The Surface Laptop Studio turns into an easel, because of course

If we’ve learned anything from Surface Book 3 last year, it’s that Microsoft’s wild design of the detachable tablet hasn’t been long on this world. There was simply no way to compete with other powerful laptops when it came to pushing a full Windows PC, with a power-hungry processor, into a big slate. Step into the Surface Laptop Studio, another attempt to create a powerful Surface laptop.

Although it looks like a typical PC at first, a unique hinge allows you to pull the screen forward over the keyboard. And if you pull it all the way down, it transforms into an easel, like a miniaturized version of the Surface Studio all-in-one. While I’m sure some Microsoft fans may miss the weirdness of the Surface Book’s design, the Laptop Studio is clearly more functional for typical users. I haven’t yet come across any Surface Book owners who use it in tablet mode very often – even flipping the screen ultimately becomes a chore.

The Laptop Studio clearly has a lot of quirks too. Its bottom half almost looks like two PCs stacked on top of each other, with an odd tiered design. And if the flexibility of its display sounds familiar to you, maybe it’s because it’s inspired by HP’s Leather Folio. This PC also allows you to remove the screen and turn it into a tablet. It’s a design I’m surprised more computer makers haven’t embraced, as it looks more genuinely useful than convertibles with screens that fold 360 degrees.

And just like the new Surface Pro 8, the Laptop Studio’s 14.4-inch touchscreen is a cut above most screens, thanks to its fast 120Hz refresh rate and Dolby support. HDR vision. Having a high refresh rate will make scrolling and just about any screen movement smoother, but more importantly, it also makes doodling with the Surface Slim Pen 2 more like writing on real paper. The Laptop Studio also has a convenient storage and charging slot for this stylus under its display (but of course you’ll have to buy it separately).

Surprisingly, Microsoft took a step back when it came to power. The Surface Laptop Studio includes the 11th generation Intel H35 quad-core processors, which were originally intended for ultraportable gaming laptops. Those 35-watt chips are sure to be an upgrade over the Book 3’s 10th-gen hardware, but you’d think Microsoft would take advantage of this new model to spread its wings and cram into a six- or eight-core processor.

I’d bet the company felt pressured to come up with something relatively light – the Core i5 Laptop Studio weighs 3.8 pounds, while the Core i7 model weighs 4 pounds. Personally, I wouldn’t mind something a little heavier if that meant installing a better processor. And it’s not like there aren’t a lot of Surface options for people who care more about portability.

You’ll get Intel Iris Xe graphics with the Core i5 Surface Laptop Studio, while the i7 model comes with NVIDIA’s RTX 3050 Ti with 4GB of GDDR6 memory. We asked Microsoft to confirm the exact power consumption of this GPU, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same 45-watt version as Dell’s new XPS 15. In my testing, it’s still faster than the Book 3’s GTX 1660, but it would be easily smoked by a full-powered RTX 3050 Ti in a gaming system.

The Surface Laptop Studio starts at $ 1,600 and is available for pre-order today. It goes on sale with the rest of the Surface line on October 5.

Follow all the news from Microsoft’s Fall Surface event here.