Apple MacBook Pro 16 vs Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra: Poll shows clear winner

Microsoft’s newest Surface Laptop, the Surface Laptop Ultra, is a direct rival to the Apple MacBook Pro 16. It features the powerful Nvidia RTX Spark N1X “Superchip” with an ARM-based Grace CPU and Nvidia Blackwell graphics. The entry-level configuration of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra with the base RTX Spark SoC, 24 GB of memory, and 1 TB of storage costs $2,999. This is the same as the Apple MacBook Pro 16 with the Apple M5 Pro chip, 24 GB of memory, and 1 TB of storage.

PC hardware reviewer Hardware Canucks recently conducted a user poll on X, asking whether users would prefer to spend $3,000 on the above-mentioned Apple and Microsoft laptops or the $700 cheaper Lenovo Yoga Pro 7a with a 3K OLED panel, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, and the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 388.

The results show a clear trend: Buyers prefer the Apple MacBook Pro M5 Pro with 42.1% of the votes. The Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra came in second place with 30.9% of the votes. Despite being $700 cheaper, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 7a came in last with just 27% of the total votes.

While we don’t know why the MacBook Pro 16 with the M5 Pro is the clear choice, we do know that it is one of the best prosumer laptops currently available on the market. The machine achieved an outstanding 92% rating in our review, earning our “Top Rated Award”.

We will only really be able to compare the MacBook Pro 16 with the Surface Laptop Ultra and the Yoga Pro 7a once we get our hands on the newest Lenovo Yoga Pro 7a with the Ryzen AI Max+ 388 APU and the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra. Only then will we be able to tell whether the MacBook Pro 16 deserves to be placed above the other notebooks.

Finally, we must mention that Hardware Canucks’ poll only saw a total of 489 votes. While this is enough to suggest a pattern, it is a very small percentage of the actual users who will be pitting the Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra against the MacBook Pro 16 M5 Pro. So, take the results with extreme caution.

Buy the Apple MacBook Pro 16 with the M5 Pro on Amazon