Surface Laptop Studio fixes Surface Book's biggest flaw

NOTICE: The Surface Book is one of my favorite Microsoft laptop lines, with a unique 2-in-1 design that's arguably more ergonomic than the more conventional 360-degree hinge.

But Surface Book laptops also have a major flaw compared to other high-end convertible laptops, as they see a significant drop in performance when detaching the screen from the keyboard.

Since the dedicated GPU is housed inside the keyboard, it is not possible to maintain high graphics performance when switching the Surface Book to tablet mode. This arguably defeats the goal of having a detachable tablet for content creators, as performance will suffer when running Premiere Pro.

To make matters worse, Microsoft was also forced to compromise on the performance power of the processor in order to squeeze it inside the detachable display. Most high-end laptops use H-series chips, but the Surface Book line uses a U-series processor instead, which means it has similar processing power to focused ultrabooks. productivity that are considerably cheaper.

These are two major issues for a laptop looking to compete with some of the most powerful PCs on the market, and it has clearly forced Microsoft to rethink the design of the laptop.

The result is the new Surface Laptop Studio. Microsoft's most powerful laptop effectively replaces the Surface Book line. Instead of having a detachable screen, Microsoft created a new hinge that allows the screen to fold over the keyboard, turning the laptop into a makeshift tablet.

And because the screen can no longer be detached, Microsoft was able to fit both an 11th Intel Core H-Series processor and an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti GPU inside, which is a huge performance improvement for the Surface Book. 3.

In one fell swoop, Microsoft has eliminated the Surface Book's biggest flaw while retaining the versatile 2-in-1 design. Of course, there is a downside to this new design. Since the screen is no longer removable from the keyboard, you will have to deal with the total weight of the laptop when using it in tablet mode.

The Surface Laptop Studio i5 model weighs 1,74kg, while the i7 configuration weighs even more than 1,82kg. At this weight, you'll ideally need to prop the laptop up against a desk when using it as a tablet - you certainly won't be able to use it as a 12,9-inch iPad Pro, which weighs 682 grams. .

But I think it's a good compromise. The Surface Laptop Studio isn't designed to be a portable tablet, but a powerful laptop that also lets you convert it to a makeshift graphics tablet if needed. It's a very compelling concept, and I think it will be useful for content creators around the world.

Of course, we can't be sure how good the Surface Laptop Studio is until we test it ourselves, so keep an eye out for Trusted Reviews for our next review.