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As someone who just switched to iPad Pro 12.9 from Windows 10 tablet I would have to say, nope, not so in my opinion.

It is nice to run a full desktop but it doesn't work right switching between desktop and tablet modes. Also it slows down horribly over time as Windows tends to do as it gets more and more bloated. Some models have really noisy fans that turn on. The iPad pro does not have a fan. I was in a meeting with someone who was using one and the fan turned on. It was difficult to hear in the meeting from time to time because of the fan. It was a serious distraction.

Yes, having a desktop and tablet combined is nice, however the drawbacks is Windows 10. It's a hot mess.
Very interesting perspective. I appreciate that. I have to say, my 12.9" iPad Pro was pretty much my favorite device ever. I gave it to my brother, expecting new ones this month... and now I'm sad. There's a chance Apple will introduce new ones when they open the new campus. I don't know if that's me engaging in wishful thinking though.
 
Forgot to state earlier. My supervisor and I were at a conference a little over a month ago. He had his Surface and I had my iPad Pro. I unlocked mine and started working. He went to unlock his and while I was working away on the iPad he was still sitting there waiting for the Surface to start. A little over 10 minutes later it finally unlocked and allowed him to start working on his Surface.

But I agree with the others. It's like attempting to compare apples to oranges. It's attempting to compare a touch screen laptop with a detachable keyboard to a tablet. It really doesn't work well.

For the person who stated about no file system you have the iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Drop Box, and One Drive options just to name a few. So there are options to for file management.

Basically comes down to the user. What does a user want and like? What provides the user with the most utils for their dollars? Do they want to combination of a laptop and tablet or do they want separate devices? I like the separate devices. If my iPad dies I still have my MacBook Pro. If my MacBook pro dies I can still function quite well with the iPad Pro. I haven't really found anything I can't do on the iPad yet. I do suggest getting the keyboard though. I didn't like the Apple one so I bought a heavy duty Logitech option that works nicely and is really sturdy. I LOVE the pencil for my artistic times.

Best suggestion for anyone who may be reading this and attempting to decide between the two is to go to an Apple Store and play with the iPad Pros. Go to the Windows store and play with the Surface. Or Best Buy if you have neither and while you're there also play with the other options available. Maybe you'll like a convertible Chromebook instead? (tried one, didn't like it either. LOL)
 
I've had to support it in many instances where I work. I actually really liked and enjoyed using Windows 7 for years at work. But Windows 8 and 10 are a disaster. That's what happens though when you force one OS to work on all devices. Can't optimize for desktop use, nor can you optimize for touch/tablet use. Not surprising overall though, for Microsoft it is their only move at this point.
I like that somebody is trying that approach though, instead of slavishly following everything Apple does. Microsoft might not have had a choice. Okay they didn't have a choice. But their lack of choice is our extra choice. It's a good thing.
 
And water wets.

Can run full Adobe CC (Indesign in touch mode has come along way) end of story. Even the basic fact that you can copy/paste a vector object from illustrator right into Indesign on a tablet blows anything the iPad can do.
 
You should have spent a little more than a few hours with the tablet, I usually spend 1-2 weeks getting used to a device. iCloud, dropbox, and a few other things can be a replacement for a filesystem. I don't know your workflow but I sounds like you didn't really give it a chance.

Fire up an iWork app on on your iPad and try to browse files stored on a Dropbox folder from the Locations menu.
 
As someone who just switched to iPad Pro 12.9 from Windows 10 tablet I would have to say, nope, not so in my opinion.

It is nice to run a full desktop but it doesn't work right switching between desktop and tablet modes. Also it slows down horribly over time as Windows tends to do as it gets more and more bloated. Some models have really noisy fans that turn on. The iPad pro does not have a fan. I was in a meeting with someone who was using one and the fan turned on. It was difficult to hear in the meeting from time to time because of the fan. It was a serious distraction.

Yes, having a desktop and tablet combined is nice, however the drawbacks is Windows 10. It's a hot mess.
Agreed. With an iPad Pro 12.9 and 9.7, and a Macbook and an iMac, I have an excellent work flow and setup for every situation and time of day.

I could never ever get used to Windows again. I did all their stuff from 98 to 7, and even have 10 on a virtual machine: to me, it is and remains a second-hand OS, no matter how many reports they throw out there.
 
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I don't know anybody who uses the Surface as a tablet, everybody uses it as a very portable laptop always with its somewhat foldable keyboard and most of the time with a mouse attached.

I really can't understand the Surface, I would prefer a regular ultrabook. But I can't also understand the iPad Pro.

Ultrabooks and regular iPad in my opinion make sense, Surfaces and iPad Pros not so much.
 
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And only cost 3x as much!! No wonder Apple doesn't want to cannabalize their revenue streams.

Ah, so you admit that Apple provides the superior solution, while Microsoft is offering the not as good low budget option.
 
Fire up an iWork app on on your iPad and try to browse files stored on a Dropbox folder from the Locations menu.

Like this you mean?

qohikz.png


Obviously I don't have dropbox here, but it seems that via extensions dropbox could make their folders available I would imagine?
 
I'm hoping that Apple will split iOS into phoneOS and padOS and debut an iPad that competes more favourably. Given the investment in that area I think that's quite likely as the products and platforms evolve and mature.
 
Not really surprised by this. But when I kick back, my sp4 gets put away and the iPad comes out. Sp4 is no match for iPad in battery life and consumption department.

Not to mention that a 9" iPad weighs half as much.
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I think the Microsoft Surface can be a true laptop replacement. The iPad cannot (for me).

The Microsoft Surface is not a laptop replacement. It's a laptop.

Speaking of which, have any of you Surface fans tried actually using a Surface (with keyboard) on your lap? With all the weight on top behind the screen, it doesn't make for a very stable platform.
 
Forgot to state earlier. My supervisor and I were at a conference a little over a month ago. He had his Surface and I had my iPad Pro. I unlocked mine and started working. He went to unlock his and while I was working away on the iPad he was still sitting there waiting for the Surface to start. A little over 10 minutes later it finally unlocked and allowed him to start working on his Surface.
Oh geez, it doesn't take 10 minutes for a Surface to boot.

I suppose you are going to say "but, but there was a huge software update!"

Yes, software updates on iOS take 10 minutes too.

Now you will say but the update was mandatory on the Surface! Perhaps, but your post is overall very dramatic and paints the daily usability of the Surface in an incorrect manner.

A Surface is blazing fast from a usability standpoint. Just the facts coming from a 12.9" iPad owner (and fan).
 
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I don't know if I buy the arguments about surface build quality, but other than the Windows 10 spyware OS, it's a solid machine and far more capable than any iPad.

Maybe Apple can set aside it's stubborn arrogance long enough to release a true next-gen iPad PRO later this year, something with, oh gosh, maybe some ports (USB-C), SD card slot? And maybe, just maybe, GIVE US ACCESS TO THE DAMN FILE SYSTEM!
 
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Despite what you may think, a very high percentage of users don't need something that has multiple compromises like the Surface.

Surface users don't need an all-in-one compromise product. They need a cheap laptop, and they like the fact that it can pretend to be a tablet as well.
 
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As someone who just switched to iPad Pro 12.9 from Windows 10 tablet I would have to say, nope, not so in my opinion.

It is nice to run a full desktop but it doesn't work right switching between desktop and tablet modes. Also it slows down horribly over time as Windows tends to do as it gets more and more bloated. Some models have really noisy fans that turn on. The iPad pro does not have a fan. I was in a meeting with someone who was using one and the fan turned on. It was difficult to hear in the meeting from time to time because of the fan. It was a serious distraction.

Yes, having a desktop and tablet combined is nice, however the drawbacks is Windows 10. It's a hot mess.

Agreed, I gave the Surface a number of honest tries and it never won me over from iPad. It might be more 'functional' on some level, since it's basically a laptop, but that's exactly what I dislike about it. iPad is lean and mean with a streamlined OS fit for the form factor. Using Surface as a tablet just feels bloated and overwrought - Windows is very much still a mouse and keyboard OS. And the Pencil is far superior to the stylus tech used on Surface.

Surface is something I would like as a replacement for my work laptop, but as a general consumer device iPad is much better IMO. As a tablet iPad is far and away the better buy.
 
No surprise at all. Surfaces aren't bad at all besides a few funky things like the power cord and less than stellar battery life.

iPad = a big phone, minus the phone part for most
Surface = actual convertible computer that you can get **** done on and not just doodle
 
I'm not an admirer of Microsoft products, let alone the Surface, But to answer your question, this isn't about wanting access to the system folders. It's about wanting direct access to the file system and having the ability to organize your files in folders by topic or project instead of having them sandboxed according to the app they were created in. iOS makes it impossible to group assets of various types together when working on or archiving a project.
I don't know that what you're describing would be all that helpful in iOS, but I agree that being able to browse by file type as well as by application would be helpful, so you could choose which application you wanted to open the file in. I don't know that I'd want the ability to organize them by folders or anything like that, but then I've been trying to kill folder structures in my life for years. Give me robust searching (like spotlight) and document type organizational browsing and I'm golden.
 
I use a Surface every day for work. It is awful for anything other than annotating PDF's. The usability is poor compared to an iPad as trying to operate a full OS on a mobile device like a tablet leaves it feeling compromised. The experience suffers and things become fiddly as your trying to use your finger for operations designed for the precision and speed of a cursor.
 
Windows 10 is great. What are you talking about? Have you even seen it in the last few years? MSFT has done a really great job in responding to Apple…you should check it out. You'll be surprised.
I have been surprised, no doubt it's much closer to macOS than it's ever been.

But it's still full of minor niggles that seem to stem from the fact that underneath everything there are still features hanging around from DOS. To say nothing of the instability inherent in the OS because they have to support millions of possible hardware configurations versus, like, 20 on the Mac.

The fact that Windows is as stable as it is seems like a huge testament to Microsoft's ability, but after it all, I still find I can rely on macOS more than I can on Windows.
 
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No surprise. Fully functional Windows OS vs iOS with training wheels that was designed for iPod.
 
Adding iCloud Drive (in iOS9 was it?) was an excellent start, but it needs a lot of work.

There are some excellent options though, like Readdle's Documents that lets you access many resources in one place and manage multiple files.

There are all sort of workarounds possible, but I don't think I should have to jump through hoops in attempts to emulate the basic file management capabilities I've always taken for granted on desktops.
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I'm not sure there are any direct numbers of MacBook's right now to use for comparison

But considering that the PC industry, including Apple's PC's have been trending downwards as a whole, and the only segment of the PC industry that is trending upwards is "2 in 1s" like the Surface,

it ls only based on loose conjuncture that the Surface and 2 in 1s are outselling MacBooks

It must be nice for "the PC industry" how they can compare their collective sales numbers to that of a single company. But that's OK, the numbers still favor Apple regardless:

Worldwide Mac Sales Hold Steady as PC Market Sees Shipments Decline 9.6% in Q1 2016
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/04/11/gartner-idc-pc-shipments-1q16/

http://i.imgur.com/BPjUPfX.jpeg
 
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