How Microsoft built its MacBook Pro competitor
Microsoft is launching the Surface Laptop Ultra, a high-end device designed to compete directly with the MacBook Pro. The laptop features Nvidia's new Arm-based RTX Spark chip, marking a strategic shift for Microsoft to improve its high-performance computing capabilities.
Why it matters
The collaboration between Microsoft and Nvidia signals a major push to challenge Apple's dominance in the premium laptop market using specialized AI-focused hardware.
Before Microsoft releases a laptop to the public, it needs to put the device through its paces. That all happens inside a windowless, warehouse-like lab on the company’s Redmond, Washington, campus, where the team developing Surface devices programs robots to press their buttons thousands of times, pelts devices with radio waves from giant antennas, and builds contraptions that drop objects from increasingly daring heights to see whether the products can hold up.
Its latest laptop, the product I’m here to see, really needs to hold up. The Surface Laptop Ultra isn’t just another high-end config of the Surface Laptop, it’s the debut platform for Nvidia’s RTX Spark — Nvidia’s entrance into the world of Arm-based PC chips, and a chance to blow expectations out of the water when it comes to what a Windows laptop is capable of.
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