Microsoft Surface Studio
I admit that I am 'hard' on my computers. That is a plain and simple fact.
The work I do on my desktop computer constantly keeps my processors crunching numbers, spinning my hard drives and heating up. Additionally, as my cameras (both stills and video) improve each year, I find that my computer has great difficulty keeping up while getting bogged down very quickly. Because of all this graphics processing, my computers rarely last more than three years before biting the dust.
Now that 4K video is becoming more mainstream and 6K cameras are available (and 8K is right around the corner), the average computers from three years ago are not at all equipped to handle streaming video of this resolution. Even trying to edit multiple 'Full HD' video clips is enough to bog down an average three year old computer. As technology moves forward, all your tools must move forward and the computer is an important tool.
My current desktop computer is now more than three years old. Actually, I think it may be over four years old at this point. It doesn't take much of today's digital technology to bog it down which has been very frustrating to say the least. Editing photos with multiple layers and editing multiple video clips is dog slow on this old desktop! At this point, I'm on pins and needles waiting for components to start burning out. (History has proven that my computers have an average lifespan of a little more than three years so I'm expecting some component to bite the dust at any moment now.)
As my friends probably know already, I'm a big fan of the Surface tablets/laptops/books or whatever you want to call them. They are powerful little machines and the resolution is beautiful. I love using mine for travel or for lounging on the couch as I am right now.
Within the past few months, Microsoft released a new computer in the Surface family... the Surface Studio.
This thing caught my attention the first time I saw it. It is compact and streamlined but sports a huge 28 inch crystal clear touchscreen with an amazing resolution of 4500 x 3000... and, it is a big graphics tablet utilizing the use of a digital pen right on the screen for writing and drawing! This would eliminate the need for a separate graphics tablet and pen cluttering up your workspace. When I first saw the preview of this computer, I swore that I would be buying one for myself to use for art, photography and video.
After reading a few reviews and thinking about the pro's and con's of this new computer, there are certainly a few important things in the pro's column but I have some concerns in the con's column which are big enough to be dealbreakers....
In the end, spending upwards of $4200 for an all-in-one desktop computer which cannot be easily upgraded is just too much money. When we consider the "cons" in the list above, compounding this problem is the fact that this machine is already under-powered as it becomes available at this price point.
I feel Microsoft would have been better off creating a line of powerful desktop computers squeezed into the worlds smallest, sleekest, nondescript computer cases (that stand or lie separate from the display) while still allowing for an easy upgrade path. I would like to see this type of "Surface" computer in three different computer lines... the next faster than the previous... all easily upgradable (processors, graphics card, SSD). THIS would be a smart business plan. (And, if I had the health, I would design and patent a line like this myself!)
Additionally and perhaps most importantly, they should sell their beautiful 28" touch screen high resolution display separately. Just this decision alone might be their biggest money-maker ever. Do you know how many artists, photographers, and videographers would love to own a monitor like that? THIS would also be a smart business plan. What is Microsoft thinking? They would sell these monitors like hotcakes!
Then, if they sold matching sleek computers to effectively drive this montrous beauty of a monitor, I believe professional artists would snatch these up quickly as well.
The all-in-one solution of this Surface Studio is significantly flawed and, as a result, I'm no longer interested.
At this point, I'm looking into purchasing a custom Lenovo desktop or I will design and build my own computer to replace my aging desktop computer.
The work I do on my desktop computer constantly keeps my processors crunching numbers, spinning my hard drives and heating up. Additionally, as my cameras (both stills and video) improve each year, I find that my computer has great difficulty keeping up while getting bogged down very quickly. Because of all this graphics processing, my computers rarely last more than three years before biting the dust.
Now that 4K video is becoming more mainstream and 6K cameras are available (and 8K is right around the corner), the average computers from three years ago are not at all equipped to handle streaming video of this resolution. Even trying to edit multiple 'Full HD' video clips is enough to bog down an average three year old computer. As technology moves forward, all your tools must move forward and the computer is an important tool.
My current desktop computer is now more than three years old. Actually, I think it may be over four years old at this point. It doesn't take much of today's digital technology to bog it down which has been very frustrating to say the least. Editing photos with multiple layers and editing multiple video clips is dog slow on this old desktop! At this point, I'm on pins and needles waiting for components to start burning out. (History has proven that my computers have an average lifespan of a little more than three years so I'm expecting some component to bite the dust at any moment now.)
As my friends probably know already, I'm a big fan of the Surface tablets/laptops/books or whatever you want to call them. They are powerful little machines and the resolution is beautiful. I love using mine for travel or for lounging on the couch as I am right now.
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| Microsoft Surface Studio (photo courtesy of Microsoft) |
Within the past few months, Microsoft released a new computer in the Surface family... the Surface Studio.
This thing caught my attention the first time I saw it. It is compact and streamlined but sports a huge 28 inch crystal clear touchscreen with an amazing resolution of 4500 x 3000... and, it is a big graphics tablet utilizing the use of a digital pen right on the screen for writing and drawing! This would eliminate the need for a separate graphics tablet and pen cluttering up your workspace. When I first saw the preview of this computer, I swore that I would be buying one for myself to use for art, photography and video.
After reading a few reviews and thinking about the pro's and con's of this new computer, there are certainly a few important things in the pro's column but I have some concerns in the con's column which are big enough to be dealbreakers....
PRO's:
That screen is amazingly beautiful! It is crystal clear, bright, crisp, calibrated (a plus for photography and video work), it is a touchscreen, it can be used as a big graphics tablet with the use of the Microsoft pen, it is a whopping 28", and yet it is so thin that it also appears streamlined and relatively small.
Another reason this whole package seems very "small" is because all the hardware is squeezed into the tiny base of the beautiful monitor rather than in a monstrous tower case that eats up valuable office real estate. The size factor is a plus but there also is a drawback which I'll address in a minute (see the list of cons below).
Another plus is that it comes in a relatively small carry-case box with a handle on top. So, for instance, if I wanted to bring this computer to the lake house for a few weeks, I could easily slip it back into its narrow box and just throw it in the car. Having access to a computer like this would make working on lake photos fast and easy. In the meantime, however, I will use my little Surface 3 tablet/laptop.
CON's:
Although this Surface Studio looks like it would be ideal for graphics work, that beautiful high resolution screen requires a lot of power to keep memory-laden graphics running smoothly. Unfortunately, many reviews have shown that the supplied graphics card isn't up to the task of driving this high resolution screen smoothly nor in sync with real-time when trying to edit multi-layered graphics or multiple 4K video clips with sound clips. This computer really needs a much more powerful graphics card if it is to attract professional artists, photographers and videographers for the long haul.
There seems to be a slight lag in drawing with the pen on this 28" screen as well. Not only is there a slight lag in drawing but the pen starts drawing on the screen before the pen even touches the screen. This results in lines with tiny looping hooks on each beginning of the line. This is problematic as well. For me, a perfectionist who demands precise control, this is a serious problem.
This computer, in my opinion, should have at least one 512gb solid state hard drive (SSD) to help with speed. A higher end option would be either two of these SSD's or perhaps a 1gb SSD. Instead, we are stuck with an old fashioned mechanical hard drive with a relatively small solid state cache which Microsoft calls a "hybrid drive". Providing lightning-fast SSD's would have made more sense for a computer which is supposed to be 'high end' (as the price suggests). I find this to be a problem as well.
What happens in a few short years when the computer hardware side of this beautiful display needs upgrading? Or, what if the display burns out somehow? Am I expected to just throw away this big, beautiful computer and display since it is an all-in-one computer? This lack of a viable upgrade path really bothers me. If I'm going to spend $3000-4200 on a computer, I had better be offered a viable upgrade path for the foreseeable future. This part of the equation is perhaps my biggest complaint about this new Surface Studio (although the graphics processing power problem is a very close second).
In the end, spending upwards of $4200 for an all-in-one desktop computer which cannot be easily upgraded is just too much money. When we consider the "cons" in the list above, compounding this problem is the fact that this machine is already under-powered as it becomes available at this price point.
I feel Microsoft would have been better off creating a line of powerful desktop computers squeezed into the worlds smallest, sleekest, nondescript computer cases (that stand or lie separate from the display) while still allowing for an easy upgrade path. I would like to see this type of "Surface" computer in three different computer lines... the next faster than the previous... all easily upgradable (processors, graphics card, SSD). THIS would be a smart business plan. (And, if I had the health, I would design and patent a line like this myself!)
Additionally and perhaps most importantly, they should sell their beautiful 28" touch screen high resolution display separately. Just this decision alone might be their biggest money-maker ever. Do you know how many artists, photographers, and videographers would love to own a monitor like that? THIS would also be a smart business plan. What is Microsoft thinking? They would sell these monitors like hotcakes!
Then, if they sold matching sleek computers to effectively drive this montrous beauty of a monitor, I believe professional artists would snatch these up quickly as well.
The all-in-one solution of this Surface Studio is significantly flawed and, as a result, I'm no longer interested.
At this point, I'm looking into purchasing a custom Lenovo desktop or I will design and build my own computer to replace my aging desktop computer.
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