Review: Surface Studio is more of a shop window than the perfect drawing laptop | Currently

The Surface Laptop Studio from Microsoft is basically a demonstration of what the ideal laptop for designers should look like. But the old chip can not cope with the drawing program, so it practically makes no sense to buy this laptop.

Microsoft is not averse to trying something new every now and then. For example, the Surface Book combined a large tablet computer with a battery and video card dock.

The company’s latest innovation looks like a regular laptop, even flipping the screen and turning the laptop into a kind of drawing board. According to Microsoft, this is perfect for your digital studio and hence the name aptly: Surface Laptop Studio.

Not just any surface

Microsoft has a clear design style for its Surface products and you can see it right away when you take the Surface Laptop Studio out of the box. The casing is made of a grayish magnesium alloy, which Microsoft has been using since the Surface Pro 3. All in all, it’s quite heavy for a 14-inch (1.8 kg) laptop and makes a solid impression, in part because of that weight.

However, the Studio laptop isn’t just a Surface laptop with a flip-up screen. The accommodation has been well thought out and you can see that when you take a closer look. The laptop has a base with a height of 7 mm, perforated on both sides: it can dissipate heat.

What Laptop Studio is all about, of course, is the screen that you can position in three ways. For starters, it can be used as a regular laptop monitor. To change the position of the screen, hold the screen and tap the upper right corners with your thumb. This way you can place it upright between the keyboard and the touchpad.

If you fold the screen that is laid flat, you can use it for drawing. This is possible with the help of the Surface Slim Pen 2, which you have to buy separately for 120 euros. When you’re done drawing, you can store the pen in the bottom of the sleeve, where it stays magnetically in place and also charges contactlessly.

View for Windows

Microsoft is a crazy manufacturer when it comes to laptops. Surface products are not only available for sale, but also serve as a sign and display for Windows. This is also perhaps the best way to look at the Surface Laptop Studio: as a laptop meant to demonstrate or inspire other manufacturers.

We wouldn’t buy this device quickly, because of the processor. This processor is from the eleventh generation from Intel which is not the most efficient, but the biggest limitation is the four cores in it. Microsoft could have picked a myriad of other chips.

Why make such a point about processor speed? Because the Surface Laptop Studio is aimed at creative users like illustrators and designers, and because graphics software takes advantage of the fastest processor possible, with as many cores as possible.

Really nice laptop

On top of that, the Laptop Studio is a great device. The screen performs well thanks to the high brightness, high contrast, and 120Hz refresh rate. The calibration could only have been better, considering the audience for which it was created.

The cooling is well regulated as it does not make much noise. The magnesium casing is durable and finely polished, as we’d expect from Microsoft. The screen has to be flipped over with some caution, but the build doesn’t feel weak.

The laptop studio has everything needed to be successful—except for a good chip.

This is an abridged version of a previously published article employment Tweakers figured out.