Well, if they were available for pre-order yet, I'd already have one locked down!

Microsoft unveiled their 'Surface' tablets yesterday... altering their long-time stance of relying upon partners to create the hardware for their software. They stole the Surface name from a different Microsoft product, but, hey, it works!

The coolest feature - by far, in my opinion - is their Apple-style 'SmartCover' that actually has a full keyboard/multi-touch trackpad embedded in it, while the tablet has a kickstand.

The device itself looks beautiful... Gizmodo and Engadget both raved over the physical build quality and styling.

There are two different versions of the tablet... one runs on ARM processors with Windows 8 RT, while the other uses traditional Intel x86/64 architecture and Windows 8 Pro.

This Engdaget article will break it down better than I can, so I won't restate things...

http://www.engadget.com/2012/06/18/hands-on-with-microsoft-surface-for-windows-rt/

 

I also am incredibly excited for this. My only concerns are pricing and specs. I'm going to assume hat by competitively priced Microsoft means 600 and 1000 respectively and while 600 for the RT version is expected, for the price of the Pro version i would honestly just buy a touchscreen ultra book, suck as one of ASUS's prototypes that were shown at Computex. My second concern was brought up numerous times in the Engadget editorial, I'm worried about the release date, which is going to be around mid fall for the RT version and 3 months later for the Pro version, which is obscene. I honestly am not sure if they can keep up the hype for that long and while it may seem awesome now, 6-9 months is an incredibly long time in the technology world. My final concern is the specs. Other than the memory, we know nothing about the screen other than the viewing angles, nothing about the RAM! Which I'm not to concerned about, and most importantly the battery. If the battery life is under 9 hours i honestly don't think i would purchase the Surface because battery life is just so important.
With that said I'm looking forward to hearing more about the Surface and a full review. I will wait till then to revise my opinion.

 

What is the RT version? I'm sure I'm missing something obvious.

 

I think the RT has a AMD processor and the other one an Intel, also the RT has a max of 64gb.

 

Here's an image with some specs (click for big.)

 

I meant, what is Window's RT. The OS.

 

No, that bit about AMD is entirely wrong.

Window RT runs on an ARM architecture, which is fundamentally different from the x86 architecture (ARM is designed for low-power applications). This means that it can't run traditional Windows programs made for an Intel architecture.

As such, you can only run Metro apps (that too probably only stuff from the Windows Store) on a tablet that has Windows RT. And you won't actually be able to buy Windows RT; it will be preloaded by hardware manufacturers.

If it helps, the "Surface RT" is analogous to the iPad, and the "Surface Pro" is somewhat analogous to the MacBook Air (if it was able to run iOS apps). The Surface RT will run only Metro apps, while the Surface Pro (along with every other Intel-based Windows 8 computer) will be able to run both Metro applications as well as traditional Windows applications.

 

Answers my question perfectly, cheers.