Another one of these blunders may have easily been the Surface Laptop Studio. To our delight, Microsoft skillfully strikes a balance between the demand for a powerful laptop and the daring style the Surface devices are known for. The Surface Laptop Studio is a different option from the Dell XPS 15 or MacBook Pro, but it has advantages and disadvantages as well. But if you take it at face value, it succeeds as a gadget that offers a wholly distinctive PC experience.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review: Design
The Surface Laptop Studio’s screen hinge, which enables it to be used as both a tablet and a clamshell laptop (although a very heavy one), is its most striking feature. The Laptop Studio weighs 1.7 kg at launch, which is far too much to operate as a conventional on-the-go tablet like the iPad or Microsoft’s Surface Pro 8. However, based on our use of the device, the tablet mode is still helpful for those who want to sketch and draw at a desk. The ability to tilt the screen forward and magnetically attach it to the desk directly above the trackpad is something we really like because it makes it much easier to use the touchscreen for drawing. During our time with the new Surface, we’ve also discovered that it’s perfect for watching videos or even playing games through Xbox Game Pass. Because of the hinge’s slender design, we were initially concerned that it might feel a little flimsy. However, despite feeling sturdy, it is still adaptable enough to quickly flip into a number of positions. The Microsoft Slim Pen works fantastically with the Surface Laptop Studio. By magnetically attaching it beneath the device’s front lip, the stylus may be wirelessly charged (with up to 15 hours of average use). The Bluetooth connection to the laptop is effortless. Microsoft’s claim that the stylus feels like a pen on paper is unconvincing, but it still works well on touchscreens because it has 4096 pressure levels that let you adjust the thickness of each stroke by pressing more firmly. Additionally, the pen comes with a digital eraser that makes it simple to remove typos. It’s sad that Microsoft isn’t including the Slim Pen with the Laptop Studio considering how crucial an item it is. In actuality, we are unsure of why anyone would choose to purchase this laptop without a stylus, as competing producers, like Acer with the ConceptD Ezel, already include a pen in the package. The Surface Laptop Studio has an elegant and well-made feel thanks to its all-metal construction, which should come as no surprise given that it is a Microsoft product. The MacBook Pro 2021 is another example of a laptop aimed at creators that is only offered in one color, the basic Platinum. The design’s sparse port selection, which only includes two USB-C (Thunderbolt 4) ports, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Surface Connect port, is our biggest complaint. Although the 14-inch MacBook Pro isn’t much better, it does have an additional USB-C connector, HDMI connectivity, and an SDXC card slot. Here, the Acer ConceptD 3 beats Microsoft as well thanks to its mini DisplayPort and USB-A ports.
Keyboard and touch pad
Looking at the keyboard reveals a difference from earlier models because the keys are no longer the same colour as the base unit but rather a darker grey tone. On the other hand, the excellent mechanism remained the same, and typing is a very comfortable experience. Longer texts can be typed without difficulty thanks to the adequate key travel and precise keystrokes, and a three-stage white illumination is helpful in low light. Microsoft copies Apple and gives the Surface Laptop Studio a force touchpad, making it impossible to physically press the pad. Instead, a vibration motor creates the haptic feedback, which results in consistent stimulation throughout the entire touchpad area (12 x 8 cm), and the cursor controls function effectively. Only after standby did we experience some problems with the pad appearing to be too sensitive. We only noticed it twice, though, so driver improvements should take care of the problem. As expected, the capacitive touchscreen performs well. Microsoft promotes the Surface Slim Pen 2’s support for haptic feedback, but we lacked the pen to test it out.
Display
The display on the Surface Laptop Studio has a lot going for it. First of all, it has a 120Hz refresh rate, which greatly enhances the enjoyment of viewing movies, playing games, and even regular browsing. Simply put, it feels easier to watch everything, and as we already noted, the battery is barely affected. Second, we preferred the 3:2 ratio display to the 16:9 ratio screens available since we found it easier to complete our day’s work on a screen with that resolution (though that latter is obviously ideal for movie watching). We found the 14.4-inch screen size to be ideal for our everyday work, however we must admit that we normally like something a little bigger. Again, its 505 nits of brightness was ideal for our work and media consumption, and its 82% Adobe RGB delivered vibrant colour output when we altered photographs. Comparatively speaking, it does have some fairly large bezels, but we didn’t mind them because we never unintentionally opened an app on the Surface Laptop Studio’s touchscreen when switching between tablet and laptop mode. Additionally, the display feels fairly sturdy and isn’t at all flimsy or thin, which is a great feeling.
Audio
The Surface Laptop Studio has a subwoofer and tweeters, which may be why music and sound effects sound crystal clear coming from it. The subwoofer projects sound through the side of the device, while the tweeters project upward through the keyboard. The Surface Laptop Studio offers louder, fuller audio with better bass than we anticipated from a laptop, similar to Microsoft’s own Surface Laptop 4. The bass on songs like Massive Attack’s “Angel” or Kendrick Lamar’s “Humble” feels almost physical, and the volume can sometimes be almost agonizingly high. also you will check our article on Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review: Graphics
The processor’s integrated Iris Xe Graphics G7 will largely handle light workloads, like the playing of high-resolution films. While you require extra performance, such as when gaming, the dedicated GeForce RTX 3050 Ti with 4 GB GDDR6-VRAM is instantly engaged by Nvidia’s Optimus technology. It is the variant with a maximum core clock of 1455 MHz and a TGP of 50W. The benchmark results are slightly below the average for this GPU in our database because there are faster versions of the RTX 3050 Ti (up to 80W TGP). However, the RTX 3050 Ti provides noticeably more performance when compared to the outdated GTX 1650 Max-Q of the Surface Book 3.
Performance
With a choice of an i5 or i7 11th-generation Intel Core processor and 16GB or 32GB of RAM, the Surface Laptop Studio is equipped. Such specifications are impressive, but as the Laptop Studio didn’t arrive in the UK until October 2021 while it did in the USA, the CPU options are now a touch out of date due to the introduction of Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs. As a result, performance outcomes are meagre. Despite not having an H-Series chip, which is made for high-performance laptops, the Huawei MateBook X Pro can achieve comparable CPU performance. The performance gap between the Surface Laptop Studio and the MacBook Pro (with an M1 Pro chip) is astronomical. Is this a serious issue? No, in our opinion. While it may be slower than competing laptops when handling high-intensity workloads, the Laptop Studio is nevertheless capable of fast performance to ensure that all fundamental chores are completed without any problems. The main problem is the GPU options. The Surface Laptop Studio’s base model is only equipped with integrated Intel Xe graphics, which are insufficient for high-quality video editing. To purchase a discrete GPU, you must spend at least £1899, and even then, you are only able to choose from the RTX 3050 Ti, one of Nvidia’s newest GPU lineup’s weakest models. This is frequently seen in high-end productivity laptops like the Dell XPS 15, so it is a huge letdown to see it as the strongest GPU option for a device targeted at content makers. It is completely outclassed by the MacBook Pro in terms of graphics power. This means that the Surface Laptop Studio is only really worthwhile for those who want to doodle and sketch on the touchscreen display and aren’t too fussed about a high-end graphics performance to edit animations, photos, and videos at breakneck speeds; for those tasks, a MacBook Pro is preferable. The base-level storage option of 256GB also astounded us because it isn’t really enough for a modern productivity laptop, much less one intended for creative who work with massive files. Thankfully, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB storage capacities are available. With read and write speeds of 3080 MB/s and 3079 MB/s, respectively, the SSD is incredibly fast, ensuring swift loading and saving of data stored on the physical drive as well as short boot-up times.
Battery life
According to Microsoft, the Surface Laptop Studio’s battery can hold between 56.3Wh and 58Wh of power, which is average for a laptop of this size. The firm has made some significant claims about how long it would last, claiming that the Core i7 model we tested will last up to 18 hours and Core i5 models up to 19 hours. Battery life is still remarkable even though we weren’t quite able to reach such heights during testing. We were able to record for 15 hours and 22 minutes in our 720p video loop test on a single charge. A full working day is still easily attainable even with the brightness set to 120 nits, which is not necessarily representative of real-world usage. you will read our article on Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review. If your battery is becoming low, a software-based battery saver mode may be helpful, but charging rates are also reliable. We achieved 20% battery in 15 minutes after turning the device on using the charger that came in the package (Microsoft doesn’t provide a wattage). This was 37% after 30 minutes, and a full charge would take about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Not bad at all, but the fastest speeds require the exclusive Surface Connect port. It fastens magnetically but is easily dislodged by any sizable movement. We wish Microsoft would fully support charging over USB-C.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review: Heat
Even when we were playing taxing 3D games, we never once noticed the Surface Laptop Studio getting noticeably warm while writing this review. Our lab testing confirmed our observations, showing that the laptop never got hotter than 89 degrees Fahrenheit when we put it to work for 15 minutes before running a heat gun over it.
Configuration options
As you may already be aware, the Surface Laptop Studio is not inexpensive. A model with an Intel Core i5 processor, Iris Xe integrated graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD starts at £1,449/US$1,599.99. But from there, prices soar sharply. You can spend even more for twice the storage, but the Intel Core i7/RTX 3050 Ti configuration we tested (16GB RAM/1TB SSD) costs £2,479/US$2,699 instead.
Conclusion
The Microsoft Surface Notebook Studio is the sleekest and most powerful hybrid laptop in the line to date. It displays a novel hinge design that ought to be attractive to photographers and designers. m An exceptional degree of versatility is achieved by a computer that can execute tasks that a MacBook Pro just isn’t capable of, thanks to its excellent display, intelligent cooling system, robust stylus support, and more performance-driven processors than those found in other Surface laptops. With increasingly expensive upgrades and a rather modest performance ceiling for what is marketed as to some, at least a pro-grade workstation, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio becomes more challenging to adore.
