Surface Studio review: impressive screen, design but year-old CPU and GPU are a slight letdown; overall good for artistic use, but Dial needs more app support
Touch, pen, and Dial all in one display — The last desktop PC I owned was a 2009 iMac. I now use a laptop every day for work …
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft's hands-on coverage had already framed the Surface Studio as a display-first machine — thinner than an iMac, with a responsive Pen and a well-integrated Dial — so The Verge's full review mostly confirms the shape of that early impression: the screen and hinge are the product, and everything else is a compromise.
The recurring complaint is not new either. When the Surface Studio 2 arrived two years later, reviewers again flagged an outdated CPU and no Thunderbolt 3, and by the time the Studio 2+ shipped in 2022 at $4,299, the pattern of gorgeous hardware wrapped around aging internals was firmly established.
First-order effects
- Creative professionals considering the $3,000-plus Studio get a clear verdict from The Verge: buy it for the touch, pen, and Dial workflow, but accept last-generation CPU and GPU performance that a same-price workstation would beat.
- Dial's usefulness right now rests on the small set of apps that support it — until Adobe-class software adopts the accessory, buyers are paying for hardware most of their tools ignore.
Second-order effects
- Apple's iMac, the comparison point in every one of these reviews, faces a rival that competes on industrial design rather than spec sheets — pushing the all-in-one battle toward form factor and input innovation instead of raw benchmarks.
- Weak Dial app support puts pressure on software vendors: the accessory only justifies its place in the price if major creative suites build for it, making developer adoption the real gate on the Studio's value proposition.
Third-order effects
- Across 2016, 2018, and 2022, the Studio line consistently ships striking displays around dated compute — suggesting Microsoft treats it as a slow-cadence halo product for artists rather than a spec-driven mainstream desktop.
- If premium creator machines keep prioritizing novel input (touch, pen, dial) over cutting-edge silicon, the all-in-one category splits into design-led niche devices and commodity spec boxes, with reviewers' CPU/GPU complaints becoming a permanent feature of the segment.
The trend: Premium creator desktops are evolving into display-and-input-first products where industrial design leads and internal component refreshes lag years behind, as the Surface Studio's 2016-to-2022 arc shows.