Microsoft has been offering the Microsoft Surface RT and Surface Pro with deep discounts recently for various groups such as attendees at Microsoft’s Tech Ed and Worldwide Partner Conferences. There are even hefty discounts being offered for students until the end of August.

However, folks who are not eligible for the discounts through those affiliations have been unable to get anything from the current retail outlets that carry the Microsoft hardware.

That is until today as the Microsoft Store, Best Buy and Staples all begin offering a $150 savings on both the 32Gb and 64GB versions of Surface RT.

Along with these discounts for brand new Surface RT devices Microsoft is also offering a couple of refurbished deals for Surface RT at the online Microsoft Store.

Each of these come with a 1 year limited warranty and have been fully certified and inspected by Microsoft.

So whether you choose to go for a brand new Surface RT with this discount or get one of the refurbished deals the question is – does it make the Surface RT a good purchase decision?

Well lets take a look at a quick list of pros and cons:

  • Surface RT Pros
    • Access to over 100,000 Windows Store Apps
    • Includes Office 2013 RT (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote plus Outlook later this year when Windows 8.1 is released)
    • Full access to your SkyDrive Cloud storage (even more integrated when Windows 8.1 releases)
    • Superb battery life
    • Account, System and App setting syncs between your other Windows 8 devices when using your Microsoft Account to log in
    • USB port for adding external storage devices and other peripheals
    • SD Card support to add more storage to device
  • Surface RT Cons
    • Legacy software that you run on your desktop can not be installed or used on Surface RT
    • System is an ARM device with an NVIDIA Tegra 3 Quad Core processor so it can chug along every once in a while

I got my Surface RT last November shortly after they hit the market and it has been a superb companion device for me. It is my traveling machine and has allowed me to do the things I need to do on the road. At home it is the device I use as a second screen when I am sitting on the couch or patio.

I have zero regrets about the purchase at full price and I would most certainly recommend it at these new discounted prices.

When you add in the extra value of having the full blown version of Office 2013 RT, a suite of software that would easily cost you a few hundred dollars, it is a no brainer in my opinion.

Are these discounts enough to entice you to grab a Surface RT as a primary or even secondary device?