Microsoft Announces Surface Studio, Makes Working on a Monitor Look Cool

Microsoft just did what nobody thought they could ever do–Make people fall in love with one of their products. Yet, at Microsoft’s Surface PC event, they did just that. Microsoft revealed the Surface Studio, a 28″ all-in-one PC display.

It’s a beautiful piece of hardware. Microsoft nailed both the execution and demonstration to deliver a product on the top side of innovative-enough-to-make-me-want-to-toss-my-desktop-PC-out-the-window. Though all-in-one and drawing board style monitors are not new, the Surface Studio bring a familiarity and excitement people want to see in technology today. So, what’s so special about this computer?

The Surface Studio will be configurable with the base model sporting a sixth-gen Intel i5, 1TB hard drive, 8GB RAM and a 2GB Nvidia GeForce GPU ($2,999) with a top-tier option sporting a sixth-gen Intel i7, 2TB hard drive, 32GB RAM and a 4GB Nvidia GeForce GPU ($4,199). Standard on the PC is the display, a 1080p camera, Dolby Audio speakers with ports including four USB 3.0, 3.5mm headset jack, a Mini DisplayPort, an SD card slot and an Ethernet port. Sadly, no Thunderbolt ports (!).

The display itself is “the thinnest LCD that has ever been created”, a 13mm 28″, capacitive PixelSense display at 25.09 x 17.27 x 0.44 in (637.35 x 438.90 x 11.4 mm) with 10-bit color depth and 13.5 million pixels of color. It has a resolution of 4500 x 3000 (192 DPI) and 10-point multi-touch with an aspect ration of 3:2. The screen itself weighs 13 lbs with a total weight of 21 lbs.

Now, the Surface Studio display is cool, but the really interesting bit of technology, and what truly makes the Surface Studio shine, is the Surface Dial, a Bluetooth-enabled, haptic feedback control device that we’re pretty sure is going to eventually replace the mouse, or at least relegate it to the more menial tasks.

With support for all Surface products, the Dial displays a radial menu depending on the app you’re using, sending vibrations through your nubs to provide feedback about what you’re doing. Currently, there are a handful of apps that will launch on the Surface Studio with support for the dial including Sketchable, Mental Canvas, and Moho 12. Microsoft’s own suite of apps will, of course, also work with the Surface Dial.

On top of all of this, Microsoft even has the backing of software manufacturers, highlighting that Surface Studio is able to run “professional-grade software like SOLIDWORKS, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Autodesk.” Autodesk what? Any of their software, we imagine.

The Surface Studio is available for pre-order starting at $2,999 with the Surface Dial included free if ordered before December 1st. After that, the Surface Dial will be available for $99.99.

The Verge assembled this must-see 9 minute wrap-up of the event, in which they announce ‘Windows 10 Creators update’, ‘3D for Everyone’ and ‘Virtual Reality for Everyone’ with the reveal of the Windows Capture 3D Experience, Paint 3D, a partnership with SketchUp, Edge on Hololens, OEM VR Headsets, a Surface Book PC and Surface Book update, and last but not least the Surface Studio.