Microsoft’s Surface Pro arriving in UK and Ireland next month

23 Apr 2013

The Microsoft Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet PC

Microsoft has confirmed the Surface Pro Windows 8 tablet PC will arrive in the UK and Irish markets, other European countries, Australia and New Zealand, before the end of May. The company has not yet revealed the price of the device, but in the US it retails for around US$959 (€783).

Surface Pro will launch before the end of May in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK.

A further rollout of the Surface Pro will continue with availability of the device in Russia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

The Surface Pro is the more heavy-duty version of its predecessor, Surface RT. Unlike the Surface RT, which ran on an ARM processor, the Surface Pro will run on an Intel Core i5 chipset.

The 64-bit Surface Pro will come with up to 128GB of storage, weighs 2 lbs and is just 13.5mm thick. It has a 10.6-inch display and comes with a pen device for writing upon the touchscreen.

“The enthusiasm for Surface has been fantastic, and we love hearing the stories of people who are making it the one device they use to work and play,” Microsoft Surface general manager Brian Hall wrote in a blog post.

“This is what Surface was designed to do – simplify your life while letting you do more! In fact, one of our biggest challenges has been keeping our 128GB Surface Pro in stock. We’ve worked hard to increase availability, and most retail partners in the US and Canada, as well as the Microsoft Store, now have the 128GB product consistently in stock.

“To those of you who have pressed for information – please understand that before making these announcements we make sure that we have the volume of devices in place and alignment with our retail partners to do each launch well,” Hall added.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com