Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio: Great for Creative Pros

Perhaps you’re a software developer by day and a gamer by night. Or maybe you game and code simultaneously by night, and by day, you sleep.

-  TOM BRANT

In either case, your laptop of choice might have once been a Razer or an Alienware, but now there’s a new kid on the block: the 14-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio. It advances the state of the art of mobile computing for creative pros in a big way, with a haptic touchpad and a 120Hz screen that pulls forward so you can lay it completely flat on top of the keyboard. It’s not particularly powerful, and it’s pricey, but it’s still impressive.

THE MOST ADVANCED SURFACE LAPTOP

The Surface Laptop Studio was conceived as a successor to the Surface Book 3, another innovative device for creative professionals that Microsoft will continue to sell for the time being. Like the Book 3, the Laptop Studio has a convertible touchscreen. Unlike the Book 3, which is a tablet that can detach from its included keyboard base, the Laptop Studio is a non-detachable laptop. Yes, Microsoft already offers a non-detachable (a.k.a. clamshell) laptop with a touchscreen, the aptly named Surface Laptop. What makes the Studio version different is that its screen can be pulled forward to create an easel, or pulled forward even farther to lay flat on your desk as a digital canvas on which to spill your thoughts or draw your masterpiece with a digital pen.