Over the past few days, Neowin has been able to uncover many of Microsoft’s upcoming plans for its Surface products. These plans include the specs for the Surface 2, a new battery powered cover, called the Power Cover, and a new dock for the Pro line of Surfaces.
Microsoft has other products in the works besides these devices including a rumored Surface Mini and, of course, the Surface RT. In this post, we will shine a bit of light on Microsoft"s upcoming Surface RT 2 plans.
The story of the Surface RT is a bit complex as Microsoft introduced the RT with the general availability of Windows 8 but since its introduction, the tablet has not been selling all that well in the market. This was likely because the device was priced too high and to make the product more appealing to consumers, the company slashed the priced by $150.
If you are curious about what the features will be for the upcoming Surface RT 2, likely to be called just the Surface, the device will be equipped with a Tegra 4 CPU, 1080P screen, two-step style kickstand and we are also hearing the RAM will get bumped to 4GB too. We are not sure if the RAM bump will be like that of the Surface Pro 2 that may include models that have either 4GB or 8GB.
These updates will result in a modest bump to the specs to the Surface RT and will help keep the tablet running Windows RT 8.1 with ease. These updates are clearly a evolutionary step for the Surface RT family and is by no means a complete re-write of the device.
We will be curious to see what the price point is when Microsoft releases the device to see if they stick with the $349 price or if they return to the initial MSRP of $499.
As with previous leaks, we do not have a timeline for release but considering the last RT shipped in October and Windows 8.1 hits GA in that month as well, we would expect Microsoft to put the product on store shelves around the time.
Paul Thurrott has also chimed in with a few more details that compliment our information.