Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio is for creators and it oozes power

Microsoft’s flagship announcement from its September 22 Surface event was the new Surface Studio Laptop, which the company says is its most powerful Surface ever. Designed for creators, gamers and anyone who needs some real laptop horsepower, this machine looks like it could be an absolute winner. 

The first trick is that it starts off looking like a pretty standard laptop, but the screen is able to fold into a number of different positions to give you different ways to work. The screen will pull forward, covering the keyboard and giving you easier access to the touchscreen. You can watch movies in this mode, or just use it with an external keyboard and mouse while you sit at a desk. 

Then, if you need to get really creative, the screen folds flat across the top of the unit, making it easy to use the Surface Slim Pen to work on drawings, notes or even edit videos. Microsoft showed off a beta of Adobe Premiere here, which is designed to adapt to the different setups to allow you to edit. 

• Microsoft announced two new laptops at its September event:

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• Microsoft Surface Pro 8 gets BIG upgrade including 120Hz screen and Thunderbolt 4
• And it's still in the phone game too, meet the Surface Duo 2

The screen is a premium affair too. It’s 14.4-inches and supports 120Hz. Dolby Vision is also on hand to provide HDR support. This will be amazing for watching films, playing games and potentially even creating high dynamic range content, as long as Microsoft has made it bright enough. 

The Surface Studio Laptop’s power comes from an 11th generation Intel processor. This brings with it a change to Intel’s 10nm SuperFin architecture, which was likely a necessity given Microsoft is cramming this thirsty CPU into a reasonably small case. That said, the company did say it was using a much-improved thermal design to handle the heat this thing will produce. 

There will be a couple of different versions available with Core i5 and Core i7 processors. The i7 will be available with an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti, while the i5 will use Intel’s Iris Xe graphics. During the launch Microsoft also said that it would offer the Surface with up to 32GB of RAM, another essential for creators. 

Prices start at $1,600 although we don’t currently have UK or Australian prices. We also don’t know what the top end machine will cost. But expect it to potentially double for the Nvidia-equipped i7.