Surface Studio 2 review: Smart upgrades make this the most desirable PC (a lot of) money can buy

Let's go one thing straight virtually the new Surface Studio ii – it's not a PC for your boilerplate user, nor someone looking to stretch their dollar. Instead, Microsoft's second version of its giant tablet-like PC is built for professional person architects, engineers, designers, and artists. Simply if you look at i with envy thinking it could be the best experience on a Windows 10 PC, well, you would be right.

While the price and the lackluster processor is off-putting, these are abreast the betoken of the Surface Studio 2. It represents all that is Windows 10 in 2022 in single, minimalist expression that is powerful plenty for gaming.

Ultimate PC

Surface Studio 2

From $3,499 at Microsoft

Lesser line: While the seventh gen Intel processor is disappointing the powerful NVIDIA GTX 1070, faster storage solution and overall improved user feel make the Surface Studio ii even so one of the most astonishing PCs e'er to be created. Information technology just comes at a steep toll.

Pros

• Best PC display on the market.
• Serious GPU horsepower.
• Faster SSD and quality RAM.
• Everything is now instant on.
• Unique drawing and touch experience.

Cons

• CPU is old and not hexa-cadre.
• No Thunderbolt 3.
• Extremely expensive.
• Non upgradeable.

Same design, new hardware

What's new with Surface Studio two?

Following the tendency of Surface Pro half dozen and Surface Laptop 2, the new Surface Studio 2 is an evolution more than a radical redesign.

For that, information technology means ditching the poor hybrid solid-land drive (SSD) and hard-deejay storage solution for a zippier pure-SSD one. It'due south likewise virtually getting rid of the old mobile GPU for a proper graphics carte that justifies the very high cost tag.

Here's what's new:

• Intel i7-7820HQ processor.
• NVIDIA GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 GPU.
• Toshiba NVMe SSD in 1 or 2 TB options.
• The display is 38 percent brighter with 22 percent increased contrast.
• USB Type-C instead of a mini DisplayPort.
• No Cadre i5 version anymore.

Other than that Surface Studio 2 has the aforementioned chassis blueprint, same Marvel Wi-Fi chipset, same Surface camera, and overall expect and experience of its predecessor.

In that location are merely three models all with the aforementioned Core i7 processor, but two different GPUs. The $3,499 model (16GB of RAM, 1TB storage) uses an NVIDIA GTX 1060 while the $4,199 (32GB of RAM, 1TB storage) and $4,799 models (32GB of RAM and 2TB storage) both use an NVIDIA GTX 1070.

Past the numbers

Surface Studio ii specifications

For 2022, the Surface Studio 2 keeps things minimal with just four USB Type-A ports, Ethernet, headphone jack and the new Type-C port (which does non support Thunderbolt 3).

Category	Specification
Display	28-inch Pixel Sense display 10 point multi-bear on) sRGB, DCI-P3, and Vivid Individually colour-calibrated display
Display resolution	4,500 10 3,000 (192 PPI)
Software	Windows 10 Pro
Processor	7th Gen Intel Cadre i7-7820HQ
Storage	1TB or 2TB SSD
Memory	16GB or 32GB DDR4 ii,666 MHz
Graphics	NVIDIA GTX 1060 with 6GB of GDDR5 NVIDIA GTX 1070 with 8GB of GDDR5
Forepart photographic camera	5.0MP forepart-facing camera with 1080p Hard disk drive video Windows Hello facial authentication
Speakers	Stereo 2.1 speakers with Dolby Audio Premium
Ports	4 10 USB 3.0 (one high power port) Full-size SD carte reader (SDXC) 1 x USB Type-C Gigabit Ethernet port three.five mm headphone jack
Accessories	Surface Keyboard, Surface Pen, Surface Mouse (all in box)
Security	TPM two.0
Pen	Surface Pen
Weight	21lbs (nine.56 kg)

A stunning visual journey

Surface Studio two brandish

Arguably, the most disquisitional feature of the Surface Studio ii is its display, so it's great to see some improvements to it compared to the original version. The bar is already set loftier considering at that place is no other display like this on the market with back up for inking, three:ii aspect ratio and a resolution merely over 4K.

Information technology'due south a glorious and stunning achievement.

For Surface Studio 2 the brandish is noticeably brighter every bit it at present boosted to around 600 nits (we measured 588 nits to be precise). That'due south around the minimal levels to achieve HDR although this is not a certified HDR display.

Dissimilarity is also improved in our measurements, which also revealed 100 percent sRGB color accuracy and 90 percent Adobe RGB. Microsoft notes that each Surface Studio 2 is color calibrated at the factory. Of course, some users may want to fine-tune for their ain needs.

Colour profiles include sRGB, DCI-P3, and Brilliant, with the concluding one making things a bit punchier with higher contrast.

While at that place are more colour accurate, high-resolution displays on the market place – some of which run $800 or more than – none besides support touch or inking, nor move into a drafting table-similar position.

The hinges that connect the display to the base of operations are still polished metal that is designed in such a style as to never reflect calorie-free at your middle. This attention to item is what makes Surface Studio ii only as much art equally a PC. The "floating brandish" works amazingly well as information technology lets yous move the display with only one hand to any position. All the cables for the screen, affect input, camera, infra-red lens, and sound all become through those hinges too.

Old CPU, awesome GPU

Surface Studio 2 hardware

The base of the Surface Studio two is still the aforementioned size, which is about half that of a total gaming laptop. It packs the GPU, CPU, SSD, motherboard, ports, and a fan into a very compact area.

Ports are all in the rear, including the SD card slot. This is a design-over-role selection and so that all visible holes are never seen directly past the user. It'south non terrible, but if yous are used to using or removing external peripherals, you lot volition desire to invest in an extender.

The new Type-C port is decent. It tin handle display out, data, audio, charging, and more. Connecting a hub upward to information technology makes information technology even more useful. The Type-C replaces a mini DisplayPort, which was helpful for daisy-chaining displays to the Surface Studio. Users now volition need to either use a new monitor that supports Type-C or pick up a Blazon-C hub with multiple display outputs to achieve the same result.

You nonetheless cannot use the Surface Studio 2 equally a dummy brandish. Connecting the Surface Go to the Surface Studio ii via Blazon-C lets the Surface Studio ii charge the Surface Go.

Windows Mixed Reality headsets will crave an HDMI-to-Type-C converter with the secondary cablevision going to 1 of the iv USB Type-A ports. The Type-C port when used as a hub can't lone power a Windows Mixed Reality headset, which is a shame. All the same using Windows Mixed Reality on the Surface Studio 2 was a blast with the performance ready to the highest level with no hiccups.

Estrus and fan dissonance are non too different compared to the previous Studio. Temperatures peak at effectually 145 degrees F (63 degrees C) as hot air is vented to the correct of the computer base. Normal temps hover approximately 90 to 100 degrees F (32 to 38 degrees C) when idle or for lite computing.

Fan noise is all-time described as audible, but not loud or annoying if sitting in front end of the Surface Studio 2. The dissonance levels are effectually 38 dB (like a refrigerator hum) most of the time during light computing. For gaming, the fans volition get significantly louder peaking around 47 dBs (just below a house fan). The tone of the fan though is not loftier-pitched; it's more of a whooshing, which is preferred.

The front end camera is the aforementioned as used in previous Surfaces at 5MP and a total Hard disk drive video resolution. It's an first-class camera, simply at this price signal, you lot might besides splurge for the superior Logitech Panache 4K if you're serious about conference calls.

Windows Hullo works brilliantly and is faster than the concluding generation. That is likely due to some other modifications like the storage and the overall improved system responsiveness, just coming out of slumber the Surface Studio 2 takes just 2 seconds. Once more, information technology's experiences similar these that add up to set the Surface Studio ii apart from other all-in-one PCs. Information technology feels like it is always on with no waiting.

A mini powerhouse

Surface Studio 2 benchmarks

The overwhelming improvement around the Surface Studio 2 involves that boost in the GPU and the new SSD. The processor is nearly an afterthought giving but a pocket-size increase over the previous version.

CPU GPU SSD PCMark 3DMark

CPU

The Intel 7th generation Core i7-7820HQ is well-nigh ii-years quondam at this point. As a 45W chip it was used in high-end laptops in the xv-inch workstation range (not Ultrabooks). It's an OK processor with tiptop speeds around three.9GHz.

Geekbench 4.0 benchmarks (college is improve)

Device	CPU	Single core	Multi core
Surface Studio 2	i7-7820HQ	4,443	15,772
Surface Studio i	i7-6820HQ	iv,200	thirteen,323
Surface Book two	i7-8650U	5,036	14,237
Dell XPS 15 (9570)	i7-8750H	five,002	21,761
Surface Laptop 2	i5-8250U	4,203	xiii,233
Surface Laptop	i7-7660U	4,714	nine,535
Surface Pro half-dozen	i7-8650U	five,048	13,869
Surface Pro 5	i7-7660U	4,513	ix,346

GPU

The GTX 1070 is a beast of a GPU, and information technology volition be proficient for many years. Fifty-fifty the lower-stop Surface Studio ii packs an admirable GTX 1060, which is nearly 20 percent less powerful, just still miles ahead of the GTX 980M, which is quite meager by comparing.

Geekbench 4.0 OpenCL (higher is amend)

Device	GPU	Compute score
Surface Studio 2	GTX 1070	170,827
Surface Studio 1	GTX 980M	85,580
Surface Studio I	GTX 965M	53,685
Surface Book 2	GTX 1060	138,758
Dell XPS fifteen (9570)	GTX 1050	76,948
Surface Volume	GTX 965M	64,108
Surface Laptop 2	UHD 620	35,473
Surface Pro half dozen	UHD 620	36,283
Surface Pro v	Iris 640	xxx,678

SSD

Not only did Microsoft use a pure-SSD storage solution, merely the Toshiba drive is quite good with 3,000 MB/s read speeds – more than doubling the last version.

CrystalDiskMark (higher is better)

Device	Read	Write
Surface Studio two	3,094 MB/s	952 MB/s
Surface Studio	1,327 MB/s	512 MB/s
Surface Book 2	2,428 MB/south	730 MB/southward
Surface Laptop 2	one,509 MB/s	811 MB/s
Surface Pro 6	i,632 MB/s	814 MB/s
Surface Book	1,018 MB/s	967 MB/s

PCMark

PCMark is more CPU-heavy, which is why the Surface Studio 2 closely matches the score of the Surface Volume two. That'south not terrible, simply it is what you get when you jam so much hardware into a tiny space.

PCMark (Domicile Accelerated three.0)

Device	Score
Surface Studio 2	three,374
Surface Studio 2	iii,260
XPS fifteen (9575)	4,451
Surface Book ii	3,399
Surface Laptop 2 (i5)	three,451
Surface Pro 6 (i7)	3,451

3DMark

Timespy is a GPU-intensive examination, and here you can see the Surface Studio ii almost matches that of the Razer Blade Pro – a 17-inch gaming laptop with a GTX 1080. Non bad at all.

3DMark (Fourth dimension Spy 1.0; College is meliorate)

Device	Score	GPU
Surface Studio 2	v,250	GTX 1070
Razer Blade Pro	5,591	GTX 1080
Surface Book 2	three,538	GTX 1060
Surface Studio	ii,862	GTX 980M
Surface Studio	1,531	GTX 965M

The i7-7820HQ'due south quad-cadre compages is good for a heavier payload, but it pales to the electric current 8th generation Intel which goes beyond 4.0 GHz and has half-dozen-cores. More than threads may non matter for full general productivity, just for those who do a lot of data crunching or rendering that spans long durations, those extra cores would brand a difference.

Information technology'due south a shame that Microsoft could non put in an 8th generation processor as it would take added even more ability to the Surface Studio ii and made it more valuable for years to come. Yet, if you do GPU-intensive tasks, the GTX 1060 or GTX 1070 is a juggernaut.

The RAM is no slouch, and it is DDR4 at 2,666MHz and available up to 32GB. When combined with the quality SSD, GPU, and acceptable CPU the overall feel of the Surface Studio 2 is so far alee of the original one it's hard to quantify.

Fragging for fun

Surface Studio 2 as a regular or gaming PC

The Surface Studio 2 is a professional-level PC designed for as a specific audience of users. The pricing and feature fix don't lend itself to your regular consumer as a realistic purchase. Yet, for those with deep pockets and who's hearts palpitate when they see the Surface Studio 2 the question is obvious: Is it any good as a regular or gaming PC?

The answer is a resounding yeah.

Because Microsoft finally ditched the slow hybrid-storage solution in addition to calculation a existent GPU the Surface Studio 2 is i of the fastest desktop PCs – as far as getting work done, not raw ability. Combined with the enormous 28-inch touch display which has the best visual accuracy of whatever PC display I take used, the relatively quiet fan and the excellent audio the Surface Studio ii is everything a desktop PC should be. Information technology'due south a completely immersive experience.

Destiny 2 at three,000 ten ii,000 resolution and 60 FPS is amazing.

Microsoft crammed four speakers (two on the right, ii on the left) in the brandish of the Surface Studio 2 and a subwoofer in the base. There are no speaker grills or visible. That may seem trivial, simply it's that kind of craftsmanship that is absent from any other desktop PC. It's besides a hidden cost that helps bulldoze upwardly the toll of the Surface Studio 2, but one less thing to purchase and it keeps a make clean look.

The Surface Studio 2 is a completely immersive experience

For those who already use a Surface product the familiar iii:ii aspect ratio is unique when blown up to 28-inches. The screen is large plenty to work comfortably with two apps side-past-side (separate view) and is platonic for productivity.

Gaming may seem an odd matter to brag about, but Microsoft did once again include Xbox Wireless Controller support. It uses Microsoft's proprietary wireless connection (instead of Bluetooth) which besides enables haptic feedback (rumble support) and the power to use the headphone jack on the controller to be truly wireless.

Considering of the NVIDIA GTX 1070, the Surface Studio 2 handled whatsoever game I threw at it. Compared to original Surface Studio with its (at the fourth dimension) top-stop GTX 980M, the new Studio ii blows it away. Here is a comparing using Gears of War 4 (Microsoft Store)"

Gears of State of war 4

Device	GPU	Resolution	Graphics	Frame rate
Surface Studio 2	GTX 1070	2160x1440	Ultra	75 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 980m	1920x1280	Ultra	49 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 965m	1920x1280	Ultra	30 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 980m	1920x1280	High	63 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 965m	1920x1280	High	38 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 980m	1920x1280	Med	70 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 965m	1920x1280	Med	42 FPS

Non only does information technology now hit 75 frames-per-second (FPS), merely it'due south doing it at a significantly higher resolution than the maxed-out Surface Studio ane at but full Hard disk.

Playing Destiny 2 also yielded fantastic results with a vertical-synced 60 FPS at 3,000 x 2,000 resolution with settings at high and ultra. Native resolution is too doable though frame rates drop to between 35 and 45 FPS – which is nevertheless playable.

Ascent of the Tomb Raider (UWP)

Device	GPU	Resolution	Graphics	Frame rate
Surface Studio 2	GTX 1070	4500x3000	High	30 FPS
Surface Studio 2	GTX 1070	1920x1440	Very High	74 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 980m	1920x1440	High	56 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 965m	1920x1440	High	33 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 980m	1920x1200	High	63 FPS
Surface Studio	GTX 965m	1920x1200	High	39 FPS

The aforementioned story is found with Rise of the Tomb Raider, which can play at native resolution with graphics gear up to high while simply reaching thirty FPS. Dialing it down to 1920x1440 the 74 FPS of the Surface Studio 2 at very loftier graphics blows away the 56 FPS of the older version, which is but prepare to high graphics.

If all y'all want to know is if the Surface Studio 2 can at present really game, it admittedly can

Other games like Dusk Overdrive and Forza Horizons 4 look stunning and play with graphics fix to high too.

Of course, at that place'south a lot more to a gaming PC than just performance. Having a 144Hz or 240Hz brandish instead of 60Hz found hither goes far when playing first-person shooters. And for the price, you could hands build a much more powerful rig. All the same, doing information technology yourself yields a PC with an abundance of messy cables, larger footprint, external speakers, and a display that volition never come close to that of the Surface Studio 2 (forget inking and touch).

Gears of War 4 on the Surface Studio two with GTX 1070 is a fantastic experience.

But if all yous want to know is if the Surface Studio 2 can now act like a real gaming PC then consider it confirmed. Information technology's an awe-inspiring because of that brandish.

A stunning achievement

Surface Studio two: The bottom line

The Surface Studio 2 may non await so different from the first version, but the internal changes finer re-brand the estimator. There is no longer whatsoever lag from a spinning hard-disk drive, the mobile graphics processor is gone, and even the DDR4 RAM is respectable.

The GTX 1070 found in the mid- and upper-tier Studio 2 is the sweet spot for graphics. Information technology's powerful enough for serious data crunching or loftier-terminate gaming, yet Microsoft was able to absurd it down while non melting your desk or using a loud fan.

The processor is the biggest letdown. Half-dozen cores are always better than four, and it would make swallowing the $3,500 starting price easier. Nonetheless, in day-to-twenty-four hour period usage and gaming, I can't say that the CPU ever caused me frustration. Everything about the Surface Studio 2 – peculiarly compared to the original – is just faster. Putting bated comparing to the old version, the Surface Studio 2 fifty-fifty holds up against my HP Omen gaming desktop setup.

The Surface Studio ii is the ultimate PC to experience Windows x

Getting fixated on specifications (similar the lack of Thunderbolt 3) is easy to do, but it negates the principal betoken of Surface: enjoy the thing. I find it hard to believe someone would notice fault with the actual functioning of the Surface Studio 2. Similar all Surface devices, the Studio two is about how the culmination of its parts that effect in a profoundly unique and satisfying experience. That's accomplished here.

That said, the Surface Studio 2 pricing is absurd. Starting at $three,500 (the model tested for this review is $iv,200) is so much more than a cocky-built kit. Only once more, such an approach misses many hidden costs. For its ridiculous price, the Surface Studio 2 at to the lowest degree includes a Surface Pen ($99), Surface Keyboard ($75), Surface Mouse ($50), 2.i speaker organization, GTX 1070 GPU ($450), 32GB of RAM ($230), and a 28-inch color-authentic 4K+ touchscreen — all in ane neat package.

You're paying for a 1-of-a-kind, minimalist PC that only has no rivals in the computing world, and for some people that is worth the cost. If you're non one of those people, that'due south OK too.

Information technology's important to note that no much how much money you save in buying some other system or making your own it will never do what the Surface Studio 2 does with its hinged brandish. Nor can yous buy whatsoever screen that looks this adept in this grade gene.

If none of that matters to you, then the Surface Studio 2 should not even be a consideration, but for those who need such a setup, they will undoubtedly be amazed. The Surface Studio 2, like all this twelvemonth'due south Surface releases, is incredibly close to perfection. At that place are a few areas for improvement like the CPU and Thunderbolt three, just otherwise, the Surface Studio ii is, for now, the ultimate desktop PC to experience Windows 10.

The ultimate desktop PC

Surface Studio 2

There's nothing like information technology.

Featuring an NVIDIA GTX 1070 GPU and brighter brandish the Surface Studio ii now performs as you would wait. The one-of-a-kind brandish and PC experience are pricey, but Surface Studio 2 is still unequalled to whatsoever other reckoner in the world.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/surface-studio-2-review

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