Live coverage: Microsoft announces Surface tablet

MSNBC Gadgetbox ^ | 6/18/2012 | Wilson Rothman

[bigtoona]

From the mouse to Xbox, the best experience has been when software, hardware and peripherals work together, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer when he took the stage Monday in Hollywood, Calif. for a mystery announcement. He quickly introduced the Surface tablet. Not Xbox Surface, just Microsoft Surface. It is not a giant table, but rather a tablet meant, in many ways, to compete with the iPad.

But the Surface won't just be on the Nvidia ARM processor, like the iPad. There will also be a Surface that runs on Intel-based processors, to run a full-blown version of Windows 8 Pro.

The ARM-based Surface tabs will come in 32GB and 64GB configs, and will ship around the time of Windows availability. They will be priced to compete with other ARM tablets (presumably, in line with iPads.) The Intel-powered Windows 8 Pro Surface tablets will come 3 months later, in 64GB and 128GB configs, priced to compete with ultrabooks.

The Surface has a 10.6-inch screen, thickness of 9.3mm, "just wide enough for a full-size USB," says Windows chief Steven Sinofsky, who joined Ballmer to show off the goods.

Wilson Rothman / msnbc.com

Windows chief Steven Sinofsky shows off the Surface tablet.

The tablet is tough, with a Gorilla Glass 2.0 screen with a native resolution of 1080p. Like iPads, it has a magnetically connected case, but this "Touch Cover" actually has a full multi-touch keyboard, too. It's 1.8 lbs., and has a kickstand that pulls out when you want to watch a movie. It also has dual-antenna Wi-Fi.

Wilson Rothman / msnbc.com

The Surface tablet has a kickstand built in.

There's also a pen interface. The Intel version of the Surface has DisplayPort, so that it can power a higher-rez monitor.

[Army Air Corps]

pen, not ben.

[RansomOttawa]

Depending on which architecture chip is in this....if an ARM chip then it runs Windows 8 RT ....which WILL NOT run all of the applications written for the current Windows 7 which requires an x86 or x86-64 Instruction Set.

I was thinking specifically of the Intel-based variants mentioned in the article, which I would assume run the x86 instruction set and are, theoretically, be capable of supporting an x86-based Linux distro like Ubuntu. (This is assuming that Microsoft haven't crippled the hardware in some way to prevent using non-MS operating systems on it.)

Sounds like an overpriced bit of hardware either way, though.