The Microsoft Surface Tablet has been featured in Global news now since it was announced months ago. The most exciting part of the Surface Tablet design however is with their new magnetic keyboard concept which is offered in two versions.

The Touch Cover version is a laser etched soft keyboard which is supplied in either black, white, magenta, red and cyan. It has a multi touch trackpad with two buttons.

The Type Cover version is only supplied in black and resembles a fully functioning physical keyboard with trackpad.

Many people expected them to be rather poor imitations of a proper keyboard, but the press who have reviewed them so far, seem impressed.

Walt Mossberg of All Things Digital said “These are better than any of the add-on keyboards I’ve seen for the iPad. And Microsoft has built in a standard USB port and a sturdy kickstand for typing on a desk.

There is a downside to these keyboards: They are almost useless on your lap. There is no hinge to keep the screen upright and the kickstand works poorly on your legs. Despite that, these features make the Surface better for traditional productivity tasks than any tablet I’ve tested.”

Matt Burns of TechCrunch said “Without a Touch Cover, the Surface RT feels incomplete in design and function. The problem here is that the Surface is basically a big laptop screen without the keyboard. The cover rights the design’s wrongs by forcing the user to use the physical keyboard rather than the on-screen keyboard. Microsoft knows this. After all, Surface is rarely advertised without a Touch Cover, but that doesn’t alleviate the sting of paying another $100+ for a keyboard.”

Peter Bright of Ars Technica didn't think it would be any good, but ending up loving it. He said “I expected to hate the Touch Covers. I wanted to hate the Touch Covers. As a fluent touch-typist who normally uses an extremely loud Dell clicky keyboard, the Touch Covers represent an affront to everything I stand for. But the damn things work, and work well, and I don't really know how I feel about that. They do take a little getting used to; it'll be a few days before you're really comfortable on them. 50 words per minute should be readily achievable, with an accuracy and convenience that surpasses any on-screen keyboard.”

Kitguru says: It seems a winner for Microsoft. Let us see if the sales figures back up the claims.

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