Microsoft Surface priced up for Blighty
Compares well with rivals
Advanced orders for Microsoft's Surface tablet are now being taken in the UK. Prices starting at £399.
That'll get you a 32GB version of the ARM-based slate without the touch-to-type keyboard-equipped Touch Cover, which comes bundled for an additional £80. Buy the cover on its own and you'll pay £100.
Alternatively, those after more traditional, mechanical keys can splash £109 on the Surface Type Cover.
The 64GB package meanwhile comes with the Touch Cover bundled whether you like it or not and is priced at £559.
The Microsoft Surface tablet - which packs a 10.6in display with a 1366 x 768 resolution, an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor and 2GB of Ram - launches on 26 October. Microsoft says it will deliver all pre-ordered tablets by the end of the month.
If you think the new Microsoft slate is a little pricey, bear in mind Apple's iPad costs £659 with 64GB or £399 for the 16GB version, and the latest Asus Transformer Pad Infinity comes in around the £600 mark.
The Microsoft Surface does at least double up as a skateboard too, as head of Windows Steven Sinofsky recently demonstrated on his Twitter feed. Nice to see Microsoft ramp it up in one sense, eh? ®
COMMENTS
Re: Didnt Pre-ordered mine last night
WinRT a full blown OS? hmm not so sure about that.
Not surprising
Microsoft have seen the money Apple make, not just off the tablet but the peripherals and have decided to copy them. £100 for a keyboard is taking the piss by any measure. Probably costs £10 tops to make.
What I'd be interested is how many of these "Windows" tablets get returned when it transpires that it's not actually Windows but Windows RT and is therefore incompatible with pretty much everything.
An HP Touch rerun
Look out for a surface tablet flash sale in 10 months time.
Re: Didnt Pre-ordered mine last night
Why is it so dear? Apple is notorius for ramping up prices, but they are selling a well established luxury product. MS are launching what is ment to be a device to show of the capabilities of windows 8 rt. By selling it at the price of an ipad they are making the decision easy for conusmers; go for the well known industry leader, or try somthing new. Most consumers go for the easy option, which in this case means apple.
But yeah, i havnt pre ordered one, cant see the point, i should be able to pick one up for £200 on the shelf next to the touchpad and the playbook.
