Community Expert

Question

New Microsoft Surface Studio Desktop

Forum|Forum|9 years ago
October 26, 2016
6 replies
10352 views

PetaPixel, and I am sure many other photography blogs, has shown us the new MS Surface Studio Desktop today, and it looks _very_ cool. It's resolution is 4500 x 3000 which is going to work well for Photoshop with a 200%UI. The cylindrical control gizmo can be placed on the screen to control a colour wheel and rotate the canvas.

It also looks amazing with a 12.5mm thick screen that can be placed at your preferred working angle like the Cintiq Ergo stand. It's expensive at $3000 and upwards, but they make the point that it is a stand alone device that does not need additional tablet and pen like an iMac. Some people are saying they could not live with Windows, but I couldn't use Photoshop on a system that was not compatible with Lazy Nezumi Pro.

The presenter in the last video on the PetaPixel page describes the screen as the best ever made. Hmm... I wonder what our Dag will think about that?

There is also an update for the Surface pro with better graphics and more battery life.

This topic has been closed for replies.

Imaginative_warmth1587

Participant

I think everyone is asking the wrong questions and making the wrong statements here. The real questions and comments should be aimed at Adobe: What is Adobe doing to make sure that all of Adobe CC will run as flawlessly as possible on this new Surface Studio? One of the things that is needed is to make sure that pen-hovering artifacts don't occur right before the pen actually touches the screen. Is that a software issue or a hardware issue? Is Adobe working with Microsoft to make sure that those who do want to use the Studio can have a great experience using it?

jbm007

Community Expert

If the product becomes viable I am sure they will look at it. Right now its an expensive neat toy.

I used it quite a bit at Adobe MAX.

It is no Wacom tablet substitute.

Its ease of use and touch/tablet capabilities have a long way to go to catch Wacom.

"It's resolution is 4500 x 3000 which is going to work well for Photoshop with a 200%UI." No it won't. The UI would need to scale @ 150%UI for PS to display properly.

PS has major scaling issues at 4K and 5K monitors.

I would love for it to succeed; as I love my Surface Pro 4.

JMTW

JJMack

Community Expert

jbm007 wrote:
If the product becomes viable I am sure they will look at it. Right now its an expensive neat toy.
It is no Wacom tablet substitute.
Its ease of use and touch/tablet capabilities have a long way to go to catch Wacom.
"It's resolution is 4500 x 3000 which is going to work well for Photoshop with a 200%UI." No it won't. The UI would need to scale @ 150%UI for PS to display properly.
PS has major scaling issues at 4K and 5K monitors.

I have not user one and do not plane on getting one. For what you ger the price is a bit high nut IMO not overly high. I love the 3:2 Aspect ratio and with over 4k Pixel and less then 5k the ppi resolution will be so high the Scaling Photoshop UI will be necessary and I agree that Adobe 2x scaling is too much and the are major problem with it. Windows Dialog are nor scaled and displays are scaled the should not be. 2X scales Photoshop UI on too large on displays with resolution lower than 200ppi and waste space that would be better used for image display.

There are things I do not like about the Surface Studio. I don't like that the display's surface is glossy and as a desktop all in one machine its not really upgradeable. The Display is to large to be portable so I would have liked it to be just a display with a lower cost to like a large cintiq you could attach to a workstation.However with that number of pixels that display has a new display adapter would be required for use. The pen requires power where the Wacom pen does not. I do not care that the pen only has a thousand lever or pressure where the new wacom has 8 thousand.

If I wanted all in one to drop that much cash for an all in one I think I would op for the new Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16" . However, It has a 16:9 aspect ratio and its 275ppi resolution would require scaling the display for Photoshop. So I would need to modify Photoshop to use windows scaling for Adobe Photoshop UI scaling has major problems. The Wacom has a better Peb and a 3d Scan Camera. Wacom MobileStudio Pro 16

wacom%20mobile%20stuido%20overview%20gallery%20g1.jpg

JJMack

Community Expert

Trevor.Dennis wrote:
PetaPixel, and I am sure many other photography blogs, has shown us the new MS Surface Studio Desktop today, and it looks _very_ cool. It's resolution is 4500 x 3000 which is going to work well for Photoshop with a 200%UI. The cylindrical control gizmo can be placed on the screen to control a colour wheel and rotate the canvas.

If you look at the picture Photoshop 2x UI is being use and it looks like Photoshop UI is larger than need be. Note pallets are not being displayed except for the swatch palette most likely small as possible it large. Think I would see if a second display can be added using its mini display port and put Photoshop's UI on a low resolution display. Use Photoshop 1x UI edit images on the high resolution 3:2 aspect 28" display in floating Windows. I'm not a fan of Photoshop 2x UI its to much unless your display's resolution is well over 200ppi. It is not good on my Dell 4k 24" 185ppi display and looks big on this 192ppi display. I also do not use 2x UI on my surface pro 3 which Adobe default to. At 216ppi the UI is small but useable with a mouse. Not so easy with the surface pro 3 pen but scaled 2x Photoshop's UI does not fit on the Surface pro 3 display 2x makes the height 720px high less the then Photoshop required 768px.

JJMack

D Fosse

Community Expert

Trevor.Dennis wrote:
Hmm... I wonder what our Dag will think about that?

Do I need to answer?

This is just a shameless iMac ripoff with a few added gizmos - doomed to fail because they're not staking out their own territory.

Right down to the DCI-P3 display. What relevance a digital cinema standard has for graphic design and photography (which is the iMac crowd) is beyond me. I suspect Apple just wouldn't touch anything with the name "Adobe" in it (Flash anyone?) - and so they couldn't use an "Adobe RGB" wide gamut display, they had to come up with a different flavor.

JJMack

Community Expert

The way I see things 1 2 3

$1000 Low resolution low cost

$2000 High resolution no touch no work on wide screen

$3000 High Price to work on 3:2 display

Today will apple bring on something new or follow suite.

JJMack

Trevor.Dennis

Author

Community Expert

Looks like apple users need to wait some more. Apple has to update the Mac Pro and iMac some time soon.

JJMack wrote:
Looks like apple users need to wait some more. Apple has to update the Mac Pro and iMac some time soon.

As things stand, Apple have the form / function balance swayed too far to 'looking good is more important than how well it works'. The SS cantilever stand, for instance, is way more useful than the iMac stand. I don't what the first device is your image JJ, but it misses a trick with its top mounted cantilever, which puts the screen too high for comfortable use.

The SS does have a mini-display port socket, and apparently will drive a second screen.

Microsoft Surface Studio | Tech specs

This is the only image I can find of the rear panel.

All in all, I like the idea, but it's not for me.

davescm

Community Expert

Love the look and the ergonomics but would I buy one - no.

What I love about desktop PCs is the expandability - the ability to add drives/memory , change the graphics card as things develop. This is more like a laptop - albeit a great one

Now if they sold the screen and a card to drive it...........................

Dave

Trevor.Dennis

Author

Community Expert

davescm wrote:
Now if they sold the screen and a card to drive it...........................
Dave

I'm wondering if it would work like a Cintiq Companion 2, and couple up to a more powerful windows desktop system? Dollar for dollar you'd be spending half as much again compared to a Cintiq 27QHD, but it does make the Cintiq look a bit clunky. Then again, one of the reasons I can't get on with my CC2 is that the buttons and controls don't work for me, and the Surface Studio (SS) doesn't have any hardware controls. I like to control brush size with the Intuos Express wheel, for instance, and the CC2 doesn't have a comparable control.

Incidentally, while looking for the Cintiq Ergo stand today, (to make sure I had the right name for it) I cam across this CC Arm/stand:

I recently changed the stands for my peripheral screens for arm mounts. If I'd known how cheap they were, I'd have done this ages ago, as it has got me a ton of desktop space back, and my mouse can cover edge to edge without bashing into monitor or keyboard. They are cheap as chips from B&H

JJMack

Community Expert

It look great but at $3K to $5K its not for me a 28" 192ppi 3:2 aspect ratio 13.5MP I do not even have a display adapter that could drive the display if sold separately.

JJMack

John Waller

Community Expert

Trevor.Dennis wrote:
The cylindrical control gizmo can be placed on the screen to control a colour wheel and rotate the canvas.

The Surface Dial is that and a whole lot more from my brief reading of this morning's coverage. "The accessory we didn't know we needed" and "niche product" are the comments that stood out.

As a US$99 peripheral that's useful for some creatives, I don't expect widespread uptake. Reminds me a little of the Logitech NuLOOQ Navigator a decade ago.

The Surface Studio looks good though. I wonder if the PC market in general will be interested? I don't expect much interest from the Mac community with the new MacBook Pro announcements tomorrow.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded