Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer surprised the audience just yesterday with presenting Microsofts latest development gadget. With this Microsoft started their own new tablet family series called ‘Surface’ which wants to come up and compete with Apple for the tablet pc market. It has been some time since Apple shocked their competitors with presenting of their iPhone in 2007 and iPad in 2010.
Since then Microsoft had nothing really equivalent compared to mobile devices Apple had already at this time.
Now, nearly 2 years later we see the answer here in the following.
Features
The Surface tablet can be a simple touch device or users can decide whether better to use the flexibility of a hardware keyboard for longer texts or commands.
The tablet runs the new Windows 8 operating system, has a 10,6″ full HD display with 1920 x 1080 pixels and weights only 1.5 lbs.
It comes with a pluggable magnetic slim keyboard cover case which is available in two versions and is available even in two different processor architectures.
Processor
Build out of a magnesium case which Microsoft calls VaporMg, the Surface tablet is available with an ARM or Intels Ivvy-Bridge processor. The Chipset is provided by NVIDIA Tegra. It’s not clear yet but most probably the Quad Core Tegra 3 KAI, or the Tegra 3+
Multimedia
Two integrated cameras on front and back side, and an integrated WiFi with 2×2 MIMO antena array are included. The whole tablet is just 9.3 mm thin and has full size USB 2.0 ports.
Presentation in Hollywood
“It embodies hardware and software working together. People want to work and play,” Steve Ballmer said on Monday when introducing the device at an art and movie studio in Hollywood.
Ballmer visited the Milk Studios in Los Angeles to officially claim that Microsoft will compete Apples iPads with their own tablet devices.
Design
In fact the new table device looks great, is light weight and handy. The material of the case is out of magnesium which also saves weight. The Look and Feel (haptic) is familiar and some people might think that this is an Apple device.
Solid Stand
Using the integrated expandable stand the Surface Tablet makes a good figure on the table. Three hinges on the back side of the tablet provide a solid stand. The hinges are just 0.7 mm thin.
A nice feature is the magnetic main cover which comes in two versions. The Surface Type Cover (5 mm) is a hardware keyboard with real keys (1,5 mm) including a track pad.
Consumer or Business?
Steve Ballmer made pretty clear that Microfot wants to aim consumer users as well as business users to run their daily applications on it. Ballmer also makes clear that the device is nothing without the software running on it.
Naming History
Originally Microsoft Surface was an earlier project where real ‘table’ touch screen displays were used and has been renamed to Microsoft PixelSense meanwhile.