Flip glidin' away

Microsoft's Surface series is boosted by another masterfully flexible entry - but can the Laptop Studio meet the needs of demanding pro users?

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from ₹1,65,999 / amazon.in

Microsoft loves a hinge - and all the years of experimentation and R&D have resulted in the Surface Laptop Studio. When laid out like a normal laptop it looks and feels just like, well, a normal laptop. But its 14.4in screen can be tilted forwards to become a digital drawing board.

As with the Surface Studio 2 (a big, expensive all-in-one PC aimed at designers), price is a potential issue here. OK, you're not going to get this kind of world-class design for peanuts, but if you go for one of the most punchy configurations you'll end up paying ₹2 lakh+ for a computer with a GPU that's found in laptops available for under ₹1,00,000.

However, if you forget about the power users who want to render 8K video in a flash and instead look down to the entry-level model - still powerful enough for most of us - you can appreciate how much there is to admire about this well-designed Windows machine.

I am a block

The Surface Laptop Studio has the series' signature magnesium construction (1). It feels less cool and metallic than aluminium, but there's no way you'd mistake it for plastic like some magnesium alloy laptops. It's portable, but not ultraportable: it weighs about 500g more than is ideal.

You can call me gnarl