by Is it time for Apple to start worrying about Microsoft when it comes to tablets? By almost all accounts, the original Surface was a flop (along with its successor last year), leading many commentators to believe that Microsoft may never be able to establish itself as a true contender in the prize market. But that may have changed this morning with this morning’s reveal of the Surface Pro 3, “the tablet that can replace your laptop.”
Armed with a 12-inch screen, the device seems aimed at taking on both the iPad Air and the rumored 13-inch iPad Pro in one fell swoop. Much as with the company’s previous tablet, the new version sports a kickstand and a collapsible keyboard. It also boasts a new addition: a Surface Pen that includes 256 levels of pressure sensitivity and better mimics real writing in that the thin screen allows the stylus to get “closer” to the digital content than most similar items we’ve seen in the past.
Indeed, at 9.1 mm thick, the Surface Pro 3 is the thinnest tablet Microsoft’s ever made, although that’s still 2mm thicker than the iPad Air. But Microsoft is also going for size here. The new device will have a 12 inch display with a 3.2 aspect ratio and it’ll be able to hold between 64GB and 512GB for storage. The extra size makes its 800 grams almost double the weight of the MacBook Air, although that may mean little since it’s also aimed at competing with laptops like the MacBook.
The Surface Pro 3 starts at $799 with a Core i3 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and 64 GB of storage, and the device is said to support nine hours of battery life (via web browsing). It should start showing up on shelves tomorrow.
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