Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra Takes Direct Aim at the MacBook Pro

Microsoft is preparing to ship its most powerful Surface laptop yet, and this time it’s built around Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip. The Surface Laptop Ultra, announced this week, is the first Surface device to use an Arm-based processor from Nvidia, and it’s clearly designed to compete head-to-head with Apple’s MacBook Pro. The machine will support up to 128GB of unified memory, a configuration Microsoft says is meant for creators, developers, and AI builders who need to run large models locally. Unlike earlier high-end Surface models, the Laptop Ultra sticks with a traditional clamshell design. Previous attempts, like the Surface Book with its detachable screen and the Surface Laptop Studio with its sliding display, added complexity that limited their appeal. This time, Microsoft kept it simple: a powerful laptop that looks and feels like the rest of the Surface Laptop line, just with much more horsepower. The Laptop Ultra will include USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, an SD card slot, and a headphone jack. It also features what Microsoft calls the largest haptic trackpad it has ever put on a Surface. The 15-inch PixelSense display reaches up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness. Pricing and exact configurations haven’t been announced, but Microsoft says the device will arrive later this year.