Wednesday, October 26th 2016
Microsoft Announces the Surface Studio - A 28-Inch AIO With Skylake and GTX 980M
At the 2016 annual Microsoft Surface Event, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Surface Computing Panos Panay announced a new addition to the company's Surface lineup: a 28-inch All-in-One, with a 3:2 aspect ratio monitor Microsoft calls a "Pixel Sense Display", packing a 4500x3000 resolution (with around 62% more pixels than 4K resolution, combining to provide about 192 pixels per inch), as well as 10-point touch and Microsoft Pen support.
All of that screen real-estate comes in at just 12.5mm thick - the AIO's innards are actually on the monitor's base, with an hinge that promises to allow the display to be moved seamlessly and in a wide variety of angles, as well as allowing it to take on extra weight in studio mode. All of this is powered by an Intel Skylake processor (configurable as an i5 or i7 model), your choice of an NVIDIA GTX 965 M 2GB or an NVIDIA GTX 980 M 4 GB model, 8 through 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1 TB or 2TB storage - with all configurable options also including in their base specs what Microsoft calls a "Rapid Hybrid Drive", which at the moment, remains unclear as to its nature of either a SATA or PCIe SSD, or even an SSHD.
The product is positioned more towards content creators than consumers, though it can certainly service both of those demographics. For those looking to take a more professional use out of their Surface Studio, Microsoft is advertising the display as supporting both DCI-P3 and sRGB with a simple toggle on the Windows sidebar to switch between the two. Microsoft is also launching what it calls a Microsoft Dial, which when in contact with the Surface Studio's screen, allows users to move along a timeline by simply rotating the dial, or pressing it so as to get a contextual menu related to the app they're currently using.
Pricing for this piece of tech, which looks more like a statement of style rather than technical achievement (with the hardware parts, with exception of the Pixel Sense Screen, being a generation old), is sure to prove eye-watering to any normal consumer: the base model (with a Skylake i5, GTX 965 M, 8 GB DDR4 and 1 TB storage) comes in at $2999, with the top model (packing a Skylake i7, a GTX 980 M, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and 2 TB storage) upping the ante towards $4199.
All of that screen real-estate comes in at just 12.5mm thick - the AIO's innards are actually on the monitor's base, with an hinge that promises to allow the display to be moved seamlessly and in a wide variety of angles, as well as allowing it to take on extra weight in studio mode. All of this is powered by an Intel Skylake processor (configurable as an i5 or i7 model), your choice of an NVIDIA GTX 965 M 2GB or an NVIDIA GTX 980 M 4 GB model, 8 through 32 GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1 TB or 2TB storage - with all configurable options also including in their base specs what Microsoft calls a "Rapid Hybrid Drive", which at the moment, remains unclear as to its nature of either a SATA or PCIe SSD, or even an SSHD.
Pricing for this piece of tech, which looks more like a statement of style rather than technical achievement (with the hardware parts, with exception of the Pixel Sense Screen, being a generation old), is sure to prove eye-watering to any normal consumer: the base model (with a Skylake i5, GTX 965 M, 8 GB DDR4 and 1 TB storage) comes in at $2999, with the top model (packing a Skylake i7, a GTX 980 M, 32 GB of DDR4 RAM and 2 TB storage) upping the ante towards $4199.
55 Comments on Microsoft Announces the Surface Studio - A 28-Inch AIO With Skylake and GTX 980M
But to be honest, since is one of the first on their category, we can forgive them for beta testing the users.
P.S.
I think in the future, in order to fully use this tablet as a drawing pad, a couple of mandatory steps need to happen.
- First of all, a high refresh screen with 120Hz is minimum.
- Second, you cannot have any other screen type except OLED. You need to be able not only to draw realistic colors, but also to further reduce screen lag.
- Third, they need to increase the nr of touch points on the screen to (ideally) match the screen resolution dot-pitch. This is also mandatory if you want to remove the lag caused by interpolating the distance between touch points on the screen, the major disadvantage of all drawing pads.
Though, Wacom upcoming MobileStudio 16 tablet looks nice. Just found the price on the 16, that lowest price on that is $2,500 then maxing out at $3,000.
What I find interesting in that video is the 2D to 3D art. Seems new software or added ability to current software.
Hope a good review video comes out later comparing the Studio against a Cintiq. Especially on how well their stylus works, software support in art programs, etc. Maybe later Microsoft will sell the screen with stylus as a separate monitor.
fking seriously ?
the machine is 4200 dollars
NO microsoft just NO get a clue