Okay, I do know this could be partially my fault. When I reviewed Microsoft’s 13.5-inch Surface Book 3 final yr, I complained that the design was dated. I complained that my greatest nitpicks concerning the Surface Book 2 (which I’ve owned for years, by the way in which) hadn’t been mounted. Microsoft nonetheless hadn’t discovered do something new or enjoyable with the removable, I lamented. “This form factor might be a dead end.”

I like the Surface Book and am a staunch defender of the road. I couldn’t see myself utilizing the rest as my main driver. I hoped — prayed — that my phrases would end in Microsoft releasing a slimmer, sleeker, higher Surface Book 4. I hoped they’d spur Microsoft into pushing the full-sized removable workstation, a kind issue that basically solely Microsoft has ever mastered, to heights it had by no means seen earlier than.

Unfortunately, Microsoft seems to have performed the other. The Surface Book line, it seems, is not any extra. Instead, we bought the Surface Laptop Studio, a product that Microsoft is pushing as a groundbreaking innovation, however which is basically — as anybody who carefully follows PC releases can inform you — a step backward out of the revolutionary house and into territory that’s extra acquainted to the laptop computer sector.

So this Surface Laptop Studio is a laptop computer with a 360-degree hinge. A stylus lives on the underside edge. You can use the gadget like an everyday clamshell. You can pull the show ahead over the keyboard and prop it up proper above the touchpad like a little bit tent (a place Microsoft is asking “stage mode”). Or you possibly can flip the show round, over the hinge, and use the factor like a pill. Those are the one three positions — the hinge can’t maintain the display at no matter angle you need.

Now, Microsoft is pitching this as the subsequent step for the Book line: a brand new, revolutionary kind issue. “It is the culmination of years of Surface innovation — on hinges, display, silicon, and more,” Microsoft’s vp of gadgets mentioned of the Studio. CEO Satya Nadella declared that the corporate was “creating a new laptop category.”

But in the event you observe the laptop computer market anyplace close to as carefully as I do, it’s laborious not to have a look at this gadget and assume, “Oh boy, another one of these.”

Just to catch up everybody else: This is just not a brand new or distinctive design. For one, ThinkPads had been doing one thing related in literally 1994. But to drag a extra trendy instance out of the air, HP’s been doing these for a pair years, and its 2021 Elite Folio is principally this factor coated in leather-based. That laptop computer additionally has a stylus (although it lives in an arguably extra handy location simply above the keyboard). HP declined to touch upon the Surface Laptop Studio for this story.

Image: Raymondgold22

Image: Raymondgold22

Acer (you recognize, that small, obscure laptop computer producer) was additionally doing the same kind issue as early as 2013. It has a gaming laptop computer that’s sort of like this. It has an entire line of creator-oriented workstations which are principally this. The ConceptD Ezel is definitely a extra superior type of this design with extra highly effective parts (as Acer identified to me after I pinged the corporate for remark). That display can keep put at no matter angle you need, so you possibly can float it at infinite angles above the deck, use it as a reverse-clamshell with the display dealing with away from (however nonetheless perpendicular to) the keyboard, or put it in any variety of different positions.

Photo by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

The Laptop Studio can’t even make a cost-savings case in opposition to these two laptops. Its base mannequin (with a Core i5, built-in graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage) is $1,599.99, and the stylus and its charger are an additional $164.98 collectively; a comparable Elite Folio (stylus included) is at the moment listed at $1,416, and a ConceptD 3 Ezel (stylus included) with a Core i7, a discrete GPU, and twice the storage is $1,499.99. And earlier than you all begin on construct high quality — the Elite Folio and the ConceptD are each very good laptops with wonderful keyboards and touchpads. They’re premium gadgets focusing on a deep-pocketed crowd. (I imply, the Elite Folio is actually coated in leather-based.)

And along with these direct opponents, there are numerous Surface Pro clones that serve a reasonably related use case. To be clear, the outdated Surface Book and new Surface Laptop Studio are very completely different from the Surface Pro and its ilk: they’re full-sized laptops with chips of their base (and non-compulsory discrete GPUs), whereas Surface Pros are Windows tablets to which you’ll connect a keyboard and kickstand. But I believe the case for a Surface Book over a Surface Pro continues to be a lot stronger than the case for a Surface Laptop Studio over a Surface Pro.

Think about it: the Surface Laptop Studio solely has three positions, and one thing just like the Surface Pro or the wonderful ThinkPad X12 Detachable could be in all these positions as effectively. It is usually a clamshell laptop computer or a pill, and detaching the keyboard however leaving the kickstand up will serve the identical use case as stage mode.

In quick, whereas the Surface Laptop Studio could also be an awesome gadget, it’s not a brand new laptop computer class.

Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge

And that’s okay! A laptop computer doesn’t must be a brand new class to be a compelling purchase. And the Studio definitely has some benefits over HP’s and Acer’s strains. It has a extra highly effective processor than the Folio, which is powered by a Snapdragon chip. And maybe most crucially, it has the next decision display than each of these fashions.

But I’m nonetheless not satisfied that this laptop computer will court docket followers of both of these gadgets. They’re each focusing on pretty particular audiences who’re uniquely suited to this type of convertible kind issue, and so they match these audiences very effectively. It might have extra success creating converts from the Surface Pro sphere, particularly those that need a bigger display than these tablets supply. But these people will even should pay a bit extra for that actual property. A comparable ThinkPad X12 Detachable (stylus and keyboard included) is an effective $300 cheaper than this laptop computer as of this writing. The Surface Pro 8 can be a bit cheaper, even in the event you add the value of the kind cowl. The Laptop Studio’s further inches of display might not be value it to everybody.

An even bigger display additionally means a heftier physique — each of these removable gadgets (with their keyboards on) are over a pound lighter than the Studio, which can be heavier than the Surface Book 3.

Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge

My greatest guess is that the Surface Laptop Studio is greatest positioned to enchantment to individuals who had been already followers of the Surface Book line. And as a member of this apparently small group, that is the place I’m actually hung up. Because whereas just about all the pieces concerning the Surface Book was good, the explanation I used to be prepared to pay such a excessive value for it was the innovation behind it. It was an spectacular gadget; Microsoft was the one firm making it. It met a novel mixture of wants that no different laptop computer on the planet might meet. In my previous few years as a Surface Book proprietor, I’ve thought-about switching to a Spectre or an XPS many instances, however I simply might by no means do it — I simply couldn’t surrender that removable display.

Sure, the Surface Book wasn’t excellent. But it was one thing completely different — and within the crowded and aggressive laptop computer house, it’s uncommon to see a laptop computer that’s actually certainly one of a sort.