Microsoft launches $2,599 Surface Laptop Ultra to take on the MacBook Pro

Microsoft today announced the launch schedule and pricing for the Surface Laptop Ultra revealed earlier this year.

The 15-inch Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599, lower than Apple’s 16-inch MacBook Pro at $2,999, and targets the same creator and developer market. Microsoft says it’s designed 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 128 GB 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 applications using Microsoft’s Prism emulation.

According to Microsoft, the Surface Laptop Ultra is its most powerful laptop yet. It has “the brightest, sharpest, most vibrant display” Microsoft has used in a Surface device, with 25% higher peak HDR brightness than the M5 ‌MacBook Pro‌. The mini LED display is a touchscreen and supports gestures and navigation, but not pen input.

The laptop is lighter than the 16-inch ‌MacBook Pro‌, with a large haptic trackpad and expandable storage. Microsoft has even adopted a MagSafe equivalent, adding support for Magnetic Connect. Microsoft claims that Magnetic Connect is “the world’s first integrated magnetic USB-C charger 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.

Alongside 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 delivers 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 MacBook. MacBook owners can get up to $1,000 cash back on the purchase of 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 the Microsoft website.

The Surface Laptop Ultra will directly compete with Apple’s 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, lighter design.