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00:00Okay, I promise I'm not gonna call it the Windows MacBook Pro. Okay, I promise
00:05Probably. So this is in fact the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2 and it is lovely. It's clever. It's a two-in-one
00:12It looks great. The performance is solid and I want to really like it, but it has a few problems
00:17It's also very expensive and the battery life isn't all it could be
00:22Question is though should you get one of those or one of these things?
00:25And if you do enjoy this review a cheeky little like and subscribe would be lovely
00:30So like the original the laptop studio 2 is a two-in-one convertible only cleverer this time
00:36The extra hinge behind the 14.4 inch touchscreen lets you tilt to three magnetically held positions
00:42so you can use it like a regular laptop or in tablet mode or
00:45studio mode where it sits angled in front of the keyboard and becomes a kind of digital easel and it's a really nice way of
00:52interacting with a screen whether you're working or drawing doodling watching movies and it kind of reminds me of the much bigger and also much
00:58pricier studio 2 plus or even an iPad Pro with a magic keyboard and if you go for the optional
01:04Surface Slim Pen 2 as well, which is charged and held by some very strong magnets here under the front edge
01:09The whole thing just encourages you to be creative and Microsoft reckon
01:13This is perfect for you creative professionals digital artists and I assume because there's someone to me
01:18Talentless scribblers as well, but it's also pretty good for gaming and I can do that
01:23So while the laptop studio 2 is mostly like a hardware refresh a spec bump
01:27It's a pretty worthwhile one and whichever model you go for you'll get a 13th gen Intel i7 13700 H
01:34Which is a pretty solid chip as well as the integrated XE iris graphics, which are fine
01:39But what is exciting is you can spec it up to a RTX 4060 graphics card
01:44That's an 80 watt TGP card with up to 64 gigs of RAM and a terabyte of storage
01:49You also have the option of a slightly cheaper RTX 4050 or you can go with an RTX
01:542,000 AIDA workstation GPU
01:56Although you really only want that for big cat assemblies or large-scale data or simulation stuff
02:00The base model now gets 512 gigs of storage and the Intel iris XE on board graphics and all models get a brighter
02:07120 Hertz pixel sense touchscreen with HDR 400 and Dolby Vision
02:11There's also a new 1080p studio webcam with a new NPU which gives you some fancy live AI effects
02:17We have Windows Hello 2.0 and plenty of connectivity including Wi-Fi 6e and a couple of Thunderbolt 4 ports
02:23But then there's the price the base model with that 512 storage
02:2716 gigs of RAM and the onboard iris XE graphics with an Intel i7 is like two grand
02:34Which is a lot of money. It's MacBook Pro 14 with m3 kind of money, which performs
02:39Differently mostly better and also has much better battery life two grand for a laptop
02:45That doesn't have a dedicated GPU is a lot of money an extra 400 pounds gets you the RTX 4050 an extra
02:511,200 pounds gets you a 4060 top spec
02:54We're looking at around three and a half grand which is high-end MacBook Pro money
02:57Although to be fair, they do go a lot more expensive
02:59But also they offer more customization and perhaps an OLED screen option would have really helped put some distance between this and the MacBook Pros
03:05Especially as this is aimed at artists and designers who would definitely appreciate OLEDs better color accuracy and HDR
03:12Personally, I think the 4050 models offer better value
03:15But if you're spending the best part of three grand then perhaps another 500 quid or so for the spec
03:20You do want is the way to go
03:21Especially if you're you know buying on the business and get your tax back and all that and then you've got the slim pen too
03:26Which is an extra 120 quid. It is very nice to use but there are plenty of third-party MPP 2.0 standard alternatives
03:33That should work nearly as well, but putting the price aside for the moment at least there is a lot to like here
03:38I mean just look at this thing
03:40Okay, it's not exactly slim because of the power on offer
03:43But this kind of step design helps hide the depth although at 1.9 kilograms or just under 2 kilograms with the GPU
03:49It's pretty weighty and pretty dense for a 14 incher, but still we're getting fantastic build quality
03:54Everything feels solid the aluminium finish looks great and as vulnerable as that hinge looks it's surprisingly robust
04:00It's also held in place by some strong magnets
04:03So it doesn't flip out accidentally or move if you're trying to draw on it in studio mode
04:06I like using it like this or in regular laptop mode, but as a tablet, it's just far too heavy on the left side
04:13We have Thunderbolt 4 ports which do support display port and power delivery
04:17And we also now get a USB 3.1 type-a following some feedback from the old model and on the other side a micro SD card reader
04:24Audio jack and the pretty much obsolete surface connect port for the DC charger
04:28I mean even Microsoft has given up with this port for the newest surface dock
04:32Which is Thunderbolt 4 instead and if this really is for creatives
04:35Then we should have a full-size SD card reader and not the bloody micro SD
04:39I would like the MacBook Pro competition
04:41You can't upgrade the RAM or the SSD or anything really which is a shame because that often is one of the advantages of going
04:46For a Windows laptop is that you can sort of open it up and upgrade it over time
04:50Not with this now being a surface laptop
04:53You get a great keyboard and a big haptic trackpad
04:56Both are very comfortable to use the keys are well spaced and nice and accurate to type on the touchpad also now has an adaptive
05:02Mode which disables multi-touch gestures and looks for more multiple points of contact and movement instead
05:07Which should make it easier for people with different physical input needs. It's kind of like an accessibility option as for the display
05:13Well, it's fine. It's 1600p
05:16It's sharp viewing angles are great and everything is lovely and smooth
05:19Thanks to that dynamic 120 Hertz plus the touchscreen is accurate and responsive. However, I measured the HDR peak brightness at
05:27425 nits on a 10% window which tallies with the HDR 400 spec
05:31But it is very average, although I still enjoyed watching TVs and movies on this especially with Dolby Vision and so indoors
05:37It's bright enough. Although you'll definitely struggle to use it outdoors and reflections from this glossy screen are ridiculous
05:44As for color accuracy in my tests this hits a hundred percent of the sRGB gamut
05:48But only 87% and 80% of the p3 and the RGB gamuts and it's just nothing special for a device where the screen is
05:55So key as for performance, this is a pretty powerful convertible, especially in the higher-end spec, which I've been testing
06:02So I've got the 13th gen i7
06:03I've got 64 gigs of RAM and that 80 watt 4060 which is great for graphics and design work and 4k video and photo editing
06:10However to keep noise and heat down the CPU throttles at only 70 degrees Celsius
06:14Meaning performance will fall behind other machines with the same CPU but that have a higher temperature limit as for benchmarks
06:21Well, I put this against the most recent m2 and m3 based MacBooks and MacBook Pros and it really hits home the advantages
06:27Apple have made in the last couple of years in most cases
06:29This was slower than an m2 pro and way behind the m2 max let alone the new m3s
06:34But before you shout at me in the comments
06:35I know it's not apples to apples
06:38Pun slightly intended as this is a Windows machine, but bearing in mind the similar prices and the target audience
06:43I think it's a fair comparison. Plus there are plenty of much more powerful Windows workstations for similar money
06:48Gaming performance is pretty great though
06:50Frame rates were consistent with few frame drops and everything was lovely and smooth, especially with that 120Hz screen
06:56Basically what you'd expect from a 4060
06:58I got nearly a hundred frames per second with ultra settings in Total War Pharaoh at native 1600p
07:03Which looks a lot sharper than 1080. Forza Motorsport looked great with medium settings and DLSS performance
07:09And I averaged a healthy 80 FPS
07:11Although, of course, you could always drop to 1080p. And firing up Baldur's Gate 3 in ultra
07:15I averaged 69 FPS without DLSS
07:18But then I maxed out the 120Hz refresh rate with DLSS performance
07:22And while I'm on games the Dolby Atmos tuned speakers on this thing are actually very impressive
07:27Especially as you can't actually see them. They're clear
07:30There's a good amount of bass and it means you don't feel like you need to reach for your headphones every time you watch something or play a game
07:35But then we have Microsoft Copilot
07:38And the idea here is to roll several AI tools and abilities into one natural speech tool within Windows 11
07:44Making the OS itself a bit more of a feature
07:46Although you can also get this through Edge or your browser and it understands context
07:50So if you ask it to change your window settings like turning on dark mode, changing your wallpaper, asking for help
07:55Or just asking you not to be disturbed for a while
07:57Or if you use the snipping tool for a screen grab it can highlight the text letting you then copy and paste or even redact
08:03It before you save and share and it gives you answers to questions or summaries based on web searches
08:08And it uses the GPT-4 AI to answer in everyday speech and it can save a heck of a lot of time
08:14Especially when you ask it to write a review. It's not bad. Although still worth double-checking
08:20You can ask it to draft an email for a meal plan or to plan out your road trip and the best places to check
08:25Out along the way. It's all very clever. You just have to remember to actually use it
08:29I kind of forget it's there sometimes and it is also still in preview and as it rolls out
08:33There will be new features added in although of course, this isn't exclusive to Surface laptops
08:38It's any Windows 11 device, although it is a staggered rollout. So different devices will get it at different times
08:43However, as usual with higher performance Windows laptops the battery life
08:47Isn't great. My unit with its 4060 only managed five to six hours in my usual full screen video test and around the same
08:54In my light use test for photo and video work
08:57It's gonna be a lot less to be fair
08:59Not everyone needs all day battery life on the laptop
09:01Especially if you're using it at the desk at the office, you've got the power plugged in but you know
09:0514-inch laptops are generally a bit more portable than bigger desktop replacements and considering the price and of course the competition
09:12It's a little bit disappointing
09:14Especially as a MacBook Pro 14 will likely last you twice as long and then we've got the webcam at the top here
09:20It's a 1080p 30fps webcam
09:23I thought this might be a little bit better. It's blowing out the background there. Yeah, the quality is fine
09:28You do have a couple of extra features like being able to bokeh out your camera man
09:32Plus there's auto framing say hello to producer Pete here
09:35By the way who helped out with this one and all this is down to the new MPU AI
09:39Processing chip, which means all this can be processed on the fly, which is a first for an Intel based service device
09:45So despite some issues, I still genuinely do really like this studio laptop, too
09:49I think you're gonna have to really want that studio convertible sort of tablet experience and you're gonna have to want that high performance as
09:56Well, but if those things are important to you
09:58You have some pretty deep pockets and you do definitely want to Windows 11 laptop
10:02Then yeah
10:03You could do a lot worse and I can definitely see a version 3 of this perhaps with an OLED screen
10:0814th gen Intel CPU and a longer battery life. There would be a much easier recommendation
10:12But given we don't see these surface laptops refresh that often
10:15It could be a couple of years away
10:17Otherwise, there are plenty of other portable two-in-one Windows laptops
10:20There are fast enough for graphic design work with better screens and longer battery life and the performance and battery advantages of the m3
10:26MacBook Pros is really hard to ignore given their similar ish pricing and I'm not sure I can get behind the base model
10:33you're not gonna want to carry around that exercise and weight without the GPU is designed for and things like video editing and gaming is
10:38Great with a 40 series GPU, but what do you reckon?
10:41Do you think you could be tempted to spend that kind of money on a service studio laptop like this or?
10:46Would you rather go for a fruit based rival?
10:48Let me know what you make of the new surface laptop in the comments below if you've got any questions
10:51Drop a comment as well do my best to answer them
10:53And if you did enjoy this review, which I hope you did because you watch the whole thing
10:56Then a like and subscribe would be fantastic. Thank you so much for watching guys
11:00I'll see you next time right here on the tech chat
11:02Well, not exactly right here because I'm in a hotel room right now, but back in the studio next week