Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio Review

Microsoft Surfaces exist because Microsoft got a bit fed up that laptop partners weren’t always implementing all of its latest Windows features into its most popular laptops – in order to save a buck. Google said the same things about its Android phones and so it launched its own phones to awkwardly compete with its own partners. However, both companies have stressed that its ranges are more like tech demos rather than rivals. And yet, both company’s own products are widely available in both consumer and business markets. With that in mind, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is a quasi-workstation designed for business-oriented creative professionals. Should professionals or consumers buy it (if anyone)?

Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio Specs

Design, Handling & Ergonomics

One of the first things you notice about Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio is that it looks like a very smart, very solidly built, convertible laptop. The next thing you notice is just how chunky it is. It’s like so many other ultraportables, but with the laptop equivalent of a vented basement attached to it.

The lid is so strong it barely flexes. Meanwhile there’s a secondary hinge that, like the Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel, can transform it into a Starship Enterprise Configuration in order to act as an easel and even a touch-screen control panel for multiple other monitors. Confused? We’ll come to that.

Opening it up reveals the bright, 2,400 x 1,600 glossy, 10-point touchscreen. It’s very bright and sharp and does a great job of fending off fingerprints and even, very surprisingly, reflections… when you’re indoors and not outdoors in bright sunlight. Colours are vibrant and contrast is impressive with blacks approaching true black and detail only really getting lost in particularly bright areas. There is some banding in some colour transitions but things get blocky and nasty in monochromatic transitions.

It may also be worth noting that the thick, rounded bezel might look impressive, but it cuts off the tips of the corners of the screen which is less impressive. The screen is primarily designed to flip into a tent configuration. This conceals the keyboard but, if you’re connected to other screens via the USB-C ports, you can interact with them via the touchscreen like on some paleo-future starship, or something. This does rather reduce the Surface’s purpose into being an extraordinarily over-engineered trackpad, though.

If you have a Microsoft Stylus (not included) this can be magnetically stowed under the Surface Laptop Studio’s front lip. The flippable screen may have a very loose secondary hinge (unlike the Acer) but it can be easily converted into a tablet configuration. However, it’s not the thinnest not flattest tablet we’ve ever seen.

The screen has a 120Hz refresh rate, which is impressive for a non-gaming laptop but the pixel response time is very slow, so expect to see blurring of fast-moving objects. This will impact those wanting to play any fast-and-frantic games in their spare time.

The Scrabble-tile keyboard offers a perfect combination of comfort and accuracy. It’s one of the best we’ve ever used. However, we were a little disappointed that the up and down arrow keys are disappointingly squished. Meanwhile the touchpad is very smooth and has a (very) light, accurate clicking action.

The dual microphone array impressively captures clear audio, even in a noisy background. The Full HD webcam gets rather grainy in low light but is good otherwise. Ultimately, it’s still very good for video conferencing.

Finally, the quad-array speakers are impressive with their being good fidelity from top to bottom, punchy bass and impressive volume.

At the end of the day, the Surface Laptop Studio might be a the computational equivalent of a but gawky and uncoordinated, but it’s got it where it counts in terms of usability and ergonomics.

Performance

Inside the Surface Laptop Studio is am 11^th-Gen, quad-core, HyperThreaded 3.3–4.8GHz Intel Core i7-11370H processor, a generous 32GB of low-power LPDDR4 RAM and a 1TB hard drive. In the general-computing PCMark 10 benchmark it scored an impressive 5,771 which belies its last-gen roots. However, its scores of 998 and 5,862 and in the Cinebench CPU rendering tests (R15 and R23 respectively) are a smidge behind the times.

3D performance comes via an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti which is a bit weak, but a hefty notch above Intel’s integrated graphics. It scored 4,888 (average 39.5fps) in 3D Mark Time Spy and 5,306 (average 24fps) in Fire Strike Extreme. That shows it will struggle with AAA gaming titles but also, if you turn the settings down, it might just handle them.

It managed a score of 26,683 in the lesser 3DMark Night Raid test which shows it can play many casual and competitive games. That’s an average of 180.4fps.

In our latest, CS:GO FPS test, the old benchmark illustrated that, when the system is tortured, it can quickly get more-than-warm and the fans spin up to a low whoosh. Nonetheless, it’s significantly less noisy than rival laptops which can get loud and uncomfortably hot – the fins on its lower section really do seem to help with cooling.

However, while a score of 75fps in the average FPS benchmark suggests it will easily handle this older game, a score of 19fps in the ‘1% Low‘ test demonstrates that it will still struggle when every component is suddenly required to perform at its maximum level because someone set off a smoke grenade. It’s still a noticeable step up from rivals with integrated graphics though.

Connectivity

Inside there’s Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1. Even though this is a last-gen laptop… that’s more than a little sparse.

Portability and battery life

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio feels very solid, despite the flippy screen and yet weighs 2.05KG. The power brick adds a not-insignificant 432g to the mix. It’s a little heavier than some similar performers but not overly chunky.

Meanwhile, it ran the PCMark 10 Modern Office test for an impressive 13 hours 50 minutes which is much more than a full day out of the office.

Price and Availability

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is a substantial, high-quality machine and it costs $4,199. That’s not cheap in this market, especially for an 11^th Gen laptop, but there are 12^th Gen variants available too.

Conclusion: Should you buy the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio?

We’re impressed that the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio feels like nothing else we’ve reviewed lately. It’s a high quality device, but you pay a lot for it and it’s not got the best performance. As for suggesting what one should buy instead, everything else carries ergonomic compromises. This is ultimately a business-grade, Creator laptop that should suit some particular workloads more than others and such a niche is always desirable to some buyers.

As a general computer though, the Surface Laptop Studio is not the greatest in terms of price, performance, features and value. But, it’s not bad either.

Pros

Solidly built
Great keyboard

Cons

Expensive
Limited connectivity

Last Updated on 5 July 2024 by Nick Ross