they came *this* close —

Microsoft whiffs a desperately needed internal refresh for the Surface Studio desktop

A generation-old quad-core processor is doing this $4,300 desktop no favors.

Andrew Cunningham - 10/12/2022, 2:00 PM

For the first time in four years, Microsoft has updated the only desktop in its Surface PC lineup. The Surface Studio 2+ improves on the Surface Studio 2 by modernizing the internals and updating its port selection while leaving the rest of the machine—particularly its large touchscreen and foldable hinge—alone.

But this all-in-one still isn't for everyone. A Surface Studio 2+ with a Surface Pen and keyboard and mouse will run you a whopping $4,500, while a "cheap" version with the same specs but without those external accessories costs $4,300 instead. And despite a big jump in specs, we still have serious questions about the components Microsoft has chosen for an expensive all-in-one that's aimed at creative professionals.

The Surface Studio 2+ will be available in the US starting on October 25.

The original Surface Studio 2 was introduced in October 2018 and has technically been available since then (though it has mostly been out of stock recently). This long life cycle, plus the fact that the computer didn't use the most modern components available in the first place, meant that by the time Windows 11 rolled around last year, Microsoft needed to change its system requirements specifically to include the Studio 2. The PC otherwise would have fallen short of the new OS's stringent processor requirements.

Advertisement

The best upgrade to the Studio 2+ is a GeForce RTX 3060 GPU—decidedly midrange, but an enormous step up in power and capability from the 1060 and 1070-series GPUs that were still being offered in the regular Studio 2, and capable of ray tracing and other AI-accelerated workloads. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 support modernize the wireless communication capabilities. And a total of three Thunderbolt 4 ports, along with two USB-A ports and a gigabit Ethernet port, update the wired connectivity options (though the SD card slot is gone). The better GPU and additional Thunderbolt ports also allow much better external display support—up to three 4K screens running at 60 Hz, where the previous model could drive one 4K screen at 60 Hz or two at 30 Hz.

In other places, Microsoft has left well enough alone. The 28-inch 4500×3000 DCI-P3 touchscreen stays the same, as does the 1080p webcam. That screen still retains full compatibility with the Surface Pen accessories, a handy feature for artists. And 1TB of user-upgradeable storage and 32GB of non-upgradeable DDR4 RAM will be more than enough for most things.

But the real puzzler, a decision I am having trouble conjuring a justification for, is the processor. Yes, the new Studio jumps four CPU generations, from a Core i7-7820HQ to a Core i7-11370H. The main problem is that the i7-11370H, like the 7820HQ, is still a quad-core chip—Microsoft includes the same CPU in some configurations of the Surface Laptop Studio. Chips like the i7-11600H and i7-11800H offer six or eight CPU cores and are well within the Studio desktop's power budget. And all of these processors, it should be said, are out of date right from the jump; 12th-generation Intel CPUs are readily available and offer even better multi-core performance for exactly the kind of high-end creative pros the Surface Studio seems to be targeting.

Advertisement

We questioned the wisdom of including the i7-11370H CPU in the Laptop Studio when competing high-end laptops like Dell's XPS 15 and Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon Extreme had moved to those six- and eight-core CPU options. In the context of a $4,300 desktop, where there's even more room for a large fan and heatsink to cool a high-performance CPU, it's borderline nonsensical. For a pro-focused desktop, thinking in terms of press releases and product pages, it's deeply odd for Microsoft to pass up the chance to advertise more-than-doubled CPU performance, given how much CPUs have changed since those 7th-gen Intel CPUs were introduced.

For its part, when asked about the choice of processor, a Microsoft rep told Ars that the Studio "has always been about more than components," and that "the experiences possible on this product have kept it in a class of its own." In short, that the desktop's unique screen-and-hinge combo and other capabilities are more important than the CPU inside.

That's not an invalid point—you can't get a large Surface Pen-compatible touchscreen and foldable hinge in any other desktop regardless of how much you're willing to pay. I also don't want to fall into the tech-reviewer trap of spec-sheet nitpicking, harping on a problem that won't actually be noticeable to real people using the computer. But especially as a $4,300 desktop, there are certainly people who would consider this system who will be turned off by its underpowered CPU.