Microsoft has put a price on the Surface Laptop Ultra, and confirmed launch dates. Pre-orders are open now from $2,599, with shipments expected to begin on 16 October.
The Microsoft Surface Ultra is coming for the MacBook Pro in its power, performance and portability. It's aimed at creators running intensive workflows, apparently it can run heavy code, render a film in Da Vinci at the same time as running a AAA title game. The Microsoft showcase told a story of one creator creating a scene in Blender, passing it to Unreal Engine and then into Photoshop. The process took hours rather than the usual days but, of course, we haven't tested it yet. This may be heading to the top of our best laptop for 3D modelling guide.
The important feature for creatives is how the Ultra uses memory. Its RTX Spark chip lets the processor and graphics share a single pool of up to 128GB, rather than splitting resources between the two. In practice, that could mean complex 3D scenes and long video timelines that would overwhelm the graphics memory of a typical laptop. We'll need real-world testing to see how it plays out in a heavy Blender scene or a packed Premiere Pro timeline.
Nvidia says the platform can run large AI models directly on the machine, up to 120 billion parameters. For artists experimenting with AI tools, that points to a future where more of that work happens on your own laptop instead of through cloud services. Microsoft quotes up to 1 petaflop of AI performance, though that's a manufacturer figure and we haven't seen it tested yet.
What you can expect:
- A 15-inch PixelSense Ultra touchscreen, which Microsoft says has the brightest peak HDR of any laptop. Windows Central describes it as a mini-LED panel.
- A chassis under 18mm thin and weight of under 4.5lbs.
- 2.5x the thermal capacity of existing Surface Laptops, with the machine retaining 99% of its power on battery. That's a big deal if you edit or render away from a desk.
- The most ports ever on a Surface Laptop, including the world's first built-in magnetic USB-C charger.
This is being pitched as a revolutionary laptop ecosystem, which draws on many huge players in creative tech to provide everything a creative needs. What do you think of the offer – and the price point?
