It's been a long time coming, but after two years since the original Surface Laptop Studio launched, we finally have a successor in the form of the aptly-named Surface Laptop Studio 2. This model has been rumored for months, and it's finally real. It comes with much better performance and more ports, making Microsoft's best laptop even better.

If you're looking to learn more about the Surface Laptop Studio 2, you've come to the right place. Let's dive right in.

Surface Laptop Studio 2: Price and availability

Microsoft just announced the Surface Laptop Studio 2 at a dedicated event on September 21st, 2023, and it's now available to preorder. It will start shipping on October 3rd.

Pricing starts at $1,999, but that's only for the base model with integrated Intel graphics. Options with Nvidia GPUs will go up considerably in price, making this a fairly expensive machine. You can find all the configurations below:

Surface Laptop Studio 2

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is Microsoft's most powerful laptop with a 14-core Intel processor and up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics. It also has a 14.4-inch touchscreen with pen support, a new aluminum construction, and a more accessible touchpad.

$2400 at Amazon $2000 at Microsoft

Specs

What's new in the Surface Laptop Studio 2?

As you'd expect with any hardware update, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 comes with a few improvements compared to its predecessor, making it an even better machine than before.

More powerful CPU and GPU

The biggest upgrades are on the inside, and they're very welcome. The original Surface Laptop Studio came with quad-core 35W processors that, even for the time, were a little underpowered. With two generations of Intel processors in the meantime, it was definitely overdue for an upgrade, and that's exactly what we have here.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 jumps to 13th-generation Intel processors with 14 cores and 20 threads, an absolutely massive leap from the previous model that came with four cores and eight threads. The processors also have a higher 45W TDP and they can boost up to 5.2GHz on the higher-end model, meaning performance is far better in just about every way.

A similar story happens with the GPU, with Microsoft moving from the last-generation GeForce RTX 3050 Ti to new RTX 40-series cards. You can actually go up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 now, so there's a big performance upgrade on the GPU front, too, and this makes for an excellent laptop for more demanding creative workloads, as well as gaming.

Finally, you can also configure the laptop with up to 64GB of RAM, whereas the previous model maxed out at 32GB.

It's ready for AI

Another highlight of the Surface laptop Studio 2 is that it comes with an Intel NPU dedicated to AI tasks. Future Intel processors will have an NPU built-in, but Microsoft is getting ahead of the game by having its own NPU separate from the processor, enabling AI features like Windows Studio Effects that were previously exclusive to devices with Qualcomm chips.

More ports

If you felt that the ports on the Surface Laptop Studio were lacking, you're certainly not alone, and Microsoft set out to fix that with this new model. While the design is nearly identical, the company did add a USB Type-A port and a microSD card reader to the mix. This should make it easier to import media from a camera, which makes a lot of sense if you're a creator working with photos and video. The USB Type-A port may also be useful for using a mouse since a touchpad may not be ideal when you're trying to be productive.

There's still no HDMI, but you do get the same two Thunderbolt 4 ports, Surface Connect port, and 3.5mm headphone jack that were in the previous model, which adds up to a solid setup overall.

An aluminum design

While the Surface Laptop Studio 2 may look similar in renders next to the original model, it's actually quite different, Microsoft has redesigned the chassis to use anodized aluminum instead of magnesium which results in a slightly different color. It's also a bit heavier and thicker now as a result.

Touchpad improvements

Microsoft has also improved the touchpad on the Surface laptop Studio 2, making it the "most inclusive touchpad on any laptop". The haptic touchpad itself is a new module, but there are new accessibility features in software, making the touchpad easier to use for people with disabilities. Microsoft showed an example of a user without fingers in one of his hands, and the touchpad let him use his other hand to get things done more easily.

A higher price

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 also carries a much higher price tag than its predecessor. The base model comes with an Intel Core i7 processor, 512GB of storage, and 16GB of RAM, and it starts at $1,999. That price doesn't include any discrete GPU.

Comparatively, the original model started at $1,599 with an Intel Core i5 processor and otherwise similar specs. That's a $400 increase, and it can be attributed to the higher-end CPU in the base model, as well as the rising costs of manufacturing in recent years. Still, it makes for a very expensive laptop that's clearly not for everyone, and it's more expensive than most laptops with similar specs.

Surface Laptop Studio 2: A worthy upgrade?

Despite a two-year wait period, there isn't a ton that's new in the Surface Laptop Studio 2, but the performance upgrades alone make it a pretty exciting device. It was already Microsoft's most powerful laptop and it had the most interesting form factor of the Surface lineup, so a performance increase is probably all Microsoft needed to do to have something great.

That being said, the price hike does make it a harder sell, and some parts of the design could have used further improvements, like an additional HDMI port or a more flexible screen. But if you want a creator laptop with a unique form factor, there's not really anything like it.

Surface Laptop Studio 2

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is Microsoft's most powerful laptop with a 14-core Intel processor and up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics. It also has a 14.4-inch touchscreen with pen support, a new aluminum construction, and a more accessible touchpad.

$2400 at Amazon $2000 at Microsoft