Move over, Surface RT. You’ve been replaced.

Of course, the Surface RT isn’t actually going anywhere, but today at a press conference in New York Microsoft unveiled its next-gen tablets, the Surface Pro 2 and Surface 2. Apparently the original RT line was so smeared with failure, Microsoft decided to shuck the moniker for fear it would (continue) to keep customers away.

The Surface 2 comes with a much lower $449 (£359, about AU$279) price tag than the less-equipped Surface RT when it launched. That’s already a check in the “improvement” box.

Microsoft looks learned its lesson and put out an updated device with a beefier 1080p screen, the entire Microsoft Office Suite pre-loaded, as well as a faster – but not fastest – speed 1.7GHz quad-core Nvidia Tegra 4 processor. Specs are nice and all, but does the Windows 8.1 RT experience still drag down this upgraded slate? We find out in our hands on with the new Windows Surface 2.

Getting our hands on the Surface 2, the tablet instantly feels sturdier than the last iteration. It might be partially because the tablet is now made of just two magnesium pieces (the shell itself and the kickstand), but it simply feels like a thin, solid slate of silvered metal topped with glass, giving it a very industrial look.

Although the Surface 2 scales towards the larger-end of tablets with a 10.6-inch screen, it’s light in the hand. Its weight certainly didn’t distract us as we flicked across the screen while holding it one-handed, something we can’t say about the device’s more power-trained brother.

We also appreciated the new screen that’s finally high-definition at 1920 x 1080 resolution. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon processor managed to keep up with all our application switching. We’ll still reverse our final judgment on whether the processor is powerful enough after we’ve run the tablet through a few taxing games of Spartan Assault.

Peripherals

Oddly the most impressive pieces of tech to come out of the new Surface line were actually the new Touch and Type Covers.

The new, thinner Type Cover offers slightly quieter word processing for the tack-tack self-conscious library goers. But the real show stopper was the new Touch Cover. The cover lets you do even more with an array of 1,092 touch sensors, where as the old touch cover had only 80.

The keyboard is more sensitive to your drumming finger and you can even glide your fingers all over the touch keys like it was the Swype for Android.

Microsoft also unveiled a new touch-based music cover that lets you mix Skrillex with beats that react to how much pressure that you put on the sensor sheet. There are plans to release even more sheets, so we could see some very interesting uses of analog touch covers in the future.

Early verdict

It’s still to early to say if the Microsoft Surface 2 is a safe Windows 8.1 RT tablet to stick with, especially after getting burned by the first semi-capable Surface RT. There’s definitely a decent pairing of hardware compared to all the 10-inch tablets.

It might not have the specs to compete with flagships like the iPad 4 and Nexus 10, but Microsoft certainly have given the Surface 2 a better fighting chance than the RT ever had. Thanks to Microsoft Office built-in and impressive accessories, including potentially more unique covers down the line, the Surface 2 is already off to a far better start than its predecessor.

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