Microsoft has discontinued the Surface Studio all-in-one desktop, which has been haphazardly updated

Microsoft confirmed to Windows Central that it has officially retired the Surface Studio all-in-one desktop, a $4,300 touchscreen PC that it has twice upgraded with new parts over the course of eight years. A Surface Studio 3 may have been one of the casualties of Microsoft's Surface lineup reductions, according to Windows Central, which also states that there are presently no plans for a sequel to the Surface Studio.

Similar to the Surface Laptop Studio, the desktop's main selling point was a special screen hinge that allowed users to move the screen around to make it easier to draw on with the Surface Pen. However, the desktop was a less desirable system than it could have been due to its expensive price and its internal components that were always out of date.

Late in 2016, the initial iteration of the Surface Studio desktop was released. It was hailed for its superior screen and distinctive hinge and was the company's first desktop PC, with the same fundamental design as the present model. However, the machine's initial Surface Studio had some of the same problems that desktops will always have: a high initial cost and components that were somewhat old and weak in comparison to comparable desktop systems.

The Surface Studio 2, which debuted in 2018, was the most durable Studio desktop. It wasn't replaced until the release of the updated Surface Studio 2+ in late 2022. Although it had an even better display panel, the internal parts were still from the previous version. If Microsoft had released updates for this model more frequently, it might not have been as bad, but it remained unaltered for so long that the company had to reduce Windows 11's system requirements specifically to support the Studio 2 in order to avoid discontinuing support for a computer that it was still selling.

The Studio 2+ was the final iteration of the desktop, and although though it skipped four CPU generations and two GPU generations, it still didn't make advantage of the newest parts on the market. Once more, this could have been avoided with more frequent upgrades, such as those Microsoft offers for the Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, but the Studio 2+ remained unaltered for two years following an update.

Some artists were drawn to the Studio desktop because of its distinctive screen and hinge, and for them, there isn't a clear substitute for this device. However, the high cost and specifications of the all-in-one always made it difficult to convince others to buy it. Generally speaking, poor sales result from a lack of broad appeal, and mediocre sales typically result in discontinued products. That's how it is.