Verdict
The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is a MacBook Pro contender with a turn . It does n’t keep up with its Apple rival or relative Windows laptops in terms of raw power but mostly makes up for it with a classy and interesting design alongside strong battery life . The toll of admission charge is high though .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
In 2021 , Microsoft waved goodbye to the Surface Book and introduced theSurface Laptop Studioas its then - new high - powered microcomputer machine . This yr , it decide a refresh was in parliamentary law and the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 is now uncommitted but not all that much has changed .
In true , Surface fashion , Microsoft decline to just unloosen a thick Surface Laptop with beefier components . Instead , we got the Surface Laptop Studio and its unique hinge that provides two superfluous modes for better viewing angles and improved drafting capabilities .
With the Surface Laptop Studio 2 , very little has transfer beyond the addition of Intel ’s latest 13th - generation chips and Nvidia ’s RTX 40 - series mobile art , but that did n’t check Microsoft from making some big claim on stage when putting this gimmick up against the MacBook Pro . Do they hold water , and is this pricey yet powerful laptop worth your cash ? Let ’s plunge in .
Design and Keyboard
It may have not commute at all since the previous looping but the aspect of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 is an eye - catching one . No other laptop in this family chooses to sit a classic grapple design upon a pedestal to oblige muscular components and a stronger cooling solution . The designing also give the illusion that this Surface is thinner than it is since you ’re often handling ( and wait at ) the thinner portion of the laptop .
Its standout pattern feature is the hinge that sit at the midsection of the butt of the covert , allowing you to pluck it forward slightly so it will magnetically sit in front of the keyboard for near consider angles , or come even further forrard to make a very thick tablet style . Both of these modality feel niche , with the first instance offer up strong angles for gaming or multimedia system if you have determine space but , if you do n’t you could simply maneuver the laptop in its unconstipated circle - up .
The second musical mode is aimed at creatives , those who destine to use the Surface Slim Pen 2 with this automobile and Microsoft is keen to gasconade this mode as such . The question is then , why is the almost £ 100/$100 Surface Slim Pen 2 sold one by one ? In ‘ pad of paper style ’ , the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is very thick so you are n’t using it well as a tablet without a stylus . It feels like the gatekeeping of one of this laptop ’s singular marketing points behind an accessory . That is true to form with Surface equipment though , with the nigh - on essential Type Cover still sell severally from the Surface pad kitchen stove . Nevertheless , if you do pick up the Surface Slim Pen 2 , it is a pleasure to thread and gloss with . It ’s extremely responsive and its flat form sits well in the hand . It also attaches to the underside of the front of the laptop in cozy mode .
I ’ve already observe how thick the Surface Laptop Studio 2 gets when bunched up in ‘ tablet mode ’ but given the diagrammatically capable element , this is an imposingly portable design overall . It come in at 22 millimetre thin and 1.89 kg in weight . That is a in force bit weighty than some key rivals like the 14 - column inch MacBook Pro and Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED , both of which come in at 1.6 kg , although I never found it inept to lug around .
The Surface Laptop Studio 2 also still sports a haptic trackpad and it is n’t my darling . Haptic trackpads from Apple and Huawei do a great occupation of mimic a traditional forcible pad but the Surface one just feels off . The detent feels rather shallow and tantamount to a thud rather than something more natural . I did discover myself getting used to it throughout this reappraisal though , so it ’s far from a dealbreaker .
At the other end of the spectrum is the keyboard . Surface keyboard are some of the good you ’ll find on laptop computer , with the Surface Laptop Go in particular being surprising in just how good its keys feel despite its low price . The Surface Laptop Studio 2 does not let down , with a hefty amount of travel and a smidgen of pleasing feedback . I do wish the keystone were a bit larger though .
One change to the intention – in fact , the only modification to the design – is a boost to the porthole selection . The first is the accession of a good ol’ USB - A port and , accommodate in with the creator ethos , a MicroSD slot . The eternal rest remain the same , with two Thunderbolt 4 porthole , a earphone jack and a Surface Connect porthole .
Display and Sound
There ’s no fancy display technology with the Surface Laptop Studio 2 , and it ’d be fair for you to bear some given the high price , but what you do get is a 14.4 - column inch PixelSense display and it offers a substantial showing experience . This screen bring home the bacon as an all - libertine , without knocking it out of the ballpark in any expanse .
For creators , our display benchmarking showed a solid 100%sRGB , 83%Adobe RGBand 87%DCI - P3 in terms of colour truth . The color temperature is reasonably balanced at 5,800 special K while the display can get imposingly bright at 487.6 nits . As this is n’t an OLED or Mini LED , you wo n’t bump the infinite line they tout , alternatively it provide a adequate 1770:1 .
twenty-four hour period - to - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , it ’s a pleasant showing experience , with creative use , film and universal productiveness all allow for telling pops of gloss on this hopeful display . Then , there ’s the 120Hz refresh rate , which serves gamers well along with make scrolling about delightfully smooth .
The main betise of this panel is that it ’s shining . The reflections are passing firm with this one and , pay you ’re tempt to utilise the screen at dissimilar angles , it can be troublesome in direct lighting . The high luminousness goes some way to help here but you do n’t want to have the Surface Laptop Studio 2 set to maximum on the habitue , to pull through your eyes and your shelling animation .
Surface Laptop devices have always excelled with their speakers and this new iteration is no different . The range almost always offers big and detailed speech sound , with some models in year past feel like a dead on target MacBook challenger in this section . This laptop does n’t quite hit that gold standard as the basso just is n’t here to make for a truly rounded and realistic experience , but most will be enthralled with what ’s on offer as it ’s ideal for moving-picture show - watching and listen to music .
Performance
Our review fashion model of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 came with a compounding of an Intel Core i7 - 13700H , Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 , 1TBSSDand 64GBRAM . Rather unambiguously , it also has an Intel Gen3 Movidius 3700VC VPU AI Accelerator , which enables AI capabilities . This specification will cost you £ 3,369/$3299 , while the start cost is down at £ 1,899/$1,999 . Now , when the Surface Laptop Studio 2 was launch , Microsoft joyfully touted its carrying out up against the MacBook Pro M2 Max on stage . Our tests do not tell the same news report but that does n’t stop the Surface Laptop Studio 2 from being an extremely open machine for creators and gamers .
As you could see from the termination above , the Surface Laptop Studio 2 does fall unforesightful of similarly specced rival , like theMSI Stealth 16 Studio , in our benchmark tests . Its most telling results come in multi - core examination where it does manage to keep up with devices with more brawny central processing unit , which is a blessing for Maker with complex workloads who are considering this machine .
For television editors , our PugetBench for Premiere Pro run was where Apple flexed its muscles and showed this laptop is n’t in the league of the latestM3 Max MacBook Pro . The Surface Laptop Studio 2 also falls short of key Windows competitor like theLenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16andHP prognostic Transcend 16 , with the latter being the most worrying gap as the HP feature the same RTX 4060GPU . You may not get hard value when up against competitors but the score still showcase a capable editing machine .
It ’s a similar story in play , where the Surface Laptop Studio 2 once again does n’t manage to keep up with competitors in the slim ball of fire category . In my reappraisal of the HP Omen Transcend 16 , I highlighted that you were sacrifice some execution for its thinner and lighter body than your average play laptop . With the Surface Laptop Studio 2 , that ’s get a footstep even further but for some , the unique high - end design may be deserving it . you’re able to still pull off upward of 60fps at high preferences on Full HD resolution across AAA title as well as around 90fps in first - person shooter games like Rainbow Six Extraction .
The deficiency of performance can likely be put down to the caloric direction going on here , as I found that the lover get super loud under demanding workloads . The bottom portion of the gadget would get very raging regularly and the breeze being pushed out was evenhandedly toasty too . The heat was never vivid enough to be of concern but the fans do get irritatingly tatty .
The Surface Laptop Studio 2 does keep footstep with SSD speeds though , pleasing those who will be transferring great deal of files such as creative type . You get a strong combining of 7,007.33MB / s show and 5,597.53MB / s write speeds with this laptop computer .
Software
Many top laptop steel insist on cramming your laptop with a bunch of computer programme from third company that you merely did n’t ask for . gratefully , Microsoft is n’t that direction inclined , potential because you ’ve already got hatful of its software onboard through Windows 11 , but the result is the same and that ’s a machine pleasingly light on bloatware .
What you do get that is alone to Surface machines is a Surface app . It is n’t anything special but neatly brings together twist information , barrage details , helper and sustenance , information on your warrantee as well as pen and touchpad options .
There are also controls for Windows Studio personal effects . In terms of the benefits offered by AI through hardware , there is n’t a whole lot that ’s been showcased as being of significant welfare to the average productivity drug user but Windows Studio effects are a clear one , specially for remote work . It let you to natively add Background effects , middle physical contact , robotic framing and Voice focus – all of which help to make your video conferencing go swimmingly . As they are n’t app - specific , like turning on Background Blur in Zoom , they ’ll ferment across most third - party picture conferencing apps .
Now , Microsoft Copilotis set to be usable across many devices going ahead as support continues to raise , and it is very much a software characteristic but I ’m touch on it as the novel Surface Laptop Studio 2 was very much a show window equipment for the newfangled AI characteristic enabled by co-pilot ’s integration into Windows 11 .
The hypothesis are true huge with Microsoft Copilot and , in my experience thus far , it looks set to be a unmistakably utile tool for those who want helper with basic tasks on Windows . Tasks many may regain simple like working out how you’re able to extend across multiple proctor or aid in researching a trip across many websites , are set to be made easier for those who may have found such thing challenge previously . I ’d expect the use cases to only grow and become more complex but , as I discussed in my “ The Copilot key can transubstantiate AI from gimmick to gamechanger ” opinion piece on this very subject , the ordinary Joe is sic to get a massive ramification up .
Battery Life
face at the spec sail , you ’d be rightly concerned about the Surface Laptop Studio 2 , skylark just a 56.3Wh cellphone – many rival stretch out upwards of 70Wh and even up to the maximal many airlines allow onboard , at 99.9Wh . However , I was thoroughly print by this laptop , which care a impregnable 11 - hour and 56 minutes in our barrage benchmark . A score above 10 hr is quite a rarity for Windows laptop computer with dedicated graphics cards , with the Razer Blade 14 and its 68Wh cubicle being one of the few others to carry off it .
However , this must be caveated with my actual - world experience , which will stress the machine more in term of productivity than the PCMark 10 test . I would often make it to a full day ’s work or just unretentive . This rest impressive for my distinctive intensive productiveness work load , with many Windows laptop I ’ve tested require a charge after 4 - 6 hours of use . So , for faint usage , you will get that near 12 - hours but , when pushing this twist more in the browsing and multi - tasking department , it ’ll run under 10 - hour .
For intensive graphic work load , the Surface Laptop Studio 2 remains a Windows equipment that you should use plugged in , unlike the MacBook Pro which can perform almost equally as beneficial on stamp battery power . However , if you do decide to game or render on the go , gestate well under 2 - hour of charge .
When it descend to recharge , you’re able to use Surface Connect charger but USB - C PD is onboard for a more convenient option . The Surface Connect will get you back up to 100 % in not much more than an hour , at 127W focal ratio , while the USB - C descend in at 100W , take not much longer .
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Should you buy it?
There is no other machine like the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 . If you love the look of the ironware , whether it ’s the unique look and surprisingly portable chassis or Godhead - friendly display modes , then it could be the equipment for you . It is super open in both originative work and gaming .
You are paying a bounty for the unique design and outlandish adaptability , including an extra fee for the stylish should you need it . You also have to accept less value for money on the carrying into action on go . you may find better in this area from other Windows laptops and cardinal Apple competitor .
Final Thoughts
The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 is an iterative raise on the premature model , with very fiddling changing from the latest generation . You get forward-looking chips from Intel and Nvidia , with both provide unattackable originative and play performance .
However , the performance you get is low than key rivals like theApple MacBook Pro , MSI Stealth Studio 16,HP portent Transcend 16andLenovo Yoga Pro 9i . It is n’t a drastic divergence but , give its high starting price , it ’s likely to be a hard forfeit despite the imposingly portable and unequaled design you get in return with the Surface Laptop Studio 2 . The warmth and fan haphazardness get from the Surface gimmick also outstrip those rival too , making this laptop one that you often wo n’t want to be pushing to its uttermost . All this fuse means the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is n’t quite one of thebest laptops of 2024 .
What you do get with the Surface Laptop Studio 2 though is the stunning invention that will especially suit Divine who ’d wish to take advantage of the Surface Slim Pen ( sell separately ) . Though , despite its creative chops , the display does n’t wow in the room you may ask , with no fancy Mini light-emitting diode or OLED technology on crack . Nevertheless , it gets unusually bright , making it idealistic for working in challenging lighting environments . Battery life is also up there with the best of them .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a serial of uniform checks designed to gauge key thing including material body quality , performance , screenland quality and battery sprightliness .
These include courtly celluloid benchmarks and scripted tests , plus a serial publication of existent - populace checks , such as how well it unravel popular apps .
FAQs
The Surface Laptop Studio 2 does not occur with a Surface Pen or Surface Slim Pen included . They must be purchased individually .
Test Data
Full Specs
