Today, October 26 – with a difference of one day with the worldwide release of Windows 8 – Microsoft has released the Surface tablet to the American market.
This is the first device available for purchase that runs on the Windows RT platform. The latter, we recall, is a special version of Windows 8 that supports ARM processors. The incident is that tablets with this OS cannot run most programs created for previous versions of Windows and most projects for the desktop version of Windows 8.
The tablet runs on the well-known Tegra 3 platform (modification T30). Inside is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor, whose frequency reaches 1.5 Ghz. The same is on the HTC One X smartphone and the rapidly aging tablet from Asus – Eee Pad Transformer Prime. The RAM of the Microsoft tablet is 2 GB. For comparison, the current flagship of Korean Samsung – the Galaxy Note II smartphone – costs the same.
The 10.6-inch tablet screen is unlikely to please a spoiled user. With such a serious size, its resolution is only 1366 by 768 pixels. In the 7-inch version of the Barnes & Noble tablet, it is, for example, 1440 by 900 pixels.
However, according to Apple’s experience and, judging by last year’s Kindle Fire sales, it is clear that it’s not about hardware. Diverse content, cool interface and charisma – that’s what’s important. But the tablet has a problem with the content now. There are few programs, the software that exists, judging by the first reviews (on the same The Verge), works with numerous errors.
The presence of the usual Windows desktop on the tablet at once, and without five minutes of an innovative shell also turned out to be a problem. The fact is that none of the shells is self-sufficient. Some reviewers noted the need to switch from metro-style to desktop to configure certain functions. In the desktop, of course, it is not very convenient to “work with your fingers” for a long time, so you have to switch back from it.
The price is also confusing. While the entire market, including Apple, is striving to reduce the cost of its own devices, Microsoft has abandoned the 16 GB version of the tablet, and sells the 32 GB version for $ 499. This is without a keyboard, which will cost an additional $119.
On the other hand, everyone notes the external attractiveness of both the device and the OS. And thousands of queues in front of stores waiting for a new tablet indicate the willingness of users to love Microsoft’s creation. The question is, will the company not disappoint them?
In Russia, according to RBC, the tablet will appear no earlier than the beginning of 2013. The price is promised to be very democratic – from 16 thousand rubles.