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.
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55 Comments on Microsoft Announces the Surface Studio - A 28-Inch AIO With Skylake and GTX 980M

#51
arterius2
OneMoarits slow(at 4k) its a generation out of date and the 1080 is a better alt ?
Assuming that you aren't trolling and assuming you haven't read the discussions here. I'll try my best to give you summary of what was discussed

Being Microsoft's first attempt. It's a good guess that this has been under development for well over a year(or longer). And it's highly probable that the design decision was made before the 1080 was an option. If you have any real life experience in the corporate world or just common sense for that matter. You would know that they don't just "toss" in a new graphics card when the machine is already on the assembly line.

Now, with that said. You can probably tell that the Surface Studio was never meant to be a gaming machine from its form factors. For the majority of the content creation needs the 980m is in fact overkill. But I'd like to see TB-3 port include next time so I can run a eGPU through it.

Feel free to enlighten me on a example of a equally specced machine with the same level of design and material involved and we can discuss further. (The screen on the Studio itself is probably worth 1500-2000$)
Posted on Reply
#52
OneMoar
There is Always Moar
monitor worth 2000 bucks LOLNOPE
2000 dollar build + UP2715K and you are still saving well over a grand
No just because its marketed to "content creators" that don't have the first clue about what they are accually paying for does not make it good and I don't care how long its been a secret squirrel project its not worth the asking price ,
Posted on Reply
#53
arterius2
OneMoarmonitor worth 2000 bucks LOLNOPE
2000 dollar build + UP2715K and you are still saving well over a grand
No just because its marketed to "content creators" that don't have the first clue about what they are accually paying for does not make it good and I don't care how long its been a secret squirrel project its not worth the asking price ,
is that a 4500x3000 monitor with multiple touch sensitive screen designed in a super thin package? LOLNOPE. I don't think you understand what form factor means. Sure you can build a giant plastic box of 2000$ worth of junk. (My computer is exactly that) This isn't target at someone like you who are looking for best performance-price ratio.

I stopped taking you seriously after your argument is to compare home-built desktop builds to this. Might I suggest you to try Wal-Mart or Compu-mart?

Premium devices cost more. Sky is blue. and news at 6.
Posted on Reply
#54
OneMoar
There is Always Moar
arterius2is that a 4500x3000 monitor with multiple touch sensitive screen designed in a super thin package? LOLNOPE. I don't think you understand what form factor means. Sure you can build a giant plastic box of 2000$ worth of junk. (My computer is exactly that) This isn't target at someone like you who are looking for best performance-price ratio.

I stopped taking you seriously after your argument is to compare home-built desktop builds to this. Might I suggest you to try Wal-Mart or Compu-mart?

Premium devices cost more. Sky is blue. and news at 6.
nothing premium about this its a frigging laptop chip-set stuffed in cheap plastic box with a touch screen bolted to it ... and nobody serious about content creation uses a touch screen (reguardless of what mircosofts marketing dept would have you believe) they use watcom tablets form factor is irrelevant to people that accually do this for a living ,this is marketed to people with more money then brains e.g apple users
Posted on Reply
#55
Prima.Vera
OneMoarits slow(at 4k) its a generation out of date and the 1080 is a better alt ?
Actually for the purpose of the station, they should at least stick an Quadro M4000. Putting an M6000 would be ideal for handling 3D apps at such high resolution, however nVidia ridiculously grotesque is overpricing their cards
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