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Microsoft reportedly planning low-cost Surface tablets to compete with iPad

They'd be smaller and more rounded than the current Surface Pro line, a Bloomberg report says.

Katie Collins Senior European Correspondent
Katie a UK-based news reporter and features writer. Officially, she is CNET's European correspondent, covering tech policy and Big Tech in the EU and UK. Unofficially, she serves as CNET's Taylor Swift correspondent. You can also find her writing about tech for good, ethics and human rights, the climate crisis, robots, travel and digital culture. She was once described a "living synth" by London's Evening Standard for having a microchip injected into her hand.
Katie Collins
Microsoft Surface Book 2 (15 inch)

Microsoft is reportedly working a smaller, cheaper alternative to the Surface Pro.

Sarah Tew/CNET

Microsoft is reportedly planning to release a line of cheaper Surface tablets that will allow it to compete more effectively with Apple's iPads .

The company's smaller, lower-cost Surface tablets could arrive as soon as the second half of 2018, said Bloomberg, citing people familiar with the matter. 

With 10-inch screens, the devices would be more diminutive than the 12-inch Surface Pro, as well as being 20 percent lighter. Microsoft is rumored to have softened the appearance of the tablets, rounding off the corners to make them more like the iPad, rather than leaving them square, as with the current Surface line. The devices will also reportedly feature USB-C ports and be priced at around $400.

The smaller Surface tablets could help Microsoft to compete better with the iPads unveiled by Apple at its education event in Chicago in March

Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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