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Microsoft Takes a Leaf out of Acer's Book with the Surface Laptop Studio

TheLostSwede

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The new Surface Laptop Studio features what Microsoft calls a boundary-pushing design, yet we felt like we'd seen the easel before. Lo and behold, Acer ConceptD 3 Ezel launched last year with a very similar design and HP launched the similar Spectre Folio in 2018. Not to belittle Microsoft here, as they have designed a much slicker hinge mechanism than Acer, while seemingly also improving upon the materials used and unlike HP's Spectre Folio, this is a "full fat" laptop and not a glorified tablet.

The Surface Laptop Studio is a strange looking machine, as it has an overhang, something I never expected to see on a laptop and although it appears to have been designed to allow for better cooling, there's just something about it that irks me. Yes, it makes it appear thinner than it really is and Microsoft uses the overhang to tuck away and charge the optional Surface Slim Pen 2 underneath, but it just looks odd for a lack of a better word. Oddities aside, it should be Microsoft's most powerful Intel powered laptop to date and it even packs a discrete NVIDIA GPU.



Starting with the CPU, Microsoft offers a choice between an Intel Core i5-11300H or a Core i7-11370H, with the latter offering boost speeds of up to 4.8 GHz. You have the option of either 16 or 32 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and storage is available from 256 GB to 2 TB. The discrete graphics option is only available together with the Core i7, which is slightly disappointing and the only option is a GeForce RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU with 4 GB of GDDR6 memory. There's also a RTX 2000 GPU option for commercial models. The display is a rather unusual 14.4-inch "PixelSense Flow" 10-point touch display with a 3:2 aspect ratio and a resolution of 2400x1600 pixels, as well as a 120 Hz refresh rate.

For those that like physical ports, the Surface Laptop Studio is likely to disappoint, as Microsoft has copied Apple here, as you only get two USB4 Type-C ports, although Thunderbolt 4 is part of the package, a 3.5 mm headset jack and a "Surface Connect port" which is used for connecting to various docks from Microsoft, as well as charging the laptop. Microsoft has also outfitted the Surface Laptop Studio with 802.11ax/Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1 and an Xbox Wireless receiver, as well as a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello face authentication.

The 58 Wh battery is said to be good for 18-19 hours of battery life depending on the SKU and provides either a 60 W or a 95 W charger, the latter for the Core i7 SKUs. The chassis is made from a magnesium and aluminium alloy, which means that the Surface Laptop Studio weighs in at 1.74 or 1.81 kg, depending whether it has a GPU or not. Rather unusually, Microsoft placed the cooling fans at the front of the notebook and this is part of the reason for the rather odd overhang design, but it also means that the hot air will be blowing out the front sides of the notebook, which doesn't seem like a great compromise.


Pricing starts at US$1,599.99 which gets you a Core i5 CPU with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. If you want the discrete GPU, you're looking at a minimum of US$2,099.99, but you do also get the Core i7 CPU and 512 GB of storage at this price point. The top of the range model comes with 32 GB of RAM and 2 TB of storage for US$3,099.99. All models will start shipping in early October.

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Instead of looking back to last year or two years ago with acer or hp stuff, this design was originally used by the sony vaio multiflip, a device from 2013-2014 as far as I remember (it was sold with windows 8).
 

TheLostSwede

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Instead of looking back to last year or two years ago with acer or hp stuff, this design was originally used by the sony vaio multiflip, a device from 2013-2014 as far as I remember (it was sold with windows 8).
Apologies for my short memory, but you are indeed correct. It appears there was a Vaio Flip 15 as well.
Point still stands, Microsoft didn't do anything boundary pushing here.
That said, 2018 was three years ago ;)
 
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I agree, the overhang design is questionable. I can see it not being comfortable on a lap with the extra grooves, and the vents might get blocked rather easily. Should have a Ryzen option as well.

And isn’t that a card reader slot on the right side?
 
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Shock, horror, it looks like a laptop....because...it's a laptop.
 

TheLostSwede

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I agree, the overhang design is questionable. I can see it not being comfortable on a lap with the extra grooves, and the vents might get blocked rather easily. Should have a Ryzen option as well.

And isn’t that a card reader slot on the right side?
The overhang is has already been named the "plinth" on Twitter.

It's the dock connector.
 
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"Plinth" is a real word which actually is a good description here, lol.
 
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I like the 1600p 3:2 display. 4 GB of GDDR6 memory ... wtf? Two USB4 Type-C ports are excellent. 1080p webcam is also good. 1.74 or 1.81 kg is heavy but durable. 16 or 32 GB of LPDDR4x RAM and storage is available from 256 GB to 2 TB the lower ranges are ridiculous. Hot air will be blowing out the front sides of the notebook might be OK for Northern Hemisphere winters. Big question: Reliability?
 
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The overhang is a good idea, it will stop people using it on a carpet or bed and blocking the intakes, making it overheat.
 
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It's not a gaming laptop. I don't think the Surface line ever gave off that vibe.
I don't think I mentioned gaming. GPU acceleration of Apps/programs?

The overhang is a good idea, it will stop people using it on a carpet or bed and blocking the intakes, making it overheat.
Or it will keep both hands warm.
 
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Nice chassis. Missing the AMD options though. Could've probably used one of those Ryzen 5000G's in there...
 
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Miss me with the 2 type C.
 
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Set your imagination free on the most powerful Surface Laptop, designed to light up the best of Windows 11.
I didn't make that up. Or this:
90 days free technical support
This however looks good:
Factory-calibrated PixelSense™ Flow touch display features smoother scrolling with up to 120Hz refresh rate. See brighter brights, darker darks and subtle details with Dolby Vision® when playing supported content.
as does this:
Pro-quality audio is yours with enhanced Quad Omnisonic speakers, including four stereo 2-way speakers with dual invisible woofers and rich, clear sound that’s equally powerful in every mode. Plus, enjoy breathtaking cinematic sound, powered by Dolby Atmos®.
Not sure this is good:
1 × Surface Connect port 
I would like a review.
 
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Surface Laptop Studio, geared towards creators who film and upload their videos in 144p! Microsoft copied Apple with the we'll offer a base price one with a comically small drive, make it soldered, charge 6x the price for the larger models... except they do it worse. I'm surprised the base model isn't 8GB RAM, it's out of character! Surface Laptop 4, Surface Book 3 and the new Surface Pro 8 all start with 8GB, you know, like phones.
 
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Hi,
My iphone se was free and came with 64gb lol
 
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Surface Laptop Studio, geared towards creators who film and upload their videos in 144p! Microsoft copied Apple with the we'll offer a base price one with a comically small drive, make it soldered, charge 6x the price for the larger models... except they do it worse. I'm surprised the base model isn't 8GB RAM, it's out of character! Surface Laptop 4, Surface Book 3 and the new Surface Pro 8 all start with 8GB, you know, like phones.
From rendering of internals shown there seems to be a M.2 2280 slot for SSDs.
 
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From rendering of internals shown there seems to be a M.2 2280 slot for SSDs.
Hopefully opening it up is easy, my Surface Laptop 2 only opens destructively, ripping the Alcantara essentially
 
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Hopefully opening it up is easy, my Surface Laptop 2 only opens destructively, ripping the Alcantara essentially
Anandtech has posted full PR with both Surface Pro and Laptop studio offer "upgradable" SSDs via M.2 slots only question remains is how easy it is to open.
 
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Definitely no boundary pushing here, but still interesting to see more takes on alternative laptop form factors. The Surface Laptop never made much sense to me within the Surface brand - using a pen on a traditional laptop is terrible, and while touch is useful, it is as an ancillary input, not a main one. This easel-style laout significantly improves both. Btw, am I right in thinking this hinge only goes as far as in the pictures, i.e. that it can't lie flat (or close to it) to cover the touchpad/palm rest area? If so, that's kind of a good thing IMO - it says quite clearly "this isn't a tablet, it's a tabletop drawing surface", rather than trying to be everything to everyone.

That "plinth" is ... interesting? It would definitely not work if this was a convertible tablet. I guess it makes it easier to pick up, though I can't imagine it doesn't also make this harder to fit into a bag (more edges to catch on things) and it'll likely get nicked and scratched easily. Also, am I the only one kind of curious - and a bit worried - about the cooling layout? Where do the heatpipes/vapr chamber go? Under/over the speakers? I can't imagine they've been dumb enough to place them across the battery - that would kill the battery quickly. So they must run along the outside of the case - which seems like it would risk heating up the case in areas where it's likely to contact users' skin (wrist rests, sides of the bottom). I'll definitely be curious to see a teardown of a retail unit. It also seems (if that board layout is accurate) that the dGPU-less version could have squeezed in a much larger battery in its place, if the dGPU actually takes up that much board space.
 
D

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Definitely no boundary pushing here, but still interesting to see more takes on alternative laptop form factors. The Surface Laptop never made much sense to me within the Surface brand - using a pen on a traditional laptop is terrible, and while touch is useful, it is as an ancillary input, not a main one. This easel-style laout significantly improves both. Btw, am I right in thinking this hinge only goes as far as in the pictures, i.e. that it can't lie flat (or close to it) to cover the touchpad/palm rest area? If so, that's kind of a good thing IMO - it says quite clearly "this isn't a tablet, it's a tabletop drawing surface", rather than trying to be everything to everyone.

That "plinth" is ... interesting? It would definitely not work if this was a convertible tablet. I guess it makes it easier to pick up, though I can't imagine it doesn't also make this harder to fit into a bag (more edges to catch on things) and it'll likely get nicked and scratched easily. Also, am I the only one kind of curious - and a bit worried - about the cooling layout? Where do the heatpipes/vapr chamber go? Under/over the speakers? I can't imagine they've been dumb enough to place them across the battery - that would kill the battery quickly. So they must run along the outside of the case - which seems like it would risk heating up the case in areas where it's likely to contact users' skin (wrist rests, sides of the bottom). I'll definitely be curious to see a teardown of a retail unit. It also seems (if that board layout is accurate) that the dGPU-less version could have squeezed in a much larger battery in its place, if the dGPU actually takes up that much board space.

Looking at the pic, i don't even see how the heat pipes could go from the chips to the fans, unless they where over the top and took them off, or it is just a render image and not a true depiction.
 
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Looking at the pic, i don't even see how the heat pipes could go from the chips to the fans, unless they where over the top and took them off, or it is just a render image and not a true depiction.
I'm expecting a layout something like this - the right side I feel relatively sure about, the left seems like a tight fit no matter what - either you're very close to the battery or the SSD. Whether the main cooling block is heatpipes or a large vapor chamber is an open question - I'd guess the latter, as it's not really expensive or difficult to make, and lends itself well to thin form factors. You can make a lot of weird shapes in a vapor chamber that would be difficult to do by bending heat pipes.
 

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