Microsoft builds giant Surface in Trafalgar Square, Skypes Dizzee Rascal

Marketing stunt celebrating the release of the new tablets ropes in celebrated rapper

Thursday 24 October 2013 14:43 BST

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Microsoft’s marketing team are on a rampage in the run-up to Christmas, celebrating the launch of the Surface Pro 2 by building a giant version of the tablet in Trafalgar Square and calling Dizzee Rascal up on Skype.

The Surface features a 26 x 17ft screen and a working keyboard (a replica of Type Cover 2) which local school children have been jumping about on to play a spelling game in the style of Tom Hanks in Big.

The mammoth device is powered by a Surface 2 hooked up with nothing more than USB and micro HDMI cables.

The latest updates to Microsoft’s Surface range were unveiled in New York last month but went on sale in the UK on Tuesday, with the Surface 2 going on sale from £359 for 16GB of memory and the higher-powered Surface Pro 2 starting at £719 with 64GB of memory.

The updated tablet-laptop hybrids offer improved battery life and processing power over the 2012 models, as well as a re-designed kickstand that allow the device to be used more comfortably on users’ laps (a common criticism of the original models).

Both versions come with a 10.1-inch 1080p screen, with the Surface 2 (they’ve dropped the ‘RT’ moniker) using Nvidia’s Tegra 4 1.7GHz processor whilst the Pro 2 has Intel’s fourth-generation Haswell i5 chips inside.