Microsoft’s new Surface RTX Spark Dev Box is like the cheese grater Mac Pro, and that’s why I love it

The Surface RTX Spark Dev Box reminds us of the old Surface devices

Microsoft just announced the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box at Build 2026, and for the first time in years, a Surface device made me stop scrolling my X feed for all the Build 2026 news and stare at the quirky design.

The compact AI-focused desktop is designed for developers building local AI workloads, fine-tuning models, running agentic workflows, and experimenting with on-device inference without constantly depending on cloud compute. Microsoft says the system delivers up to one petaflop of AI compute using NVIDIA’s RTX Spark superchip with 128GB of unified memory.

But the specifications aren’t what intrigues me.

Image: Microsoft

The Surface RTX Spark Dev Box looks bizarre in the best possible way. Microsoft built the machine using a monolithic aluminum chassis covered in roughly 1,000 ventilation holes, which functions as both the thermal system and the visual identity of the product. Microsoft references the “1,000 teraflops” of compute performance as the inspiration behind the number of holes in the industrial grille design.

And yes, it absolutely reminds me of Apple’s infamous “cheese grater” Mac Pro design from 2019. Except here, the holes actually feel more purposeful because this thing genuinely needs cooling for sustained AI workloads.

Cheese grater design of Mac Pro 2019

Surface has been missing this kind of hardware personality for a long time.

After Panos Panay left Microsoft, the Surface lineup slowly shifted into making safer, more mainstream hardware. Recent Surface Laptop and Surface Pro generations have been premium and polished, but they are in no way outstanding when compared to other premium Windows PCs from the likes of Dell and Lenovo. Sadly, Surface stopped feeling experimental.

But I’m delighted to see the Surface RTX Spark Dev Box change that notion.