When surface was originally announced we were promised the availability of two different models: Surface RT and Surface Pro. The two devices are what Microsoft considers canonical to the modern Windows experience. The original Microsoft Surface, an interactive table designed for commercial applications, was stripped of its trademark and rebranded Microsoft PixelSense.
The Surface RT was positioned as the introductory and lower-end Windows tablet incapable of x86-support. With a base price of $499 the ARM-based device takes up the lower end of the market with an attempt to bring laptop form to an iPad-style platform.
The Surface Pro will come in two SKUs: a 64GB version will cost you $899 or fork over $999 to double that to 128GB of flash storage. All SKUs will include an Intel i5 processor, 4GB of RAM, and an Intel HD 4000 GPU driving a 10.6” 1080p display. You will be able to attach an external monitor via mini display port. Windows 8 will be the driving operating system behind this device and bring support for x86 applications to the Surface platform.
Neither Surface Pro SKU will include a keyboard-cover in the price but both will include a stylus. You still have the option of augmenting your device with their magnetically attached keyboards. I can only assume that Microsoft did not include them solely for pricing.
The Surface family will complete in January 2013.
Would be nice to see a
Would be nice to see a similar machine with AMD Jaguar (brazos sucsessor, Intel Atoms currently superior competitor) next year, but it could be feasable to build a tablet with the current AMD a8-4555, that one has full cores, full gpu, but downclocked to 1.6 Ghz base clock.
That could be a full on portable desctop, just attach to your stationary monitor and keyboard when precise work has to be done.
I would be happy with such a machine, currently i’m using a Core 2 duo with a Quadro Fx580 (this one has miniscule 450mhz operating frequency and 0.314 billion transistors), so an apu based tablet would double my graphics performance at minimum and make it portable – AMDs apu has 1.3 billion transistors of wich ~0.6 could be just graphics portion.
This would be great for CorelDRAW and other proffesional programs that are fully supported on mainstream hardware, I would lose on Autocad and other CAD program performance though. Unless a FirePro mobile chip is released (basically the same chip with a more sturdy software package).
The price is what I was
The price is what I was expecting. A price lower than $800 wouldn’t be something than anyone who sells ultrabooks would like.
I also want to see an AMD alternative. AMD APUs is more than good enough for these good enough devices.
Anyone else thinking
Anyone else thinking ripoff?
For the same price as the 128Gig model one can get an Ideapad Yoga and get not only a slightly bigger screen (granted it is “only” 1600×900) but an actual keyboard as well…
Some people don’t like the
Some people don’t like the fold keyboard. I myself am one of them. It just seems like it’s going to break at some point (keys recieving too much pressure in a direction) and will continuously get dirty. My father just picked up a Sony Vaio Duo and loves it. It’s a little heftier (only slightly, not that bad though) and not as big as people make it out to be. Great screen, pretty awesome speakers for a portable, and it’s fluid on it’s movement between keyboard and tablet formation (holds it’s position well in each).
I’m strongly considering
I’m strongly considering buying this,but I do think it’s a little too much money.
But for What I’m going to do with it I’d get at least 4 years use out of it.
More often than not I really like what Microsoft does hardware wise, I still use my Zune HD on a daily basis.
For what you get, M$ is
For what you get, M$ is surely mad!
I dugg some of you post as I
I dugg some of you post as I thought they were very helpful invaluable