AI work on the laptop itself instead of in the cloud.
What You Get
- Chip: Nvidia RTX Spark with up to 20 CPU cores and 6,144 GPU cores. The $2,599 starting model has 18 CPU cores, 5,120 GPU cores and 24GB of memory.
- Memory: up to 128GB of “unified” memory shared by the CPU and GPU.
- Screen: a 15-inch mini-LED touchscreen rated up to 2,000 nits at peak HDR brightness.
- Ports: three USB-C, HDMI, USB-A, a full-size SD card reader and a headphone jack.
- Size: under 18mm (about 0.7 inch) thick and under 4.5 pounds.
- Colors: Platinum and Nightfall, depending on configuration.
One genuinely new idea: a breakaway USB-C charging port. Microsoft says it is the first laptop with one. If someone trips over the cord, the magnetic connection should let go instead of dragging the laptop off the table. Unlike Apple’s MagSafe or the old Surface Connect plug, it is a standard USB-C port that works with any USB-C accessory.
The Fine Print
- That 2,000-nit figure is a peak over a small part of the screen. Everyday brightness is lower.
- The touchscreen works with fingers only. Surface pens are not supported.
- The entry model is not built for heavy local AI work. Windows Central suggests it is better suited to video and photo editing, data crunching, light gaming and 3D modeling.
- Microsoft has not said how long the battery lasts.
Not Just Surface
Other RTX Spark laptops also opened for preorder Wednesday and ship Oct. 16, including the Dell XPS 16, Asus ProArt P14, HP OmniBook Ultra 16, Lenovo Yoga 9n and MSI Prestige N16. Microsoft also opened preorders for a $5,999 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a compact desktop for AI developers, which ships in November.
On the software side, Windows 11 (not a new Windows 12) is getting more Copilot features that can work with local files when you give permission, plus quick actions in the taskbar search. Microsoft says these will roll out in stages over the coming months, some only to testers at first.
Bottom line: At this price, the Surface Laptop Ultra is for people who already know they need a lot of graphics power and memory. For everyone else, it is a sign of where Windows laptops are heading: more AI running on the device itself. And if your old PC is still on Windows 10, check our guide to what the extended deadline means before you shop.
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- Windows 10’s October 13 Deadline Has Moved: What PC Owners Need to Know
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Sources
- Windows Central: Microsoft finally confirms Surface Laptop Ultra pricing and release date
- The Gadgeteer: Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599 as Microsoft puts more AI work on the PC
- BGR: Windows and Surface event October 2026 live updates
- Windows Blog: Pre-order our most powerful Surface devices ever