We’re due another Surface Studio and it may be here sooner than you think
Think Microsoft Surface and you probably think of something tablet-sized. The Surface Studio, as the name suggests, is quite a bit bigger than that. Not quite as big as a studio flat (well, maybe a London one), but not too far off.
The original Surface Studio emerged in 2016, which means we’re definitely due a sequel. Will the Surface Studio 2 launch in 2018?
Everything we know about the Surface Studio 2
Surface Studio 2: What is it?
The Surface family of computers is made up of tablets, hybrids and laptops. However, the Surface Studio is something different altogether: a powerful all-in-one PC where the whole 28in screen can be leaned upon and drawn on like a giant tablet.
For designers, it was glorious – well, the richer ones anyway. Starting at £2,999, this wasn’t a computer for people who liked to dabble with the Surface Pen.
Even in 2016, though, the specs weren’t at the very cutting edge, with a sixth-generation Intel chip powering the show. The rumoured Surface Studio 2 will hopefully put things right in that department, and bring the machine right up to 2018 standards.
Surface Studio 2: Specifications and features
First, I should point out that the Surface Studio 2 doesn’t officially exist. But as ever with these things, that doesn’t mean we don’t have several clues that it does. Zac Bowden of Windows Central has heard the codename of “Capitola” bandied around, and the original model has been out of stock on the Microsoft store for some time, which is usually a solid indicator of a sequel afoot.
The biggest clue, though, is that it’s appeared on Geekbench, despite not yet being released. Somebody at Microsoft appears to have messed up and put it through the system – not as rare an occurrence as you’d think, with plenty of smartphones getting outed before they officially existed.
Anyway, if correct, rather than an elaborate prank, then we can reveal that the Surface Studio 2 will be packing the 2.89GHz seventh-generation Intel Core i7-7820HQ processor backed by a massive 32GB of DDR4 RAM. This leads to a not-unrespectable score of 4,680 for single-core processing and 15,915 for multi-core antics.
Some will definitely be disappointed that the Surface Studio 2 isn’t packing an eighth-generation Whiskey Lake processor. While it’s possible that there’s a version of the product that does (the original Surface Studio came in three configurations), it’s unlikely that anything but the most expensive would ship with 32GB of RAM, so this is likely as good as it gets.
Surface Studio 2: Release date
If we have Geekbench scores, then the product can’t be far away, surely?
Keep an eye on 2 October 2018, as Microsoft has a big event scheduled at 21:00 BST. We’ve been led to believe a Surface Pro 6 will be officially unveiled, but if it’s a Surface-based event, then it would be wholly unsurprising if the Surface Studio 2 made a very welcome appearance.
Surface Studio 2: Price
In a word: expensive. In two words: very expensive.
Technically, we don’t know the answer to this, but it’s just common sense. The original Surface Studio started at £2,999 for the “basic” version with an i5 processor, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB hard drive, moving all the way up to £4,249 for the top-end model with 32GB of RAM, an i7 chip and 2TB of storage.
If anything, prices have only gone up since 2018. If you haven’t already started, get saving now.
We’ll update this piece when we know more about the Surface Studio 2
Source: expertreviews.co.uk