Microsoft has announced that their Surface tablet running Windows 8 pro will be hitting the shelves in January, with the device being priced in the US at $899, about £560. That's $100 less than an 11in MacBook Air but a whole $400 more than the latest iPad.

For the extra cost you get a higher resolution screen that the Windows RT Surface, increasing the resolution from 1366 x 768 to a full HD 1920 x 1080. Running Windows 8 Pro also means that the Surface Pro can run all existing Windows software, as well as new apps designed for the tiled interface of the new operating system.

Designed for work as well as play, the Surface Pro comes with a stylus so that annotations can be added to your documents on the go.

Coming in either 64 or 128 GB flash storage, the company has not announce how much the two versions will retail at in the UK.

Written and presented by Alfred Joyner