14 DAY TRIAL // Ever since Panos Panay stepped on the stage at the May 20 New York event, he has been promoting the Surface Pro 3 as a potential replacement for traditional laptops, explaining that Apple customers no longer need to carry around both a Macbook and an iPad because they have both in the new Microsoft tablet.
Now the company is going one step further with a new series of ads that put the Surface Pro 3 against Apple’s own MacBook Air, with the purpose obviously being to highlight the benefits of using a Microsoft device.
The three new ads remind of Microsoft’s original Mac vs. PC ads rolled out at the end of the ‘90s, when the two companies were involved in a fierce battle supposed to show the advantages of their own devices. Just like then, these videos are highlight features of Microsoft’s own products, such as the touchscreen and the digital pen.
Seeing the Microsoft trying to promote the Surface Pro 3 using ads where the new tablet is compared side by side with the MacBook Air isn’t surprising, as the company has continuously used this strategy to put the capabilities of its device in the spotlight.
“All of this comes in a package that is very thin and light. It weighs just 1.76 pounds and is 0.36 inches thin. In fact, it is just half the thickness of a MacBook Pro, and 30% thinner than an 11-inch MacBook Air. Oh, and the battery life is up to 9 hours – 10% better than Surface Pro 2!” Microsoft said in the official announcement after the public unveiling of the tablet on May 20.
The Surface Pro 3 comes with a 12-inch display and several CPU configurations ranging in between Intel Core i3 and Intel Core I7. The top-of-the-range model features 8 GB of Ram and the i7 processor, while also including a digital pen that’s supposed to make drawing and writing on the tablet faster and easier.
The device obviously runs the full version of Windows 8.1 Pro, so it can be used for a wide array of purposes, as it offers compatibility for traditional Windows software, such as Photoshop and games.
Pricing however remains the most important drawback, as the aforementioned model can be yours for no less than $2,000 (€1,500) in the United States. The company has recently announced that the Surface Pro 3 will also go on sale in 25 new markets at the end of August.
