Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: a strong rival to the MacBook Pro?

Microsoft has announced the Surface Laptop Ultra, a new platform for Nvidia's new RTX Spark chipset. It's a significant entry for Nvidia into the world of Arm-based computer processors. An earlier attempt at the Copilot Plus PC initiative in 2024 was aimed at the MacBook Air, but this new one is aimed squarely at the more demanding MacBook Pro users.

The device has a high-quality aluminum chassis, a large touchpad and a base with hidden vents. It has a high-resolution touchscreen and is packed with ports on the sides, including an HDMI port and an SD card reader. The laptop is priced at the highest end of the range, with the base model with 24 GB of RAM starting at around €2,370, while the top-of-the-line version with 128 GB of RAM costs as much as €5,380. The integrated RTX Spark chip combines the processor and graphics, allowing you to locally run complex AI models with 280 billion parameters and work in Blender, Premiere or Photoshop.

Engineers have increased the fans and battery space due to the smaller motherboard. The case does not use glue, which simplifies repairs. Among the design innovations, the world's first built-in magnetic USB-C connector with 140-watt power delivery stands out, which does not occupy a separate port. Despite the excitement about the new chipset, it is worth maintaining a degree of skepticism about playing games, as the Arm architecture requires emulation of most titles. The laptop is primarily intended for developers and content creators.