NEW DELHI: Microsoft has opened pre-orders for the Surface Laptop Ultra, a 15-inch machine built around NVIDIA's new RTX Spark Superchip. Microsoft calls it its most powerful Surface laptop so far. It starts at USD 2,599 MSRP and ships on 16 October, according to Microsoft's Surface announcement on 7 October.
India buyers should note one thing first. Microsoft's India Surface Laptop Ultra page lists the USD 2,599.99 pre-order figure and does not show a rupee price (price as of 8 October 2026, 1:25 AM IST). Microsoft has not announced an India launch date or India pricing for this model so far.
What is inside
The headline is the chip. Microsoft says the RTX Spark Superchip pairs an NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 6,144 cores and an NVIDIA Grace CPU with up to 20 cores, sharing up to 128GB of unified memory. Microsoft puts AI performance at up to 1 petaflop and says the laptop can run models with more than 120 billion parameters locally, without sending data to the cloud.
To keep that hardware cool, Microsoft says it designed a new thermal architecture with up to 2.5 times the thermal power capacity of its current Surface laptops. Even so, the machine is under 18mm thick and weighs under 4.5 pounds, about 2kg.
The display is a 15-inch PixelSense Ultra touchscreen. Microsoft claims up to 25% brighter peak HDR than the MacBook Pro M5 Pro, based on published specifications, though that is the company's own comparison. The touchpad is 30% larger than on the Surface Laptop 8th Edition, and the storage is user removable, which is unusual in a thin laptop and helpful if you want to upgrade later.
Ports and charging
Charging gets a new idea Microsoft calls Magnetic Connect, which it describes as the first built-in magnetic USB-C charging on a laptop. The bundled cable snaps magnetically onto the right-side USB-C port and releases easily, and the port still works as a normal USB-C port for video, data and accessories. Besides that, the laptop has two more USB-C ports, HDMI, USB-A, an SD card reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack, and Microsoft says it can drive three 4K displays.
It comes in Platinum and Nightfall colours. Microsoft also announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, a compact desktop for developers at USD 5,999, which is US only and ships in November.
Surface is not the only RTX Spark laptop. In its Windows announcement, Microsoft said pre-orders also opened for 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+. None of those makers has announced India pricing for the new models so far, so Indian buyers will be waiting on several brands at once.
The user-removable storage deserves a second mention. Most thin laptops now solder everything to the board, so a failed or full drive means a trip to a service centre. Microsoft says replacement parts and service options vary by market, so check what Microsoft offers in India before counting on a cheap upgrade later.
Who it is for
This is not a mainstream laptop. At USD 2,599 before tax, it is aimed at developers, creators and AI researchers who want to run large language models, image generators and video tools on their own machine. For most buyers, Microsoft's regular range is the more sensible choice, and we covered the Surface Pro 12 and Surface Laptop 13 with Snapdragon X2 Plus earlier.
The pitch is aimed squarely at Apple's high-end MacBook Pro. In India, Apple's laptop range starts much lower, with the MacBook Air from Rs 1,49,900 on Apple's India store, but the MacBook Pro M5 Pro is the model Microsoft names in its display claim.
If you have family in the US planning to bring one back, check the customs position before they buy. Our guide to the Baggage Rules 2026 and the laptop allowance explains how one laptop is treated on arrival. A US-bought Surface also carries a US keyboard layout and its warranty terms may differ, so confirm both before ordering.
