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

Wednesday October 7, 2026 5:45 pm PDT by Juli Clover

Microsoft 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. The RTX Spark is an Arm-based chip, so the laptop runs Windows on Arm with x86 apps using Microsoft's Prism emulation.

According to Microsoft, the Surface Laptop Ultra is its most powerful notebook to date. It has the "brightest, sharpest, and most vivid display" Microsoft has used in a Surface device, with peak HDR brightness that's 25% higher than the M5 ‌MacBook Pro‌'s. The mini-LED display is a touchscreen, and it supports gestures and navigation, but not pen input.

The laptop is lighter than the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, with a large haptic trackpad and upgradeable storage. Microsoft even adopted a MagSafe equivalent, adding support for Magnetic Connect. Microsoft says Magnetic Connect is the "world's first built-in magnetic USB-C charging on a laptop." The device has three USB-C ports, a USB-A port, an HDMI port, an SD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

Along with the Surface Laptop Ultra, Microsoft announced the $5,999 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box to compete with devices like the Mac Studio and Mac mini. It is equipped with an Nvidia RTX Spark chip and offers up to 1 petaflop of AI performance with support for AI models up to 120B parameters.

Microsoft is offering a bonus to customers who "break up" with their MacBooks. MacBook owners can get up to $1,000 cash back when purchasing a Surface Laptop Ultra by trading in an eligible MacBook. The Surface Laptop Ultra launches on October 16.

"We're confident that once today's creators and developers experience everything Surface Laptop Ultra has to offer, they won't look back," reads Microsoft's website.

The Surface Laptop Ultra will directly compete with Apple's rumored OLED MacBook, which could also have an Ultra name. The MacBook Ultra is expected to feature a touchscreen, M5 Pro and M5 Max chips, and a thinner and lighter design.

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Top Rated Comments

Quu

2 weeks ago

My complaint with Windows PC's has never been the hardware, it's always that darn Windows operating system that frankly Microsoft keeps making more anti-consumer and annoying to use. I would never buy a Windows powered laptop.

Score: 65 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Zwhaler

2 weeks ago

Windows is still pretty awful to use in my experience. And PCs still have the hallmarks of a crappy device more often than not in my misfortune of having to buy and use them again the past 5 years.

Score: 47 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Warped9

2 weeks ago

It’s crippled out of the box by Windows 11. Plus they’re offering a $1000 bribe to lure you away.

We know Mac prices have gone up, but Windows PCs have also gone up, and they were going up before Mac prices started rising. Presently there are a lot of truly garbage PCs out there at “Are you crazy?” prices—devices with 8gb RAM, i3 and Ryzen 3 chips as well as N-series. Athlons and Celerons, and 256gb storage. Half decent Windows’ machines are $900 plus in Canada unless they’re on sale for maybe $799. The rest is garbage for insane money.

Even though I can shake my head at current Mac prices they still look like a better buy than most if not all Windows machines.

Score: 36 Votes (Like | Disagree)

awshucks

2 weeks ago

Microsoft says Magnetic Connect is the "world's first built-in magnetic USB-C charging on a laptop."

Actually, they're not bringing anything new to the table. My 2017 MBP’s loose USB-C ports made the cable easily come out and my laptop was protected if I tripped on the cord.

Score: 23 Votes (Like | Disagree)