Surface 3 Tablet

Targets MacBook Air

By Anca Gagiuc on Apr 10, 2015 in Technology

Microsoft recently announced the next element of its Surface line, the tablet that can play double role as laptop due to a keyboard attachment (sold separately). Surface 3, now available for pre-order at $499, will ship by May 5^th.

Surface 3 has lost some weight, in figure and in price, marking a steep discount on the Surface Pro 3’s $800 price tag. The youngest sibling will complement the Surface Pro 3 by offering a 10.8-inch device in a 1920×1280 resolution; a bit more than full-HD, but with a 3:2 resolution like its older brother. It could be that Microsoft wanted the display to look and feel more like a sheet of paper.

The device is fed by an Intel Atom x7 processor, a chip with enough juice to power a full version of Windows 8.1 and, later this summer, Windows 10. This is the high-end model, the release suggesting a quad-core Atom design running above 2GHz. The SoC will be accompanied by 64GB of storage with 2GB RAM or 128GB of storage with 4GB RAM, plus a 4G ‘LTE Ready’ version that will join at a later date. Battery life is claimed to run for up to 10 hours for video playback and the screen is described as having “incredibly accurate colors.”

Surface 3 will be 8.7mm (0.34 inch) thin at 622 grams (1.37 pounds). It will bring with it a standard 3-position stand and a few accessories: the standard Type Cover, a Docking Station with USB ports, an Ethernet jack and an additional Mini Display Port, and The Surface Pen. The later will be available in red, blue, black, and silver with 256 levels of pressure sensitivity. On the hybrid device will be a full-size USB 3.0 port, a mini-DisplayPort, and a microSD card reader that adds up to 128GB. Charging occurs through a bundled fast-charging micro-USB, but also with a standard smartphone micro-USB as well.

The design hasn’t changed much: it still displays the magnesium case with blunt, chamfered edges and no cooling vents. Cameras suffered partial upgrade – the front-facing camera is still at 3.5 megapixels, but the rear camera jumped from 5MP to 8MP. Both are designed to capture 1080p, but only the rear camera has the auto-focus feature.

The real difference is the operating system which is included in the initial price; Surface 3 tablet runs full Windows, not RT. Furthermore, Microsoft offers a 1-year subscription to Office 365, as well as 1TB of OneDrive storage. Could it be that the low cost of entry will attract buyers unwilling to go up for Apple’s $899 11-inch MacBook Air? At a first glance, it seems comparable to the iPad Air 2 or a high-end Android slate, but when putting it next to a laptop it seems to stop at the low-end PC level. Time will tell.