Microsoft announced today a new addition to the Surface family – the Surface 3 – which will be available in New Zealand by early May.Frazer Scott, Marketing & Operations Director for Microsoft New Zealand, says like Surface Pro 3, Surface 3 is a tablet that can replace your laptop but is thinner, lighter and even more affordable.
“Powerful and efficient, Surface 3 is optimised to run full Windows and Office and features long battery life. Starting at just $NZ799, it packs performance and value into an elegant, lightweight design,” says Scott.
Scott says the ability to run Windows apps and the versatile pen experience1 — great for taking notes or marking documents — make Surface 3 ideal for students, schools and anyone looking for a portable device to get things done.
“Surface 3 brings what customers love about Surface Pro 3 to more people, delivering the premium design and productivity of Surface in a more affordable device,” said Panos Panay, corporate vice president, Microsoft Surface.
“We’ve taken everything we learned making Surface Pro 3 and poured that innovation into this newest Surface. It’s beautiful, versatile, powerful and productive, and our customers are going to love what it lets them do.”
Powered by the new quad-core Intel Atom x7 processor, Surface 3 is quick and responsive but designed to maximise efficiency with up to 10 hours of video-playback battery life.
A range of storage and memory configurations gives people choice in power and capacity. The beautiful 10.8-inch ClearType HD multi-touch display featuring 3:2 aspect ratio, stereo speakers with Dolby.
Audio-enhanced sound, and the elegant and durable magnesium design are just a few of the benefits of Surface 3 that customers will recognize from Surface Pro 3.
The three-position kickstand is ideal for using Surface 3 while working at a desk, sitting on a couch or holding in the palm of a hand as a natural writing surface.
To help people get even more done, Surface 3 ships with full Windows 8.1 and can be upgraded to Windows 10 for free when available.
It also comes complete with a one-year subscription of Microsoft Office 365 Personal, including Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, plus OneDrive cloud storage.5 (Full device specs are available here.)

Surface 3 can be paired with new accessories (sold separately): Surface 3 Type Cover is offered in a variety of colours and features an improved trackpad and responsive keyset for fast, accurate typing, alongside four vibrant Surface Pen colours — silver, black, blue and red.
The Surface 3 Docking Station lets people easily connect to an external monitor and all their desktop devices, and Surface 3’s full-size USB 3.0 port, Mini DisplayPort, microSD card reader and Micro USB charging port make it compatible with the Surface Pro line of adapters and ready for quick and easy connections to a variety of accessories. Surface accessories specifics can be found here.
Surface 3 can be purchased via three retailers in New Zealand – JB Hi Fi, Noel Leeming, and Harvey Norman. Surface 3 can also be purchased commercially, through Datacom Systems Ltd, Spark New Zealand Ltd, Cyclone Computers Company Ltd, Acquire.co.nz, and The Laptop Company.