As much as the $2,600 Microsoft Surface Laptop Ultra makes you feel like a first-class individual if you have the chance to weigh the heavy sucker in your hands, the vast majority of the PC-buying public can’t possibly afford it. That and other high-end laptops with their Nvidia-made chips stand in stark contrast to the legion of sub-$1,000 laptops that hit the scene in 2026, all made to compete against Apple’s $700 MacBook Neo. Microsoft knows there’s prestige in dropping its first honest MacBook Pro competitor, but it needs something made for the rest of us.

That’s reportedly exactly what Microsoft intends, at least according to a report from Taiwan-based site Digitimes (via Notebookcheck and read with machine translation). According to these rumors, Microsoft could be cooking up a 12-inch Surface Laptop that would sit closer in price to a MacBook Neo. Currently, the Surface lineup is full of laptops and convertibles that cost $1,000 or more. Even the modern 2nd-gen Surface Pro 12-inch starts at $1,150, and that’s without buying the $150 Flex Keyboard.

What’s even more interesting is the rumored choice of chip. Digitimes suggests Microsoft is considering an AMD processor unlike any the chipmaker has released so far. Numerous leakers over the past few years have hinted that AMD is crafting an ARM-based chip that’s distinct from its usual x86 offerings. Last year, the mostly reliable chip leaker Moore’s Law is Dead previously claimed it would be a six-core chip with a beefy GPU and NPU (for AI tasks) built specifically for Surface devices.

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