Microsoft’s big-screen Surface Studio is an engineering marvel

Microsoft’s event unveiling the new Surface Studio just wrapped up, and we had a few minutes to stare straight into the gorgeous display of the company’s first “all-in-one” computer. Based on how Microsoft introduced this new product, the company really wants creators of all types to use the Studio, including visual artists, architects, writers or even accountants. The company thinks that being able to really immerse yourself in a display of this quality, size and capability will change how people do their work.

Unfortunately, in the glare-filled room, it was hard to get a sense of just how brilliant the display is — or what it’s like to really use the computer as Microsoft intends — but there’s no doubt this is an impressive canvas. The 28-inch, 4,500 x 3,000 display looks extremely bright and sharp, as you’d expect, and the degree of thinness here is just shocking. The relatively small bezels mean you lose yourself more in the screen than just about any other device out there.

And unlike many other devices that get thinner with no real reason, there’s an obvious advantage here: the thin screen plus the highly engineered arm and hinge system means it’s very easy to put this display at any angle you might want. Oddly, it reminds me a little bit of the iMac G4 that Apple made so many years ago — that sense of being able to manipulate and move the display into just the right position for the work you’re doing is unique.

All of the polish we’ve grown to expect from the Surface line is here in the Studio. The much-touted ability to tilt the screen down is as smooth as butter. And the display stays in place no matter what angle you set it at, while the hinge is strong enough to stay in place as you draw on it. Once you start to lean on it at all, you’ll end up with the screen as fast as it goes. Though, as we learned when trying it out, you’ll want to keep your desk clear below it if you want it to tilt down to the maximum 20-degrees — otherwise you’ll squash your keyboard or anything else around it.

Obviously, we haven’t had a chance yet to really put this machine through a rigorous test yet, but we did get to try out the pen and Surface Dial. The responsiveness of the Surface Pen feels even better than on the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Book. It could also be that having a sturdy surface and a large display make it easier to write on a touchscreen. But pressure sensitivity and overall response rate is excellent.

The Surface Dial feels entirely new — there’s very little to compare it to. It’s incredibly smooth to spin it, whether you place it on a desk or on the screen. And while there’s nothing that makes it adhere directly to the Surface Studio display, there’s some degree of friction that keeps it in place (when the computer is laying down, anyway). It’s really meant for you to hold up on the display as you’re using it. The Dial has different functions in every app, in Word it could help with formatting, while in Photoshop it can help you manage your palette. It feels pretty great in your hand, and rotating it is fairly smooth as well. But it seems there will be a bit of a learning curve for most people.

It’s going to be all up to developers to integrate the Dial in a way that makes it a compelling accessory, but we imagine at the very least Microsoft’s first-party apps will all have clever Dial functionality built-in by the time the Studio ships.

From a ports perspective, there’s not too much of note here — not surprising, given how small the actual box holding most of the components is. There are four USB 3 ports, an SD card slot, a mini Displayport connector, an ethernet jack and the critical headphone jack. It’s not a bad array, but a few USB-C slots probably wouldn’t have hurt.

Microsoft’s new wireless keyboard and mouse also feel pretty great, but that’s been true of their input devices for decades now. The keyboard has a nice amount of travel, making it easy to start pounding out sentences quickly with no issue. The mouse curves into your hand nicely, and has particularly satisfying clicks.

Ultimately, our first impressions of the Surface Studio are that it’s a remarkable piece of engineering, from the thin display to the hinge to the way the Dial interacts with the touchscreen. But it’s going to take a lot more time and testing to say if Microsoft’s vision of how people can use this computer to create and get things done makes sense. Though, even if you don’t want to put the screen down in canvas mode and start drawing on it, it still appears to be a hell of a computer, one that we’re looking forward to using more as soon as possible.

If you want to try it yourself, you can pre-order the Surface Studio starting today for $2,999, with delivery expected in mid-December. Microsoft did say that supplies will be limited this year, so if you really have your heart set on this machine, don’t dawdle.

Devindra Hardawar contributed to this report.