(case cracking)
- My disappointment is immeasurable
and my day is ruined.
Honestly speaking, I was afraid that Microsoft
was just gonna let the Surface lineup quietly die.
I mean, years ago they made some
nearly perfect devices
and then just didn't fix small issues for years,
while all of the other Windows machines
on the market leapfrogged them,
until today.
This is the all new
Surface Laptop Studio.
And for a lot of people,
this might very well be the best
Windows laptop on the market.
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(electronic music)
- "But Linus," you might say,
"after your investment in Framework,
how can you possibly declare something else
to be the best Windows laptop on the market?".
Well, it starts with the display.
This is the new benchmark for
how displays on Windows machines should work.
It has a 120Hz refresh rate,
so everything from dragging around a window
to just interacting with the machine
feels snappier while also making you
a better gamer, of course.
It has the classic surface three by two aspect ratio,
and it can do this.
Whoa, whoa, hold on a second.
Okay, no.
We're gonna talk about that a little bit more later.
So cool.
My only real complaint about the screen
is the rounded corners,
and I don't mean rounded in software.
Like, the display has rounded corners.
It's got some pixels hacked off.
This is something that can make sense on a phone,
where they have a super high screen to body ratio
and they're meant to sit comfortably
in the Palm of your hand, which is round.
Here, though, I don't get it.
Like, the mouse even moves all the way into the corner.
So, I'm pretty sure Windows is just treating
this display like there's some phantom pixels there.
One problem that this gorgeous high refresh rate screen
brings to light though,
is the polling rate of the track pad.
According to Mouse Rate Checker, this track pad
is polling at... looks like probably 144 Hz,
which was totally fine with a 60 Hz display,
but now could result in nearly a frame
between when you interact with your touch pad
and when that gets turned into useful movement.
Now, to be clear,
I don't think that any laptop makers out there
have dealt with this yet,
and it is a lot less obvious on the Surface
than it is on the HP Zbook.
Review coming soon, make sure you're subscribed by the way.
But it seems like a really easy way
for Microsoft to make this device
truly feel way more responsive.
Just like phone manufacturers are doing
with their touchscreens,
where you'll see that polling rate of the touchscreen
is usually double or more compared
to the refresh rate of the display.
- To demonstrate why this matters,
we'll do a classic demo.
Moving a mouse cursor back and forth
across a dark background.
You see those differences in the spacing of the pointer?
That's because sometimes the frame gets refreshed
immediately after the trackpad was polled,
and other times there's that gap.
And you can see the difference
when you plug in an external device,
like this Finalmouse thousand Hertz (indistinct);
I think that's what the model is called.
By the way, thank you very much Dell
for actually including this USB C to A
and HTMI adaptor with your laptops.
Microsoft didn't seem to feel that was necessary
in spite of the fact that the Surface has,
I don't know what to call this IO,
other than "surfacy" headphone-microphone combo jack.
Their proprietary bull-(beep) connector,
and then "two", at least,
thankfully Thunderbolt 4 ports.
So, that's an improvement,
but no USB type A as expected.
Yeah, that's visible to the naked eye.
I mean, it's not perfect.
It's just that when you're polling at a thousand Hertz
those differences are much smaller.
Don't get me wrong though.
This track pad it's really good.
Maybe even exceptional.
The size is solid, tracking is accurate,
and now instead of a click,
they're using haptic feedback.
So you can actually tune the force to your liking.
I do wish they gave us a bit more tuning options
like we had in the central software,
but this is still an easy A+ track pad.
Also an easy A+ keyboard.
Surface devices have always had
pretty solid keyboards,
with the exceptions being the ones
that you clipped onto them.
Those were not...always great.
Um...
But this one feels good, even compared to the good ones.
The keys are snappier than on the surface laptop
and on the surface book,
but there is still enough travel
to prevent fatigue when you're typing all day.
Add in the exceptional chassis rigidity,
and you've got one of the best
mobile keyboards on the market.
What we haven't discussed just yet though,
is the performance.
And the reason is that it is one
of the low lights of the device.
I mean, it's fine.
It's fine.
For most people,
a Core i7-11370H and an RTX 3050 Ti
will be powerful enough for anything
they would want to do.
But the problem is that it comes in
at a very similar price to the XPS 15,
which has an 8 Core Core i7-11800H.
- Just to demonstrate this point, we're gonna run Cinebench,
but it shouldn't be surprising
that when you have two processors
using the same architecture,
you could literally forget to start the one of them
that has twice as many cores and it'll still win.
So if you plan to do a fair bit of game--
(laughter)
(beep)
So if you plan to do a fair bit of gaming,
this isn't gonna be the device for you.
In fact, I'd recommend something like the Zephyrus G 14.
It's not only cheaper,
but it has a much faster RTX 3060.
Though, if you manage your expectations,
it's not like the surface laptop studio
can't be used for gaming.
- This is hilarious. (laughter)
- Totally off topic, but can we just take a moment
to appreciate how nice the surface finishes
Is that why they call them Surface?
Ugh, man that soft touch though?
Incredible.
Know what else is incredible?
110 FPS, Forza Horizon 4
on a productivity laptop.
- To be clear, it's not cranked
This is medium and we had to turn
the resolution down a little bit.
But from a reasonable distance, laptop
resolutions have gotten so high these days
that you can turn them down a little bit
and it's not just immediately interpolation city.
- This thing is fricking quiet.
Like anyone else notice that or rather not notice it?
- [Man Behind Camera] Oh yeah.
Super quiet.
Hello?
Anybody in there?
- I should note, by the way,
even though I complained there's no type A ports
on the surface laptop studio,
there is one on the power brick.
But that's just for charging.
That's not for actually plugging
any USB device and using it.
So it's not like the Ethernet jack on the iMac and one.
- The point of all this though,
is that quiet is worth nothing,
unless it's also cool.
And the Surface Laptop Studio is not particularly cool.
You can see that the Palm rests are
up in the low thirties, mid thirties on this side.
Meaning they're not uncomfortable,
but if you were gaming on a winter day,
you'd have yourself a nice little, little hand,
little hand warmer here.
Of course you're not buying this thing
for gaming anyway, are you?
Gaming's a bonus.
You get it for this guy.
Oh yeah.
(unclipping)
Man, those are strong magnets, aren't they?
I mean it's one thing to have a stylus
that like clips onto your device,
but that's really, really incredible,
and I love the way that they've got it
tucked away so that if you're sliding the laptop
into your bag or something like that,
it's not gonna get caught on something and fall off.
Now obviously, if you guys have ever seen my art,
you'll know I'm not qualified to evaluate the stylus.
So, I handed it over to the one and only Sarah Butt
to try it out for a bit.
She felt that the feel was a bit cheap
compared to the apple pencil,
but the responsiveness is great
with the Surface Laptop Studio being able to handle
larger projects without slowing down.
Something that can't be said for the iPad Pro.
- It wasn't all sunshine and roses though.
While the pen itself is great,
the problems she ran into had more to do with Windows;
having to regularly switch between laptop
and folded mode depending on the task,
and whether a real keyboard was required.
I mean, this won't be a problem if you're a student
who's just taking notes in OneDrive or Whiteboard,
but if you're a professional using Photoshop daily,
their touch only support in Windows
leaves much to be desired.
And you're, you're gonna, you're gonna want
an external set up for referrals.
And the same could probably be said about the looks.
It's got this kind of chunky, two tiered vibe
from the outside,
and from the inside,
it suffers a little bit from
2015 MacBook Pro clone syndrome,
with the only distinctive feature being
its gray keyboard, rather than it having a black one.
That is, until you do this.
Now, this is far from the first
two-in-one device on the market.
In fact, they've been making these things
for like 10 years now.
But what makes this one unique
is not just the fact that it can be operated in laptop mode,
I would call this something akin to "easel mode",
and then tablet mode--
- [Man Behind Camera] Studio mode, not tablet.
Studio Mode?
Yeah studio mode.
This? Yeah.
This is a tablet.
Not just that,
but the fact that it can switch between them so easily.
One of the big problems with a device
like this one from HP,
is that when you want to switch from tablet mode,
because you just need to type something for a second,
you gotta unfold the whole thing,
typity type type type,
and then (imitates sounds of effort),
wait around for Windows to register...okay!
You're back in tablet mode.
With this;
Okay, hey, touch screen?
I need you out of the way for a sec.
Boom.
And you're back.
It's really quick.
It's pretty cool.
What's less cool, is Microsoft also sent us
the Surface Ocean Plastic for our consideration.
It paired flawlessly with our laptop
and that's all I can really say about it.
It looks stupid, has a low polling rate,
the ergonomics are terrible,
and really the only question I have about it
is why didn't you buy a real mouse?
- What you might not wish you bought,
at least if Microsoft is to be believed, however,
is additional speakers.
They apparently have a total of four
downward firing drivers on this machine
that are supposed to give it really impressive sound.
And it takes a lot to impress us these days
in a world where Apple's latest MacBooks exist.
And honorable mention for Dell, honorable mention for Dell.
- [Man Behind Camera] We're gonna compare it
to that right now.
- Okay, let's hear a Dell.
(music starts playing)
That's not a Dell that's crab grade.
Get it?
'Cause it's a Dell?
Thanks Brandon.
(music playing)
- Not bad
Okay.
Way fuller sounding.
Yeah.
(music playing)
- It's not close.
- [Man Behind Camera] Yeah, wow.
Wow.
That is damn impressive.
And what's also apparently impressive
though I haven't tried it yet, is the webcam.
Now I've gone ahead and I've gotten some
little smudgies on there.
- Here we go.
Windows, hello, ready?
Set; hello, hi.
How you doing?
Boom.
Signed in.
Love it.
- So this is, this is Linus Central Station here.
Very respectable.
- [Man Behind Camera] Yeah?
Without that unfair backlight behind it,
that looks, you know, pretty good.
I could do my morning makeup in there.
- [Man Behind Camera] It's 10 ADP, more than
almost every other webcam can say.
Yeah, like dang,
not bad.
- What's a little more bad is the price.
The Surface Laptop Studios technically starts at $1,600,
but that one does not come with
a dedicated graphics card.
So the first laptop studio that you actually want is $2,100;
far from cheap.
And that's even before you pay for a memory upgrade.
So if you bought this version and realized,
"You know what?
I actually need 32 gigs of RAM" are you screwed?
Or is there any way to upgrade it after the fact?
Let's open it up and find out.
We haven't actually looked inside this yet,
because although it's only four screws on the corners
of the chassis, they're hidden by the rubber feet,
making disassembly annoying and the potential device
looking kind of weird after pretty hot.
- [Man Behind Camera] So, what Microsoft says is
"This device does not contain any
user serviceable parts.
Hard drive is only removable by an authorized technician.
Following Microsoft provided instructions.".
- Here's an idea Microsoft,
if the provided instructions are so important.
why don't you provide them to anyone?
This is...
Have you removed rubber foot yet?
No, I'm afraid I'm gonna screw it up!
It's a pain in the butt.
It's not going back on, right?
No, big bummer.
This does not want to come apart.
That is not its plan.
You are sure it's four or should
I keep peeling this back--
- They told me four.
There's more.
I asked in the meeting.
They told you a big fat lie.
My disappointment is immeasurable,
and my day is ruined.
All they had to do was have four exposed screws
to make it so that this wouldn't have been necessary.
I think this is glued down.
Oh, I hate this so much.
- So it looks like if I pry here,
we get a bit of, oh, I just broke some stuff.
- I legit just don't get it.
What are we missing here?
Can't get a pick in there, can't get a pry tool in there.
- Sorry, Microsoft.
I'm sorry, viewers.
I'm sorry, Alex.
I'm sorry, Brandon, that you have to witness this.
- [Man Behind Camera] Not sorry Microsoft, it's their fault.
Oh.
- Sorry, everyone.
Okay.
What was it?
It was a screw. It was a screw!
Okay, well now we know. (laughter)
There's a Fascia piece, like a
like a plastic sticker.
See this?
There's a plastic sticker that covers up a couple
of more screw holes here.
- [Man Behind Camera] Also the battery came with that.
Yeah, um...
This is a really unusual battery configurations.
So it's actually a, good Lord,
what is this?
Like a six-piece soft-pack battery?
- 56.3 watt hours.
- [Man Behind Camera] How did they get 11 hours
of battery life out of that?
Well, hold on.
I can't tell--
Well, no, this, it can't be just this one.
I was thinking maybe it's just this one
and there's more capacity here, but no,
that's really impressive.
That would have have to be the whole thing for sure.
Unfortunately,
we won't get a good look at the motherboard
without fully popping it off.
But I think there's a fair bit we can see here.
We've got a one terabyte looks like
customized SSD of some sort.
They've at least done a fancy little
Microsoft Kit Spread on it.
Oh.
Oh boy.
Yep, standard M.2.
Just got a nice little Microsoft theme shield on it.
We really wanted to know the spec of this thing.
We could use the software to look at that.
This is cool,
super flat heat pipe here,
going from the CPU over to an exhaust over here.
So the intake is all along the side here,
and then the exhaust is here.
And then you see the same thing on the other side,
where there is...
where the hell is the heat pipe for this one?
At any rate,
there's another heat pipe that goes
over to the GPU, which is right here.
And then this is our dedicated fan for that.
So it looks like the two coolers
do not share CPU and GPU cooling duty in any way.
Yeah, I like it.
I like it.
It's cool.
You know what, Brandon, we could go deeper,
but I think we know everything we need to know.
If you don't order the right amount of Ram,
when you order, you are plumbed out of luck.
I think this is salvageable, Alex.
If we just order,
if we can get replacement parts,
if we just order a new base slash battery thing
and plunk it on here.
There is the issue of the smile to sort out.
You can see it's a bit of a happy laptop right now,
(laughter)
or sad, depending on how you look at it.
I think we could probably mostly buff that out,
if you know what I mean.
Just kind of give it a little,
you know what-- whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
I think I fixed it already.
Yeah, it's pretty straight.
Hold on, hold on.
Just gotta--
I mean, that's the thing about
these aluminum alloy chassis, right?
You can just get and give it a little...oh yeah.
(laughter)
Bottom line, great battery life,
great track pad, amazing display,
utterly unique form factor, very usable,
probably one of the best integrations of a stylus
in a device that I've ever seen
with those nice strong magnets,
and all it costs you is that you will
never, ever, ever open it up
and hope to put it back together with
upgraded components.
And you will never ever hope to see
a Linus Tech Tips video
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- If you guys are looking for another video to watch,
checkout or review of the Alienware x17.
That is, that is one sick gaming laptop.
Sick, like it has some problems.
- [Man Behind Camera] No it doesn't.
They fixed them and just didn't tell us.
Oh, they fixed the problems and just...oh.
Well that's good.