Stated battery life means nothing to me. There are articles out there saying Windows devices very rarely get the full stated battery life.
iPad on the other hand ALWAYS goes past 10 hours - at least in my experience. As they've gotten more powerful, its gotten a little worse but my iPad Air 2 could last a week on standby with 20-30 hours of use. It was a monster. My experiences with iPad Pro haven't been all that different - my cellular model definitely doesn't fare as well though....I still hit the 10 hour claim easily.
Also, you don't have to go with the 12.9-inch option. The 10.5-inch model is fantastic IMO and the sweet spot for portability and power.
There's also FAR more to a display than resolution or PPI.....ProMotion and the increased refresh rate means a much smoother and more precise experience for everything. TrueTone adjusts the display to the light around you making it much easier to read in various types of lighting without hurting your eyes and the higher P3 color gamut gives you much better color and contrast.
And I will ALWAYS think 4:3 is the way to go for aspect ratio on a tablet.
I would guess that's what the Pencil is for. You should check it out - I'm no professional photo editor but there are so many options and things you can do. The whole "Photoshop equivalent" was told to me by people who know way more about photo editing than I.
Easy to live without a kickstand.....the smart keyboard cover acts as a stand. Same end result. And it doesn't add hardly any extra thickness or weight - certainly not more to make it thicker or heavier than the SP with keyboard.
I don't have the issue with ports - I hardly ever plug anything in. It's all wireless - but I can see how some folks are married to that. The days of Intel chips dominating performance are over - Apple's A-series processors are powerhouses not just based on the fact that they run a mobile OS. That was ultimately my point - performance isn't the differentiator. Saying "well the SP has an Intel i5" doesn't mean jack squat anymore because Intel hasn't pushed the envelope at all.
You bring up plenty of valid reasons to go with a Surface Pro over an iPad Pro though. Ultimately look at the programs you want to use and how you want the device to interact with your other machines and make the decision based on that.
Yep that's why I posted Anandtech's review where he states the battery life as tested, there are many more reviews supporting my anecdotal experience as well. I'm sure as you get into more intensive work the battery life will drop, but that's the trade off of having a full PC. Once again you have to weigh what you truly need. If apps are good enough for you then you are all set. For me I need a full PC, I have many windows programs I need to run, and I find iOS way too primitive for just general stuff. Even basic stuff like web browsing is far superior (in MY opinion) on the surface pro. Browser extensions, true choice to use another browser, ad blocking, website markup, saving files, just to name a very few for example. Don't even get me started on high contrast mode on windows, it completely TROUNCES anything else out there as a dark mode, although it doesn't help iOS there there isn't even an official dark mode. I could never go back to that level of hand holding and walled garden where your only option is white on blinding white, or to use the goofy color inversion.
As for the displays, meh. They both have beautiful displays, I've seen the new IPP's and they don't look much different than the old ones. Marketing at its best. Once again just my opinion.
4:3 is awful on a tablet, just awful unless I plan on using it in portrait mode, which I rarely do. Once again my opinion. But not something I'd ever go back to.
Pencil: Yeah I hear it's quite awesome. I would venture to guess it's better than the surface pro's pen for sure, although it's a shame it is hamstrung by not having the full PC versions of programs on it.
Kickstand: HIGHLY highly disagree, but again personal opinion. I could NEVER ever go back to a tablet without a kickstand, it's so freakin useful and functional. I've tried the smart cover and it's that same crap they have been releasing since the ipad 1, after a few months it gets soft and flimsy, it only does a single angle/position, and it's too flimsy even when it is new and sturdy. Hell no, no comparison at all to the kickstand which is always with the device, has infinite angles/positions, and just makes having a tablet so much better. I also bet that the smart cover adds much more weight/thickness than the built in kickstand, which does not require the type cover. Although the type cover is yet another advantage IMO, it's truly feels pretty darn close to typing on a full keyboard, yet it's amazingly thin. Hey you most probably have to get some kind of cover to protect your tablet, might as well have a keyboard cover.
Ports: Way too may USB devices out there that I like to connect to, although this is getting better with Bluetooth improving. The mini display port is awesome and gets used a lot with my projector. Adding memory via the SD card port is also great, I have a fast 256gb microSD in there currently, comes in VERY handy.
But once again these are nothing more than my personal opinions, I don't expect them to change yours and vice versa. As I said before the ipad pro is a pretty awesome device, and with iOS 11 you guys get a little, tiny PC like functionality. It does sound like the IPP still has a decent battery advantage, but that gap is closing very fast with every iteration of the surface pro. My SP easily gets 10 hours if I'm doing light stuff like consuming content, browsing the internet, watching videos, etc. I guess I can go back to the point where on my SP I can do anything I want, no walled garden, no restrictions, it's MY PC and no one is telling me how to use it. What makes that really exciting to me is that there really is no trade off anymore in terms of battery life, weight, size, etc. I feel like I can have my cake and eat it.
