Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra is a behemoth that improves on MacBook MagSafe charging

Earlier this year, Microsoft teased the Surface Laptop Ultra as the “most powerful thing we’ve ever made” thanks to the presence of the Nvidia RTX Spark chipset. Now Microsoft is ready to fully take the wrappers off its new “builder class PC” and ultimate MacBook Pro competitor beyond that powerhouse chipset. Including the price tag. More on that later.

For now, let’s start with the display. It has a 15-inch Mini-LED PixelSense Ultra touchscreen with 262ppi. That’ll pump out an astonishing 2,000 nits. Goodness gracious! For reference, in testing, the current Surface Laptop 13.8 (8th edition) is rated for up to 600 nits.

Microsoft is cramming in a 30% larger haptic trackpad and there’s the most posts ever featured on a Surface device. They include 2x USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, 3.5mm audio, along with space for a full-size SD card reader.

However, the star of the show in terms of ports is the new and unimaginatively-named Magnetic Connect. It’s a bit like Apple’s MagSafe, but it brings magnetic charging via a traditional USB-C port rather than a bespoke solution. It can offer the ability to transfer data and provide power. The MagSafe port on the MacBook range cannot transfer data and you’ll need a regular USB-C cable for that. So score one to Microsoft.

In terms of the additional specs behind that Nvidia RTX Spark chipset, Microsoft says it has up to 20 CPU cores based on ARM architecture, 6144 CUDA cores and supports up to 128GB of unified memory. The GPUs are based on the Blackwell platform that powers the Nvidia 5000 series graphics cards. You can choose from the NVIDIA Blackwell RTX 5120-core GPU or NVIDIA Blackwell RTX 6144-core GPU. The SSD is up to 2TB.

Microsoft recons it has 2.5 times more thermal capacity than all other Surface Models and can even pump out 99% of its power capabilities when running off the battery.

All of this is going to cost you a pretty penny. Unsurprisingly. Microsoft is opening pre-orders for $2,599/£2,600 for the base model. Bear in mind this is a super premium product designed for unflinching creator workloads at the “frontier of local AI and 3D graphics.” Microsoft will release the Surface Laptop Ultra on October 16 and, in the US, they’ll give you a grand if you trade in an eligible MacBook Pro.