News
News Categories

Microsoft Surface RT Tablets Pricing Revealed; 32GB Version to Cost US$499 (Update)

By Ng Chong Seng - on 17 Oct 2012, 7:00am

Microsoft Surface RT Tablets Pricing Revealed; 32GB Version to Cost US$499

(Image source: Microsoft.)

Update: Microsoft has officially released pricing, availability, and pre-order details of its Surface for Windows RT tablets. Pre-order has already started at www.surface.com. The tablets are also available for purchase beginning October 26 at all Microsoft Store locations in the United States and Canada. In addition, they will be available for sale online in eight markets across the world: Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the United States. We've no news yet on when it'd come to Singapore.

Earlier today, we reported on Microsoft’s first advertisement for its Surface tablet, which is slated to go on sale on October 26, and lamented that the company has yet to give it a price. How things have changed in a matter of hours. As reported by The Verge, Microsoft has revealed the pricing for both its ARM-based Surface RT tablets on the online Microsoft Store, which has since gone offline.

The 32GB version of the Surface RT tablet is priced at US$499 without the Touch Cover (a 3mm cover with a built-in touch-sensitive keyboard); with a black Touch Cover, it’ll cost US$599. A 64GB version with the black Touch Cover is also available at US$699. If you were to get the Touch Cover separately (available in black, white, magenta, cyan and red), it will cost you US$119.99. The Type Cover (available in black only), which is thicker and has a tactile keyboard, is priced at US$129.99.

To recap, the Windows RT-running Surface tablet is 9.3mm thick and weighs 676g. It has a 10.6-inch, 1,366 x 768-pixel, 5-point multi-touch display, two 720p cameras (front and rear-facing), and is equipped with a USB 2.0 port and a microSDXC card slot. It also features a VaporMg casing with a built-in kickstand. In addition, it comes pre-installed with Office Home & Student 2013 RT. The processor powering the tablet is also revealed: it's a Tegra 3 (NVIDIA T30) SoC, and it comes with 2GB of RAM.

In comparison, the current-gen 16GB Wi-Fi-only iPad costs US$499 (S$658). While this is the same price as the Surface RT tablet, the latter has twice the amount of storage (32GB). But on the other hand, the iPad sports a 2048 x 1536-pixel ‘Retina’ display.

Source: The Verge, Microsoft.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.