14 DAY TRIAL // Finally, after months of development and refinements, the large LCD surface that Samsung and Microsoft have made is ready to ship to customers.
The SUR40 from Samsung would pass for an all-in-one computer if it weren't for its shape and the targeted applications.
For those that missed the official demonstration made back in May, 2011, or the update in November the same year, this is, quite simply, a multitouch table.
A 40-inch display rests horizontally and is driven by an AMD-based system loaded with Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system.
An AMD Athlon X2 2.9 GHz CPU is backed by 4GB of RAM (random access memory) and complemented by a Radeon HD 6750M GPU.
Also, a hard disk drive of 320GB is present.
That said, the display is, in the end, the greatest asset, with its Gorilla Glass coating (for endurance) and the Surface 2.0 software with PixelSense touchscreen technology from Microsoft.
Long story short, each pixel on the LCD screen has a sensor next to it, ultimately allowing the display to not just detect touch but also 'see' whatever shapes are above the panel.
In other words, since this is a Full HD panel, there are about 2 million sensors that can see whole-hand gestures and even read text or QR codes.
Furthermore, the touchscreen can keep track of 50 simultaneous touch points, so that multiple people can work at it at once.
Samsung expects the SUR40 to be placed on a wall or horizontally on another surface or the special stand.
Unfortunately, there are concerns about the sophistication and potential of the SUR40 table working against it: it can do a lot of things but people would need to spend a while to get acquainted with everything.
Finally, there are various other table surfaces which, though not nearly as advanced or fast, are much less expensive.
As such, since not all restaurants and hotels will afford the $8,400 / 6,598 Euro ($9,049 / 7,108 Euro when the special stand is included), Samsung and Microsoft will need to bring out all the marketing guns they have.