Microsoft Surface Hands On

Microsoft Surface is the first tablet PC released by Microsoft and it may actually represent an important milestone in the computing industry. Finally, the software giant follows the footstep of its longtime rival, Apple, by delivering a hardware-software package.

Microsoft believes that it would be ideal to cover the market from end to end, by delivering operating system, core services and finally hardware. And that was what Apple did two and a half years ago with the iPad. After using the Surface Tablet for awhile, you might easily like it. The device is solidly and beautifully built, while on the screen, you get Windows 8 operating system in its purest form.

Unlike Windows 7, the new OS can work equally well on desktops, laptops and tablets, with its touch-optimized, innovative user interface. Manufactured with quality and care; and covered by a magnesium layer, the Surface tablet isn’t a cheap knockoff of the ipad. It is also priced nicely, with the basic model (32 GB) available at $499, while an iPad model priced similarly only has 16GB.

It is important to more that the surface tablet comes with a full version of the windows 8, as well as Microsoft popular software such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft’s keyboard solution is also cleverly designed, it doubles add cover and can snap on magnetically. One keyboard model, the Touch Cover, comes in bright colors, uses molded keys and is priced at $120.

A slightly more expensive version ($130), the Type Cover, is more rigid and comes only in black. Although the surface tablet can run any Windows software, one of the biggest hurdles would be the lack of touch optimized apps. Currently there are only ten thousand of such apps and even an official Facebook app is still missing. Nevertheless, the built-in Internet Explorer 10 browser can run any social networking websites very smoothly.