Microsoft Surface Studio Stealing The Creatives From The iMac; Innovative But Severely Underpowered For Current Pricing

The Microsoft Surface Studio is best known for its stunning 28-inch PixelSense that also doubles as one big tablet, which is its selling point for creatives, the iMacs loyal users. At an entry-level pricing of $2,999, Microsoft's first desktop computer is a premium hardware but comes severely underpowered under the hood in processor and graphics for its current pricing.

Microsoft has clearly brought new innovations into the PC market that appears to have been abandoned by Apple which ironically built its name on the iconic Mac brand. The Microsoft Surface Studio provides nifty creativity tools for creatives like a giant tablet, Surface Pen, and the Surface Dial. The folks at Redmond took extra care in knowing its intended market and what features they will require. Hence, the once iMac loyalists have now switched camp especially after no definitive hardware upgrades on the iconic Apple desktops.

The Microsoft Surface Studio has undoubtedly the best desktop monitor with 4500x3000 or 192 dpi. It has a 3:2 aspect ratio, already an innovative feat for the PC that Microsoft was able to borrow from the Surface Pro and Surface Book. It has a stunning 13mm display can be turned into a giant sketch board and supports both touch and the same pressure-sensitive Surface Pen on Microsoft's tablets. Add to this is the Surface Dial, which is a puck like accessory that is specifically designed to help in the drawing process by offering the basic menus. The $99 accessory actually works with all Windows 10 devices but works best with the Surface Studio according to the Business Insider.

The Verge illustrates this point so well in asking a professional illustrator, Andrew McCann to try out the Microsoft Surface Studio with its creative tools like the Surface Pen and the Surface Dial. McCann reveals that the Surface Studio is the all-in-one PC for creatives that do not need to have an ensemble of hardware like McCann's current lineup that includes a MacBook Pro, a Wacom Cintiq monitor and a Surface Book. Though he did ask some few improvements like a more ergonomic stylus pen and more menus other than the basics provided by the Surface Dial.

The only downside to the innovative trendsetting Microsoft Surface Studio is that it is severely underpowered for gaming and workstation tasks. It was released in December last year before Intel's Kaby Lake CPUs and NVIDIA's Pascal-based GPUs that could have given the desktop more meat in gaming. It loads "Overwatch" well enough with its almost non-existent pixels, but it cannot play "Gears of War 4" or "Forza Horizon 3" on the highest settings. For a steep premium, its processor, graphics cards and even its lack of a full solid state drive seem old tech for a modern trendsetting PC according to PC World.