Microsoft Says New Surface Pro is 1.7× Faster Than iPad Pro With 35% More Battery Life

[macUser2007]

Microsoft is actually innovating at a fairly rapid pace and I do expect its market share to show it sometimes soon.

Apple, on the other hand, has produced very little that's innovative over the last few years, its claim to fame being the touch bar. Tim Cook has focused on squeezing every penny out of the existing product line and on short-term stock gains. Good for bonuses, bad for a tech company, even one as large and cash rich as Apple.

Here is what the Wirecutter had to say about tablets:
What we found is that a tablet based on a smartphone-descended operating system, like the iPad Pro (iOS) or Google’s Pixel C (Android), imposes limits on how you can work with multiple programs and get data on or off the device; and tablets running a touch-optimized version of a desktop operating system, like Microsoft’s Windows 10-based Surface Pro 4, don’t have those multitasking or input/output challenges, but struggle to match the battery life of a mobile-first operating system. http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/can-pro-tablets-replace-your-laptop/

It looks like Microsoft has remedied the biggest complaint found above.

 

[JMacHack]

The iPad, a powerful and efficient ARM-based tablet gimped by iOS and relegated to media consumer status despite Apple's best marketing.

vs.

The Surface Pro, a powerful and fairly efficient hybrid system (in certain configurations), gimped but he fact that it does both jobs of being a tablet and a laptop, but neither all that well.

You just can't win can you?

I feel like if the iPad or iPad Pro had it's own "iPad OS" that combines the touch-based interface with things like a basic file browser and some compatibility features with MacOS it would be a hit. Why Apple isn't doing this is beyond me.

 

[44267547]

Compared to the rumored 10.5 iPad pro, the surface feels like a pro tool, and the iPad like a gadget.
Sold my 12.9 iPad pro two months ago. It just collected dust.

Basically you're saying the iPad Pro couldn't meet your needs for productivity or what have you. That's your personal experience. But that doesn't speak for others who do use the iPad Pro for work or personal experiences who have excelled with it one way or the other. I can make the same assertion stating that others have used iPad Pro which has been a useful tool for them in the field. It goes both ways.

 

[jamesrick80]

10 Hours doing what? My Surface Pro 4 won't last 10 hours with the brightness crippled to "barely legible" and the wifi off. It's a little over 100 days old.

Lol I'm sure the OP only gets 10 hours when its actually charging (plugged in) .............

 

[nt5672]

Who said that? I have only heard them say that an iPad can replace a laptop for most people, which is true. It cannot replace a laptop for all people, but that doesn't make it any less of a laptop.

But they don't bother to update their laptops or computers.

 

[Loompy]

Welp, unless Apple really blows my socks off with the iPad Pro 2 unveiling, im getting a Surface Pro. As much as i like the iPad Pro, I need more than just a giant iPhone.

If it ran MacOS then it would be a whole different story

 

[Altis]

Basically you're saying the iPad Pro couldn't meet your needs for productivity or what have you. That's your personal experience. But that doesn't speak for others who do use the iPad Pro for work or personal experiences who have excelled with it one way or the other. I can make the same assertion stating that others have used iPad Pro which has been a useful tool for them in the field. It goes both ways.

The iPad has limitations that hinder "work"/"productivity" many workflows.

To each their own if what they want to do is within those limitations, or if they're willing to spend time/money searching for workarounds.

 

[rowspaxe]

I do admit MiIcrosoft are making nice products these days. But bragging about being 1.7 faster than a product that is almost 2 years old, well, that's not much to talk about IMO. If apple feel they should or meet any competition, they will release a new iPad Pro thats 1.7 faster than the Surface Pro as well.

Kaby Lake is only 5-10% faster than 2 year old Sky Lake: do the math.

 

[nt5672]

Yep, but this thing still runs Windows. They are so close... they just need the courage Jobs had dropping MacOS 8. Let Microsoft embrace *nix, then things will get interesting.

This would do for me. If MS ever decides to do a linux UI, i'll move in a second, provided its not brain dead.

 

[Mrumors]

Basically you're saying the iPad Pro couldn't meet your needs for productivity or what have you. That's your personal experience. But that doesn't speak for others who do use the iPad Pro for work or personal experiences who have excelled with it one way or the other. I can make the same assertion stating that others have used iPad Pro which has been a useful tool for them in the field. It goes both ways.

Without looking at the exact needs of a single individual, the Windows ecosystem is undeniably the largest for productivity software.

 

[Martyimac]

Windows 10 is NOT stable.

Windows 10 on my PC is JUST as stable as MacOS 10 is on my nMP.

 

[iMcLovin]

Kaby Lake is only 5-10% faster than 2 year old Sky Lake: do the math.

I don't think Microsoft calculates CPU power only when presenting these numbers, I'm sure the numbers are very much calculaded based on what favors the surface pro. And iPads are on arm processors anyway.

 

[nt5672]

I got the iPad pro 10" and IMO it's a joke as it is marketed for the "Pros" or PC replacement. That thing doesnt even support a mouse. I get it, MultiTouch, you will say, but try doing sys admin work and your muscles will give up on you and make you hate it in an hour. This thing is a great media watching device, and with paired with a kb you can type something up short real quick, but lets be honest, at its price point you are better off with a real 2-in-1 device. What attracted me to the iPad was LTE support. If it had better multitasking, plus mouse support it could have been a winner, for now it just another crippled iPad with a powerful SoC good for nothing. I will get this Surface and see how it goes. Chromebook wouldn't have cut it for me neither. I also need something portable since im on the go pretty often.

Yep, the only audience that Apple wants to cater to thinks toys are fine for their daily work. For the rest of us it is a sad loss.

 

[Robnsn2015]

The iPad, a powerful and efficient ARM-based tablet gimped by iOS and relegated to media consumer status despite Apple's best marketing.

vs.

The Surface Pro, a powerful and fairly efficient hybrid system (in certain configurations), gimped but he fact that it does both jobs of being a tablet and a laptop, but neither all that well.

You just can't win can you?

I feel like if the iPad or iPad Pro had it's own "iPad OS" that combines the touch-based interface with things like a basic file browser and some compatibility features with MacOS it would be a hit. Why Apple isn't doing this is beyond me.

I agree, although I use my iPad Pro for more than just "media consumer" tasks.

That being said, let's hope Apple announced some iPad iOS improvements for WWDC.

 

[NT1440]

Microsoft is actually innovating at a fairly rapid pace and I do expect its market share to show it sometimes soon.

Apple, on the other hand, has produced very little that's innovative over the last few years, its claim to fame being the touch bar. Tim Cook has focused on squeezing every penny out of the existing product line and on short-term stock gains. Good for bonuses, bad for a tech company, even one as large and cash rich as Apple.

Here is what the Wirecutter had to say about tablets:
What we found is that a tablet based on a smartphone-descended operating system, like the iPad Pro (iOS) or Google’s Pixel C (Android), imposes limits on how you can work with multiple programs and get data on or off the device; and tablets running a touch-optimized version of a desktop operating system, like Microsoft’s Windows 10-based Surface Pro 4, don’t have those multitasking or input/output challenges, but struggle to match the battery life of a mobile-first operating system. http://thewirecutter.com/reviews/can-pro-tablets-replace-your-laptop/

It looks like Microsoft has remedied the biggest complaint found above.

.....you just based your whole spiel on innovation around an article (the OP) pointing out that Microsoft released a spec bump.......

 

[JMacHack]

I agree, although I use my iPad Pro for more than just "media consumer" tasks.

That being said, let's hope Apple announced some iPad iOS improvements for WWDC.

I'm just saying that there's loads of potential for the iPad, and Apple doesn't seem to be taking advantage of it.

Apple's strongest selling point was always the walled garden, the idea that one device sells another. An iPhone with a Mac can do more than either alone, the same should be the case with the iPad.

How about software that can make the iPad act as a duplicate or even second screen? What about using the iPad as a drawing tablet directly to the Mac? What if we could ssh into a Mac and manage files? How about allowing one machine control the other? The imagination runs wild.

 

[Unami]

wow, a tablet with an x86 cpu that needs a cooler is 70% faster than a 1 1/2 year old tablet with an arm processor that's half as thick. impressive. not.

the rather impressive part seems to me that the 1 1/2 year old arm processor is not even half as slow as as a current gen core i7. (i don't believe the battery claims, though)

and the f*** up part is, that even that fast ipad processor doesn't help when there's hardly any professional software (and sophisticated OS) that makes use of it, while you can do anything you like with the windows tablet but you have to put up with windows.

 

[Robnsn2015]

I'm just saying that there's loads of potential for the iPad, and Apple doesn't seem to be taking advantage of it.

Apple's strongest selling point was always the walled garden, the idea that one device sells another. An iPhone with a Mac can do more than either alone, the same should be the case with the iPad.

How about software that can make the iPad act as a duplicate or even second screen? What about using the iPad as a drawing tablet directly to the Mac? What if we could ssh into a Mac and manage files? How about allowing one machine control the other? The imagination runs wild.

I believe there is already software that allows you to use an iPad as a second screen and that allows an iPad to work as a drawing tablet for a Mac. This is why it's important to have a strong ecosystem of 3rd party developers.

Finder for iOS would be GREAT, though!

 

[Faelan]

The iPad, a powerful and efficient ARM-based tablet gimped by iOS and relegated to media consumer status despite Apple's best marketing.

vs.

The Surface Pro, a powerful and fairly efficient hybrid system (in certain configurations), gimped but he fact that it does both jobs of being a tablet and a laptop, but neither all that well.

You just can't win can you?

I feel like if the iPad or iPad Pro had it's own "iPad OS" that combines the touch-based interface with things like a basic file browser and some compatibility features with MacOS it would be a hit. Why Apple isn't doing this is beyond me.

This pretty much sums up how I feel. Both camps are offering great devices. The problem isn't the hardware, it's the software. That's where we really need some innovation.

 

[JMacHack]

I believe there is already software that allows you to use an iPad as a second screen and that allows an iPad to work as a drawing tablet for a Mac. This is why it's important to have a strong ecosystem of 3rd party developers.

Finder for iOS would be GREAT, though!

Yeah but, like BetterTouchTool, I feel like this should've been standard for the device.

 

[spinedoc77]

Great device Microsoft! They gave me the 2 things I was really hoping for, increased battery life and LTE, very nice. I'll be replacing my SP4 for sure. ipad, what's that? I haven't used one since man learned how to start a fire. Woohoo, will most likely pick up a surface studio as well, been eying one forever.

 

[LCPepper]

An Intel Core i7 which requires a fan to keep cool is only 1.7x faster than a 2 year old A9X ARM CPU? Doesn't sound too impressive.

That was exactly my reaction!

 

[lyngo]

I had an iPad Pro I tried to love; I really did. It is a terrible machine. Awful. Terrible. It's a bit "special". A big phone with a useless OS and gorgeous hardware. It's a bit like a "trophy wife", good to look at, useless at anything interesting. I cannot get anything done with it. And having to reach a screen to use it as when it is a laptop is just terrible. No escape key on the keyboard even. No file system. Dumb, dumb dumb.

I spent about $1100 on the dumb machine. I'm tempted by the Surface Pro (2017), but it is too expensive for me for the specs. We have four older Surfaces at home for the children and they can actually program on them, do Photoshop, and learn skills useful for employment.

You're certainly entitled to your opinion, but I find it is very much the perfect device for my uses. It's all in perspective and usage and effectiveness. It is a consumption device for me, but it is also something I use for producing different things relevant for my work.

Before being decisive with your absolute comments doesn't mean that it is "Awful. Terrible." for everyone.

Carry on!

 

[Smartass]

I have been iPad only for years. (iPad 4) I remember a time in the 90's when PowerBooks were a joke. Watch Job's keynote when he unveils the iMac Rev A. He talks about the underpowered power ace and how people wanted to use photoshop on it. Also it's a great drawing device. Steve Conoley's "The Muddle Age" was completely done on the iPad and is up for an Eisner Award. Just because YOU can't use the iPad to its full potential don't think anyone else can.

Yes, keep telling that story to yourself. Ipad is totally useless when it comes to serious work, just the basence of a small invention called "mouse pointer" proves that. If you really think that you can do serious work constantly, for 8 hours a day, just by smashing the screen with your fingers because there isnt even a normal mouse pointer, you need to rethink alot of things. And while you are searching for all possible excuses how its not needed, let me remind you that even Apple themselves have said that they intentionally made the new MacBooks without touchscreen, since its totally useless in vertical mode and totally unpractical for any serious work for longer periods.

 

[skaertus]

So the most expensive surface pro is 1.7 x faster than the cheapest 12.9 inch ipad pro. Wow.
And the cheapest models have more battery lige, but are slower, because of no fans(i7 has fans)

Wow talking about fair comparisons...
But i guess you can use that if you have a dozen of configs.

Actually, the most expensive Surface is 1.7x faster than all 12.9" iPad Pros, since they all have the same speed.