RTX Spark laptops are now on sale in the UK, and the first reviews are in. Nvidia’s new laptop chip, which puts an Arm processor and an RTX graphics chip on one piece of silicon, went on sale on 16 October in machines from ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft and MSI. UK prices start at £2,599, for the entry-level Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra at Microsoft’s UK store. So who should actually buy one, and who should keep their wallet shut for now? Here’s what we know, with the hype stripped out.
Prices checked on 22 Oct 2026. Retailer prices change, sometimes daily, so check the live price before you buy.
What happened
Nvidia announced on 16 October that RTX Spark laptops were available “today” from six makers, with more systems to follow. The chip pairs a Grace CPU, built on Arm, with a Blackwell RTX GPU, the same graphics generation as the RTX 50 series. Both share one pool of memory, up to 128GB. Nvidia claims up to one petaflop of AI performance and says the laptops can play big games at 1440p at over 100 frames per second.
MediaTek worked with Nvidia on the CPU design, and the petaflop figure is measured in FP4, a low-precision format used for AI work. The shared memory is the real selling point. On a normal laptop the graphics chip has far less memory of its own, which limits how big an AI model or 3D scene it can handle. Here the processor and graphics draw on one large pool.
Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s boss, said RTX Spark “brings the power of NVIDIA AI, RTX graphics and CUDA together with Microsoft Windows in one PC for creating, gaming and running personal AI agents.”
The launch line-up includes the ASUS ProArt P14 and P16, Dell XPS 16, HP OmniBook Ultra, Lenovo Yoga Pro 9n, Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra and MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+. Not every model is out yet. According to Hardvance’s round-up of launch prices, HP’s two RTX Spark laptops don’t ship until 4 November.
RTX Spark laptop UK prices
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Ultra is the headline machine. These are the UK configurations on Microsoft’s UK store (prices including VAT, checked on 22 October 2026):
- 18-core chip, 24GB memory, 512GB SSD: £2,599
- 18-core chip, 24GB, 1TB: £2,999
- 18-core chip, 32GB, 1TB: £3,299
- 20-core chip, 32GB, 1TB: £3,699
- 20-core chip, 64GB, 1TB: £4,299
- 20-core chip, 64GB, 2TB: £4,699
- 20-core chip, 128GB, 1TB: £5,899
The other makers start a little higher. On 22 October, UK retailer Scan listed the ASUS ProArt P14 (24GB, 1TB) at £2,699.99, the MSI Prestige N16 Flip AI+ (32GB, 1TB) at £3,098.99 and the ASUS ProArt P16 (32GB, 1TB) at £3,299.99, all in stock. 128GB models run from £5,999.99 to £6,199.99. Scan also takes pre-orders for the Surface Laptop Ultra, due on 9 November, but its Surface prices are higher than Microsoft’s own. Prices change quickly, so check before you buy.
Two things stand out. First, the UK pays the same number in pounds as the US pays in dollars, which Hardvance works out as roughly 10% more than the US price once you add VAT. Second, memory is where the price climbs. On the Surface, going from 64GB to 128GB adds £1,600, and the memory is soldered, so you can’t upgrade it later. That’s no surprise given memory and SSD prices are still climbing.
What the early reviews say
The reviews are broadly positive about the chip and less keen on the price.
- Local AI is the big win. Tom’s Hardware tested the top Surface Laptop Ultra and summed it up as impressive for local AI, “but gaming isn’t its strong suit”.
- Apple still has the faster processor. Tom’s Guide’s benchmark piece is headlined “Apple wins the CPU war, but Nvidia’s GPU just broke my testing charts”.
- Battery life is fine, not class-leading. In Tom’s Guide’s battery test the Surface Laptop Ultra lasted 10 hours 15 minutes, against 21 hours 25 minutes for a 16-inch MacBook Pro with M5 Pro. PCWorld’s review got 7 hours 57 minutes streaming 4K video and just over 10 hours in an office-work test, and called the price “painful”.
The catch for gamers
RTX Spark uses Arm, and most Windows games are built for Intel and AMD chips. They run through Prism, Microsoft’s translation layer, which converts them as they run. The bigger worry has always been anti-cheat software, which often refused to run on Arm. Hardvance notes that Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye now support Arm and EA is bringing its Javelin anti-cheat over, but Call of Duty support isn’t due until 2027.
According to VideoCardz, reporting Nvidia’s own list, Valve Anti-Cheat, Easy Anti-Cheat and BattlEye work from launch, so games such as Fortnite, Counter-Strike 2, Rocket League and Marvel Rivals are playable online. These weren’t ready on launch day:
- Call of Duty: anti-cheat support planned for 2027.
- EA’s Javelin anti-cheat: scheduled for early 2027.
- PUBG: Battlegrounds: expected in the first half of 2027.
- Valorant and League of Legends: Riot has confirmed plans, with no date given.
Single-player games look more promising. In How-To Geek’s hands-on preview, Arc Raiders and Doom: The Dark Ages ran smoothly through Prism, although Arm-native versions don’t have firm dates yet. If you play one competitive game above all else, check it works on Windows on Arm before you spend £2,599.
Practical takeaways
- Running AI models on your own machine? This is the most interesting Windows laptop chip in years, because the graphics side can use a huge shared pool of memory. Work out how much your models need before you order, because you can’t add more later.
- Creator or developer? Nvidia and Adobe say Photoshop and Premiere have native RTX Spark support in beta, and Nvidia has worked with Microsoft on developer tools, including the first PyTorch-CUDA build for Windows on Arm.
- Buying mainly for games? An RTX 50 series gaming laptop is still the safer, cheaper bet for now.
- Small business wanting a fast work laptop? The 24GB base model is plenty for office work and some creative jobs, but 512GB of storage fills up quickly. A portable SSD is a cheap fix, and our guide to the best RAM and storage upgrades covers what to look for.
- Still on an older Windows laptop? Check your updates first. If you’re running Windows 11 24H2 at home, your security updates have just stopped, and that’s a free fix rather than a £2,599 one.
Check before you buy
- List the apps you can’t live without and check each one supports Windows on Arm. Accounts packages, line-of-business tools and security software are the usual sticking points.
- Check that your printers, scanners and any specialist hardware have Arm drivers.
- Gamers: check your main games and their anti-cheat against the list above.
- Choose memory carefully. It’s shared between the processor and graphics and can’t be upgraded, so buy for what you’ll need in a few years.
- Read independent reviews of the exact model you want, especially the cheaper 24GB versions, which have had the least coverage.
Shop the picks
If you go for a 512GB RTX Spark model, extra fast storage you can carry around makes sense. These are in our shop:
What this means for you
RTX Spark is a genuinely new kind of Windows laptop, and the early reviews back up Nvidia’s claims on AI. But it’s first-generation, it’s expensive, and gaming on Arm still comes with caveats. Our advice: if local AI is your job, it’s worth a serious look, and buy the memory you’ll need on day one. Everyone else should wait for prices to settle and for the cheaper models and fuller reviews to arrive. A £2,599 laptop needs to earn its place, and right now it only does that for a fairly specific crowd.
Featured image: NVIDIA