As promised on Monday, Microsoft has started taking pre-orders for its newly announced Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2 tablets. The pre-orders are being taken on the Microsoft Store web site in the U.S., along with Best Buy"s website in the U.S. and Canada, ahead of the tablets" official launch date of October 22nd.
The Microsoft Store listing confirms that the Surface 2 is available in 32GB and 64GB versions, which are priced at $449 and $549, respectively. Like the original Surface RT, which is still being sold by Microsoft at $349, Surface 2 comes with a free pre-installed copy of Office RT 2013 Home and Student which includes the new Outlook RT email client.
The Surface Pro 2 is being sold in 64GB and 128GB versions with 4GB of RAM and are priced at $899 and $999, respectively. The 256GB and 512GB models with 8GB of RAM are being sold at $1,299 and $1,799. The new Touch Cover 2 and Type Cover 2 are also available for pre-order, priced at $19.99 and $119.99. Microsoft is not offering bundles of the new tablets with either the new Touch or Type Covers this time.
People who buy the Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2 will be able to get 200GB of storage on SkyDrive for free for two years. As we reported earlier, Microsoft is letting everyone else purchase 200GB of SkyDrive space for $100 a year. Also, buying one of the new tablets will allow people to use Skype to call landlines in over 60 countries for free for one year, along with free access to paid Skype Wi-Fi hotspots for the same time period.
Source: Microsoft Store | Image via Microsoft