Pricey Microsoft Surface Pro 3 Works as Tablet and Laptop

By Kimberly Koerth

Is this the dawn of the laptop’s demise?

Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 3 tablet – which it introduced on Tuesday – looks to replace laptops by offering both portability and functionality, making it a full-powered PC with a 12-inch screen that has 50 percent more pixels.

Many tablet owners also carry a laptop, Microsoft said, and the Surface Pro 3 is an attempt to change this by improving on the traditional entertainment-based tablet design. Now consumers can use one device not only for watching movies and playing games, but also for writing essays and creating spreadsheets.

The Surface Pro 3 is slightly more than one-third of an inch thick – half the thickness of a MacBook Pro – and weighs one and three-quarters pounds. It has a battery life of up to nine hours, can be shared with multiple user accounts, and can run all Windows apps.

The tablet is available for pre-order at microsoftstore.com, Microsoft retail stores and Best Buy, and will be available for purchase in stores on June 20.

The price might be a stumbling block for some people: It ranges from $799 all the way up to $1,949, depending on amount of storage and additional features.