This expensive all-in-one’s unique screen was the only thing going for it.
RIP to Microsoft’s Surface Studio all-in-one desktop. Credit: Microsoft
Microsoft has formally discontinued its Surface Studio all-in-one desktop, the company confirmed to Windows Central, a $4,300 touchscreen PC that the company updated with new components twice in the space of eight years. Windows Central reports that there are currently no plans for a follow-up to the Surface Studio and that a Surface Studio 3 may have been among the casualties of cutbacks to Microsoft’s Surface lineup.
Like the Surface Laptop Studio, the desktop’s claim to fame was a unique hinge design for its screen, which could reposition it to make it easier to draw on with the Surface Pen. But the desktop’s high cost and its perennially outdated internal components made it a less appealing machine than it could have been.
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The first version of the Surface Studio desktop debuted in late 2016. As the company’s first desktop PC, it used the same basic design as the current version and was praised for its high-quality screen and unique hinge. But the first Surface Studio of the machine had some of the same issues that the desktop would always have: a high starting price and relatively outdated and underpowered components compared to other desktop systems.
The longest-lived Studio desktop was the Surface Studio 2, which was released in 2018 and wasn’t replaced until a revised Surface Studio 2+ was announced in late 2022. It used an even higher-quality display panel, but it still used previous-generation internal components. This might not have been so egregious if Microsoft had updated it more consistently, but this model went untouched for so long that Microsoft had to lower Windows 11’s system requirements specifically to cover the Studio 2 so that the company wouldn’t be ending support for a PC that it was still actively selling.
The Studio 2+ was the desktop’s last hurrah, and despite jumping two GPU generations and four CPU generations, it still didn’t use the latest components available at the time. Again, more consistent updates like the ones Microsoft provides for the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop could have made this less of a problem, but the Studio 2+ once again sat untouched for two years after being updated.
The Studio desktop’s unique screen and hinge endeared it to some artists, and for those users, there’s no immediately obvious replacement for this machine. But the all-in-one’s high price and its specs always made it a hard sell for anyone else. A lack of wide appeal usually leads to mediocre sales, and mediocre sales usually lead to discontinued products. So it goes.
