Microsoft announced their own "Ipad killer" today. Could be interesting, but I bet they price it pretty high.

I do like the smart cover with the keyboard built-in though.

Thoughts?

Well it looks cool. Been very happy with my Motorlla Xoom tablet for over year now though. Love the thing. Probably wont get a new tablet until the next major hardware leap.

If the Windows 8 Pro Surface with the Intel i5 can run Diablo 3 count me in. I sold my Asus Transformer TF101 recently with the intentions of getting a Tegra 3 tablet, but not I am curious to see what Windows 8 tablets will do.

Touch screen Diablo 3...ehh count me out. Can't do Inferno on that.

Tablet looks nice, though.

real excited to get real world reviews of the pen input - could be nice.

Originally Posted by panzerfaust Touch screen Diablo 3...ehh count me out. Can't do Inferno on that. Tablet looks nice, though.

It's got a USB port so mouse support maybe and the flap can be used as a keyboard.

Originally Posted by Habbler It's got a USB port so mouse support maybe and the flap can be used as a keyboard.

Also has a touchpad built in which you can just barely see below the keyboard. I have to say I think that blue is hideous, as are most of the colors they showed. I'd probably just get a black one.

I still hate Metro, and full Windows OS tablets have always been horrible, don't see how having 8 would make the Pro version any better. I'd just get an ultrabook.

16x9 screen kills it for me. I do a ton of reading (PDFs, books, newspapers, magazines etc.) on my iPad and much prefer at 4x3 screen for that.

16x9 screens are just two narrow in portrait. Particularly for letter sized documents.

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Dynamic document formats Are the answer to that. Just as with most modern web pages, they can resize to fit whatever you're using. Unfortunately most documents aren't dynamic. I remember trying to read a college text book on my Nook Color, it was a PDF. Of course the book was at least letter sized, so that was a bit difficult. Hopefully that will change in the coming years, so it will be easier to read things across different devices.

"iPad killer?" They're a few years too late to be claiming that already. I won't lie, it does look very nice. But this is typical Microsoft -- wait a few years after another company innovates, then imitate with a few extra features to claim originality.

Originally Posted by Clak Dynamic document formats Are the answer to that. Just as with most modern web pages, they can resize to fit whatever you're using. Unfortunately most documents aren't dynamic. I remember trying to read a college text book on my Nook Color, it was a PDF. Of course the book was at least letter sized, so that was a bit difficult. Hopefully that will change in the coming years, so it will be easier to read things across different devices.

Yep. A lot of what I'm reading on my iPad are PDFs of scholarly journal articles which aren't dynamic/reflowabe. Even if they were, that doesn't really work for research articles due to the tables and figures needing to be preserved and readable.

Even without such problems, I just find it weird reading on a narrow 16x9 screen in portrait even when it's say a Kindle book that can be reflowed with no problems. Just odd after being used to books and documents that are closer to 4:3 in ratio.

It's actually two tablets. One with an ARM processor that runs a slimmer version of windows 8 (windows RT) and comes in 32GB and 64GB sizes. The other has an intel processor, is a little heavier, thicker and runs full windows 8. Comes in 64GB and 128GB. They've said they're committed to pricing them competitively with ARM based tablets and ultrabooks, respectively. Expect $500-$600 for the RT tablet and probably $800-$1000 for the 8 Pro tablet.

Both designs look great to me. They have a slight industrial edge to them like the Zune HD had while being incredibly sleek, well-designed and pushing technical boundaries. It looks like the kick in the ass the tablet market needed. Microsoft is making full-featured PCs in a tablet package and price structure.

With HDMI and USB support, I could see using it to replace a tablet, laptop, and a desktop. Right now I need to see the price and battery life.

It will probably just end up being a passable laptop but little more. I doubt it is going to be regarded as a super tablet for most people because with its keyboard and backstand it turns too far into the "laptop" area of things.

Originally Posted by Thekrakrabbit It will probably just end up being a passable laptop but little more. I doubt it is going to be regarded as a super tablet for most people because with its keyboard and backstand it turns too far into the "laptop" area of things.

But the keyboard/cover isn't required and the kickstand is transparent if you don't need it.

Originally Posted by Anexanhume But the keyboard/cover isn't required and the kickstand is transparent if you don't need it.

It just doesn't strike me as a full fledged tablet, personally, like the Ipad clearly is. We'll see what it ends up being and how people primarily use it when it comes out though.

I'm most interested in seeing what the graphics performance and battery life is like. Hopefully neither one sucks too bad, although I'd gladly sacrifice some battery for better graphics capability. If these can really replace even a moderate laptop and have a decent battery life I may seriously consider one.

It'll also be interesting to see what other PC vendors come up with as a counter response.

By the way, in the press showing yesterday the demonstration Surface tablet they were using crashed, and they had to quickly swap it out for another one!

Originally Posted by dmaul1114 Yep. A lot of what I'm reading on my iPad are PDFs of scholarly journal articles which aren't dynamic/reflowabe. Even if they were, that doesn't really work for research articles due to the tables and figures needing to be preserved and readable. Even without such problems, I just find it weird reading on a narrow 16x9 screen in portrait even when it's say a Kindle book that can be reflowed with no problems. Just odd after being used to books and documents that are closer to 4:3 in ratio.

I think I've said this before, but it's not as awkward with a something the 7 inch size. The Nook Color/Tablet, Kindle Fire, etc. are all 16:9 and 7 inches, which ends up about the size of a paperback. Though that does no good for articles and everything.

Just looking around a little, seems to me that MS hasn't made it easy for anyone to port their stuff over to the Metro UI. If they've made it such a pain for developers they may have limited support for the RT version of this.