Wanted Wednesday: Microsoft Surface Studio

There is some serious competition for the Apple iMac on the scene and it has caught the studio’s attention so much that the team briefly considered turning their back on Apple, something which is usually unheard of!

The contender is the Microsoft Surface Studio, a 28-inch touchscreen and stylus that is perfect for creatives. It can be used with the screen vertical like your typical computer. Alternatively pull the screen down using smoothly engineered hinges to a lower angle and it’s more like a draftsman’s table, which you can draw on using the Surface Pen and control using the Surface Dial.

The Surface Dial is a circular block that you put anywhere on screen and twist and/or hit to trigger certain effects such as launching the menu or changing the tool you’re in. The only downside is that currently there is no support for it in any professional tools such as Adobe Creative Cloud so if you want to use the Dial you have to use Microsoft’s built in software.

Whilst the lower range model isn’t quite powerful enough for design work. The mid-range model is more than enough, with some similar specs to the Apple iMac. The mid-range Surface Studio features 16GB of RAM, a 2GB GPU and 1 TB storage. If you typically work on an iPad, you’ll find that the Surface Studio has better precision than smaller screens with 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity.

The high resolution of 4500 x 3000 pixels, (192 PPI) offers a fantastic level of detail and supports sRGB and DCI-P3 colour spaces making it perfect for design work.

We love the stylish design and the hinge is a great touch, which allows you to move the screen position with ease. Whilst the iMac wins in some respects, the Microsoft Surface Studio is a real challenger for the Apple iMac, making it a tempting option for any designer.

The Surface Studio ships early 2017, with prices from £2,400 to £3365. More information can be found on the Microsoft website.

Image Credit: Microsoft