Microsoft has officially unveiled the Surface Laptop Studio 2, its latest flagship laptop for creators, nearly two years after launching the original Laptop Studio alongside Windows 11. Along with it, the company also revealed the Surface Go 4 and the Surface Laptop Go 3, bringing improved performance to the company's budget-oriented devices.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is a big step up in performance

Starting with what's on the inside, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 comes with big upgrades to performance on both the CPU and GPU fronts. For the CPU, we've gone from quad-core 35W processors to 13th-generation Intel Core processors with 14 cores, 20 threads, and a 45W base TDP. That's a huge leap forward for CPU performance, and you're definitely going to feel it in day-to-day use. Notably, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 also includes the first Intel NPU in a laptop, enabling support for Windows Studio Effects.

As for the GPU, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 now comes with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, which is also a lot more powerful than the RTX 3050 Ti that was used in the previous model, and promises to be even faster than a MacBook Pro with a 28-core GPU. There's also a model with an RTX 4050, and you can still get it with just integrated Intel iris Xe graphics if you don't need the GPU power. This new model can also be configured with up to 64GB of RAM, double what was available in the original model.

Microsoft has also improved the connectivity on the Surface Laptop Studio 2 with a couple of new ports. It now has USB Type-A and a microSD card reader, in addition to dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, a Surface Connect port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It helps bring this in line with other creators laptops on the market, and it should be pretty useful if you want to import media from a camera.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 comes with an aluminum chassis with a slightly different color from before, since the previous model was made with magnesium. However, it does come with what Microsoft calls the "most inclusive touchpad on any laptop". It's designed to let users with accessibility needs, such as those without fingers, to more easily use the touchpad. This comes via updated hardware and new software features. The display is also the same 14.4-inch panel with 2400x1600 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate, however, the webcam now has a wider field of view.

With the more powerful specs of the Surface Laptop Studio 2, Microsoft has also gotten rid of the Core i5 variant that was available for the original model, and that, along with rising costs in general, means that the Surface Laptop Studio 2 also has a much higher starting price, coming in at $1,999, up from $1,599 on the original model. That still doesn't get you discrete graphics, but it does give you a lot more CPU power, so the price increase isn't completely unjustified.

The Surface Go 4 for Business has new processors and more RAM

Microsoft has also refreshed the Surface Go 4, its budget-oriented tablet, but this new version is only aimed at business users. The new model comes with new Intel processors, specifically the Intel N200, a quad-core, four-thread processor that should deliver some performance improvements over the previous model, which came with up to an Intel Core i3-10100Y. The tablet also now comes with 8GB of RAM by default, so there's no longer a 4GB option. However, 8GB is the only option.

For storage, you still get 64GB in the base model, but now you can go up to either 128GB or 256GB, and it uses UFS instead of eMMC or a typical SSD. Otherwise, this device is mostly unchanged. It has the same 10.5-inch panel with 1920x1280 resolution, the same camera setup, and the same overall design and ports as the Surface Go 3. It's a very minor refresh.

The Surface Laptop Go 3 also has upgraded specs

Similar to the Surface Go 4, the Surface Laptop Go 3 is a more budget-friendly device, and it also has a relatively minor set of upgrades. However, it now comes with a 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor rather than an 11th-generation model, meaning it has 10 cores and 12 threads instead of four cores and eight threads. It should be a nice performance boost on the CPU side. It also comes with support for AI features like Voice Clarity.

The Surface Laptop Go 3 also comes with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage in the base configuration, double what was in previous models and making for a better overall experience. You can go up to 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. The base model also comes with UFS storage instead of eMMC.

Much like the Surfacer Go 4, not much else has changed with this refresh. However, because the base model has significantly better specs, the starting price is also higher, at $799.

The Surface Hub 3 exists

While it wasn't mentioned directly at the event, Microsoft has also announced the Surface Hub 3. The company didn't share information about specs, but it did say the new compute cartridge has a 60% boost in CPU performance and 100% boost in graphics performance. The overall design is still the same as the Surface Hub 2, and this appears to be the rumored refresh that was reported earlier this year.

The Surface Hub 3 will cost $9,499 for the 50-inch model and $24,999 for the 85-inch version. If you have a Surface Hub 2S, you can buy just the new compute cartridge to upgrade your existing model for $2,699.

Microsoft hasn't said much about the availability for these products, aside from the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Laptop Go 3, which should be available to pre-order today and start shipping on October 3rd.