Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio Product Line Could be in Jeopardy

[T0@st]

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 could be the last of its kind; according to Tom Warren's latest theories. Yesterday, The Verge's senior editor envisioned a streamlined future lineup of Microsoft's portable PC devices. According to inside track information, the tech giant is expected to announce the end-of-life (EOL) status for this relatively young branch of Surface products (debuted back in 2021). The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is advertised as being "a laptop like no other"—courtesy of a unique/versatile setup that features a "dynamic woven hinge." Three hybrid configurations are officially outlined as: "laptop mode for productivity, stage mode for streaming, and studio mode for creativity." Current generation models are powered by Intel's 13th Gen Core i7-13700H processor (aka the "Evo" platform), and can be configured with discrete NVIDIA mobile graphics solutions (GeForce RTX 4060, RTX 4050, or RTX 2000 Ada Generation). Under normal circumstances, a baseline build—reliant on an iGPU—starts at about $2400.

At the time of writing, Microsoft has not acknowledged The Verge's insider report. So far, resellers have shared top secret info—indicating an upcoming official announcement; possibly due by next month. Another group of unnamed sources claim that Surface Laptop Studio 2 manufacturing activities have already ended, as of early May (2025). The megacorporation has culled other Surface products in the past; sometimes coinciding with the departure of key executive team members and mass layoffs. A few days ago, mainstream news outlets covered Microsoft's latest batch of staff reductions—affecting roughly 6000 workers. Warren's article dashes all hopes of a potential third-gen design: "there doesn't appear to be a Surface Laptop Studio 3 on the horizon."



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[kondamin]

What Microsoft needs to release is a new big desktop studio

 

[_roman_]

I disliked the fake UEFI of their microsoft hardware. And the hardware quality

 

[lexluthermiester]

It's not that the Surface is bad on the specs, it's very good in that area. It's that it comes with the default Windows 11 config, with the ms account requirements, all the bloat and the user activity spying. As much as I dislike Apple, I have to give them credit for not doing any of that. Users of iPads just don't have to deal with any of those problems and the general public knows it. People are voting with their wallets and they're not voting microsoft surface.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

The Surface line was launched by Ballmer as an “aspirational” group of products. Part of the problem is MS has always struggled as a hardware company. Take the Surface Studio—wonderful display with a potentially useful design, marred by the decision to go with dated laptop innards to power a desktop workstation-like device. Surface Book was somewhat novel, but the hinge that kept it from folding flat was strange, and it had the hot bag issue. Original touch cover was a terrible idea. Surface RT, 2, and 3 are all bad. Surface Go, poor specs to hit price point. We can go down the Xbox lineage and see some bad choices there too, and then there’s the graveyard that is Windows Phone. HoloLens? Dead. Wearables? Long dead. When you look at the body of MS’s hardware aspirations, it’s actually a wonder that Surface Pro and Surface Laptop are still alive after all these years. It’s not exactly looking great for Xbox these days either. We have Surface Hubs at work, and they are about as snappy as a budget smartphone from 2014.

What would have been awesome was if MS would have made the Studio’s display a standalone monitor with touch support. It might actually have become something.

 

[sLowEnd]

The Surface line was launched by Ballmer as an “aspirational” group of products. Part of the problem is MS has always struggled as a hardware company. Take the Surface Studio—wonderful display with a potentially useful design, marred by the decision to go with dated laptop innards to power a desktop workstation-like device. Surface Book was somewhat novel, but the hinge that kept it from folding flat was strange, and it had the hot bag issue. Original touch cover was a terrible idea. Surface RT, 2, and 3 are all bad. Surface Go, poor specs to hit price point. We can go down the Xbox lineage and see some bad choices there too, and then there’s the graveyard that is Windows Phone. HoloLens? Dead. Wearables? Long dead. When you look at the body of MS’s hardware aspirations, it’s actually a wonder that Surface Pro and Surface Laptop are still alive after all these years. It’s not exactly looking great for Xbox these days either. We have Surface Hubs at work, and they are about as snappy as a budget smartphone from 2014.

What would have been awesome was if MS would have made the Studio’s display a standalone monitor with touch support. It might actually have become something.

I liked their Ballmer era keyboards and mice, but yeah in general Microsoft doesn't seem to have a good track record with hardware.

I still lament the catastrophic mishandling of Windows Phone. I really liked my Lumia 920.

 

[bobsled]

Loved the Surface Book, and Surface Laptop Studio I currently have. They’re build solidly and have great keyboards, screens, and trackpads.

What’s the alternative in laptop land? HP or Dell corporate machines maybe. Potentially unreliable if they’re readily bricked by poor quality OTA BIOS updates.

Classic, just like Valve they can’t stick it out to 3.

 

[kondamin]

I liked their Ballmer era keyboards and mice, but yeah in general Microsoft doesn't seem to have a good track record with hardware.

I still lament the catastrophic mishandling of Windows Phone. I really liked my Lumia 920.

I would love a Lucia 1520 mk2, still my favourite phone ever.
They did the UI right in windows phone and I hate iOS and android

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I liked their Ballmer era keyboards and mice, but yeah in general Microsoft doesn't seem to have a good track record with hardware.

I still lament the catastrophic mishandling of Windows Phone. I really liked my Lumia 920.

I would love a Lucia 1520 mk2, still my favourite phone ever.
They did the UI right in windows phone and I hate iOS and android

I had many. I started with the 521, then got a 925, then a 1020, then went back and forth between the 1020 and 1520 for years. Finally tried the 950 and 950XL, which I liked, but I could tell the end was near. W10M was garbage.

 

[Solaris17]

I still lament the catastrophic mishandling of Windows Phone. I really liked my Lumia 920.

I will always pour one out for my old HTC M8 on the win 10 beta. Literally to date the best phone I have ever owned.

As for the surface line. Too bad really. I liked them they had promise. I had the first gen notebook and it was sweet. I have a surface 7 in the garage I use to tune ECUs. the problem imo is they kept making convertibles. Terrible. I hate convertibles, I dont want my shit to bend 360d I dont want to use some fuck shit keyboard made of suade.

Literally just make a laptop; please.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I will always pour one out for my old HTC M8 on the win 10 beta. Literally to date the best phone I have ever owned.

As for the surface line. Too bad really. I liked them they had promise. I had the first gen notebook and it was sweet. I have a surface 7 in the garage I use to tune ECUs. the problem imo is they kept making convertibles. Terrible. I hate convertibles, I dont want my shit to bend 360d I dont want to use some fuck shit keyboard made of suade.

Literally just make a laptop; please.

We have a Lenovo 360 convertible. My favorite is when you open the lid and Windows is upside down. You have to 360 it back and forth to get it right side up again.

 

[Solaris17]

We have a Lenovo 360 convertible. My favorite is when you open the lid and Windows is upside down. You have to 360 it back and forth to get it right side up again.

25H2 Gymnastics service pack

 

[boidsonly]

The Surface can be placed on the shelf next to the Microsoft Phone.

 

[CrAsHnBuRnXp]

We use Surface's at work and they fucking suck. Now we're going to Dell and it's going to be even worse. Shoulda just stuck with Lenovo.

 

[bobsled]

We use Surface's at work and they fucking suck. Now we're going to Dell and it's going to be even worse. Shoulda just stuck with Lenovo.

Lenovo is trash.

What about HP laptops?

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

I have an Hp work laptop. It’s a pretty bad experience. Best work laptop I’ve had was a Lenovo. The HP runs hotter than hell and is slow and buggy.

 

[bobsled]

I have an Hp work laptop. It’s a pretty bad experience. Best work laptop I’ve had was a Lenovo. The HP runs hotter than hell and is slow and buggy.

So the laptop can’t exhaust the heat properly? Oof.

Every hotbox laptop I’ve used has had an i7.

Would be nice for manufacturers to offer their high spec notebooks with AMD CPUs. Intel is rubbish.

 

[Shihab]

Oh no!
I hear a tiny violin playing...

Lenovo is trash.

Ideapads are mediocre (although they used to offer the best bang-and-quality-per-buck at the lower ends, in my region, back when I got mine).
Dunno about Yogas, and I don't wanna know. That entire formfactor is a waste of resources, imo.
Thinkpads, however, are still well built.

 

[Nostras]

The problem imo is that the laptops are simply too expensive.
Other manufacturers have laptops in lower price segments which eventually gets them some brand loyalty of people looking for something more premium.
The cheaper offerings are dreadful in hardware/dollar because their budget HW does not conform to mass production.
It's frankly insane that I'd consider microsoft more expensive than Apple.

This nets you a toxic cycle of making the devices too expensive, nobody's buying them, not enough units are produced keeping prices high.
Rinse and repeat.

Reminds me of the Qualcomm devices.

 

[CosmicWanderer]

As much as I love Surface devices (owned many Pros and Laptops over the years), Surface today is a neutered shell of what it once was, with little left of the ambition that made their devices unique in the first place.

I dont mind them sticking to the safe bets, but at the same time they should continue experimenting. I would still like a Surface Neo but that's dependent on an incompetent Windows team that still cant figure out how to make Windows touch-friendly on touch-first devices.

It's all such a shame. So much wasted potential.

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

So the laptop can’t exhaust the heat properly? Oof.

Every hotbox laptop I’ve used has had an i7.

Would be nice for manufacturers to offer their high spec notebooks with AMD CPUs. Intel is rubbish.

It's not just the heat, but it's also really buggy. I can't tell you how many times I hear people curse the docking stations at work, and I experienced it, too. Granted, the docks are not Hp brand, but it's astounding how bad the experience is. It's so picky and unpredictable that it reminds me of the days of TV-top antennas, where everything has to be just right or you don't get a picture. I put in a request for an Hp-branded dock, and that seems to have helped quite a bit, but isn't that the issue? Shouldn't docking over USB-C be a relatively simple process these days? It's certainly not plug-n-play. Maybe none of that is HP's fault, but there are so many other bugs in Windows that I couldn't tell you. Just one example, when an Excel dialog pops up, it's completely empty until I click on it, then it renders. It's stuff like that that leaves me wondering what the heck MS is doing other than putting copilot icons everywhere.

 

[R-T-B]

Thinkpads, however, are still well built.

Just want to second this. Even the L Series is somewhat decent, though really if you are buying thinkpad, you do better than that (T series at minimum).

 

[blinnbanir]

MS will never learn. When you are bringing something new to the market. You have to price it properly. Every piece of hardware except the Xbox 360 from MS has always been way too expensive to find out how it runs.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Lenovo is trash.

Since when? Daft nonsense..

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

Since when? Daft nonsense..

ALL lenovo laptops are plastic chassis, including their T series. Guess what happens after 3-4 years of being carted around and opened and closed repeatedly?

Plastic cracks, it stresses and fails. Dell and HP use magnesium chassis for a reason.