Microsoft Launches $2,599 Surface Laptop Ultra to Take on MacBook Pro

Oct 8, 2026 · 12:45 AM UTC ·2 min read · 0 reactions · 0 comments · 12 views

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TL;DR · WeSearch summary

Microsoft has announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, a 15-inch high-performance device priced at $2,599 to compete directly with Apple's MacBook Pro. The laptop features a new Nvidia RTX Spark Arm-based chip, up to 128GB of unified memory, and a mini-LED touchscreen display. It is set to launch on October 16, accompanied by a $5,999 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box and a trade-in promotion for MacBook owners.

Key facts

▪The Surface Laptop Ultra is priced starting at $2,599, which is lower than the $2,999 price of the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
▪The device utilizes an Nvidia RTX Spark chip featuring a Blackwell RTX GPU and a Grace CPU, running Windows on Arm with Prism emulation.
▪Microsoft is offering up to $1,000 in cash back to customers who trade in an eligible MacBook when purchasing the new laptop.
▪The laptop includes a magnetic USB-C charging system called Magnetic Connect, which Microsoft claims is the first of its kind built into a laptop.
▪Alongside the laptop, Microsoft announced the $5,999 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, which offers up to 1 petaflop of AI performance.

How this story was covered

6 outlets in our directory ran this story, first to last over 4 hours. All of the coverage we found sits in one bucket: centre. That one-sidedness is itself worth noticing.

Centre · 5

▪ Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,600, running Nvidia's RTX Spark chip — TechSpot
▪ Microsoft Surface Ultra announced with Nvidia RTX Spark for $2,599 — and it's going right after the MacBook Pro — Tom's Guide
▪ The first Nvidia RTX Spark laptops cost up to $7,000 — The Verge
▪ Surface Laptop Ultra hands-on: A beautiful beast powered by NVIDIA's RTX Spark — Engadget
▪ Microsoft and Nvidia launch Surface Laptop Ultra with RTX Spark — Tom's Hardware

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Original publisher	MacRumors
Canonical URL	https://www.macrumors.com/2026/10/07/microsoft-surface-laptop-ultra/
Publication time	Thu, 08 Oct 2026 00:45:43 +0000
Retrieval time	2026-10-08T00:48:15.123Z
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Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand

Microsoft Launches $2,599 Surface Laptop Ultra to Take on MacBook ProWednesday October 7, 2026 5:45 pm PDT by Juli CloverMicrosoft today announced launch timing and pricing for the Surface Laptop Ultra that it unveiled earlier this year. The 15-inch Surface Laptop Ultra is priced starting at $2,599, undercutting Apple's $2,999 16-inch MacBook Pro, and it targets the same creator and developer market. Microsoft says it is built for "demanding creative, software development, AI, engineering, and 3D workloads." Microsoft's new laptop uses an Nvidia RTX Spark chip, which includes an Nvidia Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 cores and an Nvidia Grace CPU with up to 20 cores. It supports up to 128GB of unified memory and has a new thermal architecture to support the hardware.

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