Microsoft left us with plenty to chew on during its September 22 livestreamed Surface event, announcing updates to its iconic Surface Pro (Windows tablet) and Surface Duo (twin-screen smartphone) lines, as well as a brand-new computing product, the Surface Laptop Studio.
The Laptop Studio is the biggest eye-opener of the lot. It’s a convertible 14-inch machine for creative professionals, with a screen that pulls forward over the keyboard and reclines into tablet mode, and components that are more powerful than an ultraportable’s. Meanwhile, the update to the Surface Pro line, in the Surface Pro 8, is the first real redesign of the tablet in years.
We were able to get our hands briefly on all of these products at a post-stream preview event in New York City. In the video below, I run down the Surface Laptop Studio and the Pro 8, so check it out for a closer look, and read on for more details.
The Surface Laptop Studio: Creators Welcome
In the Surface family, the “Studio” name has previously been reserved for Microsoft’s reclining all-in-one desktop, the Surface Studio. (The Surface Studio 2 is the most recent iteration, such as it is, but that was now all the way back in 2018.) And, indeed, the Surface Laptop Studio mimics the desktop’s convertible form factor.
Before we get into that, though, it’s important to hear the basics. The build maintains the traditional high-quality Surface construction and materials, in the form of a sleek, silver all-metal machine. The chassis measures just 0.74 by 12.72 by 8.98 inches, and it weighs 3.83 pounds in the base model (or up to 4 pounds for the Core i7 model). So we’re talking about a pretty slim, portable system here despite the fancy, bendy design.
The display measures 14.4 inches diagonally with a 3:2 aspect ratio, making for a sharp 2,400-by-1,600-pixel resolution. It also has a 120Hz refresh rate, which is a panel trait that’s not too common outside of dedicated gaming laptops. As with all Surface products, it is touch-input-enabled, and compatible with the new Surface Slim Pen 2, a flatter, wider version of the classic Surface stylus that has improved haptic feedback with the new devices and Windows 11.
The interior components are about as important to creative pros as the design is, and the Surface Laptop Studio is no slouch. CPU options include the Core i5-11300H and Core i7-11370H, which also pair with Intel Iris Xe Graphics (integrated) and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (discrete) graphics solutions, respectively. The acceleration provided by a discrete GPU can be important to some, though not all, creative tasks, so getting RTX graphics juice (especially in something so slim) is nothing to sneeze at.
As for the rest, memory maxes out at 32GB, and storage at 2TB. Even the top-equipped system here isn’t an on-paper powerhouse versus larger power-user machines and dedicated mobile workstations. So truly demanding workloads may need more muscle. It is certainly more performance than any mainstream user needs, though, and we’ll have to put our eventual review unit to the test on creative workloads. The presence of the Intel “Tiger Lake” H-series processors puts it in a higher speed tier than typical ultraportables that use lower-power chips.
The advantage, of course, is that these fast parts pair with a reclining touch screen, not a combination you usually get in one device. The design is not wholly unheard of, though: See the (albeit larger) Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel.
An Acrobatic Display
So, about that form factor. The display, sitting on a traditional friction hinge by the keyboard and a woven fabric hinge halfway up the panel, can be flipped into a number of layouts. From traditional laptop position, you can pop the display free of the bottom half of the lid and pull it toward you, out over the keyboard and on the edge of a touchpad, where a magnet holds the bottom of the display in place.
This position is better for viewing content, and perhaps playing games, as the screen is closer and angled toward the user. The real magic is that you can also do the opposite, by reclining the screen all the way flat into a tablet shape. Again, check out the video to see this in action.
As for my impressions, moving the screen felt a little awkward at first, but I started to get the hang of it after trying it a few more times. I also can tell from watching the Microsoft representatives handle the device that familiarity will go a long way, as they did not struggle to convert the display. The magnetic snaps make you feel more confident about how and where to move the panel, too.
The convertibility was satisfying to execute on the whole, and the use cases are clear. I do think the tablet mode is more useful, with its obvious appeal for creative professionals who want to draw on the touch screen and use the Slim Pen 2. The pen also magnetically attaches to the underside of the laptop’s front-edge overhang, a clever storage solution that also charges the pen.
The haptic feedback in the pen replicates, in an above-average fashion for digital screens, the feeling of dragging your pen on paper (though to a degree it still feels like a basic haptic tap). The higher panel refresh rate also helps add to the real-life feel, as the input is smoother. There’s also haptics in the touchpad, which feels a bit like a MacBook’s, letting you click anywhere and have more satisfying feedback.
The Surface Laptop Studio will go on sale on October 5, starting at $1,599.99.
Surface Pro 8: A Refreshing Modern Update
The Pro 8 is certainly less revolutionary than the new Studio, but it should still prove exciting to 2-in-1 users and longtime Surface fans. The Surface Pro 7 was released in 2019 (and there was a component bump since then), but the core design remained mostly unchanged even in generations before that.
The updated Pro 8 marries what we liked most about the ARM-CPU-equipped Surface Pro X (namely, its look) with the power of the main Surface Pro line, resulting in a fast, attractive new model, ready for Windows 11.
The main thing you’ll notice is the set of thinner bezels, which we thought made the Surface Pro X look much more modern at the time of its launch. The effect is the same on the Surface Pro 8. The thinner bezels are not just aesthetic, either, as the display has gone from 12.3 inches to 13 inches, making for more active screen area. It makes a big difference, in both perceived appearance and actual screen real estate, and it helps put the Surface Pro line back into that intangible “object of envy” class.
This display also includes a 120Hz refresh rate, and bears a 2,880-by-1,920-pixel native resolution. In terms of function, it feels much like the previous Surface Pro devices, and the detachable Signature Keyboard is, indeed, still sold separately. However, like the Surface Pro X’s keyboard, this one now features a storage dimple or cutout for the pen, and the Pro X keyboard is compatible, should you already own one.
There is also an internal speed boost from the original Pro 7, key in any major product upgrade. The Pro 8 can be outfitted with a Core i5-1135G7 or Core i7-1185G7 processor, but it’s worth noting that these are the same chips used in the Surface Pro 7+ for Business, which was the component-bump model for the Pro 7 I mentioned earlier. If you have that device, this won’t constitute a performance jump. Over the original Pro 7’s Core i5-1035G4 chip, though, you will certainly see some improvement.
Check out the video for a peek at the device, and stay tuned for a full review when units become available.
