Microsoft Surface 3: Still Cheap, But Finally Full Windows

Microsoft won’t say Windows RT is dead, so allow me: Windows RT is dead.

The new Surface 3, the affordable tablet/laptop hybrid just announced today, proves it. Rather than the dumbed-down version of Microsoft’s operating system that its predecessors ran, it’s been imbued with full-fledged Windows 8.1 (with a free Windows 10 upgrade coming as soon as Microsoft can release it), thanks to Intel’s new x86-based Atom X7 processor. For $499, you can get the same lovely design from the Surface Pro 3, only in a smaller, less powerful package. And you can still get up to ten hours of battery life. So why would you want—hell, why would Microsoft even make—something less?

A device like the Surface 3 simply wasn’t possible a year or two ago: there wasn’t a CPU fast enough and efficient enough to run in a fanless device for longer than about 20 minutes. Advancements from Microsoft and Intel, though, mean that’s no longer the case.

Meanwhile, Windows RT was never much more than a bandage, built to let something called “Windows” run on cheap hardware. It looked like Windows, but could only run apps from the Windows Store. Most of the desktop apps we need to get work (and life) done were just incompatible. You could use a browser, Office, and a handful of decent apps, and that was it.

Now that cheap hardware is also good hardware, the Surface 3 can finally be just a smaller, more affordable version of the Pro 3 without also being strikingly less capable. First of all, it’s still very much a Surface: a silver, magnesium tablet-cum-laptop with a kickstand. Other than a few tweaks, like the new reflective Windows logo or the fact that there’s no fan, it’s dead ringer for its pricier big brother. Sadly, it’s not quite as adjustable as the Pro 3; it clicks into one of three positions, instead of pretty much anywhere you want it. There just wasn’t room for the Pro’s wacky hinge, apparently, because Microsoft wanted this thing to be tiny. It’s only 8.7mm thick, and weighs 1.37 pounds (the Type Cover keyboard adds about a half-pound). It’s amazingly small, especially given how sturdy it feels. There’s an 8-megapixel camera on the back, which Microsoft swears people do actually use, and a 3.5-megapixel webcam on the front for video chats and checking your teeth.

The Surface 3 has a 10.8-inch, 1920 x 1280 display, rather than the Pro 3’s 12-inch, same-resolution panel. It supports the same pen input as the other Surface models, and works with all the Touch and Type Covers as well—there are even a few new colors, like a bright orange that may blind passersby when you use it.

There are some big functional differences, obviously, especially considering the performance drop from the Surface Pro’s pro-level Intel Core processors down to the Atom line, which is very much designed with smartphones and tablets in mind. It’s a little less powerful than the Core M chip you’ll find inside, say, the new MacBook, but Microsoft is all about price-cutting here. There were some people who wouldn’t or couldn’t buy a Surface Pro 3 for the starting price of $799, and it hopes $499 is more palatable. That price buys you 64GB of storage and 2GB of RAM, or you can get 128GB and 4GB for $599. It’s also $100 cheaper, in both sizes, than an iPad Air 2 with equivalent storage. If you want to step up to an LTE Surface 3, just add another $100 to the price.

Since they run identical operating systems and have very similar features otherwise, either Surface—Pro or plain—could potentially be “the tablet that can replace your laptop,” but there’s a different sort of user intended for the Surface 3. Let’s be honest: its processor is more suited to Word and Excel than Photoshop and Premiere. But those power users are probably willing to pay for what they need—and hey, Microsoft will say, there’s a Surface Pro 3 right over here.

There’s now a Surface just about anyone can afford. But does everyone want a Surface in the first place? The lineup has apparently sold well recently, accounting for $1.1 billion in revenue for Microsoft last quarter. But even as Microsoft trumpeted that number, it also quietly killed the Windows RT-running Surface 2. Which, well, obviously: why would you want a Windows device that doesn’t run all the Windows apps you use?

Now it’s put up or shut up time for the smaller Surface. It can finally be cheap, powerful, and fully-featured. But taking down the iPad, the ThinkPad, or both, is much, much harder.