A first look at Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra and Surface Dev Box

Microsoft has two new Surface devices arriving later this year, both powered by Nvidia’s RTX Spark chips. I got a chance to take a closer look at both the Surface Laptop Ultra and Surface RTX Spark Dev Box at Microsoft’s Build conference this week, and while both have the same chip inside, they’re utilizing Nvidia’s RTX Spark in different ways. The Surface Laptop Ultra looks and feels very much like a 16-inch MacBook Pro. There are no transforming hinges, detachable displays, or any other tricks — this is a clamshell laptop built with performance in mind. Microsoft has opted for a 15-inch mini LED panel, which operates at up to 2,000 nits of HDR brightness. I got to see that peak HDR level in a dark room, and I can confirm it’s a very, very bright display. In fact, it’s the brightest display Microsoft has ever put on a Surface device. The Nightfall color option. The trackpad on the Surface Laptop Ultra is not only bigger than regular Surface trackpads, it also has the new haptics support in Windows 11. This adds subtle haptic patterns when you’re hovering near a close button in Windows, or alignment cues when you’re trying to drag, scale, or rotate objects. It’s the type of haptics that really transforms how a device feels, and you’ll notice it in various parts of Windows 11 when you’re dragging sliders and interacting with UI elements. I hope other laptop manufacturers start shipping this improved haptics support, too. …