Microsoft Surface: Massive price slash pits Windows versus the iPad mini!

 

The Microsoft Surface Windows tablet’s been on sale since before Christmas, priced to take on Apple’s 9.7-inch full fat iPad at £400. Microsoft’s just got much more aggressive however, drastically slashing the price of its flagship Windows RT slate by a full third. Would you pick one of these now over the smaller and cheaper iPad mini?

Head on over to surface.com and you’ll see that the software giant has dropped the price of the 10.6-inch 32GB Microsoft Surface RT tablet to just £279 (without the smart keyboard cover), just a tenner more than Apple asks for the 7.9-inch, oh so portable iPad mini.

Now, there are some significant difference between the two devices: both run different software, and the Surface is almost twice the size of an iPad mini, which makes it easier for typing on at a desk, but less comfortable to hold in your lap. Apple’s iOS store boasts hundreds of thousands of apps, but the Surface packs a USB port so you can plug your own PC peripherals in. It’s swings and roundabouts

It’s not quite clear why Microsoft has dropped the price of the Surface now: Windows RT’s not had the best start in life, with few popular apps available for the platform, so it could be that sales have struggled, as some analysts believe. Or it could be that a Microsoft Surface 2, or even a Microsoft Surface Mini, is just around the corner – the optimists in us hope it’s that, as we’re always for more competition.

Which would you pick, a Microsoft Surface or an iPad mini? Tell us where your allegiances lie in the comments below!

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Nokia Windows RT tablet coming in February

 

A Nokia Windows RT tablet to take on the Microsoft Surface and Apple iPad? You betcha. Nokia’s top execs have hinted at a Windows tablet before, but a new report’s just given us a date as to when we could see slice of nice debut – and it’s just weeks away.

Digitimes reports that Nokia will “resume” work on a 10-inch tablet powered by Windows RT, and will likely unveil the slate at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona at the end of February. Sources says that work on the Nokia Windows RT tablet originally began at the start of 2012, but the Finns put it on hold when Microsoft released its own Surface tablet running the same operating system.

Windows RT is a stripped down version of Windows 8 designed to run on mobile processors like zippy tablet rivals such as the iPad. Now that Nokia’s seen some success with its Windows Phone 8 smartphones, it might be ready to branch out.

It wouldn’t be the first time Nokia made a Windows computer though – remember the Nokia Booklet 3G laptop? Fingers crossed a Nokia Windows RT tablet can make more of an impact.