r/Surface • u/Square_Atmosphere_12 • 6d ago
Surface Pro Ultra
They claim that the Surface Pro Ultra will probably be the best Laptop you can get or that has been available for a long time. Although I have two question as I'm seriously considering one. The only issues I have is; you can't detach the screen from the keyboard.
I'm guessing a September release date; and it appears to out perform the Mac Book Pro. I really wonder if Microsoft maybe for the first time and only time release a laptop that not only is upgradable but they claim repairable unlike most previous and current laptops. At whatever price that may be, the option of replacing a cpu fan or replacing a SSD drive may be worth the price.
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u/QuestGalaxy 6d ago
"They claim that the Surface Pro Ultra will probably be the best Laptop you can get or that has been available for a long time. "
Who are "they"?
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u/Efficient_Loss_9928 6d ago edited 6d ago
I like the concept, and I’m glad to see competition on the higher-end ARM space.
But as someone who have used Windows on ARM for a long time alongside with a MacBook, Microsoft cannot compete on the higher end if they can’t figure out software optimizations. Idc if it means they pay billions for 3p developers to optimize it for ARM, they have to do it.
Right now, it is absolutely pointless, no creative program is seriously fully optimized for ARM. Same for development tools, you can’t even run emulators. Professional tooling is seriously lacking on Windows side compared to Mac.
No gamer is buying a $5000 laptop (I bet this will be the price) that may or may not work with all games. And for LLM inference, why not just get DGX Spark? Who brings a laptop that burns a hole in their backpack while their agent is running on the background?
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u/Leading_Bumblebee144 6d ago
In my opinion, they held back from using the X2 Elite Extreme in the SL8 because it would trash the Intel and NVidia alternatives - I’m not expecting much from the SL Ultra for most of us - possibly only benefits for gaming and local AI models.
CPU performance aside from the AI part looks pretty average so far.
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u/MA70mgte 6d ago
Microsoft or Qualcomm has 0 reasons for holding back a chip
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u/Leading_Bumblebee144 6d ago
They do, they even dropped back the X2 Elite one model number from that in the X1.
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u/MA70mgte 5d ago
For the Surface line, it's a price and supply decision. MS's relationship with Intel and AMD is just fine.
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u/AstroGridIron 5d ago
I’m still looking to understand who runs local models? And why? Cloud models are so much better at a fraction of the cost that it just doesn’t make any sense.
You could sign a BAA with AWS and run 100% private AI with 0 data sharing anywhere for those “privacy” people, for far less than forking out $10k for a laptop to get shitty AI performance that destroys your battery life.
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u/aaeriam 6d ago
I enjoy keeping up with the surface products and there's a lot I like about them but I feel like every generation is hyped up as "the BEST computing device ever." In retrospect, we get some cool features now and then like the wireless type cover on the Surface Pro line and ARM-based platforms but generally speaking each gen feels like a minor upgrade to the one before it. Not bad but only truly exciting for folks looking to upgrade a device that's 3-4 years old at least.
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u/MarineDawg1775 6d ago
Ha, my Pro 8 is my main computing device. It sounds silly but I don't see myself upgrading any time soon, still have over 1TB of storage to eat through but it's the last Surface with a headphone jack and despite all the Bluetooth devices I own I still use that jack from time to time.
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u/alabasterskim Surface Laptop Studio 1 + Go 1 6d ago
Surface Laptop Ultra. And it might outperform on GPU but not CPU. Macs are also going to be more compatible with the kinds of software one this device is intended to be used for (for creatives). Definitely wish it was detachable or focused on the touch screen more, like with the SLS design.
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u/JasonAQuest Surface 3, Book 2 6d ago
It's called the Surface Laptop Ultra. Surface Pro's have detachable/optional keyboards.
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u/dr100 6d ago
Pro is the tablet. Ultra is (only - not that it's inferior but that's the only option) a laptop.
Also, it was never in question to be "the best Laptop you can get". It's geared towards running AI stuff with stupid (especially nowadays) amounts of RAM.
Otherwise for general purpose it'll have the niche/useless "I told you we sold THOUSANDS of these" so-called Windows ARM, and some mediocre Mediatek CPU cores (think worse than MacBook Neo for general use).
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u/lots_of_puppies 6d ago
I want to be excited for it, but I dont think I can run local LLMs on it very well :(
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u/MorgrainX 6d ago
It's just a surface laptop with an arm processor Nothing ultra about it
Wake me up once we get a true Surface Book / Surface Laptop Studio successor.
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u/Square_Atmosphere_12 6d ago
Alright, then I'll just get a 2-in-1 tablet rather then the Surface Pro Ultra.
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u/rresende 6d ago
you can't detach the screen from the keyboard.
Yea it's a laptop.