Microsoft have just announced ‘Surface’ (yes, they have used that name before), a Windows 8 tablet, manufactured by MS themselves.
It features a 10.6″ display, kickstand – large fold-out flap, very solid looking. The solid feel continues with a magnesium body and PVD coating.
It also has an integral cover, which doubles up as a multitouch keyboard! ‘TypeCover’, another product, is available separately – which is essentially the same but with a tactile keyboard and clicking trackpad buttons. The multi-touch variant is being called ‘TouchCover’ and is just 3mm thick.
Two versions of Surface are available, one with an ARM chip and Windows RT, the other with an Intel i5 CPU and Windows 8 Pro.
Full info and images courtesy of The Verge after the break.
The Intel version:
- i5 22nm Ivy Bridge CPU
- ‘Digital Ink’ pen, magnetises to body for storage when not in use. Operates 0.7mm away from screen to feel like pen-on-paper
- Windows 8 Pro
- Full-size USB ports
- ClearType display
- 64GB or 128GB versions
- 13.5mm thick, 1.9lb
- Priced “to compete with existing Ultrabooks”
- ARM processor
- Windows RT (Metro only, no legacy support version of Win8 for ARM architectures)
- 32GB or 64GB versions
- 9.3mm thick, 1.5lb
Both devices have a 10.6″ display, but the Intel one is a higher resolution, ClearType, model.
It’s interesting to remember that Apple call the iPad a “Post-PC” device, hailing it as not requiring a PC to operate at all. But Microsoft may well have out-done them here, by essentially saying “You don’t need a PC to operate it, because it is a PC”. All legacy programs will work on the Intel version, and any Metro/WinRT apps will work on the ARM version. (This is the case for all x86 vs ARM devices).
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