Microsoft announces a super sleek and powerful all-in-one PC
And now you can add desktop PCs to the portfolio of devices Microsoft makes.
Joining the Surface family is the new Surface Studio, the company's first all-in-one Windows 10 PC. It'll start at $2,999 and will be available in limited quantities this holiday season.
The computer is made of aluminum and has a 28-inch PixelSense Display touchscreen that measures 12.5mm thick, the thinnest LCD screen on an all-in-one PC (AIO) ever created, according to Microsoft.
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The optically-bonded screen is made of Gorilla Glass and has a 3:2 aspect ratio and with a 4,500 x 3,000 resolution. Microsoft's Panos Panay spent a good few minutes talking up the screen's True Scale capabilities; he showed how a single sheet of paper is exactly the same size as in real life.
"An inch on the screen is an inch in real life," he said.
In addition to gorgeous looks, the Surface Studio is crazy powerful. The AIO comes in three configs:
Intel Core i5, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 965M GPU, 1TB storage ($2,999)
Intel Core i7, 16GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 965M GPU, 1TB storage ($3,499)
Intel Corei i7, 32GB RAM, NVIDIA GTX 980M GPU, 2TB storage ($4,199)
For graphics, the AIO has NVIDIA GeForce 980M GPUs. The Surface Studio also has stereo 2.1 speakers with Dolby audio tuning and a mic array so users can activate the Cortana digital assistant from afar.
A new accessory that comes with the Surface Studio along with the included keyboard and mouse is the Surface Dial:
Studio users can use the Dial to manipulate onscreen elements in more precise ways. For example, you could used it as volume control knob for music apps like Spotify and Pandora, scrolling through articles on websites, as a rotate tool in design apps, or as a button to access shortcuts.
Anyone who pre-orders a Surface Studio by Dec. 1 gets the Dial for free. Otherwise, it's $99.99.
And of course, because Studio is a Surface device, the AIO includes a Surface Pen stylus -- essential for artists and annotating in Windows 10:
"It's not just another beautiful PC," Panay said. "It is a product that is made to help you get to your most creative point."
The base, where most of the the computer's guts are stuffed into has a number of ports including four USB 3.0 ports, SDXC, Mini DisplayPort, 3.5mm headphone jack, and Ethernet port.
For a desktop, the Surface Studio has not one but two cameras: A 5-megapixel 1080p resolution webcam on the front that supports Windows Hello sign-in and an "autofocus camera with 1080p HD video" on the back.
Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
