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Microsoft would like to introduce creative individuals to their new studio: the Surface Studio. This 28″ display provides what they refer to as a “canvas” rather than a mere computer screen. Draw right onto that surface as though it were a piece of drafting paper and pay $2,999 for the privilege. The Surface Studio is currently available from Microsoft for pre-order and targets those serious about creating a graphic impression.

Image: Microsoft

Features

Consider this a cross between paper and a real canvas. The Surface Studio is very large, thicker than paper, but thinner than something you would set on an easel. With 13.5M pixels, your graphics will be the most complete, most authentic, and most stunning you have ever produced digitally.

Amateur and professional graphic artists alike will see their work come to life with the NVIDIA GeForce dGPU and an i5 or i7 Intel Core processor at their disposal. Bluetooth 4.0 is, of course, built into this new Microsoft display.

NVIDIA

The NVIDIA GeForce dGPU is a built-in feature designed for high definition video streaming. If you use the computer to watch movies, YouTube demonstrations, to play video games, or to host conference calls, Microsoft’s choice of technology makes it real.

Intel Processors

The computing world has seen a huge jump in computer speed, thanks to the i5, but an i7 improves that even more. When you work in a fast-paced world, tech is more important than cost. If your screen is used for work and your graphics need to be scientifically precise, that might be the way to go for a bit more money.

Take advantage of a 6th Generation i5 Core with 8 GB of RAM. Memory upgrades are also available. Microsoft is offering their clients as much as 16 GB or 32 GB of RAM, basically, but the standard is 8 GB.

The Surface Studio is your resume; your portfolio; potentially your artistic lifeline. Keep that lifeline stocked and ready for interviews, shows, to show clients, or for your enjoyment. Select a Rapid Hybrid drive of 1 TB or 2 TB.

Interaction

Press Surface Dial and hold it to access a selection of tools to take you to assorted apps, choose colors from a seemingly endless sRGB palate, or start drawing. With 1,024 pressure sensitivity levels and an eraser, this will be like working with paper only better.

The Studio Surface was designed to operate cooperatively and intuitively with Microsoft Windows, of course. You have access to all the tools associated with their drawing programs like Ink Workspace as well as editing functions for photographs. But the Surface Studio is also Office-capable; flexible to display text as crisply as images.

A pen is included plus Windows 10. Write or, alternatively, read documents and creative works on Surface Book where font will be big and legible on your wireless display. It’s weighty and large for travel, but not if you are only moving from a desk to the bed or another room in the office. If you wanted a small screen, a notebook would be more practical, but you wanted precision visuals.

Configuration

Stand the Surface Studio on your desk or lay it on the desk flat. How you choose to view and use it will depend on a given task and where you are. It’s usually easier to draw flat but to view visuals and movies upright. Then again, if you’re not at your desk, a screen laid flat is equally useful.

Ultimately, there should be joy in owning something so agile that you can host a video call on it and talk to people far away like they’re in the room, or take pictures with a 1080p camera plus video fed by Dolby Audio. Commercial and home-based users alike receive high-grade Windows Hello2 security; a visual safeguard which innovatively requires you to sign in on video. Protect the work you treasure.