When we consider Microsoft’s Office apps alone, the data is pretty clear. Intel’s Core Ultra 300 (Panther Lake) chips outperform everything else by a significant amount, though Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon X2 Elite makes a valiant effort to overtake it. AMD’s last-generation Ryzen AI 300 processor finishes in the middle of the pack. (Though AMD announced its Ryzen AI 400 processor at CES in January, we have yet to receive a laptop with one inside of it.) The superb graphics capabilities of Intel’s Panther Lake chip doesn’t really meaningfully affect these scores. All this test tells you, thoug
Tested: The smartest work laptop chip of 2026 came out in 2024… Andrew Hill, Corporate Vice President of Surface, said during our chat that both the Surface Laptop Ultra and the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box aren’t purely business devices—they’re for consumers, too. …
… I also included two legacy devices, the Microsoft Surface Pro 9 5G with the Microsoft-Qualcomm SQ3 Arm chip inside, and the first-gen Core Ultra Meteor Lake processor inside the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED. Which laptop processor is best for office work in 2026? …
… At one time, Microsoft did have plans to take on the low-end Chromebook market, with devices like the Surface Laptop Go and the Surface Go, and their various iterations like the Surface Laptop Go 3. …
Microsoft announced new Surface for Business laptops and tablets on Tuesday. Sadly, you already know what to expect: three new Surface Laptops, in 13- and 15-inch display sizes, and a new Surface Pro tablet, too. What's inside them? Intel's Core Ultra 3 series mobile processors, Panther Lake. …
… The RTX Spark Dev Box was also designed to radiate heat throughout its entire aluminum chassis, with a 100-watt thermal envelope that exceeds that of the Surface Laptop Ultra -- theoretically allowing for more performance. …
… Microsoft writes: Surface Laptop Ultra is our first laptop to combine a powerful NVIDIA Blackwell RTX GPU with up to 128GB of unified memory and full CUDA support. …
… The only twist, if there is one, is that a 5-year-old laptop wasn't close at hand. Instead, I unearthed a lightly used, 7-year-old laptop instead: the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, a device from the pre-pandemic Before Times. …
… Meet the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, the second Surface device to use the RTX Park platform after the Surface Laptop Ultra, and the latest product to inherit Microsoft's terrible naming tradition. …
… For the Surface Laptop Ultra and the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box, Andrew Hill, corporate vice president of Surface, said, “We're not ready to talk about pricing yet until we get closer to availability,” but did confirm a fall release. …
