Surface Laptop Ultra hands-on: A beautiful beast powered by NVIDIA's RTX Spark

Devindra Hardawar for Engadget

When we first caught a glimpse of the Surface Laptop Ultra back in June, I was struck by how normal it seemed. Even though Microsoft claimed it was the most powerful Surface Laptop ever, it really looked like a straightforward MacBook Pro clone, even more so than the Surface Laptop (or the Laptop Studio, which nobody talks about anymore). There aren't any weird hinges or flashy Surface features — it appeared to be just pure premium laptop. 

After spending a bit of time with it today, I can confirm that remains the case. At the same time, it feels better than any other Windows laptop I've held before.

There's nothing flashy about the Surface Laptop Ultra, but for the AI developers who want powerful a portable system that can hold up to 128GB of RAM, it could be their dream machine. Even before I got my hands on it, the Laptop Ultra exuded a sense of quality. Its aluminum case glowed amid the studio lights, its screen was surprisingly bright and its overall aesthetic was minimalistic and clean. Think of it like a sturdy Volvo, compared to a flashy BMW or Audi.