At a press event in New York City today, CEO Satya Nadella discussed the company’s hardware strategy, emphasizing that Microsoft was not competing with their manufacturing partners, but using their hardware experiments to push the boundaries of their software and hardware integration.
Head of the Surface Team, Panos Panay took the stage with a couple quips regarding Microsoft’s press coverage in the past. Discussing the market, where 96% of tablet owners still own a laptop, Panay took the wraps off the Surface Pro 3. Featuring an even thinner design, 9.1mm almost 2 milimeters thinner than the Surface Pro 2, it’s the slimmest Core i7 product available. Microsoft estimates a 10% performance boost over the Pro 2.
The screen size has increased to a 12 inch diagonal with a new 3:2 aspect ratio and a proper 2K resolution of 2160×1440. All of this improvement without increasing weight, and Surface Pro 3 will come in at 800 grams. Yet we’ll likely see about a 10-20% improvement in battery life.
The design of the Pro 3 is inspired by a legal pad, where that 3:2 aspect ratio comes into play. Microsoft is so confident in this form factor, they even moved the windows key to portrait orientation. This is addressing the concerns many have had regarding widescreen tablets in the past feeling unwieldy in portrait mode.
New front facing speakers are also 40% louder than previous Surfaces. The new stylus can also instantly wake the tablet to OneNote to quickly capture those late night inspirations.
The build remains injection molded Magnesium and Panay had fun demonstrating a live drop test from ear height onto carpet with the Pro 3 surviving. The kickstand has also been redesigned. Instead of a two notch, it’s now a continuously variable and adjustable angle, up to 150 degrees. This should help improve “couch usability” when the tablet is in your lap. New type and touch covers will also snap up on the screen for better keyboard typing angles, and to make the hinge a little sturdier.
Pro 3 will also have an optional docking station with 4K output for UHD monitors. Showing that this tablet form factor can also serve as laptop and desktop replacement.
Adobe was on hand to show off a sneak peek of the upcoming version of Photoshop CC, which includes a number of touch optimizations like larger icons and gesture support for pinch to zoom and twisting to rotate images.
Panay also showed off new apps for the Surface. A handwriting optimized version of the New York Times crossword where you can scratch out clues you’ve completed, and your handwriting is converted to typed text. There’s also a new Final Draft unique to Microsoft and the Surface Pro 3, which allows for handwritten, pressure sensitive notes that can be shared between screen writers over OneDrive.
Surface Pro 3 goes on sale starting tomorrow, May 21st, starting at $799 and in three configurations based on CPU with Core i3, i5, and i7 models. Not bad at all considering starting price is only $50 more than a Samsung Note 12.2 for a full Windows 8.1 PC.
The entire presentation had a bold quality, reminiscent of Apple keynotes in the past. Pushing a unified vision for a company beginning to tie software, cloud services, and hardware together. We’ve got a gallery of pics from the event below.
