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iPad Air vs. Microsoft's Surface Go: Which Is a Better Laptop Replacement?
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Yes. This.
But these guys think ‘full Windows’ on a tiny display where the interface stands in the way of the content... a Pentium processor and inferior pen leads to a ... superior experience?!
right tool for right job... for me as developer i prefer a laptop since android /apple ipad don't have vscode which the lowest ram of usage. Ipad OS nice for discussion and presentation purpose(need apple tv for it also)(nobody want a long dongle cable).
Just so many things wrong with this statement. If the ui being in the way you are talking about is because ios is full screen apps and pretty much no ui than I don't see how that is superior at all. If I want that there is a setting in windows called tablet mode that does that but since I like being, you know, PROductive and all I actually like having multiple windows displayed and a ui to navigate it in.
As for a tiny display, yeah it might be small, but you know with my surface go I can hook it up to an external monitor with a full keyboard and mouse and then have a desktop supplement whenever I need it, all while also having an SD card in it and an external HD while docked. The iPad can do how many of those things? As for superior pen, I've used both and yes Apples might have less lacency etc its only really perceptive if you are drawing slowly When it comes to the faster pace of writing notes its inpercievable anyways. As for it having a Pentium processor and not an arm processor I would really prefer a processor that is actually designed for multitasking even if I can't get 18 hour battery life. Arm processors are getting better but as of right now they can't really contend when it comes to multi core processor performance Don't get me wrong, I'm hoping that they do, but it's just not there
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Does it? If I had to do my daily work on both I'd be able to do about 90% on the Surface and around 10% on the iPad, even if it had iPadOS installed.
Every iOS has UI designed and curated by Apple to be optimal for the devices user... famously so. How is an unoptimised desktop OS UI superior when we're talking about a tablet. Tablet mode on Windows 10 is useful, but has a long way to go to match the iPad UI level of detail and suitability for tablet productivity - which is class leading.
..Multiple windows on a Surface Go?! Come on.... you mentioned productivity? ..
Hooking it up to an external display is NOT using it as a tablet... I'm criticising it being used as intended, as a tablet. If your productivity depends on using it the way you mention, then it's the wrong device for your use case and you're jumping through hoops ..
Apple Pencil is superior in all use cases to Surface Pen, maybe overkill for note taking though.
Pentium is slower in real world use for most anything versus the iPads ARM processor. Arguing the Surface Go is anything more than decent in processing power is a losing argument.
Look, you can make excuses, twist things... and maybe the Go is suited more to your workflow. But don't pretend it makes the iPad look a toy when it falls so flat in many ways itself.
hehe. intel much faster in real world but it was hungry resources while arm is cheap and getting more traction but i prefer the way as it.. If i had celeron in my phone... i need to charge more frequent.I prefer an ipad which last long battery compare to compete with intel
** I also have used itanium,sparc for work.. faster but are it worthy real 64 compare to extension 64 amd
Even the slowest 2015 MacBook is 40% faster than the Surface Go's CPU.
It's not an arch thing. It's the Surface Go being really low-specced.
Cannot compare apple to go lol .pricing also diff.
.My new laptop amd a6 asus not faster then my base imac 2017 but it just optimize for my need now and go not suitable for my workflow . ** I need to save money to get ipad which have usb c , i left my ipad mini 2019 to my father because i cannot use it as file management is buggy.
Personally I think the Samsung S4 is where it's at.
//hides behind sofa
//hides behind sofa
All things are pointing towards an m3 Surface Go, possibly at their soon event so that might make a huge difference.
Honestly I don't even know why the two should be compared. iPad is just iPhone enlarged and is built (and excels) at being a great mobile device in tablet form. Even with iPad OS that's all it is. Surface products aren't tablets in the general sense, and that's the huge problem, the overall term tablet. The Surface is a full PC just in a tablet form. It's not really a tablet per say as most people think, it's just shaped the same. The surface should never be thought as a tablet in the general sense and just be perceived as a PC with a full desktop OS in tablet form.
I mean if you took away the stand of an iMac then it becomes a Mac PC in tablet form, not anything someone would call a tablet device ever. That's how people need to think about the products. They are two different categories and thats at fault by how both companies have marketed them. The iPad is much better at being a tablet that could replace some peoples PC's. The Surface is much better at being a full Desktop OS PC in a tablet form factor. The Surface sucks at being just a pure tablet and the iPad sucks at trying to be a laptop replacement because at it's core it's just a blown up iPhone which was never meant in the first place to do desktop os capabilities.
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At the end of the day, the Surface Go is a low specced, arguably tiny (to some, unusable) form factor - to others, the best device for them. But it certainly isn't going to redefine tablet PCs how the iPad did, nor is it any threat on Apple's radar. Other than a few tech enthusiasts and misguided consumers at BestBuy, I would imagine the majority of consumers align more closely with the iPad and it's smoothness, versatility, ease of use etc.
You're off topic with this.
If we were discussing "which is the better tablet" then you have a point. But, this tread is about using either the Go or an iPad (Pro) as a laptop replacement and not about how either performs as a tablet. Once you start doing tasks that "last year" would require a laptop (or desktop) to perform well the Go begins to be much more functional than an iPad.
While there have been compromises, I've been using a Go as my only computer for the last 3 weeks quite successfully. My wife and I have had to travel from the Florida Keys to Houston TX so she can be treated at MD Anderson (a fantastic organization). I have a desk at my brother-in-law's with a second monitor, mouse, external drive, and full sized keyboard which I've been using for most of my work. I've also been using the Go with its keyboard cover when in the various waiting rooms during my wife's procedures and appointments. I've been able to run Photoshop (Ps/Cs4) to work on 100-500mb high res image files (20" x 30" at 300ppi with 10-20 adjustment layers and 1-2 Smart Object with filters) in both configurations and able to remote to my 27" iMac at the gallery back in Key West via Google Remote Desktop using the Go's little screen, though admittedly I need to use stronger reading glasses than normal. In Ps/Cs4 running locally, the editing of those files is actually quite smooth with no lags. Disk saves and reprocessing a filter on a Smart Object does take much longer than on the iMac at the gallery but not so much that it prevents me from being productive.
That's fine, but the OP really needs to make their use case clear. Because, whilst the iPad is NOT a viable full on laptop replacement for the average user, the majority of (non tech) people can get by just on iPad. If this is the case, and they have basic needs like email, web, Netflix, browsing, then I'd argue that actually, the iPad is the better device. That's all I'm saying. I like the Go, but I also like the iPad. I think the iPad is better in more cases than not, but that's just me.
No, I'm not sure I follow. I'm saying that nothing can run our stack, so we do everything in the cloud. All you need is a computer that runs Remote Desktop, or a terminal, an IDE, and supports a file system... And for that, the surface Go is the better device because it has built in LTE and is otherwise equally as capable of running 1970's era software as a MBP.
LTE is one pro for that use case as the MBP, but if it were me that'd be too little of an 'advantage' to write off the MBP or iPad as options. The MBP may be overkill, for sure. But all things considered, there is much more it's 'better for' and much less, but still very real and prime importance to some 'better use the Surface Go' tasks. Surely that's a fair assessment
That doesn't contradict my point. They marketed it right, a "Tablet PC' (A PC in a Tablet form). If they would have just called it Windows tablet edition, then that's where things go south because people would expect it to be different than normal windows because the word tablet has become to generic.
People need to quit thinking the term tablet as one general thing and think of it this way. There are tablet devices iPad, Android Tablets etc.) and full Desktop OS PC's in a tablet form factor (Surface like devices).
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