Microsoft introduces Surface 3 tablet with 10.8″ screen

By admin On Mar 31, 2015

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Microsoft has announced a new tablet for businesses and schools: the Surface 3. The tablet has a 10.8″ screen with a resolution of 1920×1280 pixels and an aspect ratio of 3:2. The tablet will be cheaper than the Surface Pro 3.

Although precise sales figures are lacking, Microsoft seems fairly successful with its Surface Pro 3 and the group hopes to build on this with a cheaper tablet. With the Surface 3, the company says it is mainly targeting students, schools and mobile workers.

With its 10.8″ screen with a resolution of 1920×1280 pixels and an aspect ratio of 3:2, the Surface 3 is smaller than the Surface Pro 3. The tablet supports input via the Surface Pen, but Microsoft does not include this standard. the model is 622 grams and the case is magnesium, with the fold-out kickstand that the Pro 3 also has.

The processor is the Atom x7-Z8700. This is a new quad-core from Intel based on the Cherry Trail platform with a clock speed of 1.6GHz and Burst to 2.4GHz. With the soc, the tablet could play 10 hours of continuous video. The amount of ram is 2GB with 64GB emmc storage, but there will also be a variant with 4GB memory and 128GB storage. The Surface 3 supports WiFi-ac and Bluetooth 4.0 and is equipped with a regular USB 3.0 port, mini-displayport and micro-SD memory card reader. Charging is via a micro USB 2.0 port.

There is also a 3.5-megapixel camera on the front and an 8-megapixel camera on the back. The Surface 3 is equipped with numerous sensors, such as an accelerometer, proximity sensor, gyroscope, compass, GPS and magnetometer. In addition to regular versions, there are also models with LTE support.

The tablet runs Windows 8.1 and will be upgraded to Windows 10 when that OS comes out. Buyers also have an annual subscription for Office 365 Personal. The starting price, for the model with 2GB ram and 64GB storage, is 609 euros and the tablet will be available on May 7. It is unknown when the lte variant will be released. Microsoft supplies the models without keyboard and stylus.