I tried their new Surface Pro yesterday. The tablet experience is terrible. It's really heavy, and poking at tiny screen elements designed for a mouse or a trackpad is no fun. And then, for use as a laptop, the keyboard is second-rate, the trackpad is third-rate. I assume the same is true for the stylus relative to the Apple pen.
The only positive I could see might be for graphic artists working in Photoshop or Illustrator who have the option to switch from trackpad to pen in some contexts. But that's within the overall context of the laptop and tablet experiences being terribly compromised.
On top of that, Apple still leads in quality and innovation. Retina screens, true tone, and now ProMotion, Apple leads, others follow or not. In comparison, I don't think it's an innovation to try to combine two existing product lines, both of which Apple invented.
I cannot agree with your post.
The Surface Pro may not be a great tablet, but in my experience it is not terrible either. It weighs 1.73 lbs, which is just a little more than the 1.57 lbs of the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. What kind of apps do you use in a tablet that you find it so terrible to use in Surface Pro? As I see it, for web browsing, light text editing, watching movies and reading text, the Surface Pro may not be as good as an iPad, but it certainly can handle those tasks well. As for more advanced tasks, the laptop mode would perhaps be more suitable than a tablet in any case.
As for the laptop mode, I do not find it terrible either. The keyboard seems to be good, with reasonably good travel. Why is it second-rate? It feels better than many keyboards out there. The trackpad is small but very precise. It is much smaller but I found it as precise (or nearly as precise) as the trackpad in MacBooks. I simply cannot understand why you think it is third rate. Just because it is small?
As for the stylus, the new one seems to be as good as the new Apple Pencil. At least this is what reviewers say. I have not yet tested it, but there is no reason for this not to be true.
Apple leads and the others follow or not? Come on. Which two product lines did Apple invent? Apple did not invent laptops nor tablets (yes, it just followed what others did). You may love Apple with all your heart (although you shouldn't, as this is only another large company who wants your money), but you cannot be blind to the point of thinking it has the monopoly of innovation and leadership.
Apple really went through a great phase with the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad and the MacBook Air. All these products set new standards which many in the industry tried to follow. Now, Apple is struggling to keep that significance it had in the past. The new Mac Pro, the Apple Watch, the iPad Pro; they are good, but they are not exactly industry standards that the competitors are copying.
