Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio Review: A Quirky Yet Appealing 2-In-1 Machine

Another day and yet another laptop. It feels as though there is a new laptop on the market every other week. Whilst not new, the Surface Laptop Studio from Microsoft popped by and I got to try it for about two weeks. My Surface Pro 8 that I purchased from the USA in October was yearning for me not to fall in love with its big brother.

The Surface Laptop Studio is special in many ways but most importantly it is unique. The clever design from Microsoft has perfected what others have tried in the past. The Acer ConceptD 7 Ezel back in 2021 was one of the first laptops with two hinges attached to the display. This allows for the screen to rotate outward. Simply put, you can put the screen in more positions than you’d ever think you’d be needing.

When Microsoft announced the new Surface line-up - Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop Studio - I had a big dilemma on my hands. Was I to get a tried and tested Surface tablet - with a keyboard and pen sold separately - or buy a laptop with a hinge so unique that people around me would always stop to ask about it. For what it's worth, I had chosen the former, and I’ve been quite happy with it.

Still, I didn’t think I’d fall in love with the Surface Laptop Studio, as much as I did over my two-week review period. Let me explain.

Uniquely Inspiring

What Microsoft has done with the Surface Laptop Studio should inspire other manufacturers to go beyond the traditional clamshell laptops of the past and try something new. It should give them the confidence that something so weird (weird at first, but you get used to it quickly), works in today’s market. The Surface Laptop Studio is aimed at creators and rightfully so. It is the most powerful Surface laptop that has ever existed.

The laptop doesn’t look unusual on the first glance. It’s made of magnesium and aluminium and has a hinge at the back. It’s got four speakers, a comfortable keyboard, a new haptic touchpad” that is a pleasure to use and a 14.4-in LCD touchscreen (with 120Hz refresh rate). It’s also got Windows Hello facial recognition for logging in.

Once you open up the laptop, that’s where things get interesting. Grab the display and twist it backwards. The screen pulls forward by unclipping at the bottom and locks in right in front of the keypad via hidden magnets. This is what is called “Stage Mode”. The laptop also folds all the way down onto the desk and that is called “Studio Mode”.

Stage Mode is for consuming content and Studio Mode is for content creators to use along with the excellent Slim Pen 2 stylus from Microsoft. You can sketch, edit photos or do so much more on this laptop.

What’s Good

The laptop’s performance can leave a lot to be desired if you’re going to be frequently gaming but for a regular day-to-day workload the laptop more than breezes through the tasks. If you’re going to be rendering a lot of videos or producing 3D models, then this laptop may just fall short of the computing power that you’d be needing.

Nonetheless, it was a great experience using the Surface Laptop Studio. While I wouldn’t recommend the base variant, as it is lacking in power, the 11th Gen Intel Core i7-11370H with Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti discrete GPU model is the one to pick up. From playing Forza Horizon to watching Quentin Tarantino, and from writing articles to doodling, the Surface Laptop Studio never lagged or slowed down. It did get a little hot while gaming for hours while plugged in but nothing that was unbearable. The fans kick in pretty soon when doing anything demanding, but then again, it isn’t too noisy.

The Surface Laptop Studio was a laptop I could rely on to get me through a solid day of work. I took the laptop with me to many cafes across Delhi and never once had to charge it while I was there. With a medium usage pattern of writing, doodling, watching YouTube and even playing casual games like Trackmania Nations Forever, I easily got around 8-9 hours of battery life. It is by far best-in-class, but more than enough for daily usage.

If you do render videos, or purely use it for gaming, then yes, it can be killed in less than four hours.

I’m not going to go into too many details here but I’d just like to point out a few things.

1. The keyboard on the Surface Laptop Studio is probably in the top three of all laptops I’ve tested over the past 12 months. It’s supremely comfortable to type on and my average typing speed was pretty high.
2. The Surface Laptop Studio has terrific speakers. Watching movies in Stage Mode made me happy every time. They are four speakers on the laptop and at close to full volume, they can fill an entire room. It has a good balance (not bass-heavy) and doesn’t get distorted even at max volume.
3. 1080p webcam! In the times of virtual meetings, having a good webcam is paramount. The Surface Laptop Studio does well here as it comes with a 1080p webcam. Even the quality of the microphone was above average.

What’s Not to Like

It ain’t cheap. The Intel Core i7 variant (with 32GB RAM and 1TB SSD) is selling for Rs 3,21,499 on Amazon. The base Intel Core i5 model is at a more affordable price point of Rs 1,94,240. That’s pushing it into Apple MacBook Pro territory.

Port selection is another issue with the Surface Laptop Studio. Microsoft decided to stick with the Surface Connect as its main charging method and that takes up space. There are only 2x USB-C (thankfully with Thunderbolt 4 support) accompanying it and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It is beyond me why Microsoft chose to forgo both a USB-A port and an HDMI port as there was plenty of space to accommodate both.

The Slim Pen 2 stylus is an additional cost. At the price that Microsoft is asking they should have thrown in the stylus in the box itself.

Last but not least, let’s talk about the hinge. As much as I love it, the screen is only fixed to three positions. With such a unique hinge, one should be allowed to set the display in many more positions.

Is The Surface Laptop Studio Worth It?

Yes, and no. I fell in love with this experimental device over the two weeks of my using it. It’s a compelling and unique device and something I can see doing well over the course of its lifespan. There were just two things that irked me and made me happy that I chose the Surface Pro 8 (which also comes in at a cheaper price) over it.

The price is slightly too high for such a laptop as many competitors offer models in the same price bracket but with more powerful interiors. Plus, the stylus is an additional cost. The stylus is something that should have just been an accessory in the box.

The other reason is that the port selection is very weak.

It may be Microsoft’s most powerful Surface ever but it just falls short in a few key areas. Nonetheless, if you do happen to pick one up, you aren’t going to be disappointed.