Yesterday, we lifted the covers off the next generation Microsoft Surface – or Surface 2.0 – at CES. Surface 2.0 represents an incredible collaboration between Microsoft and Samsung on the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface.
In the Microsoft CES Keynote last night, Mike Angiulo (Corporate Vice President for the Windows PC and Ecosystem Team) called the new version of Surface an example of “really extreme integration on Windows 7”. Gone is the “big box” Surface unit. Instead, there is a 4-inch thick 40-inch HD LCD screen (the Samsung SUR40) that can be used not only as a table but also as a kiosk mounted to the wall. The top is the biggest piece of gorilla glass that has been bonded to a LCD screen. Behind the LCD screen is a brand new technology we invented called PixelSense where infrared sensors are placed all across the screen where every single pixel acts like a camera. On the inside is a full blown Windows 7 PC powered by an AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core 2.9GHz embedded processor and a AMD Radeon HD 6700M Series GPU which supports DirectX 11. I really suggest watching Mike’s demo in the keynote to see all this awesome technology working. You can watch the keynote on demand on Microsoft’s Facebook page (click on CES 2011 tab).
For more information on the new Microsoft Surface including availability and pricing, click here for the press release on Microsoft News Center.
You can also check out Surface.com – which just received a face-lift.
I also recommend reading Steve Clayton’s blog post on the Next at Microsoft Blog and you can check out Eric Havir’s post on the Surface Blog with a video demo of the new Surface in action (I still recommend watching the Microsoft CES keynote from last night though!).