Microsoft Surface is now a known quantity. It's sold out on pre-order and has been tested to the hilt by tech pundits across the U.S (including this one). The Surface is an exceptional Windows tablet that, with its Touch Cover, can masquerade as a touch-screen Ultrabook. We know so much, but not everything. Here are nine behind-the-scenes secrets about the new Microsoft product, which I learned from those who built it.
1) It Really Was a Secret
Microsoft's Surface team worked in secret at the company's Studio B building in Redmond, Washington. Word has it that many at Microsoft had no idea what this team was doing. When I took a special tour of the building and all the rooms where Surface was designed and tested, we typically passed through two locked barriers and always under the watchful eye of some very stern-looking security guards. Those working on and testing the product were not allowed to take it outside. Though hundreds tested Surface, it was always in "locked offices, with the curtain down."
The outside world was certainly in the dark. As Surface lead Panos Panay put it "We had the great advantage of nobody was looking." In other words, we were all looking at Apple, a company known for secrecy and always expected to deliver some fresh innovation to our doorstep. Microsoft innovates, but rarely gets credit for it. Yet it's never been this secretive, and certainly no one expected a Microsoft tablet. So we weren't paying attention. Panos said that during the Surface development cycle, they had "zero industrial espionage incidents."
Even so, the June 18 announcement date came about because Microsoft realized they were getting to a point where it would be virtually impossible to maintain secrecy and chose to tell the story before someone else did.
2) The First Surface Was Cardboard
The Surface Tablet concept was conceived, in part, with the idea of "opening a book," sort of like the long defunct Courier (though no one at Microsoft ever mentioned that dead project). I actually touched the first cardboard mockup, which was held together with Scotch tape and is surprisingly close to the final design. From that early stage, Microsoft's small team of Surface designers spent months refining the Surface concept and progressed through "boxes" full of 3D-models, most of which were built with a Polyjet 3D printer. ID Studio's Designers told me they "iterated until there wasn't any 'ink' left in the 3D printer."
3) Surface Almost Had a Lucite Keyboard
Microsoft Surface is a tablet, but it's also one with a very close relationship to its snap-in keyboard. The product ships with a urethane-covered one ($599 bundle model) and a real keypad option ($129). That keyboard was almost a shiny Lucite panel, but studies on how users find home keys quickly proved that idea wouldn't work. The resulting polyurethane is, Microsoft promises, "no shrink and super durable."
4) Microsoft Had to Invent
Microsoft was so demanding about the size, shape, look, feel and tolerances of the magnesium-clad Surface tablet, that designers said they had to invent some new machinery to build it. The Windows RT-based product is designed in the U.S., but like most tech these days, it's built in China. As a result, team members made more than half a dozen trips to China over the last year.
5) Surface Is 3D
Microsoft relied heavily on 3D printing to model virtually every part in the Surface tablet. All those parts are the created in the real world on hundreds of Computer Numerated Control machines. These are essentially computer-controlled vertical millers (kind of like Dremels). Studio B has a handful of them, but there are hundreds in Chenzou, China, where Surface is manufactured. Unlike human-controlled milling, these babies are precise to 0.5 microns.
6) Touch Cover Keys Labels Are Not Printed White
The 3mm-thick Touch Covers are almost as stuffed full of technology as the Surface tablet itself. Each Touch Cover is built in layers, with a carbon-fiber base, a thin layer of pressure sensors (that respond to grams-per-inch of pressure), a layer of white material and then the polyurethane cover. Microsoft showed me how a laser carves through the black cover to reach the white layer and label all the keys. Microsoft also spent a year figuring out how to develop a keyboard that would shut off when you folded it against the back of the Surface tablet. They settled on something they called "Flux Fountain," which creates a mechanical interference and turns the keyboard off at just the right point in the rotation to the back.
7) Surface Display's Resolution Is Lower Than the iPad by Design
Microsoft Surface Tablet's screen is 42% larger than the iPad's, but it has far fewer pixels. The company's display expert, however, told me that the JND (or just noticeable difference) between the screens is far lower than one might assume. Since Microsoft focused on squeezing the LCD, touch sensor and Gorilla Glass 2 cover closer together, so the spaces between the three drop to 0.5mm (as opposed to 1 mm in competing devices), the refraction is far, far less on the Surface display. In the lab-based demo I saw, this appeared to be true. However, as I said in my review, the Surface display does not look appreciable better than Apple's iPad Retina screen.
8) Surface Is Custom
There are over 200 custom parts in Microsoft's Surface Tablet and it's all squeezed together to remove pretty much all the space and air that might otherwise exist. For example, when Microsoft went looking for hinges for the signature, built-in kickstand, it ended up building new ones from scratch. The three hinges have built-in dampers that keep the stand from snapping against the back of the Surface. This picture shows a semi-translucent, large scale model of one of them.
9) You'll See Surface's 22-Degree Chamfer Everywhere
Microsoft is pretty proud of the sharply tilted edge you see on the Surface. It's exactly 20 degrees and, if you visit a Microsoft store, you'll see that same 22-dgree angle repeated over and over again.
BONUS: Surface RT Review
This is the Surface tablet with Touch Cover in place.
Microsoft's boxing is as clean and well-designed as anything from Apple.
Details about Surface can be found on the back. Notice that our unit is the 64 GB model.
This is all there is inside the Surface box: A Tablet and AC power adapter.
Underneath the Surface is this tiny instruction booklet.
It has just enough instruction to get you started.
A closer look at the instruction booklet.
Removing the Surface for the first time.
The metal kick stand flips open with a flick of the finger.
This USB 2.0 slot works with most of your Windows peripherals. Here, I stuck in a Bluetooth connector for my Microsoft Arc Mouse.
The magnetic power jack is convenient, but the magnetic plug doesn't always click in that smoothly. Also, is this really the best spot for a micro-SD slot?
This tablet is built with a keyboard in mind. Both the Touch Cover and Touch Keyboard snap into this channel with a resounding "click!"
Front and back cameras shoot 720P video and just above 1 MP stills.
The volume rocker has an interesting trick: Press up or down volume twice and the volume will zoom all the way up or down on its own.
We got the $699 64 GB Surface and Touch Cover bundle. This is what the touch Cover looks like in the box.
The touch cover, which is the same width as the Surface tablet, easily accommodates my two largish hands.
This is the welcome screen. A swipe up or tape on the space bar brings up the log-in. Just like traditional Windows, Windows RT supports multiple user profiles.
You can alter Windows RT just as much as you can Windows 8 and its predecessor, Windows 7.
While I had some trouble finding a decent drawing app in the Windows app store, Fresh pain is a powerful, virtual media app.
Yes, you can draw on this tablet with your finger, but it did not work particularly well with a stylus.
This racing game's start screen was far more impressive than the actual game.
IE 10 in windows RT is, like IE in Windows 8, a full-scale, touch-friendly redesign.
Amazon has built a native app for Windows RT. Of course, if you build an app for Windows 8, it should work for everything from Windows Phone to Windows 8 to Windows RT.
Windows RT Start Screen looks and works exactly like Windows 8
If you want to share in Windows RT, you have to dig under People to find Twitter an Facebook.
I love how easy it is to connect to a Homegroup printer and print right from within Windows RT.
Search is ubiquitous and contextual.
So are settings.
RT has a file system that's quite easy to navigate.
Searchable across files is easy, too.
Underneath RT is a very familiar Windows Desktop and Explorer like file manager.
A swipe down at the top of the screen reveals all your open browser windows (in thumbnail form).
A swipe up from the bottom opens a contextual control bar, in this case for email.
You have your photos on the device and those your sharing with the Skydrive cloud,
The Task Manager is simplified, but still there in Windows RT (so is the Registry).
Got too many tiles? Pinch and Zoom to get 30,000 ft view.
This is the Surface tablet with Touch Cover in place.
Microsoft's boxing is as clean and well-designed as anything from Apple.
Details about Surface can be found on the back. Notice that our unit is the 64 GB model.
This is all there is inside the Surface box: A Tablet and AC power adapter.
Underneath the Surface is this tiny instruction booklet.
It has just enough instruction to get you started.
A closer look at the instruction booklet.
Removing the Surface for the first time.
The metal kick stand flips open with a flick of the finger.
This USB 2.0 slot works with most of your Windows peripherals. Here, I stuck in a Bluetooth connector for my Microsoft Arc Mouse.
The magnetic power jack is convenient, but the magnetic plug doesn't always click in that smoothly. Also, is this really the best spot for a micro-SD slot?
This tablet is built with a keyboard in mind. Both the Touch Cover and Touch Keyboard snap into this channel with a resounding "click!"
Front and back cameras shoot 720P video and just above 1 MP stills.
The volume rocker has an interesting trick: Press up or down volume twice and the volume will zoom all the way up or down on its own.
We got the $699 64 GB Surface and Touch Cover bundle. This is what the touch Cover looks like in the box.
The touch cover, which is the same width as the Surface tablet, easily accommodates my two largish hands.
This is the welcome screen. A swipe up or tape on the space bar brings up the log-in. Just like traditional Windows, Windows RT supports multiple user profiles.
You can alter Windows RT just as much as you can Windows 8 and its predecessor, Windows 7.
While I had some trouble finding a decent drawing app in the Windows app store, Fresh pain is a powerful, virtual media app.
Yes, you can draw on this tablet with your finger, but it did not work particularly well with a stylus.
This racing game's start screen was far more impressive than the actual game.
IE 10 in windows RT is, like IE in Windows 8, a full-scale, touch-friendly redesign.
Amazon has built a native app for Windows RT. Of course, if you build an app for Windows 8, it should work for everything from Windows Phone to Windows 8 to Windows RT.
Windows RT Start Screen looks and works exactly like Windows 8
If you want to share in Windows RT, you have to dig under People to find Twitter an Facebook.
I love how easy it is to connect to a Homegroup printer and print right from within Windows RT.
Search is ubiquitous and contextual.
So are settings.
RT has a file system that's quite easy to navigate.
Searchable across files is easy, too.
Underneath RT is a very familiar Windows Desktop and Explorer like file manager.
A swipe down at the top of the screen reveals all your open browser windows (in thumbnail form).
A swipe up from the bottom opens a contextual control bar, in this case for email.
You have your photos on the device and those your sharing with the Skydrive cloud,
The Task Manager is simplified, but still there in Windows RT (so is the Registry).
Got too many tiles? Pinch and Zoom to get 30,000 ft view.
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