Microsoft Surface Studio Laptop
This review of the Microsoft Surface Studio Laptop, by Bill Bennett, largely matches my own experiences with it. I’ve been using the Studio for the last couple of months, having bought it as a replacement for my aging self-built desktop, and it’s easily one of the best laptops I’ve ever used. Definitely the best Windows laptop.
My Surface Studio Laptop
I’ve gone for the “middle of the road” spec - i7 + 16GB RAM, as I couldn’t justify the jump in cost of the 32GB option - like Bill notes, these devices are expensive compared to available offerings from other PC manufacturers, but for me the following helped mitigate the price:
- Solid build quality.
- Great screen.
- Really good laptop keyboard.
- Similarly good trackpad - easily the best I’ve used outside of a MacBook.
- No bloatware.
- It’s in what I consider my “sweet spot” for laptop size.
- I have just enough non-Apple needs to make a MacBook Pro (which has a similar price) not quite the best choice.
I wouldn’t say I’ve managed to really push the Studio very hard yet. I’ve mostly been using it for exam study and light “tinkering” in a WSL development environment, but I’ve also done a little bit of gaming in World of Warcraft. Playing WoW is pretty much the only time I’ve heard the fans make any real sort of noise, and with a little lowering of settings I was getting 4K on my external monitor at ~60fps from the 3050m GPU. For my needs I’d be happy to trade some resolution for higher settings at the same fps, but it’s not something I’ve devoted much time to.
In terms of noise outside gaming - I practically never hear it. Sometimes it will ramp up to a low-level “woosh” that’s barely noticeable above ambient, but most of the time it’s dead silent. Especially compared to my similarly specified (but 3 years old) work Dell - that sounds like a leaf blower from the moment it’s turned on, rising to jet engine as the day wears on.
The Studio’s signature folded tablet mode is “fine”; as Bill notes, it’s heavy, so you won’t use it on-the-go. In my limited use of it, the tablet mode is pretty nice for browsing/reading on the sofa as it’s more comfortable and balanced on your lap in tablet mode. I’m less concerned the whole thing is going to tip back off my knees and crash to the floor. It’s one of those features I’m not going to need 98% of the time, but on that rare 2% I’ll be glad I can make use of it.
Speaking of the fold - I don’t know if it’s just the way I lift the lid on the Studio, but I do find the double-hinge mechanism quite prone to opening up as if I were switching to tablet mode when I’m just trying to open up as a laptop. It’s not a big deal, but it’s happened enough I thought it worth mentioning.
Overall though, yeah, I’m really happy with the Surface Studio Laptop. It’s a very good laptop wrapped up in a premium-feeling package. As an aside, between this and the Xbox Series S, I’ve been very impressed with the quality of devices Microsoft is creating these days - it makes me wonder how well they’d get on in the smartphone space, if they ever decided to jump back in.