WASHINGTON: Microsoft has launched the new budget version of its Surface Pro 3 for $699. The new version of Surface Pro 3 is said to be more student oriented than professionals and business. Microsoft has introduced a kick stand in Surface Pro 3 which has three different standing positions in it.
More of a tablet-cum-laptop than a laptop-cum-tablet, Microsoft says its new Surface 3 is designed more for students than for high-end professionals, but it will also come out with an LTE version that could sway some pro’s over to the non-Pro version, officials say. The Surface Pro 3, introduced in May 2014, lacks any mobile broadband connectivity whatsoever – something that’s hoped for in the highly anticipated Surface Pro 4, which now looks like it may not be announced for some time, possibly not until early next year.
(Rumours have been swirling that Microsoft was about to announce an update to the Surface Pro 3, less than a year after its launch despite the company’s stated desire to move to an 18-month release cycle for such products. But it’s now looking like the rumoured product was this, the Surface 3, rather than a Surface Pro 4, potentially putting the Pro 4 back onto that 18-month cycle. Still, fingers crossed, an LTE Surface Pro 4 may be just around the corner.)
The Surface 3 will use Intel’s latest Atom “x7” processor, rather than the higher-performing Intel Core processor that underpins the Pro 3, and will run the vanilla Windows 8.1 rather than Windows 8.1 Pro. It will sport a 1920 x 1280 pixel, 10.8-inch screen, down from the super-sharp 2160 x 1440 pixel screen on the Pro 3.
Mercifully, it sticks to the Pro 3’s 3:2 aspect ratio, one of the defining features that made the Pro 3 such a dramatic improvement over the previous Surface tablets, which had a 16:9 aspect ratio, making them better to watch videos on than to work on.
The Surface 3 will have a kick stand with three positions, up from two positions on the previous Surface models (which lacked the lap-friendly, laid-down position), but not as impressive as the kick stand on the Pro 3, which doesn’t have predetermined positions it clicks into, but magically holds steady in any position.
You see, the Surface 3 starts at $699, for a model with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. Meanwhile the Pro 3 starts at $979 for a Core i3 model with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. So that’s a starting difference of $280, less $60 for the pen because it’s not a Surface without a pen (so, $220 price difference), less $30 for the keyboard because the Surface 3’s keyboard is $179.99 but the Surface Pro 3’s almost-identical keyboard is only $149.99 and it’s not a Surface without a keyboard (so, $190 price difference), less $50 for the docking station because that’s $279.99 compared to $229.99 for the Pro 3.
