Microsoft has a big laptop launch this week.
The company will hold a Windows and Surface event on Tuesday, October 7, at 10:00am PT, with a YouTube livestream. The star should be the Surface Laptop Ultra, the first Surface built on NVIDIA's RTX Spark chip.
Microsoft first showed the Surface Laptop Ultra on May 31, just before Computex. It called it "the most powerful Surface Laptop ever built." But two things were missing then and are still missing now: the price and the ship date. Microsoft has only said it ships "later this year." Both are expected on October 7.
Here is what we know for sure, what is only a rumor, and how it compares with Apple's 16-inch MacBook Pro.
Key dates
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| May 31 | Microsoft announces the Surface Laptop Ultra |
| Early June | RTX Spark laptops shown at Computex from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI |
| October 7, 10am PT | Microsoft Surface event (price and ship date expected) |
| Fall 2026 | RTX Spark laptops start shipping (exact dates vary by brand) |
Surface Laptop Ultra vs 16-inch MacBook Pro
| Surface Laptop Ultra | MacBook Pro 16 (M5 Pro / M5 Max) | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Not announced yet | On sale now (check Apple's store) |
| Screen | 15" mini-LED touchscreen, 262 ppi | 16.2" Liquid Retina XDR, no touch |
| Peak HDR brightness | Up to 2,000 nits | Up to 1,600 nits |
| Chip | NVIDIA RTX Spark (Arm), Blackwell RTX GPU | Apple M5 Pro or M5 Max |
| Max memory | Up to 128GB unified | Up to 128GB unified (M5 Max, 40-core GPU) |
| AI compute | Up to 1 petaflop (NVIDIA/Microsoft claim) | Not given in petaflops |
| Ports | HDMI, USB-C, USB-A, SD card, headphone jack | 3x Thunderbolt 5, HDMI, SDXC, headphone jack, MagSafe 3 |
| Battery claim | "All-day" (no hours given) | Up to 24 hours video (M5 Pro) |
Surface figures are from Microsoft's May announcement. Microsoft says features may change before release.
The top RTX Spark chip (called N1X in reports) has a 20-core CPU, up to 6,144 CUDA GPU cores and 128GB of memory. A smaller N1 version has 10 or 12 CPU cores, up to 2,048 CUDA cores and up to 64GB of memory. We do not yet know which versions Microsoft will sell.
What the price might be (rumors only)
No price is official. Here is what has been reported so far, and the numbers do not all agree:
- Morgan Stanley analysts said, after talking to PC brands at Computex, that N1X laptops would need to sell for about $2,899, and N1 laptops for about $1,799.
- Leaker Roland Quandt reported a Surface Laptop configuration with a lower-end RTX Spark chip, 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage at around €2,000 in Europe.
- Some price listing sites show $2,999, but these are guesses, not confirmed prices.
So the starting price could land anywhere from under $2,000 to about $3,000, depending on the chip. Treat every number above as a guess until Tuesday.
Where each one wins
Surface Laptop Ultra wins on:
- Screen brightness and touch. 2,000 nits beats the MacBook's 1,600 nits, and the Surface has a touchscreen.
- CUDA. It is the first Surface with full NVIDIA CUDA support. Many AI and 3D tools are built for CUDA first. Microsoft says it can run AI models with up to 120 billion parameters on the laptop itself.
- Ports. USB-A and a full-size SD slot mean fewer dongles.
- Windows. If your work apps are Windows-only, this is the obvious pick.
MacBook Pro 16 wins on:
- Proven battery life. Apple quotes up to 24 hours of video. Microsoft has only said "all-day."
- Known price and app support. It is on sale now, reviewed, and macOS apps already run natively on Apple silicon. RTX Spark is a new Arm chip for Windows, so some older Windows apps will run through emulation.
- Thunderbolt 5. Three fast ports for external drives and displays.
Which should you buy?
- AI developers and CUDA users: the Surface Laptop Ultra (or another RTX Spark laptop) is the one to watch. Running big models locally on CUDA in a thin laptop is new.
- Video editors and Mac users: the MacBook Pro 16 is the safer buy today. It is proven, and you know what it costs.
- Windows creators who want a great screen: the Surface looks very strong on paper. Wait for the price.
- Shoppers on a budget: this is not your laptop. Expect premium pricing. A Snapdragon or Intel laptop, or one of the new Googlebooks, costs far less.
- Wait: for most people, the right move is to wait. Get the price on October 7, then wait for independent reviews of battery life, heat and app compatibility. Other RTX Spark laptops, like the Dell XPS 16 and ASUS ProArt P16, are also due this fall.
To see how Apple, Qualcomm, Intel and AMD laptop chips compare today, read our laptop chip benchmark. If you want a cheaper Gemini laptop instead, see all five Googlebooks compared, or line up any two devices with our comparison tool.
Other tech news this week
- Google released Gemini 4 Argon on September 30, its most advanced AI model so far. It is only open to a small group of security teams for now. Paid API customers and Google AI Ultra subscribers come next, with no date given.
- Oppo launches the F35 and F35 Pro in India on October 5, with batteries reported at 8,000 to 10,000mAh and 80W charging.
- vivo brings the X Fold6 foldable to India on October 6, after its global launch in early October.
Sources
- Microsoft Windows Blog: Introducing Surface Laptop Ultra
- Thurrott: Microsoft announces Surface Laptop Ultra with Nvidia RTX Spark chip
- PC Watch: RTX Spark Surface to be announced October 7
- PC Guide: Nvidia RTX Spark specs, price estimates and models
- Notebookcheck: Surface Laptop Ultra price tipped
- Apple: MacBook Pro tech specs
- TechCrunch: Google releases Gemini 4 Argon
- True-Tech: Smartphones launching in October 2026
Product image: Microsoft press materials.
