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Microsoft Announces Ultra-Thin, Pixel-Dense Surface Studio Touchscreen PC (arstechnica.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft's first Surface-branded desktop PC now exists, and it is called the Surface Studio. The PC features a 28" display with 13.5 million pixels, which means the display is roughly 63 percent denser than a "4K" screen at 3840x2160 resolution. That screen is also an astonishing 12.5mm thick. The specs we know so far: an integrated 270W PSU, 2TB "rapid" hard drive (meaning, hopefully, an SSD portion in a "hybrid" configuration, but that is not yet confirmed), 32GB RAM, a quad-core Skylake CPU, and a Windows Hello-compatible front-facing camera. In his demonstration of the device, Panos Panay, Microsoft's head of Windows hardware, held up a piece of paper to demonstrate "true scale" resolution density, so that holding that paper up to the screen would offer like-for-like comparability. He also showed off live color gamut switching, which visual designers will clearly appreciate.Update: 10/26 17:59 GMT: FastCompany has an in-depth story on Surface Studio and how it was conceived.

24 of 197 comments (clear)

  1. Re:GPU? by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Informative

    The linked article says it's got somewhere between a GeForce GTX 965M and 980M, so slightly old kit, but some of the best available as far as mobile GPUs go.

  2. Can you put Linux on it? by khz6955 · · Score: 2

    Distrowatch putting the fun back in computing.

    1. Re:Can you put Linux on it? by chispito · · Score: 2

      Distrowatch putting the fun back in computing.

      It has a gigantic, ultra high resolution display that accepts a pressure sensitive pen. What are you really going to run in Linux that doesn't waste those features?

      --
      The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  3. Touch Screen? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

    Touch my screen and I'll break your finger off.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Touch Screen? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You seem really cool and fun.

    2. Re:Touch Screen? by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

      No, I'm keep your greasy fingermarks off my screen guy.

      Personal space guy is over there, the one with the curtain across his cube door.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    3. Re:Touch Screen? by thegarbz · · Score: 2

      Something about your comment makes it sound sarcastic, but I can't quite put my finger on it. ..

  4. Re:2 TB Hard drive? by alvinrod · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hybrid drives are fine provided the operating system knows that it's dealing with one and can exploit that fact by keeping the commonly used files in the flash memory and rarely used files or those large files that can be streamed quickly enough from the spinning disk stored on that part of the drive.

    However, as this seems to be a professional type device, they should be building in a different solution that involves some kind or RAID storage. Or perhaps they just assume anyone with a brain or the past experiencing of an untimely disk failure already has an external setup so why bother baking it into the system.

  5. Re:Lots of Microsoft ads on the front page today by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Microsoft held a press conference announcing a lot of stuff today, and it's tech news.

    Tomorrow, Apple is holding a press conference to announce a lot of shit, so expect to get a lot of Apple slashvertisements tomorrow.

    That's just kind of a natural side effect of companies announcing a lot of things at big events - a lot of news about them is generated all at once.

  6. Windows 10 data harvesting? by QuietLagoon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Does it require the Windows 10 data harvesting to be enabled?

    1. Re:Windows 10 data harvesting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You can disable it. But it will harvest your data anyway.

      Data harvesting is voluntary, but not optional.

    2. Re:Windows 10 data harvesting? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Someone was wondering how come he was able to upload a personal file to OneDrive faster than his connection would allow. It turns out his file was already in the data harvesting system which is now fully unified with OneDrive to prevent duplication. OneDrive's upload/delete features are cheaply implemented as show/hide in the data harvesting system that they already have, so it is pure profit.

    3. Re:Windows 10 data harvesting? by EvilSS · · Score: 2

      No, but you must submit DNA sample at each login.

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  7. 6 minute Abs and Ludicrous Speed. by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    And so begins the pixel war of 2016. I'm just waiting for someone to invent non-pixelated screen which just uses continuous orthogonal functions to paint the screen. Ironically, Back in the electron gun days one could actually have done that. I suspect that it might be possible to do this with e-ink eventually.

    And in the end the appearance will not be better. All that will happen is some fool will think that since every resolution enhancement should mean a thinner non-serif font, that in the limit of continuous resolution one should go to zero width fonts. Logical?

    What should be happening is the resolution enhancement should strive for better legibility using serif fonts. These actually were a little tricky to use at 72 DPI. at 200DPI they make total sense and now were getting to Ludicrous-DPI

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  8. Re:6 minute Abs and Ludicrous Speed. by goombah99 · · Score: 2

    There's a reason Serif fonts were invented. It wasn't style. it was readability of small type back when paper cost money.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  9. Re:GPU? by Misagon · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are three models. The i5/8GB and i7/16GB models has GTX 965M w/ 2GB mem.
    The i7/32GB model has a GTX 980M w/ 4GB memory.

    Note that NVidia's mobile GPUs in that generation (900-series, "Maxwell" architecture) are lower-specced chips than the non-M desktop chips.

    Meanwhile, there are laptops out with NVidia's next generation of GPUs (10-series, "Pascal") and those do not have different chips in the mobile GPUs, they are only binned and clocked slightly lower, not as a significant difference.

    --
    "We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
  10. Re: But..... by DaHat · · Score: 2

    Of course it can... at least the important parts (aka the GNU side of things if you are Richard Stallman): https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-... ;)

    Behold! 2016 is now the year of Linux* on the Desktop!

  11. Re:back camera by djchristensen · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's clearly for "stealth mode". Turn on the rear camera and display the image on the screen, and the computer becomes nearly invisible!

  12. Re:Uh..... the price tag?! by MachineShedFred · · Score: 3, Informative

    Except it really doesn't. You can configure iMac 27" 5K to have a 4GHz 4-core CPU, 2TB "fusion" drive (probably same hybrid thing Microsoft has here), 32GB RAM, and a Radeon R9 M395X with 4GB VRAM for $3400.

    That's basically the same machine, except with an Apple logo and OS X instead of Microsoft logos and Windows 10, and no touchscreen. And, the bit that makes the touchscreen even remotely useable was patented by Apple 6 years ago so Microsoft didn't even come up with that - they can just use it through the cross-licensing agreement that the two companies share.

    Is the touchscreen and Windows 10 really worth $800?

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  13. Not courageous enough by bazorg · · Score: 5, Funny

    Too many full sized USB and Ethernet ports, legacy headphone jack, Escape key... lame.

  14. Re:Uh..... the price tag?! by avandesande · · Score: 2

    It is if you design mobile sites and want to test touch functionality.

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  15. Re:Ok, add iPad Pro - still less by avandesande · · Score: 2

    The ipad pro can't run the full version of photoshop so it is functionally useless. Nobody wants to have to transfer files on and off there digitizer to edit them.

    --
    love is just extroverted narcissism
  16. Re:Uh..... the price tag?! by chispito · · Score: 2

    Is the touchscreen and Windows 10 really worth $800?

    If you draw for a living it's worth far more than $800.

    --
    The Daddy casts sleep on the Baby. The Baby resists!
  17. Re:6 minute Abs and Ludicrous Speed. by sootman · · Score: 2

    > I'm just waiting for someone to invent non-pixelated
    > screen which just uses continuous orthogonal
    > functions to paint the screen.

    Once the pixel density exceeds the eye's ability to discern them as individual objects, what's the point of using another system?

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