The Surface Laptop Studio is still one of our favorite 2-in-1 laptops, even two years after its release, so the hotly anticipated Surface Laptop Studio 2 has us very excited. And with good reason. The rumored updates to specifications, features, and capabilities all suggest this could be one of the best convertible laptops of the year.
If the leaks and rumors prove true, that is. With a potential release just weeks away, here’s everything we (think we) know about the Surface Laptop Studio 2.
Release date and pricing
Microsoft hasn’t announced a release date, or even a debut date, for the Surface Laptop Studio 2. However, it has been long-rumored to be launching a new Surface Laptop Studio device this year, and it has announced a special event on September 21. This is expected to be the date where Microsoft shows off its new Surface Laptop Studio 2 to the world, alongside a smattering of other Surface PC devices.
With a September debut of the device, we’ll likely see it begin shipping in October, though depending on early interest, availability may be light until after the holiday season.
As for pricing, all we can do is guess. The original Surface Laptop Studio debuted with an entry-level price of $1,600 with an Intel Core i5 CPU and a 256GB SSD. A new Surface Laptop Studio 2 may well start at a higher price due to the past few years of inflation, but we’d expect to see a budget offering under $2,000, with higher-end models reaching well above $3,000.
Specifications
Until Microsoft officially announces the Surface Laptop Studio 2, we won’t know precisely what kind of hardware it will have under the hood. However, based on leaks, previous-generation device specifications, and industry trends, we can make some smart guesses about its potential configurations.
Microsoft will most likely offer Intel CPUs in the Surface Laptop Studio 2, so expect 13th-generation mobile processors like the Core i7 13700H and 13800H. We’d expect the entry-level models to ship with 16GB of DDR4 memory, with the potential for 32GB and 64GB models, perhaps with DDR5 memory as an option.
Although it’s possible that Intel will debut its 14th-generation CPUs by the time the Surface Laptop Studio 2 is available, it’s very unlikely to include any of those as-yet-unreleased chips.
Since the last-generation device offered Nvidia RTX 30-series graphics, we’ll likely see RTX 40-series GPUs in this next-generation Surface Laptop Studio. That will mean at least an RTX 4050, but perhaps even an RTX 4060 for more demanding games and rendering applications. This would be the most powerful graphics chip ever offered in a Surface device, potentially opening up new markets for the 2-in-1 laptop.
Although Microsoft has worked more with AMD in recent years, and even offered some devices with Qualcomm Snapdragon processors, all rumors suggest that Intel will be the exclusive chip manufacturer for this generation of Surface Laptop Studio devices.
New features
With a next generation of laptop and next generation of hardware, we expect to see new features. Rumors suggest that the Surface Laptop Studio 2 won’t be a radical reimagining of the Surface Laptop Studio design, but will still feature a few notable upgrades. It will reportedly add to the Thunderbolt ports that were available on its predecessor, adding possibly more Thunderbolt 4 ports, or some alternative video output options in the form of an HDMI 2.1 output.
Microsoft added its neural processing unit (NPU) to the Surface Pro 9 to accelerate AI tasks and futureproof the device against upcoming AI developments. It will likely include this, or an enhanced version of it, in the Surface Laptop Studio 2. Microsoft has made major investments in AI in the last year with its stake in OpenAI and launching Bing Chat-related products. It’s possible we’ll see some greater integration of these in the Surface Laptop Studio 2.
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