As its name indicates, it comes with Windows 8 Pro, Microsoft’s top-of-the-line operating system.

(27 cm) screens, though the Pro’s version, at 1920-by-1080 resolution, packs additional pixels.īut Surface Pro, unlike Surface RT, is a real PC. (0.7 kg).īoth versions have an elegant vapor-magnesium case and kickstand that props it up for vertical use, and both work with the same whisper-thin Touch Cover, which includes a keyboard that’s nearly flat yet reasonably comfy.

(That’s Microsoft’s full official name for it I hope the company won’t be irked if I refer to it as “Surface Pro,” like everyone else is already doing.) It has much in common with Surface RT: hold one Surface in each hand, and the only hint that they’re not the same device is the Pro version’s additional bulk - it’s 0.53 in. Starting at $499, it’s the closest thing Microsoft has to a direct iPad competitor.Īnd then there’s Surface Windows 8 Pro, which goes on sale at the Microsoft Store, Best Buy, and elsewhere on Feb.

Technically speaking, however, it isn’t a Windows 8 machine: it uses a power-efficient ARM processor and a special version of Windows called Windows RT that only runs new programs designed for the touch-friendly “modern” interface, not all the apps written for conventional PCs. The first version, Surface Windows RT, shipped in October, simultaneously with Windows 8. And for the first time, the company decided to show us exactly what it thinks a modern PC-tablet hybrid should be by designing and selling its own Windows computer, Surface.Įxcept it didn’t come up with one Surface - it built two of them. Its touch-centric new operating system, Windows 8, is largely devoted to answering it. Microsoft, not surprisingly, has been spending a lot of time mulling over that question in recent years. Follow do you reinvent the PC for the tablet era?

Windows 8 pro surface 128gb price