It happened! I received the i7 1TB/64GB/4060-8GB Surface Laptop Studio 2 this week. Very exciting. I’ve already moved over completely from my old SLS1. Seems pretty zippy!
Some first thoughts:
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PortGate™ is real. The USB-A port is definitely non-standard, feeling really tight up to a point, then suddenly easy. It seems like some pins/clips are pushing in too much, because there are clear scratches on the USB plug I inserted. I honestly thought it was stuck when the port suddenly ‘gave in’, and getting it out took an unpleasant amount of force. It feels weird enough that I’m not sure I’ll try this again.
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Despite this system being pretty new, there were an ungodly amount of updates to be installed, including something like ten Surface firmware updates with seemingly random version numbers. Not a great look. Three of those showed as failing, never to be seen again when checking for updates. A bit unnerving.
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The system came with Windows Pro, nice that I don’t have to pay for that upgrade this time.
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Replacing the SSD with a 2TB model was a lot easier than on the SLS1, but still harder than it should be. This time all screws are under the rubber feet/strips, but there are still three points where the two casing halves are held by “stickers”, the two curved portions near the hinge, and a 4" area at the front near the pen magnets. The area at the front is the hardest to release, and if done with too much force can probably cause the plastic to stretch and then wrinkle afterward. The keyboard cable is further to the back, so didn’t need to be disconnected. The original SSD is held down by two screws, took me a minute to realize why it wasn’t coming out! All in all it went well, looks like it never got opened.
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The aluminum casing seems more prone to fingerprints (causing light spots) than the magnesium case of the SLS1.
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The CPU fan has more of a tone/pitch than on the SLS1. It’s still pretty quiet, but more noticeable.
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The screen isn’t noticeably brighter than on the SLS1, I assume the 650nits only shows up when viewing HDR content.
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Just dragging some windows around the screen I don’t see noticeably worse ghosting/trails/blur. Autoscrolling a document at a speed at which I can keep up reading there is no blur. Seems absolutely fine for office use.
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I personally preferred the slightly darker case color and much darker keys of the original, no biggie.
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Side-by-side with the original SLS1 it’s fatter, heavier, and uglier, but in isolation it looks fine (secret to a happy marriage).