Microsoft’s Latest Surface Product Is ‘Hub’, And It Costs Up To $20,000

Microsoft’s Surface 3 and Surface Pro 3 are cool products, but neither can compete to Redmond’s latest in terms of sheer epicness: The 55- and 84-inch Surface “Hub”, which costs up to $20,000.

While the regular Surface products are destined for consumers and businesses like, the Surface Hub is targeted at boardrooms, where people typically use a whiteboard, projector, and other miscellaneous equipment. Microsoft notes that a typical boardroom setup could cost $38,000+, and that’s a setup far clunkier than a simple screen affixed to the wall. For its targeted audience, $20,000 could be considered a relative steal.

Both the 55- and 84-inch Surface Hub models will feature a crisp 4K resolution, and utilize technologies seen in its other products. The Surface line is an obvious source, but so is the Kinect sensor of the Xbox One. The Hub can be controlled either by a finger, a stylus, or voice, and it will have the ability to beam the screen’s content down to participants’ devices – whether they’re using a Surface tablet, Windows phone, or an Android / iOS device.

Microsoft’s Surface Hub boasts a number of impressive qualities, but there’s one that’s quite subtle: It’s being built in the United States. The New York Times is reporting that the product will be built 200 miles south of the company’s headquarters in Redmond, and it kind of sounds like it “had” to be. “Microsoft could not find existing assembly lines in Asia to build it on, the company said.”

Whatever the reason for building it in the US, it’s nice to see that production of another product is being kept in the US – an unfortunate rarity.