Before Microsoft releases a laptop to the public, it needs to put the device through its paces. That all happens inside a windowless, warehouse-like lab on the company's Redmond, Washington, campus, where the team developing Surface devices programs robots to press their buttons thousands of times, pelts devices with radio waves from giant antennas, and builds contraptions that drop objects from increasingly daring heights to see whether the products can hold up.

Its latest laptop, the product I'm here to see, really needs to hold up. The Surface Laptop Ultra isn't just another high-end config of the Surface Laptop, it's the debut platform …

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Months after revealing its Surface Laptop Ultra, Microsoft has announced that the Nvidia RTX Spark-equipped device will launch on October 16th. Pricing starts at $2,599 for the base configuration, featuring an 18-core CPU, 24GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage.

The Surface Laptop Ultra ships with a 15-inch HDR touchscreen display with up to 2,000 nits of peak brightness, along with a larger trackpad that supports haptic feedback. The device uses Nvidia's new RTX Spark chip, an Arm-based processor with up to 128GB of unified memory. Both Microsoft and Nvidia are positioning RTX Spark laptops at the very premium end of the laptop market, designed …

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Microsoft has created a magnetic charging solution for its Surface Laptop Ultra that uses USB-C. After scrapping its proprietary Surface Connect magnetic charging on its smaller Surface devices last year, the Surface Laptop Ultra has a charging cable that attaches magnetically to the right side USB-C port.

During Microsoft's Windows event on Wednesday, Windows and Surface chief Pavan Davuluri said that you can just "bring the connector close, and it snaps right into place." It's still a proprietary solution, but the USB-C port it slots into still works for video, data, and other USB-C connectivity like you'd expect. Microsoft is calling it …

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Microsoft is heading to San Francisco this morning to reveal what's coming next for Windows and Surface and a "conversation on how local AI will shape the next chapter of the PC." That conversation will include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, and Windows and Surface chief Pavan Davuluri.

I'm expecting to hear a lot more about Nvidia's RTX Spark platform and Microsoft's Surface Laptop Ultra that uses Nvidia's new Arm-based chips.

When Microsoft's Windows and Surface event will happen and where you can watch it

Microsoft's keynote will start at 10AM PT / 1PM ET on Wednesday October 7th. The full presentation should run …

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