Microsoft unveils Surface Laptop Ultra and expands local AI features in Windows
publishers 25articles 35first reported 5 Oct, 16:10 UTCdeveloping since 6 Oct · 9 editions
Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Ultra, a high-end computer aimed at developers and creators, alongside new Windows features designed to split artificial intelligence workloads between PCs and cloud services.
The 15-inch laptop is powered by Nvidia’s Arm-based RTX Spark chip and starts at $2,599 for a configuration with an eight-core CPU, 24GB of memory and 512GB of storage, according to The Verge. It is scheduled for release on October 16. Higher-end versions support up to 128GB of unified memory, while storage is user-upgradable.
The Surface Laptop Ultra has a Mini-LED touchscreen with a 3:2 aspect ratio and peak brightness of up to 2,000 nits. Its aluminum chassis is 18mm thick and weighs 4.5 pounds. Ports include USB-C, USB-A, HDMI, a headphone jack and a full-size SD card reader. A new Magnetic Connect system provides magnetic USB-C charging while carrying power, video and data.
Microsoft said the laptop can deliver 99% of its maximum performance while unplugged and has 2.5 times the thermal capacity of its previous notebooks. The company also announced a $5,999 Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, with shipments planned for November.
At the San Francisco event, Microsoft described Windows as a “hybrid intelligence” platform combining local and cloud AI. A Copilot demonstration showed an agent searching local folders for tax documents, renaming and compressing them, and drafting an email with the files attached. Microsoft also previewed quick actions from the Windows search bar.
HOW THIS STORY WAS MADE
Written from 8 articles, 4 with the publisher's own text; 8 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 42 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
- Publishers
- 25
- Source articles
- 35
- Given to the writer
- 8, 4 with the article's own text
- Independent newsrooms
- 8
- This version written
- 42 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
- Publication gate
- passed
- Human review
- none
WHAT THE EDITOR DID
The second model checked the writer's draft against the same sources and published it as written.
Written by a language model from the sources above, then checked by a second model that may only cut, attribute or correct. How it works →