Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra leaks reveal high-end specs and $7,000 price tag

Microsoft's upcoming Surface Laptop Ultra, powered by NVIDIA's RTX Spark chip, is shaping up to be a high-performance device with premium pricing. Leaked specifications suggest two chip tiers: an entry model with an 18-core CPU and a 5,120-core GPU, paired with either 24GB or 32GB of memory, and a top-tier model featuring a 20-core CPU, 6,144 GPU cores, and memory options ranging from 32GB to a massive 128GB.

The device, teased in June as the "most powerful Surface Laptop ever," boasts a 15-inch mini-LED display with up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness, a 262 PPI touchscreen with Dolby Vision, and a haptic trackpad 30% larger than the current model. The chassis is reported to be under 18mm thick and weigh less than 4.5 pounds, with port selection including three USB-C ports, one USB-A, HDMI, an SD card slot, and a headphone jack.

Pricing details, though unconfirmed, suggest a steep range. The base model is expected to start "well above $2,000," with some configurations potentially exceeding $7,000. Microsoft is set to reveal the Surface Laptop Ultra at a Windows and Surface event in San Francisco on October 7, with pre-orders rumored to open the same day and shipments following in mid-October.

Early hands-on experience with a pre-release unit in July indicated rough drivers and inconsistent gaming performance. No data on GPU-accelerated creative workloads is available, leaving that aspect of the device's performance untested.