Microsoft opened pre-orders for the Surface Laptop Ultra on October 7, 2026, and says it begins shipping October 16. It is a 15-inch laptop built around NVIDIA’s RTX Spark chip with up to 128GB of unified memory, and Microsoft’s product page lists it at $2,599.99.
The pitch is to run large AI models on the machine in front of you instead of renting time in the cloud. Whether that is worth the money depends on what you would actually do with that much memory.
TL;DR: The Surface Laptop Ultra is a 15-inch RTX Spark laptop with up to 128GB of unified memory, listed at $2,599.99 and shipping October 16, according to Microsoft. Microsoft says it can run local AI models of up to 120 billion parameters. Five other PC makers have RTX Spark laptops on pre-order too. The speed claims against a MacBook Pro come from preproduction units and commissioned tests, so treat them as a starting point.
What the Surface Laptop Ultra offers
Picture a developer waiting on a cloud model that is slow, metered, and sending every file off the machine. The Surface Laptop Ultra is aimed squarely at that person. Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra product page describes local agent workflows powered by models up to 120 billion parameters.
Here is what the page lists.
| Spec | Value |
|---|---|
| Price | $2,599.99 |
| Chip | NVIDIA RTX Spark Superchip |
| CPU | Up to 20-core NVIDIA Grace |
| Memory | Up to 128GB unified |
| Storage | SSD up to 2TB |
| Display | 15-inch touchscreen, 120 Hz |
| Weight | Under 4.5 lbs |
| Ports | 3 USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, SD card reader, headphone jack |
| Ships | October 16, 2026 |
The page shows a single price and does not break it down by memory or storage. Microsoft does not say what the 128GB configuration costs.
Who else is selling an RTX Spark laptop
Microsoft is not alone on this chip. Its post lists five other pre-orders that ship from October 16: the ASUS ProArt P16 and P14, the Dell XPS 16 Creator Edition, the HP OmniBook Ultra 16, the Lenovo Yoga 9n 2-in-1, and the MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+.
Microsoft’s RTX Spark laptops page lists no prices for these, and says pricing and availability are set by the retailer. It claims designs starting at 14 mm thick and as light as 3 lbs.
A Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a desktop for experimenting with local models, is also on pre-order and ships to U.S. customers in November. The post gives no price for it, but it is a way to test whether local AI fits your work without buying a laptop first.
How the MacBook Pro comparison holds up
Microsoft compares RTX Spark laptops against a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro chip. It claims up to 2.1x faster time to first token on a 27B model, up to 4.3x faster image generation, and up to 6.2x faster video generation.
The footnotes matter here. The tests were commissioned by Microsoft and NVIDIA, run on preproduction devices in September 2026, and the Microsoft post says its benchmark configurations used 64GB of memory. That is a fair thing to publish, but independent reviews will tell you more.
Apple’s own plans are shifting as well, which we covered in our look at the MacBook Pro chip roadmap. Comparing against today’s model may age quickly.
Who should wait before pre-ordering
For most people this laptop will be more machine than they need. A 120 billion parameter model is not something a student or an office worker will miss, and the page gives no battery life figure to weigh against the weight.
Some of the story is also still ahead. Microsoft says Copilot’s new local abilities on Copilot+ PCs, local context, local actions, and local models, will roll out over the coming months. Google’s Gemini app for Windows already competes for the same desktop shortcut, so the assistant you end up using locally is not settled.
If you are a developer or creator who already hits the limits of cloud AI, this is worth a close look. Microsoft’s trade-in offer for U.S. and Canadian Microsoft Store purchases runs from October 7 to November 23, 2026. Everyone else can watch for the first independent reviews after October 16.
