Surface Laptop Ultra preorders start at $2,599 with Oct 16 sales

The Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599. That base model has an 18-core CPU, a 5,120-core GPU, 24GB of unified memory and 512GB of storage. It ships with Windows 11 Home, while every higher configuration comes with Windows 11 Pro.

At the top end, $5,899 buys a 20-core CPU, a 6,144-core GPU, 128GB of unified memory and a 1TB SSD. Unified memory is shared between the processor and graphics, which matters for AI because bigger models need more of it. One reviewer who tested a 64GB version called it the likely sweet spot between cost and performance, and questioned whether 24GB is enough once Windows and games take their share.

Preorders opened in early October, when Microsoft announced pricing, through its online store and selected retailers worldwide. General sales began Oct. 16.

Microsoft is openly targeting Apple customers. If you trade in an eligible MacBook when you buy a Surface Laptop Ultra, you can get up to $1,000 back. Microsoft’s website even frames it as a breakup with your MacBook.

The offer is “up to” $1,000, so check which MacBooks qualify before you count on the full amount. It also applies only when you buy the Surface Laptop Ultra itself.

The RTX Spark is an Arm-based chip that combines an Nvidia Blackwell graphics processor with an Nvidia Grace CPU, which Nvidia designed with MediaTek. Because it’s Arm-based, like Apple’s chips and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon laptops, the Surface runs Windows on Arm. Older apps built for Intel and AMD chips run through Microsoft’s Prism translation layer, which works for most software but can cause problems with some.

The rest of the hardware is strong:

• Display: a 15-inch mini-LED touchscreen at 3270 x 2180, in a 3:2 shape, reaching 2,000 nits of peak HDR brightness. Microsoft says that’s 25% brighter than the M5 MacBook Pro. It doesn’t support pen input, and the glossy glass reflects in bright rooms.
• Ports: three USB-C, one USB-A, HDMI 2.1b, an SD card reader and a headphone jack.
• Magnetic Connect: a magnetic charging cable that snaps onto one of the USB-C ports, much like Apple’s MagSafe.
• Extras: a large haptic trackpad, upgradeable storage and a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello face login.

Reviews landed around launch day, and they mostly agree on the hardware and disagree on the value. One review said the laptop delivers on most of Microsoft’s promises, running a 70-billion-parameter AI model and playing demanding games at speeds that would have seemed impossible on an Arm laptop a year ago.

Another review called it beautiful but built for an AI future that hasn’t fully arrived. Setting up local AI agents needed coding skills or a lot of trial and error, and the reviewer hit bugs including display ghosting, popping speakers and slow reboots. CPU performance was described as underwhelming for the price.

Battery life is the other weak spot. In one independent test, the Surface Laptop Ultra lasted about 9 hours of video playback, the same as a 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro despite having a battery about 27% bigger. Under a heavy graphics benchmark, it lasted just 53 minutes, compared with about 1.5 hours for the MacBook Pro.

This laptop makes sense for a narrow group: developers who want to run large AI models locally, creators who also want to game on the same machine, and Windows users who have envied the MacBook Pro’s build and screen. For them, the combination of 128GB of memory and a capable Nvidia GPU in a laptop is rare.

For everyone else, it’s hard to justify. If you mostly browse, stream, write and join video calls, a laptop costing a fraction of this will feel just as fast. And if you need long battery life away from a plug while doing heavy work, the early tests suggest you’ll want a charger nearby.

Microsoft also announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a $5,999 desktop with the same chip and 128GB of memory, rated at up to 1 petaflop of AI performance and able to run models of up to 120 billion parameters. It’s aimed at the Mac Studio and Mac mini and begins shipping in the US in November.