How Microsoft built its MacBook Pro competitor

<figure> <img alt="" data-caption="" data-portal-copyright="" data-has-syndication-rights="1" src="https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/10/VERGE_10_04_2026_0294.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;crop=0,0,100,100" /> <figcaption> </figcaption> </figure> <p class="has-drop-cap wp-block-paragraph">Before Microsoft releases a laptop to the public, it needs to put the device through its paces. That all happens inside a windowless, warehouse-like lab on the company's Redmond, Washington, campus, where the team developing Surface devices programs robots to press their buttons thousands of times, pelts devices with radio waves from giant antennas, and builds contraptions that drop objects from increasingly daring heights to see whether the products can hold up.</p> <p class="wp-block-paragraph">Its latest laptop, the product I'm here to see, really needs to hold up. The Surface Laptop Ultra isn't just another high-end config of the Surface Laptop, it's the debut platform …</p> <p><a href="https://www.theverge.com/tech/1006356/microsoft-surface-laptop-ultra-behind-the-scenes">Read the full story at The Verge.</a></p>