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Strictly as a laptop I like the surface pro. The keyboard is great, screen is great, it feel premium and comparible to the MacBook. Only thing I noticed is the batter discharged quicker on standby mode.

The SPs and SB feels very premium. Battery discharge: Possibly more processes and apps running in the background. Apple has better battery life.
 
The SPs and SB feels very premium. Battery discharge: Possibly more processes and apps running in the background. Apple has better battery life.
Ya it’s not my laptop so I don’t know what is going on background apps running. I know on my MacBook Pro I don’t touch it for 1 week and the battery doesn’t noticeably decline, at least I don’t notice it.
 
After owning one it's neither great as a laptop or a tablet. I travel a lot, so in order to make it work for me the SP would need some sort of protective case which would add a lot of bulk and weight.
But the ipad doesn't require a case?
 
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For me, iOS is becoming a real chore to use, and the build quality of my iPads have been okay to awful. I spent sometime sketching on the the 2018 iPP and I love the second gen pencil. Unfortunately, the iPad itself felt so fragile to me that I cannot see myself using it. I am not as gentile as I look.

I love Procreate, but outside of that and pdf mark up, but I am no longer the target audience for iPads. iOS is one of the main reasons why I am working to move away from Apple.

I enjoyed the 6 gen Surface Pro. Wonderfully responsive, great build quality and Windows 10 is much better than I remember. I love the display, but tablet mode is something of puzzle. I had no idea how to use it. So I can agree on W10 being a bit incomplete as far as a tablet. As a laptop replacement, yeah for some folks sure. The type cover is a joy to type on and feels sturdier than the ASK. Multitasking is a snap.

I really dig the Surface Book even more, so I will definitely have MS store folks show me the ins and outs of tablet mode, so I can use it for drawing and pdf markup. I am thinking about something like the Wacom replacement @guangtou mentioned too.

I so appreciate that the iPP got me drawing again I enjoyed the Apple Pencil 2 and love Procreate; but the hardware and general software experience is something I am just not feeling (I’ll probably not go beyond basic iOS phone stuff now). It sucks, but it happens.

Everyone’s needs are different and I won’t go in on the Pro debate. Whatever works for you. I am willing to try something new.

Forget about the „tablet mode“ of the Surface. It is no tablet at all! It is a nice notebook which might look a bit like a tablet but nobody I know is using it as a tablet on a regular basis. The Surface can do many things better than the iPad but it is beaten hands down as a tablet from it. You won’t get the „magical device“ Steve describes at his keynote 2010 to „hold the internet in your hand“ with a Surface....
 
Forget about the „tablet mode“ of the Surface. It is no tablet at all! It is a nice notebook which might look a bit like a tablet but nobody I know is using it as a tablet on a regular basis. The Surface can do many things better than the iPad but it is beaten hands down as a tablet from it. You won’t get the „magical device“ Steve describes at his keynote 2010 to „hold the internet in your hand“ with a Surface....

Yes I agree. I tried using the surface as a tablet and it’s felt compromised in that mode. Great laptop though. Not powerful but it’s a laptop for most people
 
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Forget about the „tablet mode“ of the Surface. It is no tablet at all! It is a nice notebook which might look a bit like a tablet but nobody I know is using it as a tablet on a regular basis. The Surface can do many things better than the iPad but it is beaten hands down as a tablet from it. You won’t get the „magical device“ Steve describes at his keynote 2010 to „hold the internet in your hand“ with a Surface....

:p Neither of them are magical imo, and I know the Surface's tablet mode isn't as polished when iOS works. If I can draw and mark up pdfs that's really all I want the Surface display for, in regard to everything else, there's the laptop aspect, which it knocks out of the park.
 
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Pro or not pro?

Pro for art because the pencil is excellent. Procreate is excellent and exports to photoshop format.
Also, Sketchbook is great and saves directly to icloud, which provides instant interaction with a pc

Not pro for video editing because source file loading is a pain and working with the pencil on
complex video files is inefficient. Luma, however, is a very good prosumer software.

Not pro for spreadsheet editing/creation as there in no mouse functionality. Maybe ok for simple
updating with the pencil, but imo--no, thanks

Not pro for text editing as text section, copy an paste is difficult without a mouse.

Pro-ish for notes, unless you cut and paste a lot. (I do!)

For anything aside from art I would gravitate toward the SP6. I only use ipad pro for art
because my icloud experience on windows has radically improved.
 
Yes I agree. I tried using the surface as a tablet and it’s felt compromised in that mode. Great laptop though. Not powerful but it’s a laptop for most people

SP6 specs are top performing compared to other quad core Ultrabooks in it's class
 
I’d say yes. I now have a Surface Pro and a 12” iPad Pro and the IPP is going back today. I like the IPP but it really doesn’t do much more than my older 10.5 IPP. Maybe the application software hasn’t been updated but it’s not really a laptop replacement and there’s no incentive to keep this IPP since there were no discounts over Christmas. Best Buy / Microsoft had $300 off so my surface came in at $999 with keyboard case while the IPP was $1700.

The surface pro is a real computer. I really do like it.
 
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I refuse to buy a Surface simply because I'm locked into the Apple ecosystem but I played around with the new Pro models in the Apple Store today and functionally they look, act, and smell like all the other iPads, even the 9.7" version. Yes they are much more premium feeling but looking at a $300 9.7" iPad and an $800 11" Pro, they don't really seem to offer that much more of a user experience for the price. Am I crazy here?

The only argument to this that I would have espoused just 2 months ago was the battery life is lacking on the surface pro units. NOT SO anymore with the advent of the surface pro 6, I've been enjoying mine and have really been impressed with "real world" battery life. We can all quibble about the differences in using each OS on a tablet paradigm, but the hardware features really put the SP over and above the IPP in a big way. The kickstand, the keyboard (what an AWFUL keyboard the IPP has, how can Apple put their name on that), the SD card expandability, the USB port, etc.
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Yes I agree. I tried using the surface as a tablet and it’s felt compromised in that mode. Great laptop though. Not powerful but it’s a laptop for most people

No disrespect intended, but this always annoys me. I use my SP6 as a tablet the vast majority of the time and find very little to complain about. What exactly do you feel is compromised on the SP as a tablet? I know there are some valid points and most of them point towards Windows tablet UI, but IMO they are usually exaggerated and not a big deal. Otherwise I think many of the things the ipad is missing make IT a worse tablet that the SP. Probably my number one backing to that reasoning is the lack of a kickstand. A tablet without a kickstand, IMO, is heavily compromised. What do you do when you want to use the tablet on a desk? Or watch it while not using your hands?
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Forget about the „tablet mode“ of the Surface. It is no tablet at all! It is a nice notebook which might look a bit like a tablet but nobody I know is using it as a tablet on a regular basis. The Surface can do many things better than the iPad but it is beaten hands down as a tablet from it. You won’t get the „magical device“ Steve describes at his keynote 2010 to „hold the internet in your hand“ with a Surface....

I use it as a tablet on a regular basis, it's an awesome tablet. As I noted in my post above, I feel it's a better tablet than the IPP for a few reasons, including things like the kickstand. I don't see how it is "beaten hands down as a tablet" by the ipad at all. Last year I would have said maybe because of the superior battery life on the ipads, but this isn't the case anymore with the advent of the SP6. Now with that said I don't want to step on your toes because we all use our devices differently, so I can't argue personal preference. But I still disagree, the "magical device" IS the surface pro by far and the ipad is just a necessary evil from 10 years ago when windows tablets sucked really badly. But now that windows tablets have caught up the ipad looks exactly like what it is, 10 year old technology. I'm being slightly facetious here, of course the ipads have a lot of nice and modern technology to them, but at their heart they are a compromised computing device, compromised because 10 years ago we needed a tablet that was thinner, lighter, had a better tablet UI and better battery life. We don't need those compromises anymore.
 
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I don't see how it is "beaten hands down as a tablet" by the ipad at all.

Posters here equate "tabletness" with games, app and media ecosystem. While ipad dominates games
and media, the app situation is more complicated, with the Surface giving access to more established
productivity apps. As far as browsing goes, it's even imo.
 
Posters here equate "tabletness" with games, app and media ecosystem. While ipad dominates games
and media, the app situation is more complicated, with the Surface giving access to more established
productivity apps. As far as browsing goes, it's even imo.

If this is what people understand as a tablet than it makes sense why I see things differently. Games I do not care about, but are not there enough Windows games? I assume any normal Windows game runs on Surface pro too.

When it comes to media consumption I find it far easier to transfer videos and music via so card than iTunes (sorry hate that).

When it comes to browsing I equate it with hardware keyboard as for me browsing includes a lot of typing. I find the Surface keyboard better as it has trackpad.

I don't own surface pro, but honestly based on what I have read I don't see it as that horrible device. iPads used to be cheaper and that was definitely for me a factor, but now the prices are similar. Yes the new iPad Pros are more powerful, but I can't use any app that could take advantage of this. They just don't exist on iOS. I am not saying that there are no apps at all that need this power, I am saying that I don't see apps that work for me.

There are Windows apps that can take advantage of power though. I am Java Developer, I can install quite easy all of my IDE apps on Windows machine. I can't even set this up on an iPad.

For me personally having Windows is actually a plus because I am far less restricted in the apps I can install.
 
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Both device are great at what they do. But there are so many factors that go into the iPad Pro vs Surface Pro decision, that there is no one answer to which is "better" or which is "pro". An etch a sketch is "pro" if it does what you need to do ;)
 
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I’d say yes. I now have a Surface Pro and a 12” iPad Pro and the IPP is going back today. I like the IPP but it really doesn’t do much more than my older 10.5 IPP. Maybe the application software hasn’t been updated but it’s not really a laptop replacement and there’s no incentive to keep this IPP since there were no discounts over Christmas. Best Buy / Microsoft had $300 off so my surface came in at $999 with keyboard case while the IPP was $1700.

The surface pro is a real computer. I really do like it.
I missed that deal unfortunately. Do you still have the 10.5 IPP? I was looking to upgrade my 10.5 IPP but these prices are stupid ridiculous for these new iPads. Yes they're fast but what good is speed when there are limitations? I'll keep my 10.5 but will add a surface pro 6 if/when that deal presents itself again.
 
Posters here equate "tabletness" with games, app and media ecosystem. While ipad dominates games
and media, the app situation is more complicated, with the Surface giving access to more established
productivity apps. As far as browsing goes, it's even imo.

Yes but even then it seems that the surface tablet meets or exceeds the ipad IMO. You say the ipad dominates games, but that is pretty subjective. The surface pro can play most modern titles, although at lower resolution with all settings cranked down, but it's still capable of playing modern PC games, just add a game controller and you are all set, although keyboard/mouse is still a choice but then we are in laptop territory. The windows marketplace also has a pretty large selection of app type games to choose from. The games that iOS has seem more oriented to the ultra casual like Angry Birds, Fruit Ninja or Candy Crush, although there are some games that are more PC like they are very few and far between. But once again this depends on what games you prefer and is highly subjective. I'll give you one example where the surface pro trounces the ipad. The playstation 4 has their PS4 remote play which allows PS4 games to be streamed to your PC with a controller attached. This works incredibly well on the surface pro and allows me to bring my entire PS4 collection of games with me. Actually the same can be done with PC using a program called Parsec, which means all the heavy computing is done on a desktop at home while playing a PC game remotely.

Dominating media, I don't see that either. You can replicate virtually anything an iOS app has to offer on windows. An iOS app may be better at doing certain things, but at the same time sometimes apps are too simplistic and become inferior because of their simplicity. I've never really ascribed to the notion that apps are better at tablet functions anyhow, and never had anyone really convince me otherwise. Of course that's also noting that this is all highly subjective.
 
There’s nothing professional about an os that crashes and throws up error messages all the time

I don't have that experience with Windows. I won't lie, it isn't all fluffy kittens and rainbows, but IMO the entire Windows is unstable argument is grossly overstated. I have just as many issues on iOS, apps freezing and crashing, rebooting, slow apps, connectivity issues, etc. but it doesn't keep me from enjoying it 99.9% of the time.
 
I don't have that experience with Windows. I won't lie, it isn't all fluffy kittens and rainbows, but IMO the entire Windows is unstable argument is grossly overstated. I have just as many issues on iOS, apps freezing and crashing, rebooting, slow apps, connectivity issues, etc. but it doesn't keep me from enjoying it 99.9% of the time.

In that case there is something wrong with your computer. Ask your employer for better hardware or having your computer repaired. It is always easy to blame Windows.
They are being replaced however I’ve never really had good experiences with windows computers even when I used them at home in the past. However I haven’t used windows 10 before and I’ve heard that things have improved a lot.
 
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I don't have that experience with Windows. I won't lie, it isn't all fluffy kittens and rainbows, but IMO the entire Windows is unstable argument is grossly overstated. I have just as many issues on iOS, apps freezing and crashing, rebooting, slow apps, connectivity issues, etc. but it doesn't keep me from enjoying it 99.9% of the time.

It’s much better than it was. Especially with the Linux virtual box addition. If you’re a developer it’s almost as good as a Mac and miles ahead of an iPad.

But what the Surface Pro is NOT is a good tablet. Lacking apps.
 
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If I needed an ultrabook laptop, I’d definitely get the SP6.

I borked both Surface products I tried last week, because I was trying to use them like Apple stuff and had no idea what I was doing. That’s on me, not Windows 10.

The build quality of the SP6 and its type cover are fantastic. As a result of my inexperience with W10, I’ll wait on deep markdowns on the SP6 before I try again.

Hats off to Microsoft, I quite like what they’re doing hardware-wise, but I feel that they lack in the art end of things. I much prefer the Apple Pencil to the Surface Pen.

Since I want a device for art, I am waiting to see if Apple will release a Mini Pro in a few months.

For me, if you want a laptop experience, it is the Surface Pro no contest. The iPPs are excellent for art and content usage, so they both have strengths and weaknesses. It all boils down to what works for the user.
 
Sounds like someone who hasn't used Windows recently. If at all.
My brand spanking new HP Elitebook 840 G5 running Windows 10 has blue-screened on me at least 3 times since I got it in October (it’s my work PC). Granted, my employer deliberately stays 2 updates behind the latest, but I’m still running Redstone 3.
 
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