Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs. MacBook Pro 2022: Which is right for you?
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs. MacBook Pro 2021: Which is right for yous?
There's more to the Surface Laptop Studio vs. MacBook Pro debate than whether you prefer Apple tree or Microsoft. Both companies released powerful flagship laptops aimed at content creators in 2021, and the correct one for you may have more to practise with who you are and what you practice than what operating system you prefer.
These devices have earned pinnacle spots on our listing of the best laptops you can buy because they're well-built, powerful machines with some compelling features. In our Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review we hailed this premium ii-in-1 as the laptop Windows 11 was meant to run on. When configured with a discrete Nvidia GeForce RTX thirty-series GPU, the Surface Laptop Studio has enough musculus to double every bit a decent content cosmos station.
However, it has a difficult time matching the sheer video editing power of the new MacBook Pro modelss. In 2021 Apple released both the 14-inch MacBook Pro and the xvi-inch MacBook Pro, and their unique features (plus the raw power of Apple tree'due south M1 Pro and M1 Max chips) make them some of the best laptops for video editing on the market.
If yous're having trouble deciding which machine to buy, read on for a thorough breakdown of the strengths and weaknesses of some of 2021'south all-time laptops: the Surface Laptop Studio vs. MacBook Pro.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Price and availability
At offset glance, the 14-inch Surface Laptop Studio would appear to accept the advantage over Apple'southward 2021 MacBook Pros considering it's cheaper, with a starting cost of just $1,599 compared to the 14-inch MacBook Pro'south starting price of $1,999. But the entry-level Surface Laptop Studio has no detached GPU, which means it won't be able to handle a lot of graphically enervating work like heavy video editing or gaming.
To get a Surface Laptop Studio with plenty power to rival a MacBook Pro, you should look to pay at least $2,099. That gets y'all a model with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU, which delivers a decent amount of power. You can pay even more than for more than RAM or storage, but that RTX 3050 Ti is the best GPU yous tin get in the Studio.
For roughly the same cost ($1,999) you can go the entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro 2021 packing 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and an M1 Pro flake with an 8-core CPU and a xiv-core GPU. That's more than competitive with the $2,099 model of Surface Laptop Studio, and the two laptops are also quite like in size and weight, and so in general we'll exist comparing these two configurations in this article.
Even so, you lot too have the option of upgrading to the larger 16-inch MacBook Pro 2021 for $500 more. The entry-level sixteen-inch Pro has a starting price of $ii,499, and that model is basically identical to the entry-level 14-inch Pro, except information technology comes with a more powerful M1 Pro chip sporting a 10-core CPU and 16-core GPU.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Specs
| Surface Laptop Studio | fourteen-inch MacBook Pro | |
| Starting price | $1,599 | $1,999 |
| Display | 14.four-inch 120Hz touchscreen (2,400 x 1,600 pixels) | fourteen.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR brandish (3024x1964 pixels) |
| CPU | 11th Gen Intel Cadre i5-i7 | M1 Pro (viii-core CPU, 14-core GPU or x-core CPU, xvi-cadre GPU), with optional M1 Max with up to 10-core CPU and 32-core GPU |
| Graphics | Iris Xe (i5 model), GeForce RTX 3050 Ti (i7 model) | (meet above) |
| RAM | 16-32 GB | 16-64 GB |
| Storage | 256GB - 2TB SSD | 512GB - 8TB |
| Ports | 2 ten USB iv/Thunderbolt 4, 3.5mm headphone jack, Surface Connect port | USB4/Thunderbolt iv x3, HDMI, MagSafe 3, headphone jack, SD retention carte slot |
| Webcam | 1080p | 1080p FaceTime Hd |
| Tested bombardment life | 10.5 hours | 14 hours |
| Size | 12.7 x 9.0 x 0.7 inches | 12.3 x 8.vii x 0.half dozen inches |
| Weight | 3.83 lbs (i5 model), 4 lbs (i7 model) | 3.5 pounds |
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Design
The design of both the Surface Laptop Studio and the 2021 MacBook Pros impressed u.s. this year, though for unlike reasons.
On the exterior, the Surface Laptop Studio looks very much similar a archetype MacBook Pro. Its understated matte silver chassis — Microsoft calls information technology Platinum — is hefty just not ugly, and the apartment lid opens to reveal a very MacBook-like keyboard and haptic touchpad stretched out beneath a 14.4-inch display framed by a thick black bezel.
Microsoft made a potentially risky decision to build a fabric-covered hinge into the display of the Surface Laptop Studio, allowing yous to pull the bottom of the screen towards yous to either tent it over the keyboard similar an easel, or lay it flat to turn the Studio into a very heavy Windows 11 tablet. In my experience information technology takes some fourth dimension to get the hang of sliding the screen effectively, but once you do it feels natural to movement and sturdy when set into place. If you lot purchase a stylus (sold separately), the easel position is slightly more than comfortable (at to the lowest degree in my experience) for heavy doodling or note-taking sessions.
Apple took a much less risky approach to the design of its 2021 MacBook Pros. Instead, the visitor appears to have listened to criticism of MacBook Pros past, updating the design of the 2021 Pros in smart ways.
While the 2021 MacBook Pro has the aforementioned familiar brushed aluminum chassis equally its predecessors, when you open it up you'll run across that a lot has inverse. The Bear upon Bar is gone, the port array has been improved, and the bezels effectually the gorgeous mini-LED display have been significantly reduced — though there is now a notch hanging downwards from the middle of the top bezel where the photographic camera sits. But don't worry, the notch is okay and y'all get used to information technology pretty quick.
And then while the 2021 MacBook Pro can't match the reward of the Surface Laptop Studio's sliding brandish, it more than makes up for information technology with a slew of smart design decisions that brand it a better laptop, than its predecessor. And while the MacBook Pro'southward display isn't a touchscreen , its newly-trimmed bezels are much more bonny than the thick black border around the Surface Laptop Studio'due south screen.
If you plan to do a lot of digital art creation with a stylus or other impact-friendly implement, the Surface Laptop Studio's unique sliding touchscreen might make information technology a ameliorate choice for you than the MacBook Pro. Just in terms of size, weight, port options, or just sheer mode, Apple tree'south 2021 MacBook Pro is the better laptop.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Display
Let's talk almost what makes the displays on these machines special. Sure, the Surface Laptop Studio's display is cool considering it has a unique sliding mechanism, but it'southward as well a bright, colorful fourteen.4-inch (2400 10 1600 pixels) touchscreen capable of achieving refresh rates up to 120Hz. The fact that it tin can refresh faster than usual (well-nigh laptop displays don't get above 60Hz) means it can support games running at high framerates, but more importantly, it ways the screen should exist more responsive to touch input, considering it tin can poll for inputs and refresh the screen accordingly more than times per 2nd.
In our lab testing nosotros pointed a colorimeter at the Surface Laptop Studio's screen and establish that it can achieve 105.vi% of the sRGB color gamut (usually the closer to 100%, the better) and 0.21 of Delta-Eastward (the closer to goose egg, the better). Our brightness meter registered an average of 487.2 nits across the entire brandish, though the center got every bit bright as 504 nits.
Past comparison, the 14-inch MacBook Pro's brandish produced 109.6% of the sRGB gamut and 0.19 of Delta-E. When we pointed our brightness meter at it we registered an average of 487.8 nits across the display with a loftier of 511 nits, though nosotros were able to go the screen equally bright as 520 nits by displaying HDR content. That terminal part is of import because while Apple rates the mini-LED displays of its 2021 MacBook Pros as having a acme brightness of up to 1,600 nits, we weren't able to achieve that in our lab testing, and information technology's likely you'll merely see 520-plus nits of brightness when displaying HDR content.
Lab information aside, the MacBook Pro'due south mini-LED display looks beautiful in person. Like the Surface Laptop Studio, it also supports 120Hz refresh rates, and Apple is working on special 120Hz support for Safari and other apps. While neither laptop can brandish native 4K, the 14-inch MacBook Pro'southward Liquid Retina XDR brandish (3,024 10 1,964 pixels) tin brandish more pixels per inch (254 vs 201) than the Surface Laptop Studio.
Hither over again we have to say that while both laptops accept great screens, the MacBook Pro'south brandish is superior to that constitute on the Surface Laptop Studio. The only exception is for those who desire a touchscreen laptop, as the Surface Laptop Studio'southward unique sliding 120Hz display pairs well with a stylus for on-the-go notation-taking or artwork.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Performance
If you lot're planning to piece of work, game or tackle big creative projects with your new laptop, performance is central. And while both the Surface Laptop Studio and the 2021 MacBook Pro can be pretty performant machines, the sheer power of Apple silicon give the MacBook the edge in everything but gaming.
Allow's talk examination results. When we benchmarked our Windows xi Surface Laptop Studio review unit ( 11th Gen Intel Cadre i7, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti, 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD) earlier this year, the results were solid merely not great. It packs more than than enough ability for most daily tasks, and it can handle 3D gaming and video editing, merely it won't blow your socks off.
When we put the automobile through Geekbench five.4'south multicore CPU benchmark test, the Surface Laptop Studio achieved a score of v,820. That'due south pretty good, but it's a bit less than what nosotros usually meet from laptops that cost more $2,000. Nosotros also tasked the Studio with transcoding a 4K video file downwardly into 1080p using Handbrake, which information technology did in thirteen minutes and 30 seconds. Again, that's decent but not great, especially if yous're planning to use this laptop for a lot of video editing.
That said, our 14-inch MacBook Pro 2021 review unit (M1 Pro west/ 10-cadre CPU and xvi-core GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD) absolutely blew the Surface Laptop Studio out of the h2o in terms of lab testing. It achieved an eye-watering score of 12,477 on the Geekbench 5.4 multi-core CPU benchmark, more double the score of Microsoft's laptop. It blew through our video editing test besides, taking just four minutes and 51 seconds to transcode that 4K video to 1080p.
My hands-on feel with both laptops backs upwards these exam results. While the Surface Laptop Studio is a speedy machine that won't allow you downward in day-to-day work, it can't lucifer the sheer processing power of the 2021 MacBook Pro. Withal, when playing games the MacBook Pro tends to underperform compared to the Surface Laptop Studio, as many PC games don't have native Mac versions or aren't optimized well for macOS.
Here's a skilful instance: even though it's a few years old, we still utilize the game Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (specifically its graphical benchmark test) when testing laptops because it runs on a wide variety of machines. The Surface Laptop Studio was able to attain an average 66.2 frames per second running the game at 1080p and 57.two frames per second at its native ii,400 x ane,600 resolution, which is about on par with similarly-priced Windows laptops with the same GPU.
However, the 14-inch MacBook Pro struggled to run the same exam. It couldn't run it at its native resolution, or even at a lower 1080p resolution. We could only get it to run at a resolution of 1,512 10 982 pixels, and even at that lower resolution it only delivered an average of 46.2 frames per second.
So while the 2021 MacBook Pro is a beefy laptop that can run many modern games, specially if they're optimized for macOS, the Surface Laptop Studio is a meliorate gaming auto overall. All the same, if you don't care about games, the 2021 MacBook Pro delivers better performance for the price.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Ports
Having a nice array of ports available is merely nice to have, no matter what y'all're planning to do with your new laptop. It'due south especially important for professionals who regularly need to practise things like hook upwardly to an external brandish or pull assets off a digital camera, as having the right ports means you won't have to deal with adapters and dongles.
If you care about having options, the Surface Laptop Studio offers a disappointing port lineup. You get two Thunderbolt four/USB-C ports on the left side of the laptop, and a headphone jack and Surface Connect port on the right side. Not only is this a meager allocation that finer forces you lot to invest in a USB-C adapter or 2, it hamstrings your options by locating both USB-C ports on the same side. If Microsoft was set on a dual USB-C setup I'd have much preferred to see one on each side, for more convenient access.
Earlier iterations of the MacBook Pro had a like problem, and Apple tree apparently listened to criticism because the 2021 Pro offers the wealth of port options unremarkably reserved for mid-sized Windows laptops. Both sizes of MacBook Pro offer the same ports: a MagSafe three charging port, a headphone jack, an HDMI out, an SD card reader, and 3 Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports spread across both sides.
The HDMI out and SD card reader should exist peculiarly helpful for professionals, and everyone should appreciate the extra freedom of choice afforded by having USB-C ports on either side. Plus, the Pros can accuse via either their MagSafe 3 charging port (itself a welcome return) or the USB-C ports, giving yous even more options.
That is, quite bluntly, a bountiful offering that Microsoft should copy for the side by side Surface Laptop. If you intendance nigh having more than USB-C ports, the 2021 MacBook Pro will serve you much ameliorate than Microsoft'due south Surface Laptop Studio.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Camera
It took a global pandemic to brand us realize that webcam quality matters, especially when video calls are your primary way of connecting with colleagues, friends and family. Luckily, both the Surface Laptop Studio and the 2021 MacBook Pro sport nice 1080p webcams built into their top bezels that won't brand you look similar a grainy, washed-out mess on your adjacent Zoom call.
Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio pairs its 1080p webcam with an IR camera so you can log in with your face via Windows Hello. This is an optional security measure, and I usually switch it off because I often wear glasses and Windows Hello has a hard time recognizing me in them. However, the Surface Laptop Studio's webcam is specially designed to support Windows Hello two.0, a more than improved version that's built to exist faster and easier to use, and in my experience it works well — I tin log into the Studio via Windows How-do-you-do very quickly, regardless of whether I'm wearing spectacles.
The 1080p FaceTime HD camera in the 2021 MacBook Pro also delivers peachy motion picture quality, bringing out much more detail in photos and video. Sadly, yous tin't employ it to log into your MacBook with just your mug, as it doesn't support Apple'due south Face ID biometric hallmark technology. However, the new MacBook Pros practise have a TouchID sensor congenital into the keyboard that lets you log in via your fingerprint.
That said, you can't go wrong betwixt the webcams on these two laptops. While they have slight differences in terms of features and image quality, they're both much better than the 720p webcams nosotros still encounter on the lion'due south share of laptops hitting the marketplace.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Battery life
If you were to expect at the battery promises fabricated by Apple and Microsoft, you'd effigy the Surface Laptop Studio would last much longer on a single accuse. Microsoft claims it can become as long as 18 to 19 hours before striking empty, whereas Apple only promises up to 11 hours of spider web browsing or 17 hours of video playback on the xiv-inch MacBook Pro 2021.
Those promises went up in smoke during our bombardment test, which tasks a laptop with endlessly browsing the web via Wi-Fi with its screen gear up to 150 nits of effulgence. The Surface Laptop Studio lasted x hours and 42 minutes in that test, which is less than promised but skillful enough that you tin take it to work or school without worrying about conveying a charger.
Apple under-promised and over-delivered by comparison, as the 14-inch Pro lasted an excellent fourteen hours and 9 minutes in the same examination. While that's really a scrap less impressive than either its bigger 16-inch sibling (fifteen:32) or the older 13-inch MacBook Pro with M1 (sixteen:25) from 2020, information technology'south far better battery life than the Surface Studio, whatever Intel-based MacBook, and most Windows laptops in general.
Then if you care about bombardment life, the Surface Laptop Studio won't permit you downwardly — simply the 2021 MacBook Pro will last you a few hours longer.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio vs MacBook Pro: Verdict
Microsoft's Surface Laptop Studio and Apple's 2021 MacBook Pro are both marketed equally premium laptops well-suited for students, artists, and artistic professionals, and for the most part they are. Both are well-congenital devices that deliver solid performance for the price, with vibrant displays, surprisingly skillful speakers (especially on the MacBook Pro), and smashing bombardment life.
But if you've read through our blow-by-blow comparing, you know that the 2021 MacBook Pro delivers a better value than the Surface Laptop Studio for most people. Apple's laptop has a brighter screen that delivers more pixels per inch than the Surface, it lasts longer on a unmarried charge, and it offers a far more than useful port array. Plus, the operation offered past Apple's M1 Pro and M1 Max fries blows the Intel-powered Surface Laptop Studio out of the h2o — unless yous're planning to play a lot of PC games.
If you practise a lot of work that requires a touchscreen (or yous're planning to), the Surface Laptop Studio is potentially a better value. A model with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti can run more than PC games at meliorate framerates than the 2021 MacBook Pro can, and its 120Hz touchscreen works very well with a stylus — especially Microsoft's Surface Slim Pen 2 stylus ($129 sold separately), which launched alongside the Surface Laptop Studio.
But if you need a new laptop for annihilation other than those two specific utilise cases, your money is probably ameliorate spent on a new 2021 MacBook Pro.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/face-off/microsoft-surface-laptop-studio-vs-macbook-pro-2021-which-is-right-for-you
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