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Microsoft's Surface Pro pops on Best Buy

The tablet makes its first appearance on Best Buy's Web site. It's due to go on sale February 9.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers
Surface Pro will offer laptop-like performance in a 2-pound tablet.
Surface Pro will offer laptop-like performance in a 2-pound tablet. Best Buy

Microsoft's Surface Pro has made its first appearance on a retailer's site other than Microsoft's.

That would be big box retailer Best Buy, which is already boasting that the new Microsoft tablet will go on sale at midnight February 8 at a store in Union Square in New York City.

Best Buy lists the two available models, 64GB and 128GB, priced at $899 and $999, respectively. Neither product comes with the $129 Type Cover, which is a 5.75 mm-thick mechanical keyboard.

Microsoft is also offering a $119 Touch Cover pressure-response keyboard.

The tablet comes with 4GB of memory and an Intel "Ivy Bridge" processor. Combine those two features with the 128GB solid-state drive, and you have an ultrabook in tablet's clothing.

Which means better performance in Windows 8 desktop mode than the existing Surface RT tablet, though battery life will suffer because of the more power-hungry processor.

And storage has become a delicate issue for Microsoft. While the 128GB version of Surface Pro has 83GB of free storage out of the box, the 64GB version has only 23GB of free disk space, Microsoft said a few days back.

Finally, note that some Microsoft stores are displaying the tablet starting today. For example, a Microsoft Store in Los Angeles has the Surface Pro in-store today, CNET confirmed.


Best Buy's listing say's 'coming soon' but doesn't have an option to pre-order -- yet.
Best Buy's listing say's 'coming soon' but doesn't have an option to pre-order -- yet. Best Buy

[Via WinBeta ]