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Surface3Feature

Microsoft has confirmed that its Surface 3 tablet, already in short supply, is in the process of beingness phased out. Microsoft will stop distributing the device by Dec at the latest, with no word yet on whether the company will replace its lower-end Surface hardware. In a statement sent to press, a Microsoft spokesperson said:

Since launching Surface 3 over a year ago, we accept seen strong demand and satisfaction amongst our customers. Inventory is now limited and by the end of December 2022, nosotros volition no longer manufacture Surface 3 devices.

The original Surface RT and Surface Pro were announced just over four years ago, but neither was a smash hit out of the gate. The Surface RT was built on an underpowered Nvidia Tegra 3 and Microsoft badly flubbed its messaging on how its ARM-compatible version of Windows differed from its x86 counterpart. Surface 2 offered much-improved performance courtesy of Nvidia's Tegra 4, but information technology was Surface 3 that returned the lower-terminate Surface platform to the x86 arena, courtesy of Intel's x7-Z8700 SoC. That chip offers a base clock of 1.6GHz, a 2.4GHz base frequency, ii LPDDR3-1600 memory channels, and a Scenario Design Power (SDP) rating every bit low every bit 2W.

Of the three non-Pro Surface tablets, the Surface 3 was by far the best-received of the agglomeration, which makes Microsoft's counterfoil with no word of a successor a bit of a surprise.

The Surface 4 SoC conundrum

Usually, Microsoft would continue adopting Intel's lower-terminate Atom SoCs for Surface devices while relying on a mixture of Core M and Core i3/i5/i7 parts for the Surface Pro or Surface Book families. Intel'southward decision to cancel its smartphone and tablet products undoubtedly threw a wrench into these plans, and it's not clear what alternate hardware Microsoft could even employ.

Surface3

Surface 3, without its Type Cover. Small tablets need small CPU cores.

Intel doesn't provide TDP figures for its Atom Z8700 family and it doesn't give SDP ratings for its Core M hardware. The lowest TDP configuration for current Core M fries is 3.5W — respectably low, but not a useful point of comparison since nosotros don't know how the two metrics relate to each other. Intel'due south list prices, on the other manus, are a matter of public record — and the $281 price tag on a Core Thousand is far to a higher place the $37 list price for an Atom SoC. You can say good-bye to x86 2-in-1's at $400 – $500 price points if OEMs have to motion to Core M processors.

AMD doesn't appear to take anything that would fit Microsoft's needs, either. The company made a few overtures to the tablet market several years agone merely never seriously tried to enter the market place. An updated version of AMD's Puma+ SoC congenital on 14nm might have been able to address this space, only AMD decided non to update its true cat cores by the 28nm node (at least, not in the PC infinite).

Rumors suggest that Microsoft might have held off on updating the Surface family this year so it tin can launch new hardware alongside its adjacent major Windows 10 release, codenamed Redstone 2 and expected to arrive in early 2022. Redmond'southward options for a new Surface three successor, however, will still be quite express. It can opt for Apollo Lake and accept higher ability consumption, simply the increased thickness and racket wouldn't play well with consumers and Microsoft isn't going to launch an ARM-but Surface 4. Keep in mind, all of this discussion applies only to the standard Surface family — Microsoft is expected to update the current Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 later on this year or early on next.

The simplest path for Microsoft to take would exist to kill Surface iii outright, continue iterating on the Surface Pro family, and let third-party OEMs like Dell and Asus handle the lower-finish of the market. It would be disappointing to come across the lower-end Surface line die just after it finally found secure footing. Unless Intel is willing to build custom hardware for Microsoft'south relatively limited needs in that location may not exist a replacement solution on the market.