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Microsoft Touts Surface Pro 7 as 'The Better Choice' Over MacBook Pro in New Ad
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Pretty different. You might say that APple cheated as they didn’t explicitly line up comparisons. And they never went head to head with hardware per se. They did bring humor and snark to it, but it was way smarter than what Microsoft does. And of course it resonated because it was true...
Unless you are already driving a Bugatti.
Just at the surface of it all, to me it's about what one's use case is. Having a "faster" computer that can't run the software one needs for their daily life wouldn't be very useful.
Ok I don’t know what’s going on lol. This little conversation is derailing all over the place. All I said was a kickstand might be nice on an iPad. Context: I don’t like the folding cover stand for the purpose of standing it up while I’m working, eating, doing stuff with my hands. Magic keyboard isn’t good for that purpose either because of how thick and heavy it is and how much table space it takes up. But I’m not asking to replace the magic keyboard or a laptop or anything.
If MS simply spent the time and money to make their software (apps) better, they might be able to benefit from Apple’s new M1 (and whatever is coming) MacBooks and iMacs and iPads and iPhones. Not sure why they even bother to try to compete on hardware, when they’ve yet to release any device that even moves their own PC market.
Not user upgradable. From the web page.
"4 Hard drive is not user removable. Hard drive is only removable by skilled technician following Microsoft provided instructions."
it's pretty hilarious that they have the hutzpa to make a piece of junk and then compare it to the best gear on the market to justify their premium pricing. M$ really hasn't got many better ideas. Office is being trounced by google, Windows is worse than ever. What is left? I guess they convinced themselves Apple's success was control over hardware, but this is Apple's dna. They didn't just have a hairbrain idea while running scared.
changed position due to new informations gathered: you're a real hero
This is why... from the Verge review:
As it stands, it feels like the Surface Pro X was released too early. Not just because third-party apps aren’t ready, but because even Microsoft’s own apps — like Edge Chromium and Office — haven’t been fully ported over to ARM64.
Microsoft obviously had a design in mind for the future of the Surface Pro, and it couldn’t achieve that with Intel just yet. Microsoft’s calculated risk now relies on third-party apps, but it also means the Pro X just showcases a hardware design that we desperately want an Intel chip to fit into. It also doesn’t deliver on the battery life promises ARM is supposed to achieve. The keyboard, app compatibility, and performance are noticeably worse than the Surface Pro 7, too. Those are things I just take for granted on the Pro 7, and it’s weird to have to worry about any of them again.
As someone who uses Windows on a daily basis, I rely on it to be productive and get my work done quickly. The Surface Pro X is great to look at, but once you really start pushing it, the experience starts to fall apart. This hardware design might be the future for the Surface Pro line, but if it’s a “pro” machine, then it has to do more than deliver the basics — and the Pro X often can’t do that.
Surface Pro X vs. Pro 7: ARM needs some legs
A deep dive into the Surface Pro X experience.
www.theverge.com
Yes... Surface Pro X and M1 Macbook Pro are both "ARM" but only one capitalizes on what makes ARM great.
I can see why Microsoft isn't really advertising the Surface Pro X very much.
In Microsoft's favor here, unlike a lot of Linux distros or other OEM makers, they are not simply attempting to copy Apple. They go out of their way to do something else. They offer a stylus and touch screens. They are compatible with more games. Look, at least it does offer something that will work for some people. Nothing wrong if they want to make their pitch. The Surface has been popular, and it meets the needs for their users. Some people will just prefer Windows. And nothing wrong with that if it meets your needs.
The gods all know I've spent more and got less horsepower on Apple products compared to the Wintel options because the Mac fit my needs better at the time. It's nice to see, for a change, for Windows marketers have to try and explain why customers should pay more money for Windows products with inferior horsepower performance. Shoes on the other foot for a change.
The gods all know I've spent more and got less horsepower on Apple products compared to the Wintel options because the Mac fit my needs better at the time. It's nice to see, for a change, for Windows marketers have to try and explain why customers should pay more money for Windows products with inferior horsepower performance. Shoes on the other foot for a change.
Compared to the M1 Mac, Surface performance must be much worse in the processing/graphics/battery departments.
However the advertisement specifically states that the price includes the Pen and Type Cover, offer valid through 31st January.
My response to Microsoft's new advertisement is the same as my response to anyone telling me that there are cheaper alternatives to be had to Apple products. Yes, Apple stuff do cost more upfront, but they more than pay for themselves in the form of greater productivity and fewer problems overall. I am at the point where I want my devices to work more than I want them to be cheap, and you really couldn't pay me enough to switch to windows.
I have used the HP Elitex2 at work every day for 2 years now, so I think I am qualified to speak on the pros and cons of the surface form factor (for me at least). In short, I hate it. Part of it is the form factor, part of it is windows.
Cons:
1) It's essentially a laptop with a broken hinge. I can't pick it up by the keyboard the same way I can with a conventional laptop form factor. Instead, I have to hold it by the screen and rest the laptop on my arm, like I would do a baby. Even the iPad Pro with smart or magic keyboard lets me hold it by the keyboard because it's stiff enough.
The kickstand takes up lots of extra space on the table as well and as pointed out earlier, it's not as comfortable or as stable to use on the laptop.
2) Yes, it boasts a number of input methods, but this is reminiscent of android devices which have like 5 different ways of letting you unlock your phone, but they are all poorly implemented. The trackpad is cramped and remains a joke, necessitating a mouse (for me at least). Conversely, I am still comfortable with using the trackpad on my M1 MBA.
Windows also continues to not be optimised for touch.
3) Yes, it's thin and light, but battery life sucks, and the device basically throttles when not plugged in to external power. I don't care what numbers windows promises, it pretty much goes out the window when you are doing anything evenly moderately intensive. The M1 Mac and iPad Pro continue to have the edge when it comes to sustained performance.
And then my personal peeves with the device (which may or may not be representative of windows hardware in general, but I don't get these issues on my Apple devices, and it's a sobering reminder of why I continue to swear by my Apple ecosystem).
1) Just lots of software-related problems. Maybe it's due to the admin software / restrictions on it. The device doesn't always go to sleep properly when I close the keyboard, and I sometimes don't get wifi when I wake it out of sleep, necessitating a reboot.
2) The thin form factor and Intel chips don't really go together. I have had numerous colleagues complain of screen flickering problems (turns out heat and electronics don't really play well when they are next to each other and you aren't running Apple's Arm chips) when they zoomed from home during HBL last year. I personally have my my screen flicker really badly after running zoom with an external monitor attached at my desk at the start of the year. The laptop basically became unusable after an hour and I had to quickly switch over to my iPad as I was in charge of taking minutes for that day. It's a recurring joke where my windows laptop always fails in one way or another when I need to take minutes for a staff meeting, with my iPad Pro and iPhone jumping in to save the day.
A better form factor would probably be something like the surface book where the screen detaches to form a tablet. At least you still get a stable, more conventional form factor. At the end of the day, I find I am better off using a separate laptop and tablet to get my work done. The Surface form factor combines the worst of both worlds for me (top heavy, poor thermals, cramped trackpad) without any redeeming qualities to offset.
The mac is indeed much faster but as mainly mac user also owning a surface 4 it’s clear that touch capability is a real and significant differentiator.
Microsoft yesterday shared a new ad on YouTube titled "Microsoft Surface Pro 7: The Better Choice," in which the company compares its tablet computer to Apple's 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro, as spotted by MSPoweruser.
The ad highlights the Surface Pro 7's touchscreen and included stylus as opposed to only a "little bar" (the Touch Bar) on the MacBook Pro. Other advantages of the Surface Pro 7 mentioned in the ad include the detachable keyboard, a cheaper price, and the claim that the tablet is "a much better gaming device" than the MacBook Pro.
Results uploaded on Geekbench show that the Intel Core i3-equipped Surface Pro 7 with 4GB of RAM has single-core and multi-core scores of 769 and 1,851, respectively. Additionally, the Intel Core i5-equipped Surface Pro 7 with 8GB of RAM has single-core and multi-core scores of 1,210 and 4,079, respectively. By comparison, the M1 chip running on a 13-inch MacBook Pro with 8GB of unified memory achieved greater performance than both Surface models with single-core and multi-core scores of 1,735 and 7,686, respectively.
The 12.3-inch Surface Pro 7 starts at $749.99 with 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM and increases to $2,299.99 with 1TB of storage and 16GB of RAM. In comparison, the current 13-inch M1 MacBook Pro starts at $1,299 with 256GB of storage and 8GB of unified memory and increases to $2,299 for 2TB of storage and 16GB of unified memory.
Microsoft has long positioned its Surface devices as an ideal combination of both a tablet and computer experience. In years past, Microsoft has released several ads promoting its Surface lineup over Apple's MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and iPad lineup.
Article Link: Microsoft Touts Surface Pro 7 as 'The Better Choice' Over MacBook Pro in New Ad
cheers,
Bernard
That’s cute, but the previous post literally said “insecure. There’s a reason Apple doesn’t do this crap.” Apple has and does “do this crap.” Or did you miss the callback with John Hodgman reprising his role as PC at the launch event for the M1 Macs? They haven’t forgotten, we haven’t forgotten, so yeah it absolutely is a valid rebuttal whether it’s convenient for your argument or not.