Windows is precisely the reason I don’t like it as a tablet.
Others have already indicated some of the reasons above.
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Microsoft to Add Trackpad Support to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Apps on iPad
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Others have already indicated some of the reasons above.
I have had the SP5 with the M3 CPU for almost 2 years now. It's been just as you stated for the vast majority of the time. Prior to Covid it lived in my computer bag. It was ready to go on a moment's notice and has decent battery life. Cameras and audio work all of the time and it's been one of the better computers I've owned. I didn't expect to like it as much as I have but it works well. Is it perfect? Nope. But its a much better experience than an iPad.
Writing and drawing is just fine. Probably not as precise as the iPad but certainly good enough. And there are apps that do it well too. OneNote, Drwaboard PDF, come to mind.
I dono. I find that it that the whole "not optimized for touch" is BS. Sure the targets are small but it gets it right most of the time. Prior to Edge Chromium I used Chrome. No issues with touch. Gestures work well in most apps - pinch to zoom, etc work too. Office works great with touch. Although I find touch is good for some things and not good for others. Its great to have options. I'm not sure what the complaint is on scrolling - it scrolls just fine in tablet or desktop mode.
To each his own but IMHO I find the Surface is the best compromise. It's a computer and can be a good tablet as well.
I can tell from your response where our differences lie. You are ok with 'good enough'. I want better. "Most of the time it basically works" is not good enough when there is an alternative that functions much better.
This is the issue with many people. Good enough is ok for many, but not for me and that's why I am on the Apple campus. I want quality, the best possible in the industry. Microsoft is a good company and I use many products of them (especially O365), but their OS and hardware offerings are (in my opinion) inferior than Apple's, at least for my expectations and needs.
I have been using Microsoft's products and services since 1993 and I have grown to love and hate the company.. The Surface computers have a great quality, bur there are still not as good as Apple's hardware. The software is also a problem, bringing most of the sins and corpses of all Windows versions from 1995. Things have gotten better though and they will continue getting better. At the end of the day it's good that there are choices out there for all kinds of people.
I have been using Microsoft's products and services since 1993 and I have grown to love and hate the company.. The Surface computers have a great quality, bur there are still not as good as Apple's hardware. The software is also a problem, bringing most of the sins and corpses of all Windows versions from 1995. Things have gotten better though and they will continue getting better. At the end of the day it's good that there are choices out there for all kinds of people.
Nah, the Surface pro is a mediocre laptop and a terrible tablet.
the distinction is the trackpad is not like a laptop trackpad. It feels unique. IMHO itworks great for a touch first device vs the flip for surface.
It's not 'good enough' or 'basically works'. In the 2 years I can count on one hand the # of times that there were sleep/power issues with the Surface. Which is about par for the course for any hardware - don't gloss over Apple's issues over the years either. They all have issues.
For my use case the iPad is not better. I do IT work for a career. I can take the Surface to work and do things like troubleshoot networking gear (still need USB/Serial), can hook into anything via regular USB. I've used that thing as a DHCP, TFTP, and other servers while setting up gear. I've used it to document wireless networks and a whole lot of other stuff that is hard or impossible to do on the iPad.
At home I can easily hook up to our 4K TV to watch Netflix or whatever, ironically using a miniDisplayPort adapter I bought for the Mac. I can download and edit photos on it (albeit slowly as it's the m3/4GB/128GB model) without dongles. I can connect a hard drive and download the photos from the SD Card, and even upload them to the cloud easily. I prop it back on the keyboard at night to surf the web or watch YTTV in bed.
So yeah it's exceeded my wildest expectations. My only regret is I didn't go for a higher end model. The iPad is starting to catch up but still has a long way to go to match that functionality.
I am an IT Consultant, and have been working with Microsoft technologies for more than 20 years, but still I use Macs instead of Windows. I also have a small consulting company and I only use Macs professionally too. My main employer though uses Windows, so I have a Surface Pro from them, but I use it only when I have to.
I just like the way Macs work better. Standby issues on Surface devices are legendary and have caused Consumer reports to stop recommending them. Now things are better, but on my (many) Surface devices I have had a lot of issues with graphic drivers, standby, resuming from hibernation, bad performance after standby (which can only be improved by rebooting or changing power profile). macOS has its issues, but nothing so bad as Windows. I know that you will say that you never experienced such issues, but that doesn't change my experiences with Surfaces (including the laptop, the book 1 & 2 and many Surface Pros, also from customers). Windows is still not as elegant as Mac and this hasn't changed a bit the last years.
Microsoft also didn't mention Outlook Mobile, so I wonder when it will gain Cursor and trackpad support. I am sure that it will happen this year, but it would be nice to have it as soon as possible. Having said that Outlook Mobile is still missing a lot of features and I would like to see it becoming as powerful as desktop Outlook, but I doubt this will happen any time soon.
Like @petvas, I’ve worked with Windows computers for a career for decades, my employer is primarily Windows, yet I primarily use Macs both for work and home. The differences are quite apparent. Windows still has the same kind of sleep/wake issues. I’ve owned THREE Surface Pros, so it’s not like I’m not willing to put my money where my mouth is to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt. If I’m going Windows though, I’m using a Thinkpad laptop and an iPad to supplement.
Well, colour me impressed. Four months is not too shabby for the Microsoft iOS/iPadOS team. Is hyphenation already supported in Word for iPad, pray tell?
You see, my old iPad 3/Retina stopped getting updates, so I wouldn't know either way as I'm not on top of release notes and have no way to test it. But I found it shameful that Word wouldn't even honour that option when set in a Word document created in macOS/Windows, even if it was hidden in Word for iPad, to at least keep formatting consistent.
As for attempting another switch to the iPad, that'll be on hold until there's proper citation manager plugin support for Word and/or Pages for iPad. Currently I'm working with Zotero and before I was working with Mendeley, and I couldn't do my work efficiently without either of them. Does anyone here know if iPadOS even has any mechanism that allows for proper and seamless inter-app communication or, at the very least, proper internal plugin support? Or just by using plain ol' sharing to paste CSL code from a citation manager, either on a split view or slid over?
I know, apps must be sandboxed, but currently that's the only thing holding back the iPad (and not just for me, but for thousands upon thousands of academic writers), not even the smaller screens and tendentially single/anchored-window workflows.
You see, my old iPad 3/Retina stopped getting updates, so I wouldn't know either way as I'm not on top of release notes and have no way to test it. But I found it shameful that Word wouldn't even honour that option when set in a Word document created in macOS/Windows, even if it was hidden in Word for iPad, to at least keep formatting consistent.
As for attempting another switch to the iPad, that'll be on hold until there's proper citation manager plugin support for Word and/or Pages for iPad. Currently I'm working with Zotero and before I was working with Mendeley, and I couldn't do my work efficiently without either of them. Does anyone here know if iPadOS even has any mechanism that allows for proper and seamless inter-app communication or, at the very least, proper internal plugin support? Or just by using plain ol' sharing to paste CSL code from a citation manager, either on a split view or slid over?
I know, apps must be sandboxed, but currently that's the only thing holding back the iPad (and not just for me, but for thousands upon thousands of academic writers), not even the smaller screens and tendentially single/anchored-window workflows.
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I think it will eventually get there. Love or hate Microsoft, they make the best office suite apps for the Apple ecosystem. They also are much more proactive updating their apps. Their apps are much better than the Google Suite.
iOS Excel wouldn’t be suitable for any kind of professional use even with 100% mouse support. It’s a very basic app lacking many features,more comparable to the 365 web version, which is a joke for any serious tasks.