Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio: Windows 11’s flagship feels like the future
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio feels like a glimpse of the future. Microsoft’s new pull-forward design arguably improves upon the Surface Book 3, its spiritual predecessor, offering you a light menu of gaming, content creation, and everyday computing capabilities to choose from.
Tell us if you’ve heard this before, though: The Surface Laptop Studio doesn’t come cheap, and its excellent new inking capabilities require the separate purchase of a $130 Slim Pen 2. You can opt for Windows 11 (see page 25) to power this new 2-in-1 PC, though the new hardware, software, and drivers may make this a bit of a bumpy road to begin with. You’ll also have to decide whether this arguably niche device is worth the investment, versus general-purpose notebooks that may offer more value. Nevertheless, this is the most intriguing Surface of the last half decade.
SPECS
Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio is available in a variety of configurations, ranging in price from about $1,600 on up to over $3,000. Essentially, you’ll have a choice between an 11th-gen Core i5 and Core i7 chip, specifically the H35 version that Intel launched this past spring. You can also choose from between 16GB and 32GB of RAM, as well as between 512GB, 1TB, and a whopping 2TB of SSD storage. (The SSD is technically upgradable by a “skilled technician.”) Finally, the Core i7 models ship with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics, a moderately powerful raytracing-capable GPU for content creation and light gaming.
Keep in mind that one of the standout features that Microsoft is highlighting in the Surface Laptop Studio—inking—requires the separate purchase of a new Surface Slim Pen 2 ($129.99), which can fit underneath the Surface Laptop Studio in a little receptacle. Selling the pen separately is by now a Surface tradition, though the Pen 2 feels like less of a prerequisite with the Studio than it does with the Surface Pro tablet lineup.
Display: 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow touch display (2400×1600 (201 PPI), 120Hz)
Processor: Intel Core H35 i5-11300H, H35 i7-11370H (Core i7 as tested)
Iris Xe (H35 i5-11300H), Nvidia RTX
