The new Surface 3 laptop-cum-tablet launches today in the UK, but we snuck into Microsoft’s ‘Art Of Doing More’ exhibition ahead of time to see what it’s capable of.
To launch its latest Surface tablet, Microsoft chose to partner with contemporary art company, Beautiful Crime. Together they approached artists from a myriad of backgrounds, covering everything from photography to painters, screen printers and digital artists.
Talents like Carne Griffiths, Pascal Barker and D*Face were given Surface 3 tablets to help facilitate the creation of 101 unique art pieces which helped make up the Art Of Doing More exhibition.
The gallery itself, nestled within the corner of Finsbury Avenue Square in east London, showcases a range of talents and styles. We gravitated towards the Día de Muertos-inspired creations of contemporary artist Lox (the Daft Punk number was their creation), but whether they were used for the initial development or the final product, Surface 3s were involved in the creation of all of the artwork on display at the exhibition, which is open from today until next Tuesday.
The Microsoft Surface 3 is the new sibling to last year’s Surface Pro 3 and serves as a landmark release in the Surface family, being the first of devices outside of the Pro line to benefit from access to a full Windows (8.1) experience and not be confined by the shortcomings of Windows RT.
Microsoft says the new Surface is aimed at the ‘modern professional’ and to wax lyrical about its abilities for creative types Ellie Richardson, the company’s senior category manager for Surface explained, “We wanted to bring to life the versatility and capability of the Surface 3 with this exhibition. While it has the size and portability of a tablet, the Surface 3 has the performance of a laptop, which we knew would pair magically with the creativity of some of Britain’s top contemporary artists.”
The first 100 customers to purchase a Surface 3 will actually be given the option to choose from the specially created artworks on display at the Art Of Doing More Exhibition free of charge and be in with a chance of an exclusively commissioned piece by aforementioned artists D*Face.
Surface 3 at a glance
| Dimensions | 267mm x 187mm x 8.7mm |
|---|---|
| Weight | 622 grams |
| Screen size | 10.8-inches |
| Screen resolution | 1920 x 1280 pixels |
| OS | Windows 8.1 (upgradable to Windows 10) w/ 1 year Office 365 Personal |
| Processor | 1.6 GHz Intel Atom x7-Z8700 quad-core processor (Cherry Trail) |
| Memory | 2GB or 4GB |
| Storage | 64GB or 128GB (both microSD expandable up to 2TB) |
| Cameras | 8-megapixel (rear), 3.5-megapixel (front) |
The Microsoft Surface 3 hits stores today starting at £419, but with an all-new Type Cover and the dedicated Surface Pen, we’d recommend shelling out a little more to get the real creative experience. Stay tuned for the full review, very soon.
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