Microsoft and Nvidia are pushing hard into the PC market. The Surface Laptop Ultra, built around Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip, is open for preorder from $2,599 and ships October 16. Asus, Dell, Lenovo, HP and MSI will also sell RTX Spark PCs on the same date, and Windows 11 gets new agentic AI features along the way.
What Microsoft announced for the Surface Laptop Ultra
The Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599 and weighs 4.5 pounds. Microsoft says it delivers the brightest peak HDR on a laptop, and it charges through a magnetic USB-C charger the company calls “magnetic connect”. There is also a developer machine, the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, from $5,999. Both are available for preorder.
Euro pricing and availability in France have not been detailed yet.
The RTX Spark chip at the center
RTX Spark is an Arm-based Nvidia system-on-a-chip, introduced at the end of May for laptops from Microsoft, Dell and HP. The sources reviewed give no core counts, clock speeds or power figures.
Microsoft does offer comparisons against a MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro chip, which should be read as vendor claims:
- up to 2.1 times faster time to first token for a language model;
- 4.3 times faster image generation;
- 6.2 times faster video generation.
What about gaming?
Microsoft showed Gears of War: E-Day running at 60 frames per second. It promises hundreds of AAA and indie games on day one. Call of Duty will not arrive until 2027.
Windows 11 turns toward AI agents
The launch coincides with significant Windows 11 changes:
- the search menu gets natural-language quick actions to change settings, take screenshots and arrange windows;
- the taskbar can launch Copilot when a request calls for it;
- the new Copilot can reach local files and models and act on your behalf, using cloud models by default and switching to local ones when privacy matters, rolling out over the next few months;
- Microsoft Execution Containers, which sandbox agents and control what data they share, reach general availability;
- agents must attribute their actions to themselves, and IT admins can set agent rules across a fleet;
- Windows ML becomes the runtime for deploying models across GPU, NPU and CPU.
GitHub’s HydraFusion, which balances local and cloud agents, arrives on Windows on October 15. DGX Spark and DGX Station support is also coming, with HP and Dell desktops due “later this year”.
What it means for you
A premium laptop above $2,500 is not aimed at everyone, but five major makers sharing one platform on October 16 creates a real alternative to Apple and Qualcomm silicon. Wait for independent reviews before buying, since the headline gains come from Microsoft. Which model tempts you most? Tell us in the comments, and read more news on Wanda-techs.com.
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