Microsoft's answer to the MacBook Pro starts at $2,599
What's the story
Microsoft has confirmed the launch date of its highly-anticipated Surface Laptop Ultra. The device, which features the new NVIDIA RTX Spark chip, will be up for grabs starting October 16. The base model will be priced at $2,599 and come with an 18-core CPU, 24GB RAM, as well as 512GB of storage.
Features
The device features a 15-inch HDR touchscreen
The Surface Laptop Ultra boasts a 15-inch HDR touchscreen display with a peak brightness of up to 2,000 nits.
It also has an expanded trackpad that supports haptic feedback.
The device is housed in a sleek aluminum chassis that is similar to the MacBook Pro, which it directly competes against.
Performance
It is powered by NVIDIA's new RTX Spark chip
The Surface Laptop Ultra is powered by NVIDIA's new RTX Spark chip, an Arm-based processor with up to 128GB of unified memory.
This makes it a high-performance machine for creative software, gaming, and local AI tasks.
The device comes in different configurations, with the most expensive model priced at $5,899.99 offering 128GB RAM, a 20-core CPU and 1TB storage.
Ports
The laptop comes with multiple ports for improved connectivity
The Surface Laptop Ultra also comes with a host of ports for improved connectivity.
These include three USB-C ports, an HDMI port, a single USB-A port, a full-size SD card reader, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
This wide range of options makes it easier for users to connect their devices and peripherals seamlessly.
AI integration
Local AI processing could disrupt Intel and AMD dominance
The Surface Laptop Ultra runs on NVIDIA's RTX Spark chips, allowing local execution of AI tasks instead of relying on cloud computing.
This could potentially disrupt Intel and AMD's long-standing dominance in the industry while reducing reliance on Microsoft's Azure cloud.
However, rising hardware prices pose a challenge to this shift toward local AI processing.