Microsoft is already dropping not-so-subtle hints that the device is coming "early in 2013." And now it appears to have made its debut at the FCC.
Let's look at what else Microsoft is saying about the 2-pound tablet that sets it apart from the current Surface RT tablet.
- 64-bit computing in a tablet: Surface with Windows 8 Pro is
"a 64-bit tablet PC." That's not a trivial point. You get all of the
goodness of 64-bit computing via Intel's power-efficient Core i5 Ivy
Bridge processors. Surface RT, on the other hand, is 32-bit only.
- Security: Support for the same level of security you can
expect with any corporate Windows laptop. And Microsoft includes
sBitLocker, which encrypts your hard drive's data.
- Pen: It includes a pen. That's really a holdover from the
Windows 7 slates but something that some business customers still want.
- Mini DisplayPort/display: This allows connection to large high-resolution displays (e.g., Apple Cinema Display). That said, the Surface Pro's 10.6-inch (16:9) 1,920x1,080-pixel display is already the same resolution of some desktop displays. Other ports include a full-size USB 3.0, microSDXC card slot, headset jack, and Cover port
