Surface Laptop Studio: Where to Start?
Tip: So much to say that I buried the lead!
There’s so much new and interesting about Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio that I don’t know even where to start. So let me just kick things off with this: I love this laptop.
This Windows 11 showcase PC is everything you could want in a creative powerhouse. The 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow display feels even larger, courtesy Microsoft’s trademark 4:3 aspect ratio. It’s bright and beautiful. And the 120Hz refresh rate, rare for a laptop, is easy on the eyes.
The Surface Laptop Studio is available today, starting at $1,599.99. The model I’ve been evaluating — with an Intel 11th-Gen Core i7 with 32GB of memory, Nvidia GPU and 1TB SSD is priced at $2,699.99.
I’ve been evaluating the system for about a week now. It’s a little heavier than the Core i5 model — 4 pounds versus 3.83 pounds. Much of that has to do with the turn-it-up-to-11 graphics accelerator.
For email, Office and other everyday tasks, Intel’s integrated graphics manages the display, which helps minimize draw on the ample 58WH battery. But in creator mode — or for gaming — the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU kicks in.
Perhaps Microsoft needn’t have been so concerned about battery life, because I’m routinely getting 10 hours between charges — with the super-bright display dialed in at a well-lit 69 percent.
Innovative Design
The innovative fold-in design is very cool. It can do everything that a typical 360-degree laptop can, only it’s more convenient, intuitive and ergonomic. That’s particularly noticeable, for example, when you’re watching a video in tablet mode on an app without accessible audio controls. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had to fold and unfold a 360-degree display with some apps, just to adjust the volume. No more. With the Studio, the trackpad is always available for administrative tasks like that.
I’m so happy to see Microsoft add Thunderbolt 4, a noticeable omission from last year’s otherwise premium Surface devices. The Surface Laptop 4’s USB ports, for example, just weren’t cutting it for my work-from-home setup. Without Thunderbolt, the Laptop 4 struggled to keep pace with my 34-inch ultrawide display, external USB microphone and camera.
Read Lead Here
The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is the complete PC. Even so, the most eye-popping innovation isn’t even attached. It’s a peripheral available with all the new Surface devices — that is, the new Surface Slim Pen 2. I’ve been waiting for this experience for a decade, ever since the first pens for modern Windows laptops came to market.
This is what an e-pen should feel like. It’s an absolute pleasure to use. You can rest your wrist confidently on the glass. And the different pens and brushes all have distinct drag to match their analog counterparts. And perhaps the coolest part: just flip the Slim Pen 2 over to erase!
And what could be more natural than to use this no-compromise e-pen with the Surface Pro Studio, a laptop that has it all?
This is also the first with-pen laptop I’ve ever used with an effective way to secure it so it won’t get lost in transit. There’s an inverted ledge under the front edge of the Studio where the Slim Pen 2 parks to charge. And the magnet underneath is so strong that it not only holds the pen tight — it also picks up the occasional strand of stripped wire and other metallic scraps you didn’t know where there.
The Slim Pen 2 is the featured accessory with all of this year’ new Surface devices. But the Laptop Studio is the only one of the bunch with a best-of-everything computing experience to match the first no-compromise pen I’ve ever had the pleasure to use.
