Microsoft announces Surface RT pricing, opens Aussie pre-orders
- — 17 October, 2012 08:34
Microsoft has announced Australian pricing for its upcoming Surface RT tablet and has promised to deliver pre-orders of the device by Tuesday 6 November.
The Surface RT tablet will aim to compete with Apple's market leading iPad in the consumer space. It has a 10.6in display, is powered by the Microsoft's new Windows 8 RT operating system and boasts a magnesium case.
The Microsoft Surface with Windows RT tablet will be available in Australia in three models. The entry-level 32GB model will be priced at $559, a 32GB version bundled with a black keyboard Touch Cover accessory will cost $679, and the 64GB model bundled with included Touch Cover will sell for $789.
The 3mm thin "Touch cover" accessory has a full multi touch keyboard and also includes a trackpad. The Touch cover is available in black, blue, red, pink and white colours and sells for $139.99 on its own.
Microsoft will sell the Touch Cover ($139.99) and the Type Cover ($149.99) as optional accessories for the Surface.
For users who prefer traditional tactile keys over touching a flat surface, an optional "Type cover", which includes a full trackpad with clicking buttons, is available in black only for $149.99.
Microsoft says all three models of the Surface RT can be pre-ordered by Australians in "a special limited quantity", though the company refused to reveal how much pre-order stock will be available. The tablet will officially launch next Friday 26 October.
Consumers who pre-order the Surface RT online through Microsoft's Australian pre-order page are assured the "order will arrive by November 6."
The Australian pre-order page for the Microsoft Surface RT.
In addition to Australia, the Microsoft Surface RT will go on sale in the US, UK, Canada, China, France, Germany and Hong Kong.
A video demonstrating the design process around the Surface can be seen below.
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Comments
David
1
Ross.
I have tried at least 5 times today since 9 AM and the Microsoft order site still has too much load to order.
Try buying one for PC World....I doubt you will be able to.
David
2
For anyone that read my above comment - I ended up completing the order by the end of the day and it finally went though (instead of the servers timing out).
But I needed to drop all the accessories as they had sold out of the VGA adapter and the HDMI adapter.
Also the base model seems sold out in some markets.
Ross Catanzariti
3
Hi David,
I tried to order first thing yesterday and it seemed to work without any issues, I didn't complete the transaction though.
Just checked this morning and it still says orders will be delivered by November 6, so it doesn't appear to be sold out in Australia just yet.
David
4
Hi Ross. Yes it was the final part of the order that was failing, the part you didn't do. Certainly the site was just terribly slow, but the final part was dying just with a spinner. This first one is for my wife. If we like it we might get a couple more for both sets of grandparents. RT in my view is good for them as they get Office, get Windows Explorer, a nice tablet experience and yet I am less likely to get bugged by them about solving issues introduced by dodgy drivers or my 70+ year old parents trying to install some dodgy software over the interwebs ;-)
PS Neither set of grandparent are in the Apple ecosystem at all thus the Surface RT consideration. I actually wished Dell had announced their price for their XPS 10 - but still waiting.