In a recent global study by Swedish telco equipment maker Ericsson, Singaporeans ranked first in the world when it came to the percentage of Internet users owning smartphones. The city-state also came in second in tablet ownership, with almost one in three people here owning a tablet device.
With this high user penetration rate, it seems that Windows Surface, a tablet designed to run Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT operating systems, will be a device of interest to many local users.
[youtube]http://youtu.be/dpzu3HM2CIo[/youtube]
How shiny is this.
Software and UI
It’s no surprise industry experts have been speculating on the release of a Windows tablet since the recent release of Windows 8. With its extremely touchscreen-friendly UI, it was clearly designed for use on touch-sensitive devices.
Surface comes in two flavours: RT and Pro. The RT version runs only Metro apps – suitable for light users familiar with Apple’s iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, while the Pro version runs the full OS of the Windows 8 desktop.
According to Gizmodo, the RT version will launch alongside Windows 8, and the Ivy Bridge Pro version available 90 days later. It is also important to note that the Pro version behaves more like a full-feature computer than a typical tablet, a trait sure to be elaborated on in future marketing releases.
Features
Originally released as a large-screen interface for “tables, counters or walls” (the original website for Surface has already been taken down), Windows Surface has gone portable.
In a nutshell, Surface is 9.3mm to 13.5mm thin, has a kickstand for easy display and weighs in at 0.68kg to 0.9kg. The casing is made out of VaporMg (a fancy term for magnesium, really) and its screen is optically bonded, a feature Microsoft says was specifically engineered. If you like going into the nitty gritty, the official spec sheet can be found here.
Type Cover
However, the most exciting accessory has to be the Surface’s magnetic 3mm Type Cover. It doubles as a full, extremely thin keyboard with a touchpad, allowing the Surface to have all the functionality of a full laptop without the dreaded bulk. This is a big point for me in particular, because I feel like I still need my physical keyboard around – I hate typing on a screen. It’s an illness, I know.
With a built-in accelerometer, Type Cover prevents unwanted input when folded and can also detect contact points with a high degree of sensitivity so simply resting fingers on the Type Cover won’t result in any input.
Cost
One crucial point yet to be revealed with the Windows Surface is its price planning. Although Microsoft has stated that prices will be “competitive”, it remains to be seen whether the Surface will be a hit, but I think it’s one of the most recent promising announcements by Microsoft to date.
To keep yourself up to date on the latest developments for the Windows Surface tablet, click here.
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One Response to “Microsoft announces Surface: new family of PCs for Windows”
Zak
As a tech savvy or call me a Geek, I think this Tablet got lot of potential to penetrate the market shares, as well keep others(Apple, Android or anyother OS to come) in a state of Speechless. Because it’s not just the Web Browser, Email Client or Games gives you get going with life, You still need Productivity tools like MS Office and Development tools like Visual Studio, or may be a professional graphic designing tool Photoshop to design.
Those will provide you the earning to live a life… Not just the millions of useless app which can’t complicit with MS Office.
So highly recommend this Tablet as a Futurist!!!