Today, Microsoft unveiled a number of new hardware products as part of its big Surface Windows 11 event. Among them is the new Surface Laptop Studio, a new style of laptop for the brand, targeted at content creators and gamers. The Laptop Studio comes with a 14.4-inch touch screen display that shifts from a traditional laptop configuration into a “Stage” mode that covers the keyboard at a 45-degree angle, and then into a horizontal “Studio” mode, elevated slightly at the rear for ergonomic use with a Surface Slim Pen docked magnetically under the chassis of the device. It uses what Microsoft calls a Dynamic Woven Hinge to transition smoothly between modes.
With a screen resolution of 2400 by 1600, the Surface Laptop Studio’s display has a high refresh rate of 120Hz, putting it up in the ranks with tablets like the Apple iPad Pro and Galaxy Tab S7 tablets and gaming laptops like the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio has 11th-gen Intel Core i5 or i7 H-series chips with an option for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti discrete graphics card, two USB4/Thunderbolt 4 ports, up to 32GB of RAM, and a removable SSD for storage. It replaces the Surface Book line as Microsoft’s most powerful machine.
With the introduction of the Surface Laptop Studio, Microsoft has altered the design of the 2015 Surface Book, effectively updating it for 2021. In addition to changing the name, it ditches the detachable base and replaces it with the hinged display that can tilt at various angles above the keyboard. It can go as far down as roughly flat so you can use it as a pressure-sensitive tablet, similar to its big brother the Surface Studio 2, or the iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard. The Surface Laptop Studio can be preordered now and will be widely available starting October 4th.
In other tech news, check out the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon.