Microsoft holds a hardware launch every October, and the one product that's refreshed every year is the Surface Pro. While the Surface Laptop 5 arrived after a year and a half, there's one product that no one expected to see until recently, and that's the Surface Studio 2 Plus. The last time we saw the all-in-one was when the Surface Studio 2 was released, back in October 2018.

The product had Intel's 7th-gen processors and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card. The specs are so old that Microsoft actually made an exception in the Windows 11 system requirements for one 7th-gen processor, the one in the Studio 2. That means that no matter what, the Surface Studio 2 Plus is a massive upgrade.

Intel 11th-gen processors and RTX graphics

The Surface Studio 2 Plus is staying true to its roots of using a last-gen mobile processor. Specifically, it comes with a Core i7-11370H, a quad-core 35W chip, so it actually has a lower TDP than the 45W processors in its predecessors. It's the same CPU that you'd find in a Surface Laptop Studio. On top of that, it has an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, which is also a laptop part, but it's still a big upgrade from the GTX 1070.

It's worth remembering that while the Surface Studio has always used laptop parts, that's because those parts essentially fit into a mini PC. All of this goes into the base, and there's the Zero Gravity Hinge that connects to the display and allows you to fold it down to where you can draw on it and such. In fact, Microsoft is announcing some new software for creators today as well.

View of ports on Surface Studio 2 Plus

The other change in this product is that it now has Thunderbolt 4, whereas previously it only had standard USB Type-C ports. There are three Thunderbolt 4 ports, so it's pretty versatile.

Everything else is the same

This is the second time that Microsoft has released a 'Plus' product, the first being the Surface Pro 7 Plus. The idea is that the product is very similar to the one that came before it, even though with the big improvement from the internals, this is a lot more significant than man other generational bumps in the Surface family. However, Surface Pro 7 Plus was called that when a redesigned Surface Pro 8 was on the horizon. It stands to reason that there may be a redesigned Surface Studio 3 arriving at some point.

The display is 28 inches with a 3:2 aspect ratio, and it has 4,500x3,000 resolution. It still has a 60Hz refresh rate, and it still uses the old Surface Pen rather than the newer Slim Pen 2 that's used by the Surface Pro 9 and Surface Laptop Studio.

Unlike previous generations, the Surface Studio 2 Plus comes in only one configuration. It has a Core i7-11370H, 32GB DDR4, and a 1TB SSD. It's not cheap though, as it will run you $4,299.99. Also, at that price, it's one of very few all-in-one PCs to not come with any peripherals. If you want a keyboard, mouse, and pen, there's a bundle for $4,499. You'll be able to pick one up on October 25.

The Surface Studio 2 Plus is a premium all-in-one desktop PC with a large and sharp display along and capable specs.
Surface Studio 2 Plus

The Surface Studio 2 Plus is a premium all-in-one desktop PC with a large and sharp display along and capable specs.