Microsoft Surface: a closer look

Microsoft held an event to announce their brand new tablet, Microsoft Surface. Joshua Topolsky spent some time with the Windows RT version of the tablet. More from The Verge:

[TheVerge]

Yeaahhhh. You're right. Changed the title.

[TundBld]

MY GOD! I have NEVER EVER EVER EVER wanted a tablet but this is so freaking compelling. I want one bad. I hope they find a way soon for holograms so that you can have bigger screen sizes, but for now, Im am officially a tablet fan boy, exclusively surface.

[mistakane]

would be nice if the keyboard attachment let the tablet sit up instead of the stand holding it up

[andrewmtbfreak]

the fact you think its a tablet shows how much you really know about it. it has an intel i5 ivy bridge in it. that means it can run programs like photoshop, google sketchup, visual studio, microsoft office, all the things that you can do on a desktop. however, if you want to run those applications smoothly you need a good amount of ram. my laptop has 8 gb, and it is noticably faster than it was when it had 4, i can run all the programs i need and the system never gets bogged down.

[bobbyjava]

Its too soon to bet on this product. It might seem nice but we dont know anything about it. The OS is a new one and Microsoft hasnt done that good with their OS recently and the hardware just looks shiny. Don't let a cover fool you.

[Nicro]

One day you will stand under something and it will be too late to run because the shit has already fallen on you.

[TheVerge]

For sure. We changed it to be more fitting.

[wertyk]

I think the best thing about product announcements is same day (or close to it) release dates. I want to buy it now and who knows if I'll want to buy it come October or November.

[kisamegr]

FINALLY SOMEONE WHO IS NOT AN APPLE FAN AND SAYS THE TRUTH

[DiazThumb]

Thanks! I have actually an Core i3 Sandy Bridge-powered laptop. I can run Resident Evil 5. But that Ivy Corei5 is a beast. Hopefully Microsoft give us a surprise with an nvidia Vcard, for proper gaming, impulsing the PC gaming. However, With or Without it, i want this a lot. And because is not the only Windows 8 tablet coming, in a near future we'll be seeing gaming Surface-alternative, if Surface isn't....

[MATTINTEXAS]

Awesome, this is everything apple fan boys wanted thier iPAD to become... MS beat them to it. The detail put into this is amazing and some are the first of its kind. MS doesn't make alot of hardware but this is a game changer. I promise, Apple will be in thier iPAD think take working overtime. As for those who think it won't be a player, Sony said the same thing about Xbox. I see Dell etc.. adding this to the companies they sell computers to. Easy, quick intergration across the workplace.

[keenkennyny]

You were obviously too young to even use tablets, smartphones, or any touch interface device pre iPhone and iPad. No one gives a shit if you did it first and do it wrong which is equivalent going to a video and typing FIRST! Eddison wasn't the first to think of the lightbulb or invent it, but he was the first to make it work and make it practical. It's a little word that M$ doesn't seem to understand, innovation.

[keenkennyny]

I like Windows 8, and on a sleek tablet, but Surface is going to be a complete flop. They clearly don't know what they're doing and what a tablet is for. Their building a subpar laptop here at the same price, when you can just get an ultrabook that's just as portable, with a physical keyboard. Imagine trying to use Surface on your lap, on an airplane, or typing up a repot during a keynote? You can't. So you're more anchored to a desk with Surface, than a regular laptop. It's shit.

[bushputz]

I'll bet within a couple of weeks from the launch date, you'll start seeing complaints about broken kickstands.
When you look at the Surface from the side, it looks like any force that is put on the top of the frame is going to exert a lot of stress on the hinge.
If you push the Surface away from you while it's sitting on a rough surface, that kickstand is going to close suddenly, and the screen is going to fall backwards - hard.
At least one kickstand will be killed by a picnic table...

[cbrcoder]

I am not sure i get this : Why show today when you can't even let people test drive it for 60 seconds ? Just to announce this to steal thunder from Google I/O ? I wish Microsoft unveiled it Apple style and announce you can order at this date starting from this price.

All in all though, this looks a great potential buy, added to my list for this coming thanks giving in which I will thank myself with this :).

[EngJorgeSantana]

@rivengle This is nvidia tegra 3 which dos not support LTE. If price and battery where competitive they would have been announced, when google announce there nexus tablet they will say price Nd battery life. You have to say them to cospete With iPad. Pro tablet will be very expensive running x86 chip compare to android tablets. Retina is a big deal when you see the iPad 3 besides other tablets and also makes the winRT Microsoft tablet compete with e cheaper iPad 2 instead.

[SirBeany]

Search Youtube for "Intel hd 4000 gaming" and in the first vid it will show new games running on that GPU. Which is the same GPU the Intel based Surface will have. It wont run all new games but most of them will be playable on low settings. Or search Google for "anandtech hd 4000 explored" to see the benchmarks with the Crysis results (it's the first link) :)

[pipari]

i believe he meant the fact that on a scale from "freedom" to "communism", microsoft is so much closer to "freedom" than apple. they give people open possibilities, but not actually open source-codes. also, the fact that he called the company "windows" makes it even clearer that he just used a wrong word.

[Rulerofwax]

Man, I wish. But I am just too damn picky! I would rather game on PC than console, so that won't work. I would rather use Android than either of the other options, so I can't do that. I would rather use Firefox than Chrome, so I can't do that. I would rather use Windows than Mac, so I can't do that. Nothing will line up for me!

[EngJorgeSantana]

Fail on Price, Fail on LTE and Fail on Battery Life. The RT not being retina is competing price wise with the $399 iPad 2 and the pro will get crush by cheap ultra books. IMHO no chance against the iPad because of the apps but android can get beat by win8 tablet productivity in the work place... Plus 16:9 only works for movies everything else works better on 4:3