Microsoft Announces Laptop Studio 2, Laptop Go 3 and Surface Go 4
Note: This article was first published on 22 September 2023.
Microsoft’s yearly Surface event has just ended, and we’ve gotten some exciting new announcements in the form of laptops.
This year, there’s a new Surface Laptop Studio 2 that’s supposed to be the “most powerful Surface” Microsoft has ever built, alongside the Surface Laptop Go 3 and a Surface Go 4. Let's take a closer look at them below.
Surface Laptop Studio 2
The Surface Laptop Studio 2 was definitely the highlight of the event, even though it still looks rather similar to the original Surface Laptop Studio. It can be used like a normal laptop, but there’s a special hinge that allows for the display to be tilted forward for touch interactions or even lay flat like a tablet.
Microsoft claims that the Surface Laptop Studio 2 can deliver over twice the performance of the Surface Laptop Studio, with the newest 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13800H processor and either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM. As for graphics, there’s a choice between the NVIDIA RTX 2000 Ada Generation GPU, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 laptop GPUs.
Another cool addition to the laptop is a neural processing unit (NPU) in the form of an AI co-processor built by Intel, the Gen3 Movidius 3700VC VPU AI Accelerator. With all the other AI features that Microsoft announced at the event, it’s not hard to draw the link between this laptop and Microsoft’s plans for the future.
There is also a new USB-A port alongside a MicroSD card slot for more included connectivity options, rather than having to purchase external dongles and adapters, and the Gen 4 SSD storage drive can be removed if required, with options for 512GB, 1TB and 2TB of storage.
The 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow Display remains the same, and it’s protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 5. There is also up to at least 16 hours of battery life with typical usage for the models with NVIDIA graphics cards, and that figure goes up to 19 hours for the model with Intel Iris Xe graphics.
It'll be available in Singapore soon with prices starting at S$3,569.
Surface Laptop Go 3
The Surface Laptop Go 3 is the more standard laptop offering from Microsoft, designed to be a lighter, more portable option. The laptop comes equipped with the 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U processor and Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and removable UFS or SSD storage options.
Weighing in at 1.13kg, it’s almost exactly the same weight as the Laptop Go 2 while packing in up to 15 hours of battery life and larger 256GB or 512GB storage capacity options with the SSD drives also removable if needed. The display is still a 12.4-inch PixelSense display that is individually colour-calibrated with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protecting it.
The Laptop Go 3 still gets the same USB-C 3.2 and USB-A 3.1 ports, along with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a Surface Connect port. There’s an upgrade to Wi-Fi 6E, however, so users can expect to see faster internet speeds if connected to a Wi-Fi 6E router.
Like the Surface Laptop Studio 2, the Laptop Go 3 will be available in Singapore soon with prices starting at S$1,199.
Surface Go 4
For portable 2-in-1 devices, the Surface Go 4 is where it’s at. With a 10.5-inch PixelSense Display that can get up to 350 nits max brightness, the 521g device is compact, but offers support for keyboard inputs, touch as well as the Surface Pen, Microsoft Classroom Pen 2 and Microsoft Business Pen.
Running on an Intel Processor N200, 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM and up to 256GB of UFS storage, the Surface Go 4 is a Secured-core PC that has a longer 12.5-hour battery life compared to its predecessor.
The device also comes with a USB-C 3.1 port that can be used for charging, data transfer and display, alongside a MicroSDXC card reader slot and 3.5mm headphone jack.
Unfortunately, there's no word yet on local availability and pricing for the Surface Go 4. However, it will also be available for pre-order in the US in early October with prices starting at US$579 (~S$791).
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