iPad Pro vs Surface

[macmee]

I want to weight the pros and cons as we know them now for fun.

Reasons to get a Surface:

1. Full windows means full apps like office, photoshop, CAD, Chrome, Torrenting (this is my favourite pro!)
2. Kick stand is quite useful
3. Physical keyboard is fully sized with multitouch trackpad
4. USB support
5. SD card reader
6. Phenomenal x86 CPU and lots of RAM
7. OneDrive does a pretty good job of syncing all my office and note taking
8. OneNote is alright (would have said fantastic until W10)
9. Cheaper intro price vs iPad Pro

Reasons to get an iPad Pro:

1. Probably a lot less buggy (this is my favourite)
2. Better stylus (possibly)
3. Microsoft just pledged full touch integrated office support
4. More touch applications
5. Better battery life
6. Wont overheat
7. Better note taking experience

My explanation for why the iPad will be better for note taking: Here is how note taking works on Windows 10: you press the tip of the pen down on the screen in OneNote and the windows date & time dialog pops up over OneNote because palm detection is non-existent. You begin go write and the keyboard continuously popups up and goes down, up and down up and down even though you've made no indication that you want it, it's a glitch. You attempt to scroll down and realize that scrolling doesn't work anymore until you leave OneNote and come back to it. You tap on the option to change to a new page and your tap is detected as a right click. In fact, every click is now detected as a right click and now your note taking session has come to an end because the only way to fix it is to reboot the device.

My train of thought right now is that if you want something that can do more things in a more buggy way, get the Surface, and if you want something that can do a limited amount of things but that does them very well, get the iPad Pro.

I'm clearly playing devil's advocate here as I've bought a SP2 and SP3 and haven't ran an iPad since the iPad 3, although I will say that after a really buggy OneNote and W10 experience lately, having a device that "just works" would be nice. It would be even better if the SP3 "just worked"

 

[jrioux]

"Microsoft just pledged full touch integrated office support"

It seems odd that MS would make a better free product for the iPad than it's own products.

 

[benjitek]

I think tech blogs have recently popularized a comparison between the iPad Pro and Surface Pro. It's hard to consider the 2 a valid comparison, they're in different product categories. If the iPad Pro ran OSX, then maybe. A comparison with the Surface RT would be more appropriate, if it were still available. Depends on your needs I guess...

 

[macmee]

I think tech blogs have recently popularized a comparison between the iPad Pro and Surface Pro. It's hard to consider the 2 a valid comparison, they're in different product categories. If the iPad Pro ran OSX, then maybe. A comparison with the Surface RT would be more appropriate, if it were still available. Depends on your needs I guess...

What gets me is that Apple wants them to be in different categories. I imagine that if Apple ran OS X on the iPad Pro then it would completely destroy the Surface in just about every way. They could even support every single iPad app in the app store because you can already compile all those apps to x86 in xcode so all it would take is a software layer like they made for X11 back in the day. If they did this they would have the best tablet on the market, but instead they've crippled it with iOS.

Then again, at least in iOS every tap on my screen isn't detected as a "right click"!!

 

[benjitek]

What gets me is that Apple wants them to be in different categories. I imagine that if Apple ran OS X on the iPad Pro then it would completely destroy the Surface in just about every way...

I don't think Apple 'wants' them to be in different categories, they just are. I doubt they gave much thought to the Surface Pro during iPad Pro development.

Should Apple decide to compete in that category and evolve OSX into something to support it, watch out Microsoft...

 

[CrippsCorner]

What comes after iOS 9? iOS 10 > iOS X

Seriously though I bet Microsoft sighed a breath of relief when the iPad Pro was revealed as running iOS. There's no competition really but if @benjitek says... a release of iPad Pro Pro running OS X could be dangerous for Surface fans!

They really should have called the iPad Pro > iPad Plus, then kept the 'Pro' nickname for the above situation.

 

[GreyFox7]

What comes after iOS 9? iOS 10 > iOS X

Seriously though I bet Microsoft sighed a breath of relief when the iPad Pro was revealed as running iOS. There's no competition really but if @benjitek says... a release of iPad Pro Pro running OS X could be dangerous for Surface fans!

They really should have called the iPad Pro > iPad Plus, then kept the 'Pro' nickname for the above situation.

Ha, Apple should have skipped 9 while they are copying MS with size and pencil that would have been hilarious.

 

[hughlle]

Your note taking experience sounds nothing like mine. It sounds like a broken experience.

I open OneNote, and I write. No issues at all like you have seen.

No way in hell mobile office (designed for touch first and foremost) will be comparable to desktop OneNote.

 

[macmee]

Your note taking experience sounds nothing like mine. It sounds like a broken experience.

I open OneNote, and I write. No issues at all like you have seen.

No way in hell mobile office (designed for touch first and foremost) will be comparable to desktop OneNote.

Most people on W10 with the SP3 atleast have the right click and palm rejection bugs which sadly ruin it!

 

[hughlle]

Most people on W10 with the SP3 atleast have the right click and palm rejection bugs which sadly ruin it!

You say most people, I say I have hardly heard about it. I'm not say I g who is right or wrong but first I've heard of it being a majority issue.

And there is a major update coming in the next no th or so.

Imo your comment is worthless in that this is just a bug on Windows, widespread or not, I don't know, but for all you know the iPad with its never tried before pencil could ha e just a big a problem.

I have a hard time believe that "most" experience this issue and are as unsuch unable to use OneNote. There would hardly be a win 10 sp3 user on this forum if that was the case.

 

[macmee]

You say most people, I say I have hardly heard about it. I'm not say I g who is right or wrong but first I've heard of it being a majority issue.

And there is a major update coming in the next no th or so.

Imo your comment is worthless in that this is just a bug on Windows, widespread or not, I don't know, but for all you know the iPad with its never tried before pencil could ha e just a big a problem.

I have a hard time believe that "most" experience this issue and are as unsuch unable to use OneNote. There would hardly be a win 10 sp3 user on this forum if that was the case.

78 upvotes 72 comments - Touch as Right Click Survey - JUST AS IMPORTANT FOR PEOPLE NOT HAVING THE ISSUE TO RESPOND TOO • /r/Surface

271 complaints in 1 thread - Windows 10 on Microsoft Surface Pro 3 - Tap touch screen right clicks instead of left clicks

155 upvotes, 70+ comments - Reditr

these have similar stats and are also within just the past 24 hours:

Reditr
Reditr
Reditr
Reditr
Reditr

here's a thread from MONTHS AGO when the issue STILL existed, most commenters say they also have the bug:

SP3 interprets tap on screen as right click on Windows 10 • /r/Surface

and this is only reddit. I can just as easily browse this forum or windows central and find even more backlog just like this ^ It's a common as heck bug. Just because you haven't gotten it doesn't mean other people don't have it lmao...

 

[Athol Hill]

I think it will be interesting to see where the market goes in the next couple of years for Apple and Microsoft. I am not convinced either is 100% correct at this point. I don't agree that the current iOS or OSX is the right solution for the iPad Pro so the question is whether iOS becomes more OSX like or OSX becomes more iOS like as the final solution, or whether Apple even goes down the hybrid path. I guess the question will be how the iPad Pro does and whether Apple is forced to concede they went the wrong way.

I also wasn't happy with the SP3 on Windows 10. Upgrade was flawless but then I had constant issues after that and eventually dumped it 2 weeks ago after having to restart it at least once a day, Outlook constantly not responding, despite two reinstalls and redownloading Windows 10 to see if it was a bad download. I use the stylus a lot for note taking so the lack of reliability was a major issue for me in OWindows 8 was terrible so I didn't want to go back. Not sure where I will go to now, I may try an iPad Pro and see how much of a compromise it is because I don't mind carrying two devices.