Microsoft Says New Surface Pro is Faster Than 15" M3 MacBook Air

[rxp]

I'm actually excited with laptops again. I have a 2019 XPS 15 OLED & need OLED to move to another laptop as LCD just looks like crap when youre used to OLED black. These surfaces finally have me interested, will buy the OLED 13.8" for sure.

I like the detachable keyboard, the insane battery life & the speed.

Apple really need an OLED laptop

 

[Delgibbons]

I already wrote in that topic that I would love to see Apple improve iPadOS. And maybe even add macOS virtualisation to it (so you can run mac apps on iPad, but as an iPadOS app - like how macOS already can run iPad/iOS apps) and improve the files app. (eject, easy copy/paste, tabs, etc)

I love my iPad Pro M1. It’s just frustrating at times; virtualisation would be bloody amazing. Running Windows on an M2 Mac Mini through UTM virtualisation was incredible and insanely smooth - I’d like to do that on my iPad Pro but they’ve nixed virtualisation on iPadOS

 

[bobjonesco]

It's not a like for like comparison though. As many have pointed out, the 10 or 12 cores in the Snapdragon are all full power/performance cores. Compared to the M3's 8 cores being made up of 4 Performance and 4 Efficiency cores, you would expect a significant speed up. Qualcomm didn't compare the chips to the Pro or Max chips though... But based on Geekbench results, they line up the M2 Pro and M2 Max pretty well... Certainly not a bad first outing.

Apple has an edge for now, but it is good to see some competition.

Windows has edge too.

 

[imdropbear]

You forgot that iPads are toys which even can't eject a USB drive or save file on desktop while Surface and WOA is real computer with real computing system.

They are only toys because Apple wants them that way. Apple could allow installing macOS and you would instantly have a fully capable computer that can everything a real computing system can as well - because it then is a real computing system

However, I think it‘s unlikely Apple will allow this. It‘s cannibalizing their own sales and they aren‘t threatened by competition yet. wasn‘t Apple recently saying most people with Macs also own an iPad? If they make one device capable of both, they‘d lose quite a bit of that while I don‘t think they would win many new customers (because those that would love this device are probably already on macOS/iPadOS)

The Surface is not nearly popular enough and won‘t be seen as a equally good tablet alternative to an iPad because Windows just isn‘t a great OS for tablets.

 

[gigapocket1]

At least microsoft has the basic decency to NOT offer 8GB option.

While I do agree… It also just shows (like early Android) that it’s the bare minimum for users to have a passable user experience.. I don’t think the software efficiency is there yet

 

[Digitalguy]

They are only toys because Apple wants them that way. Apple could allow installing macOS and you would instantly have a fully capable computer that can everything a real computing system can as well - because it then is a real computing system

However, I think it‘s unlikely Apple will allow this. It‘s cannibalizing their own sales and they aren‘t threatened by competition yet. The Surface is not nearly popular enough and won‘t be seen as a equally good tablet alternative to an iPad because Windows just isn‘t a great OS for tablets.

Indeed Apple has enough fanboys that it doesn't feel threatened and offer dual boot or virtualized MacOS on iPad. Just look at all the fanboy comments here. These new devices are only for people who prefer Windows or are OS indifferent. Apple will do what they have always done.

 

[Hastings101]

Didn't Apple lose a few important people responsible for all the A and M series chips success quite a few years ago? Wouldn't be surprised if we are starting to see the consequences of that. Plus Qualcomm has really been upping their game the past few years.

Assuming this is true of course. I wonder how much better the emulation is now, it used to be awful compared to Rosetta 2.

 

[Delgibbons]

Didn't Apple lose a few important people responsible for all the A and M series chips success quite a few years ago? Wouldn't be surprised if we are starting to see the consequences of that. Plus Qualcomm has really been upping their game the past few years.

Assuming this is true of course. I wonder how much better the emulation is now, it used to be awful compared to Rosetta 2.

100 percent. In fact they’re calling it the Apple Silicon brain drain.

“Nuvia was acquired by Qualcomm in 2021. Late last year, The Information cited Nuvia as one reason for a “brain drain” in the Apple silicon engineering group. “

Apple quietly drops lawsuit against former Apple Silicon exec who left company to run his own chip start-up

Apple has quietly withdrawn its lawsuit against former executive Gerard Williams III in a filing posted on Friday (via Bloomberg)....

9to5mac.com

 

[GuruZac]

Honestly I hope it is true to finally light a fire under Apple and the stagnant iPad platform. Hardware is incredible, but software is just so limiting.

The iPad Pro hardware is amazing and has been for some time. I think a dual USB-C/Thunderbolt port would be a great feature to add next.

 

[haemolysis]

I’ve been regretting the day I ever switched to a Mac and ready to jump back into windows, but if it’s ARM based it looks like the major downside of Apple Silicon, app compatibility, will probably be… much the same story. I don’t see developers on Windows launching themselves at ARM. Do any games run on ARM?

 

[waterfta]

wow you can tell they released a good product when the fanboys here are searching to nitpick every little thing

"Look at them copying Apple!" Android users laughing when Apple sells "their" brand new idea five years
"AI Computer Lolz" Would you prefer we call it the "Neural Engine"?
"Too bad it's only on Windows! hahaha" Other half of chat complaining about no native Boot Camp for app compatibility

Reality is, this competition is a couple years overdue and good for everyone. If you've never used a Surface Laptop, you'll understand why people are excited. I just wish they would keep using the Alcantara for the keyboard. I love it, but I think too many users treat it like **** and it looks like it after, so, not good marketing in the wild. On the plus side, their prices undercut Apple by about $150 across most options. With education discount I can get the 16GB RAM/512GB SSD for $1260. That's not a bad value, especially with their generous trade-in prices at the moment. Says they'll give me $756 trade in for my 3-year old Surface Laptop 4 for some reason. Hope this pushes Apple to remove the 8GB option from base models convincing us we don't need it (or realistically making the majority of us in forums like this suck it up and give them $200).

 

[jdawgnoonan]

I have had a Surface Pro 3 and 7. They were good devices, but I prefer my iPad Pro, and Windows on the Surface over iPad OS on my M4 iPad Pro is not actually a selling point. I have plenty of other computers and I like using my iPad for the things I use it for better than those other systems.

 

[incidentallycheckout]

I think a dual USB-C/Thunderbolt port would be a great feature to add next.

Pardon my ignorance because the English language throws me off sometimes and you said dual. Do you mean a second port?

 

[Nuno Lopes]

The problem of Microsoft is that they say this kind of stuff year but then the all thing is mostly beta, sometimes alpha.

They win in price and feature list, not consistency or robustness of operation.

But there will be a day where without a doubt their statements match user experience.

 

[incidentallycheckout]

The problem of Microsoft is that they say this kind of stuff year but then the all thing is mostly beta, sometimes alpha.

They win in price and feature list, not consistency or robustness of operation.

But there will be a day where without a doubt their statements match user experience.

Meh, Apple does the same thing every year with their iOS releases. Announces a few things and then most is held back for later in the cycle as point releases or starts off in beta form.

How long was Siri in beta, 2 years?

 

[backstreetboy]

Meh, Apple does the same thing every year with their iOS releases. Announces a few things and then most is held back for later in the cycle as point releases or starts off in beta form.

How long was Siri in beta, 2 years?

Beta? Thought she is still in Alpha.

 

[incidentallycheckout]

Beta? Thought she is still in Alpha.

Ha well I mean what Apple told us anyway.

 

[Delgibbons]

Meh, Apple does the same thing every year with their iOS releases. Announces a few things and then most is held back for later in the cycle as point releases or starts off in beta form.

How long was Siri in beta, 2 years?

Yeah I mean this new multi camera version of Final Cut on the iPad is amazing.

When it….err….appears

 

[HouseLannister]

Microsoft, I got an idea for your marketing campaign…

 

[MVMNT]

Surface to Air. Hmm...

 

[Nuno Lopes]

Meh, Apple does the same thing every year with their iOS releases. Announces a few things and then most is held back for later in the cycle as point releases or starts off in beta form.

How long was Siri in beta, 2 years?

In my experience is not really the same.

Take for instance Siri, it was clearly put on hold for years and years. Even in Keynotes was mentioned more as decoration then anything else.

Now Microsoft goes on an extensive description of things, how it works, etc, but then in active user experience it falls, way way short. Glitchy, if not buggy, even down right a tangent from the spin.

Oh but we have to install monthly updates to get it working properly if not more so I guess it’s 👌 all fun.

It’s nice though that we have options.

 

[3xBoom]

One crappy claim and this board goes fogging bananas...

 

[chrono1081]

Jobs was allowed to look at Xerox park labs. Xerox invented several things Steve new they didn’t have a clue. And exchange for stock prior to the IPO he was allowed to look he didn’t steal anything.

I was referring to ideas not physical items, I just worded it badly.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Snapdragon X Elite is slower than M3 in both single-core CPU and GPU. It also has worse thermal performance according to this PDF.

https://signal65.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/NewSurfaceLaptop2024_Signal65LabInsights.pdf

Haven't read the report, but going on what you say, then the first generation Snapdragon is better than Apple's first generation M-series, and close to Apple's 3rd generation? Doesn't sound like a bad thing.

 

[okbymeman]

I never worked with a Surface Pro, so this is a question to current Surface Pro users. How much of that delicious hardware is gonna be occupied with serving me adds in the start menu and other places in the OS? Or nudging me into paying for office 365 and onedrive?
And do I need to pay extra for add-ins that prevents me from being tracked when browsing?

You can turn off or on all the privacy-related stuff. I hardly ever use the start menu and don’t understand what people are complaining about. It’s like any modern OS, you just search the first couple letters of the app and launch it. Or click on it in the taskbar. I don’t know why anyone would need to bother with a “start menu”.