TAIPEI, Taiwan — Microsoft has launched the Surface Pro 3 Windows 8 tablet in Taiwan today, aiming to get rid of Apple Macbook series. Taiwanese components supply chain plays an important role, such as OEM/ODM by Pegatron, touch panel of F-TPK, Flexible Printed Circuit (FPC) from Career, keyborad of Chicony Electronics, casing from Ju Teng, and camera from Newmax Technology. Surface Pro 3 will be the main growth driver of all the above Taiwanese componet firms in the quarter three and four.
Steven Shaw, General Manager at Microsoft Taiwan says “Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world. We will reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and acheve more.”
Steven Shaw indicates that Surface Pro 3 conbines the feature of laptop in terms of productivity, along with the feature of tablet that is light and convertable. The opposing force of Surface Pro 3 is Apple Macbook , Steven Shaw makes a confession that he was also a Macbook user for four year, “those Macbook users should give Surface Pro 3 a try.”
The Surface Pro 3 has a 12in screen with a 2160x1440 resolution (a 3:2 aspect ratio), empowered by Intel Core i7 processor
and a new kickstand with a friction hinge which can open to any position up to 150 degrees.
Despite the extra size over the 10.6in Surface Pro 2, the Pro 3 is no heavier: it weighs only 800g (100g lighter). The device is 9.1mm thin compare to 10.6mm.
Another special specs of Surface Pro 3 is that it claimed to be 10 percent faster than the Surface Pro 2, and it can also drive a 4K monitor via the optional docking station. The tablet itself has a Mini DisplayPort output.
It has front-facing speakers which are 45 percent louder than before, and a USB 3 port. There's also a microSD card slot, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 LE and a TPM 2.0 chip with front and rear-facing cameras, capable of 1080p video and 5Mp photos.
However, many reviews from the Internet say that Microsoft is in hot water to fix overheating Surface Pro 3 tablets with the Intel Core i7 processor, but no official reply has been made so far.
In Taiwan, the Surface Pro 3 starts at NT$24,888 for the Core i3 with 64GB of storage, NT$31,888 for the Core i5 with 128GB of storage, NT$40,888 for the Core i5 with 256GB of storage, NT$49,888 for the Core i7 with 256GB of storage, and NT$64,888 for the Core i7 of 512GB of storage, respectively.
