iMac Pro vs. Surface Studio: Which Premium AIO Reigns Supreme?

The $four,999 starting price of Apple'southward iMac Pro might make your eyes h2o, but there's no question that for some creative professionals, this all-in-i'southward incredible calculating ability tin can more make up for its expense by speeding up specialized tasks similar rendering video and enhancing images. Plus, the iMac Pro sports the same beautiful 5K display that y'all may have fallen in love with if you use an iMac.

Every bit impressive as Apple tree's ode to artistic professionals is, it lacks a touch screen and a few other features that you'll discover on Microsoft's competing Surface Studio. It's one of the iMac Pro's closest competitors, and choosing betwixt the two isn't easy. The obvious diffrences are operating organization, touch on support, and toll. (Nosotros reviewed the most expensive Studio configuration, which comes in at $4,199, and then even the base iMac Pro is a pricier proposition). Just there are several other points of comparing between the two to consider before you buy ane.

Apple's desktop has a clear ability reward, with more than contempo and in some cases much faster components, including a selection of Xeon processors with up to 18 cores. The Surface Studio's sixth-generation Intel Cadre i7 is ancient and pokey by comparing. On the other hand, Microsoft'south innovative pattern—namely the Surface Studio'due south reclining bear on-screen display—might be more to your liking, and the optional Surface Dial offers a pioneering control interface for graphic designers in particular.

Name	Apple tree iMac Pro	Microsoft Surface Studio

Lowest Price	$4999.00 MSRP	$2999.00 MSRP
Editors' Rating
Processor Name	Intel Xeon W-2140B	Intel Core i7-6820HQ
Processor Speed	3.ii GHz	two.7 GHz
Operating Organization	Apple macOS High Sierra	Windows 10 Pro
RAM	32 GB	32 GB
Storage Capacity (as Tested)	1 TB	two TB
Graphics Card	AMD Radeon Pro Vega 56	Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M
Screen Size	27 inches	28 inches
Resolution	5120 x 2880	4500 x 3000
Storage Blazon	SSD	HDD, SSD
	Read the Review	Read the Review

To get more than specific with the specs, let'south first accept a look at the nearly visible aspect—the displays. They make upwardly almost the entirety of both machines, and the Studio was clearly inspired by the blueprint of past iMacs. Both have extraordinary, better-than-4K resolutions, admitting at different aspect ratios. The Studio'due south 28-inch screen features a 4,500-by-iii,000 resolution, while the iMac Pro's 27-inch screen is 5,120 past 2,880 (the same as the 2022 27-inch iMac). The brightness has improved on all new iMacs, and it now supports 1 billion colors.

Quality-wise, the screens are only nearly a launder, and you lot'll hardly be left complaining virtually the resolution on either device. They both support the P3 color gamut, likewise, which makes for an exceptionally wide range of displayable colors.

Reach Out and Touch

That said, at that place's a huge divergence when you lot consider the Studio'south touch capability. Apple has remained steadfast in withholding touch support from Macs, and the iMac Pro is no exception. The Surface Studio's impact screen—combined with the power to recline the display like a digital sail—gives it much more versatility for content cosmos, which we explore in depth in our review. If you only draw or pattern in programs with a mouse, touch may not be needed—but the inclusion does aggrandize your futurity options. Streamlining the creative process from split (and expensive) drawing tablets into 1 device tin can be very appealing if yous're a digital artist.

In terms of computing power, though, the iMac Pro has the Studio beat. Apple is positioning the iMac Pro as a true workstation to rival Windows all-in-ones like the Dell Precision 5720, and its Xeon CPU backs up that merits. The base model we tested includes an eight-core processor and 32GB of memory. Nosotros found these components to be lightning fast both on our benchmark tests and bodily video- and photo-editing tasks. The iMac Pro rendered a pick of Photoshop filters in just ii minutes and 32 seconds compared with the Surface Studio'southward 3:03, and it was much faster encoding video (30 seconds vs. 1 minute, 3 seconds) as well. Our review goes into more item about but how fast it is at chewing through 5.2K video and editing 100MP Raw images, amongst other tasks.

As stated, the Surface Surface Studio'southward CPU was slightly behind at launch—information technology lacks a newer Kaby Lake chip, though its Intel Cadre i7-6820HQ Skylake CPU is still fast. Compared adjacent, though, the iMac Pro will be much more capable at quickly crunching through data, encoding video, and full general multitasking.

Graphics for Content Creators

The iMac's powerful AMD Radeon Vega graphics sets it apart also. The Vega cards are meant to compete with Nvidia'southward workstation-quality Quadro cards, and there is indeed tremendous 3D capability packed into the iMac Pro. It recieved an exceptional score of one,669 on our Cinebench rendering exam, compared with the Surface Studio's 702. The Surface Studio does accept detached graphics, but its Nvidia GeForce GTX 980M, while capable, is not on the same level as the iMac's graphics.

Because of its superior graphics card, the iMac Pro also has a leg up when it comes to playing graphics-intensive games, just that's not something that will matter to the target iMac Pro heir-apparent. As a workstation, its high-cease graphics cards are for video and photo editors, animators, graphic designers, and more, as they advance rendering and load times in many of these processes. Equally an added bonus for game developers, the Vega cards are also VR capable, something Apple tree pushed during the iMac Pro's introduction at WWDC last year, while the Studio's card is non.

The 2 desktops are fairly similar in terms of port offerings—they both include USB 3.0, SD card slots, and Ethernet—but the Studio offers Mini DisplayPort for video output and lacks any USB-C connectivity. The iMac Pro doesn't include Mini DisplayPort, but USB-C is more than versatile with adapters and is mostly more than useful for transferring media and other files. The iMac Pro's 10GBps Ethernet port, a beginning on a Mac, can automatically switch betwixt 1GBps, 2.5GBps, 5GBps, or 10GBps, based on the capabilities of your network infrastructure. That could give it a large leg up when used in studios that store video footage on network-fastened storage (NAS) devices.

An important annotation is that the Studio configuration we tested comes with 2TB of storage, while our iMac Pro review unit merely has a 1TB SSD. You lot tin can configure the iMac Pro with a 2TB SSD if yous need more elbow room for editing big photos or lots of video footage.

With Corking Expense Comes Great Ability

Overall, in that location's no doubt the iMac Pro packs more powerful, newer hardware than the Studio. Information technology does so at a higher price, but for people who often expect hours for their video projects to render, the time savings tin can more than make up for the expense.

That said, the Studio offers a whole realm of creative interface options the iMac does not thanks to its touch on screen, making it more than than just a speedy desktop. It tin can streamline the process of split up cartoon tablets and other devices into 1 product thanks to the touch screen and the optional Surface Dial and pen.

The operating systems are of course another major distinction, but that'southward largely a matter of personal habit and preference. Many photography and flick studios take been using macOS for years, and aren't planning on switching to Windows, while some game developers wouldn't dream of making a Mac their primary workhorse.

These matters of preference aside, it's clear that the iMac Pro is the choice for pure power, while the less expensive Surface Studio can be your desktop and digital creation tool in one.