Wednesday, September 22nd 2021
Microsoft Takes a Leaf out of Acer's Book with the Surface Laptop Studio
The new Surface Laptop Studio features what Microsoft calls a boundary-pushing design, yet we felt like we'd seen the easel before. Lo and behold, Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel launched last year with a very similar design and HP launched the similar Spectre Folio in 2018. Not to belittle Microsoft here, as they have designed a much slicker hinge mechanism than Acer, while seemingly also improving upon the materials used and unlike HP's Spectre Folio, this is a "full fat" laptop and not a glorified tablet.
The Surface Laptop Studio is a strange looking machine, as it has an overhang, something I never expected to see on a laptop and although it appears to have been designed to allow for better cooling, there's just something about it that irks me. Yes, it makes it appear thinner than it really is and Microsoft uses the overhang to tuck away and charge the optional Surface Slim Pen 2 underneath, but it just looks odd for a lack of a better word. Oddities aside, it should be Microsoft's most powerful Intel powered laptop to date and it even packs a discrete NVIDIA GPU.Starting with the CPU, Microsoft offers a choice between an Intel Core i5-11300H or a Core i7-11370H, with the latter offering boost speeds of up to 4.8 GHz. You have the option of either 16 or 32 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and storage is available from 256 GB to 2 TB. The discrete graphics option is only available together with the Core i7, which is slightly disappointing and the only option is a GeForce RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory. There's also a RTX 2000 GPU option for commercial models. The display is a rather unusual 14.4-inch "PixelSense Flow" 10-point touch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2400x1600 pixels, as well as a 120 Hz refresh rate.
For those that like physical ports, the Surface Laptop Studio is likely to disappoint, as Microsoft has copied Apple here, as you only get two USB4 Type-C ports, although Thunderbolt 4 is part of the package, a 3.5 mm headset jack and a "Surface Connect port" which is used for connecting to various docks from Microsoft, as well as charging the laptop. Microsoft has also outfitted the Surface Laptop Studio with 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1 and an Xbox Wireless receiver, as well as a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello face authentication.
The 58 Wh battery is said to be good for 18-19 hours of battery life depending on the SKU and provides either a 60 W or a 95 W charger, the latter for the Core i7 SKUs. The chassis is made from a magnesium and aluminium alloy, which means that the Surface Laptop Studio weighs in at 1.74 or 1.81 kg, depending whether it has a GPU or not. Rather unusually, Microsoft placed the cooling fans at the front of the notebook and this is part of the reason for the rather odd overhang design, but it also means that the hot air will be blowing out the front sides of the notebook, which doesn't seem like a great compromise.Pricing starts at US$1,599.99 which gets you a Core i5 CPU with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. If you want the discrete GPU, you're looking at a minimum of US$2,099.99, but you do also get the Core i7 CPU and 512 GB of storage at this price point. The top of the range model comes with 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage for US$3,099.99. All models will start shipping in early October.
The Surface Laptop Studio is a strange looking machine, as it has an overhang, something I never expected to see on a laptop and although it appears to have been designed to allow for better cooling, there's just something about it that irks me. Yes, it makes it appear thinner than it really is and Microsoft uses the overhang to tuck away and charge the optional Surface Slim Pen 2 underneath, but it just looks odd for a lack of a better word. Oddities aside, it should be Microsoft's most powerful Intel powered laptop to date and it even packs a discrete NVIDIA GPU.Starting with the CPU, Microsoft offers a choice between an Intel Core i5-11300H or a Core i7-11370H, with the latter offering boost speeds of up to 4.8 GHz. You have the option of either 16 or 32 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and storage is available from 256 GB to 2 TB. The discrete graphics option is only available together with the Core i7, which is slightly disappointing and the only option is a GeForce RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory. There's also a RTX 2000 GPU option for commercial models. The display is a rather unusual 14.4-inch "PixelSense Flow" 10-point touch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2400x1600 pixels, as well as a 120 Hz refresh rate.
For those that like physical ports, the Surface Laptop Studio is likely to disappoint, as Microsoft has copied Apple here, as you only get two USB4 Type-C ports, although Thunderbolt 4 is part of the package, a 3.5 mm headset jack and a "Surface Connect port" which is used for connecting to various docks from Microsoft, as well as charging the laptop. Microsoft has also outfitted the Surface Laptop Studio with 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1 and an Xbox Wireless receiver, as well as a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello face authentication.
The 58 Wh battery is said to be good for 18-19 hours of battery life depending on the SKU and provides either a 60 W or a 95 W charger, the latter for the Core i7 SKUs. The chassis is made from a magnesium and aluminium alloy, which means that the Surface Laptop Studio weighs in at 1.74 or 1.81 kg, depending whether it has a GPU or not. Rather unusually, Microsoft placed the cooling fans at the front of the notebook and this is part of the reason for the rather odd overhang design, but it also means that the hot air will be blowing out the front sides of the notebook, which doesn't seem like a great compromise.Pricing starts at US$1,599.99 which gets you a Core i5 CPU with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. If you want the discrete GPU, you're looking at a minimum of US$2,099.99, but you do also get the Core i7 CPU and 512 GB of storage at this price point. The top of the range model comes with 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage for US$3,099.99. All models will start shipping in early October.