❌

Normal view

A week with RTX Spark: everything we’ve learned using Nvidia’s new laptops

RTX Spark versions of the HP OmniBook Ultra (left), an Asus ProArt P16 (center), and a Lenovo Yoga 9n (right) on a dark gray table against a green-illuminated backdrop.
Nvidia’s new SoC is available in Windows laptops from six different manufacturers. We’ve collectively tested four of them so far. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Nvidia's RTX Spark N1X processor is finally here, and we've been collectively testing a small fortune's worth of powerful laptops sporting this new "superchip." RTX Spark is designed to be a high-performing Arm-based SoC for laptops and small desktop computers, rivaling the best from Apple, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. It has loads of cores, Nvidia RTX Blackwell graphics, and enough power and unified memory to run sizable local AI models.

The flagship placement is inside Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra with a staggering 128GB of unified memory, which our own Tom Warren fully reviewed. Sean Hollister has been testing a 64GB version of the Asus …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Received β€” 9 October 2026 ⏭ The Verge - All Posts

A week with Googlebooks: four notes from our testing so far

An HP Googlebook 14 laptop with the Android Play Store open.
Software, software, software. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge

Google's new operating system is off to a rocky start. The five newly launched Googlebook laptops have hardware that ranges from great to excellent, but the software in its current state is the weak point. There are four of us on staff at The Verge actively testing Googlebooks and, frankly, our internal Slack discussions have been mostly filled with collective venting of frustrations, disappointments, and bewilderment.

The promise of Googlebooks as a fresh and smartly designed alternative to Windows or Mac for Android phone owners sounds great, but there's more than just a few kinks and quirks to work out. Some of its issues and challenges …

Read the full story at The Verge.

Received β€” 8 October 2026 ⏭ The Verge - All Posts

The first Nvidia RTX Spark laptops cost up to $7,000

7 October 2026 at 21:05
A Surface Laptop Ultra laptop on a white table.
The 15-inch Surface Laptop Ultra starts at $2,599. | Photo by Tom Warren / The Verge

The first array of laptops powered by Nvidia's new RTX Spark chip are designed to compete with high-end MacBook Pros - and they've got some high-end prices to match.

The flagship Surface Laptop Ultra and RTX Spark laptops from Dell, Lenovo, MSI, HP, and Asus start as low as $2,599 for configurations with an 18-core CPU, 24GB of unified memory, and 512GB of storage. That's close in price to a similarly specced 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro chip, though Apple includes 1TB of storage. But the prices for both RTX Spark and Apple laptops of course go much, much higher.

Of the pricing we've seen so far, a kitted-out Asus ProArt P16 RTX Spark …

Read the full story at The Verge.

❌