One Tablet To Rule Them All: Surface Pro 4 VS iPad Pro

Not even 2 weeks has passed since Tim Cook the Tech Santa from Apple announced the latest iPad Pro, the landscape of professional tablet has been redrawn again. At the distant past of Sept 26, 2015, iPad Pro was beating the benchmark Surface Pro 3 on all front. Apparently Apple had pick the wrong fight… With the announcement of Surface Pro 4 today, Microsoft is back in the game in the fight for the tablet market. With release date set at October 26, 2015 (iPad Pro for sale at November) the Surface Pro 4 is meeting iPad Pro head on. Without considering software attributes, iPad Pro ousted Surface 3 with its improved performance, lighter and sleeker design, bigger storage space and better pricing. What about Surface Pro 4? We’ll bring to you that first hand knowledge.

Display and Design
Despite being having a bigger screen than Surface Pro 3, SP 4 with its 12.3″ screen is still smaller than iPad Pro’s 12.9″. In terms of pixel per inch, SP 4 has a insignificant win over iPad Pro, the Retina screen of iPad Pro do packed 560 megapixel, while SP 4 stands at 500 mp.
One thing to consider is SP4 has a 3:2 length to width screen ratio, while iPad Pro is 4:3. Many users believe that the wider 3:2 is more suitable for displaying image and video, the 4:3 ratio often result in wider black border, which means the screen is utilized less. On the other hand, the taller 4:3 screen gives better view when it comes to word processing task.

In terms of portability, iPad Pro is lighter and thinner than any competitor in the giant-screen-tablet category. iPad Pro only weights 712g, while SP 4 at top spec stands at 786g. But then again, if portability is very important to you perhaps big tablets aren’t the best product type you should look for.
Winner: iPad Pro

Storage

IPad Pro has 32 GB and 128 GB options, Surface Pro 4 has four options, at 128GB, 256GB, 512GB and even a 1TB model. You just have to pay more for the space.
Winner: Surface Pro 4

Performance
Surface Pro 4 is a laptop-grade tablet and you can tell from the performance benchmarks. Compare to iPad Pro’s 4GB memory, It offers up to 16GB RAM, which is only really relevant if you are a graphic/video designer. In terms of CPU, iPad Pro’s A9X is roughly at the same performance range of Surface Pro 4’s Core M3 chip. But there are also the Core i5 and Core i7 options for SP4, which are on a totally different dimension.

For the gamer and visual artist, GPU is another area to zoom in on. Surface Pro 4 at top spec host the Iris graphic card, which is able to run most online games that one normally play on desktop or laptop.  the two less intense models HD 515 and HD 520 can handle easier games like CS:GO or LOL. Although iPad Pro with its A9X chipset is not competing in the traditional PC game market like SP4 is capable of, the actual gaming experience on App Store game apps should be helluva blast.

Winner: Surface Pro 4

Connectivity

Both iPad Pro and Surface Pro 4 support Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The high end iPad Pro version is equipped with high speed LTE, while Surface Pro 4 can only achieve that with the help of additional USB adapter

         However in terms of physical connectivity, iPad Pro took the minimalist approach, featuring only one Lightning hub. SP 4 hosts USB 3.0 hub, microSD card reader, Mini-Display Port hub, and consumer has the option to customize for more hubs. On this level, SP 4 is built more like a laptop than a tablet.

Winner: Surface Pro 4

Input method

Surface Pro are known for its complimentary keyboard, now it comes with a complimentary stylus, the Surface Pen. You can easily attach the pen to the magnetic surface on the side of the device. In comparison, to use the Apple Pencil require an additional purchase or two. The Apple Pencil can be easily charged like your iPad, but Surface Pen boasts 1 year of battery life. The Surface Pen also features a tail eraser utility, which works just like a real pencil. At this moment much of the Apple Pen’s utilities remain a mystery, so from what we already know, Surface Pro 4 seems to be far superior in terms of input support.

Winner: Surface Pro 4

Pricing

IPad Pro has a $799 model and a $949 model, you pay more for additional hard drive storage space (128GB instead of 32). At 128Gb, the base model of Surface Pro 4 is set at $899. But SP 4 comes with keyboard and stylus, while getting the same equipment from Apple would cost you another $170. If one wish to get more out of a tablet purchase, or maybe is okay with the idea of “tablet replacing laptop”, Microsoft offers more price variations and customizations for higher system specs. The intermediate model with i5 CPU, 8GB RAM, and 256GB storage would cost $1299, while topping the specs out could cost as much as $2600.
Winner: Surface Pro 4

In Sum, 

IPad Pro was a pretty exciting release by Apple, it can be see as an attempt to increase the functionality of tablet computer, allowing it to shine in more professional settings. It can be best view as a “portable, yet high productivity professional tablet”. However Apple’s ambition to undercut market share from Microsoft gravitated Apple’s selling pitch for the iPad Pro toward “a tablet that has competitive edge over laptop”. If laptop is the benchmark used to measure these giant tablets, then Surface Pro 4 is much better positioned to operates as a laptop substitute. On an operational level, iPad Pro operates under the iOS, which is not a complete Operating System like the Windows 10 of Surface Pro 4.  On functionality, SP 4 wins at bigger storage and better physical compatibility, never-mind the option to upgrade into a performance powerhouse. The new iPad would be a great addition to a collection of Apple devices, as they tend to have greater synchronicity within their own brand. But when it comes to performance level and overall software compatibility, Surface Pro 4 is poised to be the leader in the market.

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