The Surface Laptop Studio was released at the end of 2021, and I’ve been using it for the last few weeks to see if it’s something you should buy.
While the name would suggest this is a laptop for creative professionals, my loan device didn’t arrive with the Slim Pen 2 (€135 optional extra) so unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test one of the more crucial elements of what the Studio has to offer for digital artists.
The Surface Laptop Studio is a laptop first, with a unique hinge system that allows it to be folded and used as a tablet. Unlike the previous Surface Book, the Studio’s display isn’t detachable.
Instead, the screen is hinged in the middle of the back, which allows it to be positioned in three different modes. The first is the standard laptop mode, the second, Stage mode and the final position is Studio mode, which folds the screen, keyboard and body into a layered sandwich.
Stage mode places the screen in front of the keyboard and renders it redundant but it does make the screen rigid while using touch inputs.
I can see this being ideal for watching videos, giving presentations or using the Slim Pen 2 to take notes or create digital art. I feel a fourth mode that angled the display all the way to the edge of the palm rest would have been useful too for taking notes or drawing.
Studio mode is a good screen position for digital artists but unlike dedicated tablets like the iPad Pro, the size, weight and thickness make it awkward to use. I like being able to hold a tablet in my hands to take notes or draw.
The Surface Laptop Studio is built with a premium magnesium alloy body that feels rigid and robust. The lid splits in two to allow the screen to go into Stage mode. The top half of the display is stuck to the lid and the bottom half is held in place with magnets. I found this a bit fiddly and often unintentionally, pulled the display away from the lid.
The bezels are larger than I was expecting for such a premium device which makes it look a little dated. The top bezel houses the 1080p webcam along with the necessary IR sensor for Windows Hello support but there’s no fingerprint sensor which would have been a welcome addition.
The lower half of the body is 17.88mm thick with a recessed base that is smaller than the top half e. Despite the convenient size, my review device was 1.74kg, which isn’t all that light compared to other 14-inch laptops. The front lip has been designed with a strong magnet to safely and securely store the optional stylus.
Either side has large speaker grills that also double as air vents. The right side has a 3.5mm headphone jack and the Surface Connect charging port. The latter connects magnetically, which is great because if you accidentally trip on the cable, you’re less likely to pull the laptop off a desk.
On the right side are the two USB-C ports that also support Thunderbolt 4. This means that either of these ports can be used to charge the Surface Laptop Studio which is especially handy if you forget the proprietary charger. The downside is that there are only two of them and for a device that’s designed for creative professionals, the lack of an SD card reader or HDMI is unfortunate.
The trackpad is excellent although nowhere near as large as the one on the MacBook Pro but it does feel just as good. The trackpad is centered with massive palm rests on either side which is great for comfort.
The full-size keyboard features white backlighting and gray keys with decent travel for a good typing experience.
The 14.4-inch IPS touchscreen display has a resolution of 2,400 x 1,600px (3:2 aspect ratio) and features a 120Hz adaptive refresh rate that Microsoft calls ‘PixelSense Flow’.
Using my Datacolor Spyder X Elite I recorded 100% sRGB, 81% Adobe RGB, and 85% P3 color accuracy with a peak brightness of 501 nits on battery power.
The Surface Laptop Studio has four speakers that sound really good and can get loud without distortion. However, they lack any real bass and are not a match for the class-leading speaker system found on the MacBook Pro.
My loan unit was the Intel Core i5 11th gen with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage and Intel Iris Xe integrated graphics. It can be configured up to a Core i7 with 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD and an RTX 3050 Ti GPU instead.
Not surprisingly, the Surface Laptop Studio comes pre-installed with Windows 11 Pro, but you do have the option of sticking with Windows 10 if you prefer.
The Surface Laptop Studio comes with a claim of up to 19 hours on the i5 model with integrated graphics and 18 hours on the more powerful i7.
For general office use, I was able to get a full day on battery without hitting it too hard. However, when I turned up the screen brightness and started to do more CPU and GPU-intensive tasks the battery drained much faster.
With the brightness set to 50% and streaming a video over wifi, I was able to drain the battery from 100% down to 14% in six hours. Of course, lowering the screen brightness will dramatically improve battery drain.
The 65W charger is light, compact and capable of charging the laptop in less than a couple of hours.
The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio features a unique design that provides a lot of versatility for those who require it. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to test one of the key features, which is the Slim Pen 2 that’s an optional extra and doesn’t come with the Studio.
The 14.4-inch display is color accurate with good viewing angles and excellent peak brightness. The 120Hz display along with the i5 and 16GB of RAM ensures excellent performance for general office tasks but those who will be using this for heavy photo and video editing will require the Nvidia graphics and a larger and faster SSD with the i7 CPU.
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