With the unveiling of the Microsoft Surface Book, the software giant from Redmond, is now officially a hardware giant in its own right. The new laptop is quite literally a MacBook Pro rival, with features and specs to prove it.
By comparison, the Surface Pro 4 could be considered a product in competition with the MacBook Air, minus the touchscreen and stylus, although the comparison is not exactly as close a match as the one between the Surface Book and the MacBook Pro.
This is where things get a little fuzzy on the comparison front. Following the unveiling of the Apple iPad Pro, the Cupertino tech manufacturer has stirred the quiet waters of tablet computing, by introducing a 12.9 inch device that, when paired with the Smart Keyboard, and the Apple Pencil, looks very much like a Surface tablet.
Whether or not, such was the intended result, consumers are beginning to wonder whether they should consider buying either one, in spite of the fact that the two devices are so radically different.
Here are three things to consider before choosing either the iPad Pro or the Surface Pro 4:
First of all, The Surface Pro 4 is a 2-in-1 mobile device featuring a desktop operating system, and the ability to run desktop applications, in the same way as any other laptop in its class. While the iPad Pro is an extremely powerful device, capable of fitting the production requirements of creative users, the iPad Pro runs iOS 9, which makes it 100% reliant on apps to function.
By the same token, storage options are quite different between the Surface Pro 4 and the iPad Pro. Being an iOS device, the iPad Pro relies on iCloud, and on its own flash storage, ranging between 32GB and 128GB, without an option for an external drive, or an SD card slot. The Surface Pro 4, however, comes with SSD internal storage up to 512GB, and the ability to connect to external drives as well.
While there are some obvious similarities, such as the fact that both devices feature fingerprint recognition, in the form of Touch-ID for the iPad, and Windows Hello in the Surface Pro 4, the second glaring difference between the two devices is processing power. While the iPad Pro runs on a A9X processor, which is as fast as it gets for ARM these days, the Surface Pro 4 offers three different CPU options, all based on Intel’s sixth generation Skylake chip, starting with the entry-level Intel Core M3, then moving up to the mid-range Core i3, and all the way up to the top-of-the-line i7, for the most demanding production environments.
Finally, the third reason why the iPad Pro and the Surface Pro 4 are not in the same category, is in the ability to connect directly to external monitors, to scale the available desktop real estate and fit more apps side by side.
While iOS 9 supports split-view rather well, Windows 10’s ability to snap up to 4 applications together on the same screen, is something that desktop users do take for granted, because that’s what’s expected from a desktop operating system. The fact that all this is achieved on a touchscreen, is irrelevant, as Apple’s Tim Cook frequently pointed out, mobile and desktop are not the same thing.