I’ve been intrigued by Microsoft’s Surface line ever since the introduction of the original. There were certainly flaws, and the pricing made it that a laptop seemed more advantageous, but it was a really cool idea. When we got one at work for testing, I liked as much what I held in my hand as what I had seen in articles and reviews online.

A few days ago, Microsoft announced their third Surface Pro, with some significant changes that transform its potential use cases and make an even stronger argument for why the product is viable today. To me, the draw is even stronger.

Microsoft has a bit of a history of needing three attempts to really solidify their position in areas.  Windows 3.0 was the first version to truly begin capturing peoples’ attention, cemented by the updates via Windows 3.1. Internet Explorer came into its own with the third version. Microsoft got good marks for their third version of Zune, even though it wasn’t a huge seller.

They certainly deserve credit for trying to push hardware forward, and showing that compromise isn’t necessary for a touch device.  Whether it’ll succeed is another question, but it’s hard to deny that they’ve designed a pretty impressive piece of hardware.