Reviewer's Take on Surface Studio 2: Almost Flawless for Artists

Reviewer’s Take on Surface Studio 2: Almost Flawless for Artists

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Key Takeaways

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 offers a unique design and versatile usage with its fold-over hinge, making it suitable for digital creators who prioritize design flexibility and workflow transition between modes.
The laptop’s articulating display, excellent keyboard experience, and new inclusive haptic trackpad are standout features that enhance user experience.
However, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 falls short in terms of battery life, processing power for future-proofing, and port selection, and its high price tag may make it less appealing compared to competitors like Apple’s MacBook line.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 maintains its distinctive design and articulating display, bringing in marginal hardware upgrades that align it closer to the needs of power users and creatives—albeit at a similarly steep price point. But is it more than just a spec bump, or does it join Microsoft’s long list of tragically aging hardware?

Microsoft’s ambitious goal of creating an ultimate creative computer for modern artists with its Surface hardware has always been what sets the Surface lineup apart from the rest; with the Surface Laptop Studio, the company essentially created a hybrid between the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, while giving it more power than the Surface Book. It was the ultimate Surface.

Surface Laptop Studio 2

A 2-in-1 hybrid computer that leaves very few compromises

7.5/ 10

$2349 $2800 Save $451

Battery life and future-proofing in terms of processing power leave room for improvement, especially when compared to rivals like Apple’s MacBook line. However, for digital creators who value design versatility and a seamless workflow transition between modes, this laptop could still be a compelling choice, provided the price tag and certain performance aspects are within acceptable bounds.

Operating System

Windows 11

CPU

13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H

GPU

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050, 4060, or Ada Generation Laptop GPU options

RAM

16GB, 32GB or 64GB LPDDR5x RAM

Storage

512 GB, 1TB or 2TB

Battery

Up to 18 hours

Display (Size, Resolution)

14.4-inch PixelSense Display, 2400 x 1600, 120Hz, HDR

Camera

1080p

Speakers

Quad Omnisonic Speakers wih Dolby Atmos

Colors

Platinum

Ports

2 x USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB-A 3.1, MicroSDXC card reader, 3.5 mm headphone jack, and Surface Connect port

Pros

Great articulating display
Excellent keyboard experience
New haptic trackpad now more inclusive

Cons

Battery life still leaves a lot to be desired
Expensive
Port selection still quite limited

$2349 at Amazon See at Microsoft

Design

Zarif Ali / MakeUseOf

In terms of design, there isn’t much new here we haven’t seen in the previous Laptop Studio. The laptop still features an all-aluminum build with a stacked ventilation system underneath the MacBook-esque deck that elevates the device slightly off its resting surface. The bottom ridge of this design allows the new Surface Slim Pen 2 to sit under the trackpad for charging.

Visually, the Laptop Studio 2 looks bulkier than almost any other traditional laptop, but with its 22mm thickness and weighing just under 2kg (4.37lbs), remains surprisingly portable to carry around through classes or around the city.

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One of the hallmark features of the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is its unique fold-over hinge design. This is the form factor’s main selling point, and it facilitates three distinct modes—clamshell, tablet, and tent—each catering to different use scenarios. Whether it’s drafting designs, giving presentations, or traditional typing, the adjustable positions give way for the device to be as versatile as possible.

The main difference between this new Laptop Studio 2 and the previous Laptop Studio, aside from the spec bump, is the inclusion of a new USB-A port and MicroSD card slot. Aside from that, this design remains identical to the original.

Display

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 has a 14.4” PixelSense Flow Display with a resolution of 2400 x 1600, supporting Dolby Vision HDR and offering a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz. It also retains the signature 3:2 aspect ratio seen in the Surface Laptop 5 and Book 3, which continues to be the ideal ratio for productivity; the display makes apps like Word and Excel feel more expansive, and the taller orientation is a boon for multitasking on Windows. While the bezels have slimmed down compared to the Surface Laptop 5, they’re still aggressively rounded like the previous Surface Laptop Studio, which looks a little weird in different apps.

Zarif Ali / MakeUseOf

Of course, the main attraction of this specific display is its ability to articulate the way it does. Using the previous Surface Laptop Studio, I didn’t really appreciate the versatility of having such a screen that lets you seamlessly transition from a laptop to canvas mode, aside from putting it in tent mode and consuming media, but having used it in university, to be able to take notes on the screen and then transition to the regular laptop layout to code or type has been incredibly useful.

Zarif Ali / MakeUseOf

Port Selection

In terms of port selection, the inclusion of a USB-A and MicroSD card slot is a welcome addition, paired with the device’s two Thunderbolt 4 ports, the 3.5mm headphone jack, and the Surface connector for charging. However, this is still a limited array of ports given that the device is geared towards an audience that would potentially use many accessories in conjunction with this laptop; Microsoft should have gone with a full-sized SD card slot instead of what it’s offering here, and I think an HDMI port wouldn’t have hurt either.

Zarif Ali / MakeUseOf

For digital artists and creatives especially, using this over something like the Surface Pro or even a convertible 2-in-1 laptop does have its value because you’re gaining back time from actively switching your workflow without having to deal with swiveling the keyboard around or detaching it. It feels very seamless.

Performance

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 now comes with an updated 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H Processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050, 4060, or Ada Generation Laptop GPU options to boost its performance. However, considering its price, the value proposition becomes less clear.

Zarif Ali / MakeUseOf

As for specs, the Studio 2 can handle demanding tasks with up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM and 2TB of SSD storage. However, with practical performance tests, it shows a mix of strengths and weaknesses compared to other laptops at its price point.

Our review unit sports the i7 with the NVIDIA 4060, 64GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage, and it performs as you’d expect, which is to say, very good. On PCMark 10, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 running on battery scored 4,428 overall, with higher scores of 7,180 for Essentials, and 6,082 for Digital Content Creation.

These paint a very vivid picture of the Laptop Studio 2’s capabilities. I had no problems using Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom extensively on this laptop, and it handled multiple open projects without much fuss. I think for most people, this laptop is adequate for video editing, gaming, and doing more professional-based tasks, but the main concern for this laptop’s performance is the chipset.

Intel has already announced its next-generation Meteor Lake processors, and while you shouldn’t make a purchase based on the promise of a newer shiner thing, at this price point, for a laptop that is aimed at power users, that’s a significant factor to consider when choosing a new computer that you’ll probably have for several years.

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While performance is a major factor if you’re considering the Studio 2, it’s very clear Microsoft wants you to choose this for its design versatility and not for its raw power—and both sides are valid. Depending on which camp you fall in, it’s worth considering whether you want to pay for the design or find a more powerful alternative.

Webcam and Speakers

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 houses a respectable audio-visual setup, delivering a decent overall experience in the speaker and webcam departments. The Quad Omnisonic speakers, paired with Dolby Atmos, create a sound stage that’s quite satisfactory, rendering clear and crisp audio across music, entertainment, and games. However, in comparison to Apple’s six-speaker setup on the MacBook Pro, these do fall short in terms of fullness and bass.

Zarif Ali / MakeUseOf

When it comes to the Full HD front-facing studio camera on the Surface Laptop Studio 2, Microsoft makes a noticeable stride forward; with a resolution of 1080p, the image is sharp and clear. The AI-enhanced features like the automatic framing, similar to Apple’s Center Stage on iPad, background blur built into the core software, and eye contact correction to maintain a more natural interaction during virtual meetings, collectively elevate the webcam experience. It’s a suite of thoughtful enhancements that cater to the present-day remote and hybrid workflows of many people.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The Surface Laptop Studio 2, in line with its predecessor and all of Microsoft’s Surface portfolio, brings a keyboard and trackpad that is nothing short of industry-standard. The keys are tactile and have great travel, the entire deck is backlit, and the newly redesigned trackpad is made more accessible with an Adaptive Touch feature that ensures users of all kinds can interact with the computer without having to buy additional specialized hardware, which is excellent.

Zarif Ali / MakeUseOf

This trackpad also uses Microsoft’s version of Apple’s Force Touch technology, where it has haptics to simulate clicks, and combined with Microsoft’s years of software and hardware tuning on its trackpads, this has to be one of the best trackpads I’ve used on a Windows machine. It’s not as expansive or precise with its haptics as my MacBook Pro’s trackpad, but it makes up for it with the ability to click anywhere on the trackpad surface, combined with its accuracy and responsiveness.

Battery Life

The battery life of the Surface Laptop Studio 2 mirrors a familiar scene from the previous Laptop Studio, which is to say there’s still room for improvement. Despite the promising uptick in specifications, the battery longevity doesn’t quite hit what Microsoft is quoting for typical day-to-day use. The model sporting Intel Iris Xe graphics promises up to 19 hours of typical device usage, while our configuration with NVIDIA graphics projects up to 18 hours, with the 2 TB SSD NVIDIA model slightly trailing behind with up to 16 hours of typical usage.

In reality, these figures don’t exactly translate to the day-to-day grind. Under a mix of regular tasks such as browsing, streaming, and document editing, the battery tended to wind down quicker than anticipated. It’s not a drastic plummet, but it’s noticeable, especially when you’re accustomed to laptops like the 14-inch MacBook Pro continuing to lead the industry with its power efficiency.

Should You Buy the Surface Laptop Studio 2?

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 continues to shine with its unique design, and the hardware upgrades to make it marginally more convincing to power users, artists, and professionals. However, the shortcomings of its predecessor, including things like battery life, processing future-proofing, and some aspects of performance, present hurdles at this price point that make it difficult to recommend broadly.

Zarif Ali / MakeUseOf

Having used it in my specific workflow as a student and photo editor, I believe there is a market for this laptop for many people. The high price tag is a major factor that hinders choosing this laptop over others for potential buyers, especially when pitted against high-performing like Dell’s XPS, Apple’s MacBook, and Lenovo’s X1 Carbon line. However, I can recommend the Surface Laptop Studio 2 if you’re looking for a laptop that specifically caters to the digital creator workflow with aggressive performance and a unique user experience in a way more traditional professional laptops don’t.