Microsoft Announces New Tablet: Microsoft Surface with Surface Touch Cover Keyboard

By Malarie
19 Jun, 2012 8:12 am

At last we know what Microsoft was hiding up their sleeves! A new Windows tablet called Microsoft Surface. The tablet itself has all the normal bells and whistles, but in terms of design, Microsoft has added something quite different: a built in kickstand and a separate keyboard cover.

The tablet is only 9.3 millimeters thick and weighs under 1.5 pounds. The kickstand itself measures less than 1 millimeter thick at 0.7 millimeters and adds virtually nothing to the thickness of the overall device. The Surface Touch Cover functions as a detachable keyboard and measures around 3 millimeters in thickness.

The Surface Touch Cover has a clickable keyboard with right and left hand buttons on the Touchpad. Touch typing is also possible on the device. It brings a very different meaning to “detachable keyboard” and hybridizes the Microsoft Surface tablet. If the keyboard works as well as Microsoft is claiming, it could be a very interesting development.

Now for the basics. The tablet itself has a full magnesium case, USB 2.0 HDMI, a 10.6 inch full HD display and perimeter vents for cooling. Surface also has the standard two cameras- front and back. It comes with Ivy Bridge Core i5 and is optimized for Windows 8.

The tablet will be available in two versions: the Surface for Windows RT and the Surface Pro. The Windows RT version will be available with 32 GB and 64 GB as soon as Windows 8 is and will be priced in the range of similar ARM based tablets. The Pro version will arrive 3 months later in 64 GB and 128 GB models and be placed in the Ultrabook price range. It will be great fun to test this tablet out when it comes to market.