It took a whole four years for Microsoft to touch the Surface Studio family again after introducing the Surface Studio 2 back in 2018. This year, we got the Surface Studio 2 Plus, which packs some more powerful specs and other improvements to make it one of the best Surface PCs you can buy today. But what exactly has changed besides the Plus moniker?

Truth be told, the Surface Studio 2 Plus may not have been the upgrade many were expecting, and aside from the spec bump, these two devices are very similar. But there are some noteworthy differences, so let's take a look at what makes the new model unique compared to the previous one.

Surface Studio 2 Plus vs Surface Studio 2: Pricing, availability

Let's start with one of the most significant changes: price. The Studio 2 Plus has a single configuration, so it's much higher than the Studio 2's: $4,499.99 compared to $3,499.99. But that configuration of the Studio 2 had only half the RAM and a less impressive GPU. The higher-end models of the Studio 2 were priced at $4,199.99 and $4,799.99, so the Studio 2 Plus is somewhere in between.

If you're just getting into the Surface Studio game, you only have one option: the Surface Studio 2 Plus. The original Surface Studio 2 is now sold out at most retailers, and even if you could buy it, it would be a huge waste of money. The hardware inside the Surface Studio 2 is so old that Microsoft had to make an exception just for it so it could support Windows 11. That means it's just hanging on by a thread in terms of support, and Microsoft will probably drop it as soon as it can be justified.

As for the Surface Studio 2 Plus, you can buy it at the Microsoft Store, along with many third-party retailers like Best Buy.

Surface Studio 2 Plus vs Surface Studio 2: Specs

Performance: This is what it's all about

You probably don't need us to tell you this, but the Surface Studio 2 Plus is all about bringing more performance to the Studio 2's form factor. On the CPU side, there were four whole generations between the Surface Studio 2 and the Surface Studio 2 Plus, so the upgrade is significant. In both cases, Microsoft used last-gen hardware at the time of release, and the Surface Studio 2 Plus is actually a step down in terms of power consumption, from 45W to 35W. As such, the performance upgrade isn't as large as it could have been, but you're still going to see a big difference.

As you can tell based on these scores, the CPU performance has been significantly improved, so your workloads will get done a lot faster. Of course, had Microsoft stuck with 45W processors, like the Core i7-11800H, that difference would have been much bigger. Still, this is a notable upgrade.

The same goes for the GPU. The original Surface Studio 2 used Nvidia's GTX 10 series, and since then, we've had the RTX 20 series (along with the GTX 16 series models), as well as the RTX 30 series, the latter of which is inside the Surface Studio 2 Plus. The Surface Studio 2 went up to a GeForce GTX 1070, while the Studio 2 Plus has a GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, which is technically lower in Nvidia's lineup. But it's been a couple of generations, so this is still a big improvement, and Microsoft promises twice the GPU performance.

One thing to note is that Microsoft has really simplified the configurations, so there actually aren't any. There's a single configuration for the processor, GPU, RAM, and storage, unlike the Surface Studio 2, which had a couple of options for everything except the CPU. The Surface Studio 2 Plus has 32GB of RAM, which is the same as the top-tier Surface Studio 2, and it has 1TB of storage, similar to the Studio 2's base level.

Display, design, and ports: There's Thunderbolt 4 now, and not much else

Aside from performance, the differences between the two PCs are so small that we can fit them into a single category. First off, the display is almost exactly the same in terms of specs. The only major difference is that, in the years since the Surface Studio 2, a few more features have become commonplace, like Dolby Vision and Auto Color Management. These are now supported in the Surface Studio 2 Plus, but that's about it. To be clear, the 28-inch PixelSense display is still incredibly sharp, so it's not like there was any need to make upgrades there.

The design of the Surface Studio 2 Plus is also similar, but Microsoft managed to make the base slightly thinner, now measuring 31.45mm in thickness as opposed to 32.2mm in the previous model. It's the same all-in-one concept, so the components are in the base, and the display is connected with a zero-gravity hinge, which makes it possible to push the display down over your desk for drawing.

There have also been advancements in wireless connectivity since the Surface Studio 2. The Surface Studio 2 Plus now supports Wi-Fi 6 instead of Wi-Fi 5, and it also comes with Bluetooth 5.1 instead of Bluetooth 4.1, both of which are pretty big upgrades. Oddly enough, it seems like Microsoft got rid of built-in support for Xbox Wireless technology, which is used for Xbox controllers and other peripherals.

However, we do get one more big change, and it has to do with ports. Microsoft is fully embracing Thunderbolt 4 support now, which means the Surface Studio 2 Plus has a total of three Thunderbolt 4 (USB Type-C) ports. The Surface Studio 2 only had one USB Type-C port, and it didn't support Thunderbolt. In return, the Surface Studio 2 Plus has just two USB Type-A ports (instead of four), and it also gets rid of the SD card reader. Gigabit Ethernet and a headphone jack are still available, though.

Final thoughts: Should you upgrade to the Surface Studio 2 Plus?

The Surface Studio lineup was never a device meant for the general user, which certainly remains true with the Surface Studio 2 Plus. If you never saw a reason to get a Surface Studio 2 in the first place, nothing should change with this new model, especially now that the entry barrier is so much higher.

If you own the Surface Studio 2, however, and you really need or want this form factor, then the Surface Studio 2 Plus is a very significant upgrade. Performance has seen some major improvements, and the specs have been modernized in many ways. Faster Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, plus three Thunderbolt 4 ports, make this a device much more worthy of living in the year 2022.

But, at $4,499.99, this is no cheap upgrade. You have to make sure you need the form factor and the performance it offers, and you have to make sure you're going to keep needing it for a few years to justify that investment.

You can buy the Surface Studio 2 Plus using the link below. If you want a powerful machine that's not tethered to a desk all the time, you can also check out the best laptops for creators, some of which might be even more powerful.