Microsoft beat Apple to the draw, launching its all in one PC, the Surface Studio yesterday. The pricey PC, expected to retail at over Rs 2,00,000 is touted as a delight to work with, packing in every possible feature a really finicky designer or high end user could ask for.
The PC comes with a 28-inch PixelSense display, with the thinnest display ever built according to Microsoft and a 3:2 display ratio. Intel’s Core Processor continues to lie at its heart, with a 2TB hybrid hard drive and an NVIDIA GPU, as well as integrated 2.1 speakers, besides a haptic feedback controller puck device.
For the first time from Microsoft, the PC comes with a unique hinge on the back designed to make it more flexible for creative pursuits. Panay Panos, Corporate VP of Devices and the boss of the Surface project, said onstage that the Surface Studio is designed to “fundamentally change†the way people create.
A touchscreen, 32GB RAM, a 2TB hybrid drive that combines HD and SD storage, four USB 3.0 ports, Ethernet, Audio, SD and Mini DisplayPort (no Thunderbolt) and the new radial input Surface Dial with haptic feedback complete the hardware cohort on the pc.
The speakers, ports and drive are contained in the base.The Surface Studio’s display uses 13.5 million pixels to make a 192 PPI density that doesn’t reveal individual pixels no matter where you’re viewing from. It also includes a feature Microsoft is calling TrueColor, which will make rendering truly lifelike, or exactly as you want it to be, according to Panay.
There is also “True Scale,” which allows the display to display print products at actual scale on the screen. “One inch on the screen is one inch in real life,” Panay said onstage.
If you have already experienced Cortana in the windows 10, the “linear mic array” which is part of the display will be useful. This is a feature that can pick up a user’s voice from across the room, with Cortana taking care of the rest.
The Surface Pen remains, making it a great option for graphics professionals. It’s ease of use, and hardware that can handle pretty much most levels of creative requirements make this a very interesting launch indeed from Microsoft. While the India launch date has not been announced yet, this is one PC whose sales numbers shd be really interesting.
We couldn’t spot any mention of biometric access or login, and absence of that would be very disappointing indeed, even as the Mac launch tomorrow seems almost guaranteed to include that in the new Mac. Keep watching for updates.