Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra Review: The First Real AI PC

A new fleet of Windows laptops has arrived, and the Surface Laptop Ultra is its flagship vessel. Ever since it was announced, it's been one of my anticipated laptops of the year. It not only promises to be a beefed-up evolution of the Surface Laptop (a laptop I already really liked), but also debuts a brand-new piece of silicon: the Nvidia RTX Spark N1X "superchip." The goal is a single laptop that can handle on-device AI, gaming, content creation, and nearly anything else you might throw at it. If that sounds a bit like a MacBook Pro, you're on the right track. But unlike previous attempts to dethrone Apple, the Surface Laptop Ultra is trading blows with the very best. I just wish it had the battery life to truly keep up with the MacBook Pro. Killer Looks and Sounds This isn't Microsoft's first foray into a more powerful laptop. The company first tried that in 2021 with the Surface Laptop Studio. At the time, it was the company's answer to the MacBook Pro: a laptop-tablet hybrid oriented toward the growing class of content creators and media professionals. It even came with a discrete graphics card (though not a particularly good one). The Surface Laptop Ultra rejects the Studio's form-factor experimentation and opts for a more straightforward but polished approach. It's a powerful clamshell laptop that's designed for people who need the extra performance—whether for gaming, content creation, or on-device AI workflows. The ideal demographic, I suppose, is someone who does some of all of that. At 4.4 pounds, the Surface Laptop Ultra is lighter than the 16-inch MacBook Pro but slightly thicker. It's actually the thickest of all the new N1X laptops, with HP's OmniBook Ultra being the thinnest. The Surface Laptop Ultra appears thinner than it actually is, though, thanks to the inventive way it hides its side vents—so discreet that it's hard to photograph them. The design has just enough small touches like that to make it stand out. There's also a soft dip into the keyboard well, with a unique look that matches the curved lip of the underside vents. I appreciate the modern vibe of the rounded screen corners, though some apps don't account for them well and nearly cut off elements of the Title Bar. One other minor annoyance is that there's no lip for your finger when the device is closed. You can slide your fingernail in between, but in most cases, you'll need two hands to open it.