Skip to main content

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio 2 might get a massive performance boost

A mysterious laptop was spotted in an impressive Geekbench 5 benchmark, and many signs point to it being the next-gen Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2.

The test gives us the first bits of insight into the laptop’s specifications. If everything checks out, we’re going to see a huge performance jump in this upcoming generation.

The new Bing preview screen appears on a Surface Laptop Studio.
Luke Larsen / DigitalTrends

The Geekbench 5 test that the laptop was spotted in keeps things pretty ambiguous, but all signs point to this being the Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio 2. The device scored 2,564 points in single-core and 12,463 points in multi-core, but the scores aren’t the most interesting part here — it’s the specs that stand out.

Recommended Videos

First of all, the device comes with one of the best processors to be found in laptops, the Intel Core i7-13800H. While there are more powerful alternatives, like the Core i9-13980HX, those are intended for people who don’t need to worry about power consumption and battery life. For laptops like the Surface, the more power-conservative H-series is the way to go.

This particular model comes with six performance (P) cores and eight efficiency (E) cores, for a total of 14 cores and 20 threads. In the benchmark, the CPU almost hit 5GHz, but its base frequency is 2.9GHz. It’s unclear how much power the laptop was using, though; perhaps that score could be higher if the power spec allowed for it. We’re also seeing 64GB of DDR5 RAM.

The same laptop appeared in an OpenCL test, where it scored 81,285 points. The same benchmark reveals the GPU to be an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060M with 8GB of memory and a maximum clock speed of 2,010MHz.

The Surface Laptop Studio fully closed down in Studio Mode.
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends

All added up, this is an impressive set of specifications for the next-gen Surface Laptop Studio 2. The best available configuration for the current-gen model is quite far behind. With an Intel Core i7-11370H that only has four cores and an RTX 3050 Ti with 4GB of GDDR6 memory, it’s going to be left in the dust if the new model launches with the specs we’re seeing in this Geekbench leak.

This kind of bump in specs means that Microsoft might be preparing the laptop to serve a slightly wider audience. While the laptop is likely to maintain its hybrid design, it will have more powerful hardware.

This should make it much better-suited for creative work and even gaming, although the final result also depends on the resolution of the screen. Even if the RTX 4060 doesn’t turn out to be too impressive (the score makes it similar to an RTX 3060 mobile), these specs should be enough to support many kinds of games as long as you’re willing to be flexible with the settings.

Monica J. White
Monica is a computing writer at Digital Trends, focusing on PC hardware. Since joining the team in 2021, Monica has written…
AMD’s RDNA 4 may surprise us in more ways than one
AMD RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT graphics cards.

Thanks to all the leaks, I thought I knew what to expect with AMD's upcoming RDNA 4. It turns out I may have been wrong on more than one account.

The latest leaks reveal that AMD's upcoming best graphics card may not be called the RX 8800 XT, as most leakers predicted, but will instead be referred to as the  RX 9070 XT. In addition, the first leaked benchmark of the GPU gives us a glimpse into the kind of performance we can expect, which could turn out to be a bit of a letdown.

Read more
This futuristic mechanical keyboard will set you back an eye-watering $1,600
Hands typing on The Icebreaker keyboard.

I've complained plenty about how some of the best gaming keyboards are too expensive, from the Razer Black Widow V4 75% to the Wooting 80HE, but nothing comes remotely close to The Icebreaker. Announced nearly a year ago by Serene Industries, The Icebreaker is unlike any keyboard I've ever seen -- and it's priced accordingly at $1,600. Plus shipping, of course.

What could justify such an extravagant price? Aluminum, it turns out. The keyboard is constructed of one single block of 6061 aluminum in what Serene Industries calls an "unorthodox wedge form." As if that wasn't enough metal, the keycaps are also made of aluminum, and Serene says they include "about 800" micro-perforations that allow the LED backlight of the keyboard to shine through.

Read more
Google one-ups Microsoft by making chats easier to transfer
Google Spaces in Google Chat on a MacBook.

In a recent blog post, Google announced that it is making it easier for admins to migrate from Microsoft Teams to Google Chat to reduce downtime. Admins can easily do this within the Google Chat migration menu and connect to opposing Microsoft accounts to transfer Teams data.

Google gave step-by-step instructions for admins on how to transfer the messages. Admins need to connect to their Microsoft account and upload a CSV of the Teams from where they transfer the messages. From there, it requires just entering a starting date for messages to be migrated from Teams and clicking Star migration. Once it's complete, it'll make the migrated space, messages, and conversation data available to Google Workspace users.

Read more