Microsoft has opened pre-orders for the Surface Laptop Ultra, a 15-inch laptop built around the Nvidia RTX Spark Superchip with up to 128GB of unified memory. It starts at $2,599.99 and is aimed squarely at the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Microsoft even pairs it with a trade-in offer for MacBook owners.
The Surface Laptop Ultra features a mini-LED touchscreen, an up to 20-core Nvidia Grace CPU and Blackwell RTX graphics. Apple’s MacBook Pro covers the other side of the comparison, with the 16-inch model offered in M5 Pro and M5 Max configurations.
Surface Laptop Ultra Matches the MacBook Pro on 128GB of Unified Memory
Both laptops top out at 128GB of unified memory shared between CPU and GPU. On Apple’s side that is the 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M5 Max chip and 40-core GPU, which also reaches 614GB/s of memory bandwidth and up to 8TB of storage. Surface Laptop Ultra tops out at 2TB of storage.
Microsoft says the GPU can address only part of the 128GB, and the exact share depends on configuration and workload. The company also lists full CUDA support, 1 petaflop of AI compute and local agent models of up to 120B parameters. The petaflop figure is a theoretical FP4 number that uses sparsity. Apple publishes its AI gains as speedups over older chips, with the M5 family rated at up to 8x faster than the M1 family.
On the remaining specs, the two laptops split in several places:
- Surface Laptop Ultra has a 15-inch mini-LED touchscreen at 262 pixels per inch. The 16-inch MacBook Pro has a 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display at 254 pixels per inch.
- Peak HDR brightness is rated at up to 2,000 nits on Surface Laptop Ultra and 1,600 nits on the 16-inch MacBook Pro. Microsoft measures its number over a 10 percent window and says sustained brightness is lower, while Apple rates the MacBook Pro at 1,000 nits sustained.
- Surface Laptop Ultra weighs under 4.5 pounds and measures under 18 mm thick. The 16-inch MacBook Pro weighs 4.7 pounds and is 0.66 inch (1.68 cm) thick.
- Microsoft lists three USB-C ports, USB-A, HDMI, an SD card reader and a headphone jack. The 16-inch MacBook Pro has three Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, an SDXC card slot, a headphone jack and MagSafe 3.
- Microsoft promises all-day battery life on Surface Laptop Ultra. Apple rates the 16-inch MacBook Pro at up to 24 hours of video streaming with M5 Pro and up to 22 hours with M5 Max.
Microsoft Is Offering MacBook Owners Up to $1,000 Back to Switch
The Surface Laptop Ultra page opens with a banner telling visitors to break up with their MacBook for up to $1,000. The trade-in offer runs from October 7 through November 23, 2026 and applies to purchases at the Microsoft Store online in the United States and Canada. The cash back varies by device and trade-in value, and the old laptop has to be mailed in within 15 days of completing the online trade-in.
Microsoft raised prices across the Surface lineup earlier this year, and a fully configured 15-inch Surface Laptop with Snapdragon X Elite, 64GB of RAM and 1TB of storage already sat around $3,649. The $2,599.99 starting price puts Surface Laptop Ultra well above that lineup’s entry point. Microsoft’s page lists only the starting configuration and price.
Touch Is the Biggest Difference, and Apple Is Reportedly Working on It
Surface Laptop Ultra supports touch input only. Microsoft notes that Surface Pen, Surface Slim Pen and similar accessories are not supported. Apple has not shipped a touchscreen MacBook Pro.
That could change soon, with a touchscreen MacBook Pro reported for as early as October. The laptop is expected to have an OLED display. The launch could slip to November, as per the latest news.
Our Take
Microsoft finally has a laptop that can be set next to the 16-inch MacBook Pro on memory, ports and display brightness, and the 128GB ceiling is the headline. I would wait for real benchmarks before putting weight on the 1 petaflop figure, since it is a theoretical FP4 number. The trade-in deal makes it clear who Microsoft wants to reach. Anyone considering the offer has until November 23, 2026 to claim it.
