A primary take a look at Microsoft’s upgraded Floor Laptop computer Studio 2

We’ve simply had an opportunity to play with Microsoft’s new Floor Studio Laptop computer 2 after it was introduced at a “particular occasion” in New York Metropolis. Visually, it doesn’t look loads totally different than what got here earlier than it, however the trackpad is drastically improved, the specs inside upgraded, and there’s a brand new AI-focused neural processing unit that’s designed to mild up some AI-powered experiences in Home windows 11.

The Floor Laptop computer Studio 2 retains the identical distinctive fold-over design as its predecessor however makes the laptop computer throughout extra succesful. It runs on one in all Intel’s thirteenth Gen i7 H-class processors and could be specced with an Nvidia GPU, together with the RTX 4050 and 4060, between 16 and 64GB of RAM, and as much as 2TB of storage. It nonetheless has a 14.4-inch touchscreen with a 2400 x 1600 pixel show, however Microsoft has added HDR help — together with Dolby Imaginative and prescient.

Greater modifications come from expanded connectivity choices. Microsoft has added a USB-A 3.1 port, a microSDXC card reader, and a charger for the Floor Slim Pen 2. That’s all on high of the 2 USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 ports and headphone jack on the prior mannequin.

The trackpad additionally will get a major improve on the Floor Laptop computer Studio 2, with some spectacular accessibility choices. You possibly can modify the haptic suggestions and click on sensitivity on this trackpad, and you may also flip this right into a two-button trackpad for accessibility functions. Onstage, this was demonstrated by a presenter who was born with out fingers on one hand, permitting him to make use of the trackpad with each arms.

The opposite massive — and never so apparent — addition is an NPU chip inside: an AI coprocessor. It’s constructed by Intel, which simply introduced the same NPU that’s constructed into its upcoming 14th Gen chips for laptops. Microsoft didn’t show any new options or ways in which this NPU is perhaps leveraged in on a regular basis Home windows duties, however it’s clearly being added in preparation for bigger AI options. A few of these may arrive with the rumored Home windows 12.

Microsoft has additionally upgraded the digicam on the Floor Laptop computer Studio 2, with a wider subject of view for if you’re on video calls. The RTX 4050 / 4060 choices right here will even make this extra highly effective for PC gaming, and we’ll need to see precisely what the efficiency is like on this laptop computer throughout evaluate.

Microsoft additionally has to make the Floor Laptop computer Studio 2 a bit heavier and thicker to accommodate the upgrades to the CPU and GPU right here. I didn’t discover it an excessive amount of, as that is already a reasonably hefty laptop computer. That mentioned, when you don’t go for an RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 and follow the Intel Iris graphics choice, then the Floor Laptop computer Studio 2 will weigh 4.2 kilos or 4.4 kilos with Nvidia’s GPU choices.