At its Windows event on October 7, Microsoft launched the Surface Laptop Ultra with Nvidia’s RTX Spark chip, and used the moment to take a swipe at Apple. According to Microsoft, the new laptop is up to 6.2x faster than the M5 Pro-powered MacBook Pro — but only in local AI tasks, not the everyday work most people actually do.
The benchmarks Microsoft put on screen
The pitch came from Pavan Davuluri, head of Windows and Devices at Microsoft. Across the models tested, he said the Surface Laptop Ultra delivers faster time-to-first-token performance for language models and shorter image generation times than Apple’s M5 Pro laptops.
The specific numbers on display were:
- up to 2.1x faster time to first token
- up to 4.3x faster AI image generation
- up to 6.2x faster AI video generation
These tests compared selected preproduction Surface Laptop Ultra RTX Spark PCs with 64GB of memory against a 16-inch MacBook Pro with an M5 Pro and 64GB. Notably, only the time-to-first-token test specifically names the Surface Laptop Ultra; the image and video generation results refer to a broader selection of RTX Spark-powered PCs.
What’s missing from the comparison
Here’s the catch: Microsoft is only touting AI numbers. It has not shared how the two laptops stack up in non-AI video editing, overall system performance, or battery life. The company is essentially making radio silence over any other head-to-head metrics against the M5 Pro.
Davuluri framed the gap as intentional. “This is where having both the large memory and the petaflop of AI compute on a single device is a distinct advantage,” he said. “For builders using local AI, that means less waiting and more creating on Windows.”
In practice, this means the comparison is built entirely around the workload Microsoft wants you to care about — running AI models locally — and says nothing about whether the Surface Laptop Ultra is faster at the tasks that fill most of your day.
A rivalry that goes back to 2015
The MacBook comparison isn’t new for Surface. Microsoft has built its hardware lineup around specific roles and expects OEM partners to follow suit. When Panos Panay, then-hardware chief, launched the Surface Book in 2015, he called it the ultimate laptop and aimed directly at the MacBook Pro rather than machines from Lenovo or HP.
The pattern repeated with Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon processors, though there the MacBook comparison centered on processor performance rather than AI. Microsoft tends to go after Apple when it has a story to sell, and this time the story is local AI.
The timing makes sense. Microsoft has pointed to the hundreds of thousands of people who bought Macs just to run OpenClaw when it went viral — a “craze” it hasn’t seen for running AI agents locally on Windows. The Surface Laptop Ultra, with up to 128GB of unified memory and up to a petaflop of AI compute, is meant to give “builders” a reason to choose Windows instead.
What the Surface Laptop Ultra actually brings
Beyond the benchmark slide, Microsoft calls the Surface Laptop Ultra its most powerful Surface hardware, saying it took end-to-end engineering, design, and full-stack thinking to unlock what local AI can do on a laptop.
The device features:
- up to 128GB of unified memory
- up to a petaflop of AI compute
- up to 2.5x the thermal capacity of Microsoft’s existing laptops
- the ability to maintain “over 99% of its power” when running on battery
- the world’s first built-in magnetic USB-C charging
It starts at $2,599, positioning it as a premium machine aimed at creators and developers rather than casual users.
What This Means for You
If you live in local AI — running large language models, generating images or video on-device, or prototyping AI agents — the numbers Microsoft shared are worth a look. A device that can hold 128GB of unified memory and sustain high AI throughput without throttling on battery is a genuine differentiator for that niche.
But if you’re buying a laptop for documents, web browsing, media consumption, or standard creative work, these benchmarks prove nothing. Microsoft hasn’t shown that the Surface Laptop Ultra beats the M5 Pro MacBook Pro at anything you’d do on a normal day, and the $2,599 starting price is a real factor.
The lesson is to evaluate the Surface Laptop Ultra on its own merits — display, build, battery, and the AI features that matter to you — rather than on a single AI benchmark slide aimed at an Apple rival.
How to Get It
The Surface Laptop Ultra is available now starting at $2,599, with configurations offering up to 128GB of memory. If local AI is your priority, it’s worth testing the machine against the specific models you plan to run before committing to a purchase.
Source: Windows Latest
Over to you: Are you considering the Surface Laptop Ultra for local AI work, or will you stick with your current MacBook?
