Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra is here.

This is Microsoft's MacBook Pro [music] competitor, the Surface Laptop Ultra. It uses Nvidia's new RTX Spark chips inside, [music] so it's capable of running all your normal apps, as well as local AI models, new Windows AI features, and even games like Gears of War: E-Day. The hardware looks very similar to the MacBook [music] Pro, and Microsoft has even added a full SD card reader, HDMI port, and three USB-C [music] ports. The Surface Laptop Ultra also has a couple of hardware party tricks. This slightly bigger USB-C [music] port on the side is special, as you can slot a new magnetic USB-C charger into it. It's very similar to the old Surface Connect port, but ready for the modern USB-C [music] era. Microsoft has also included a larger haptic trackpad on the Surface Laptop Ultra, which gives you subtle feedback when you move windows around and in other parts of Windows 11. The Surface Laptop Ultra is the flagship RTX Spark laptop, and it [music] starts at $2,599 with 24 gigs of memory. There will also be plenty of others from Microsoft's OEMs, with some costing up to $7,000 for 128 gig models. Most [music] of that cost is for the memory and chips inside, making it possible to run local AI models free of charge, and ones that [music] used to require using costly tokens in the cloud. Nvidia's chips will also power new Windows search features that make it a lot easier to find information, change [music] Windows settings, and get Windows to complete actions on your behalf. If you're not interested in all these AI features, then the Surface Laptop Ultra and other RTX Spark laptops [music] should also be very capable of running the latest AAA games. I got to try Gears of War: E-Day, and you can see it running smoothly at 60 frames per second. And it even does this with a brief stutter when you unplug and switch to battery. [music] However, I did notice there were times when the frame rate drops after some continued gameplay. [music] RTX Spark laptops will start arriving in stores on October 16th, and for more information about these laptops, check out theverge.com.