Microsoft announces Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2, due Oct 22nd

Microsoft today announced the next generation of Surface hardware at its New York event this morning. Unveiling both the Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2, the company has worked to improve on the already available Windows 8 tablets. So what's new in the second wave of Windows tablets from Microsoft? Jump on past the break to find out more details.

While on stage, Microsoft Vice President of Surface Panos Panay explained how the teams have worked hard in making the next generation of Surface tablets cooler, lighter, quieter, more efficient and have longer lasting power reactors. The Surface Pro 2 was up first and is all about power, with new covers and better components to further improve the user experience. If you're after the premium Surface experience, this will be the correct choice.

In fact, it's worth noting that the Surface Pro 2 actually has a battery life double of what's presently available in the current Surface Pro tablet. That's huge, but we are talking about Intel's fourth generation Haswell chips here. The interesting part about the new battery life? The actual physical size of the batteries remains unchanged. You're really looking at the handy power station the world has been calling for.

The little, improved brother

We've recently looked at what may be coming in these two new tablets through previous leaks. It would seem as though the details revealed at earlier dates were indeed accurate. The Surface 2 is lighter, has a faster CPU and now sports a 1080 display with ClearType. Powering Windows RT 8.1, the Surface 2 brings new exciting features to the table, without bumping the price above the competition.

With Surface 2, you're also looking at USB 3.0, a 3.5MP front-facing camera and more. What's more is (as one can see in the above photo) there's a brand new colour to reflect the true colour of magnesium. So now that you're excited about the new features and improvements made to the two new Surface tablets, how about seeing a cool promo video showing them off?

So when will you be able to get your hands on one? The Surface tablets will go on sale starting October 22nd, with the Surface Pro 2 setting you back by $899, while the more affordable Surface 2 (running Windows RT 8.1) will go for just $449 for the 32GB version.

Stay tuned as we dive into more detail.

Images courtesy of CNET

For further discussion, head into our Windows 8 forums where we have dedicated areas for the new tablets! forums.wpcentral.com/#windows-8-tablets