New MSFT Surface

Microsoft has announced the Surface 3, a new entry in its not-a-tablet-it's-a-notebook line, pitching the smaller device as a "more compact and efficient package" than the Surface Pro 3.

The Redmond, Wash. company today began taking pre-orders for the Surface 3; the Wi-Fi-only models will go on sale May 5. Devices that include built-in connectivity to mobile data networks will ship in late June.

The Surface 3 -- successor to the Surface 2, before that the doomed Surface RT -- is also priced lower than its larger Pro sibling: $499 to start for a model with 64GB of on-board storage space and 2GB of RAM, $599 for the configuration that doubles both of those numbers. The $499 was the same price as the low-end 32GB Surface RT in October 2012.

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 begins at $799, and climbs to a top-tier price of $1,949.

Those prices, however, are sans a $130 keyboard, mandatory to make any Surface laptop-like. "It's a mistake not to bundle a keyboard," said Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research, last week in an interview. He doubled down on that today, again criticizing Microsoft for selling the keyboard separately.

The low-end Surface 3 with an accompanying Surface 3 Type Cover runs $629. By comparison, a 64GB iPad with a third-party keyboard costs about $700.