microsoft surface
Photographer: Mike Kane

Microsoft has come running with the professional and creative markets with inventive tablets and a desktop that turns into a virtual drafting table. The sleek laptop costs GHS4,200, boots in seconds and weigh 2.76 pounds and runs on Windows 10s.

During a tour at Microsoft’s sprawling Redmond, Washington, headquarters last month, the Surface team showed off the $999 machine’s evolution, starting from the first prototype—little more than a mashup of parts from older Microsoft devices—to the finished product. The engineers and designers spent two years working on the machine. They created multiple prototypes and inviting partners like Intel to set up shop right on campus.

But according to Microsoft VP of Devices Panos Panay, the man in charge of the Surface line, the Surface Laptop is indeed for students — specifically college-bound ones looking to invest in a serious PC to get them through years of higher education.

Read Also: HTC next phone to be squeezable

“This is where we wanted to put our focus, into those next four years of a student’s life, when they’re just about to get out of high school,” said Panay in an interview with CNET following the Surface Laptop’s announcement. “We wanted to bring them a product they could have so much confidence in.”

Panay put it during his onstage introduction of the Surface Laptop: “It’s going to last that student from the day they walk into their orientation to the day they walk across that stage for their graduation.”

Read Also: Meet Android 7.0

But many of the other Windows 10 S laptops demoed at the same event will cost between $189 and $299. The Microsoft’s Surface Laptop represents a pretty significant price jump over those. How exactly did Microsoft arrive at the magic formula targeting college students looking for a thousand-dollar laptop?

Don’t Miss: How to Extend Your Battery Life