Computerworld

Microsoft releases Surface Book to Kiwi retail stores

​Microsoft announces retail availability of Surface Book throughout New Zealand, ​three months after its unveiling.

Microsoft has announced the retail availability of Surface Book throughout New Zealand, three months after its unveiling in New York.

Following Redmond’s Windows 10 devices event in October - in which the Surface Book was billed as the standout device - the local arm of the tech giant has until now remained coy on when the product would ship to Kiwi stores.

That’s now changed with New Zealanders able to purchase the Surface Book through the online Microsoft Store or retailers Noel Leeming, Harvey Norman, or JB Hi Fi, with Microsoft advising commercial customers to talk to their authorised commercial resellers.

In New Zealand, prices start from $2,749 for a 128GB / Intel Core i5 - 8GB version, rising to $4,899 for a 512GB / Intel Core i7 - 16GB model.

“Surface Book is the ultimate laptop, continuing Surface’s tradition of breaking barriers and pioneering new device categories,” says Carol Glidden, Windows & Surface Business Group Lead, Microsoft New Zealand.

“Designed for people who need maximum performance - people doing photo and video editing or engineers and architects rendering 3D models and schematics - Surface Book harnesses the power of a full desktop workstation in a sleek device that is among the fastest 13-inch laptops ever made.”

Billed as the first of its kind at launch, the Surface Book will go head-to-head with Apple’s MacBook Pro laptop, in what Microsoft calls, “the ultimate laptop”.

“Ounce for ounce, pound for pound, this is the fastest 13-inch laptop ever made,” claimed Panos Panay, Corporate Vice President of Devices, Microsoft, at launch.

“This product is about reinventing categories.”