Apple Announces iPad Pro; MS Surface Pro Users Confused By Apple’s Use Of The Words “Pro”, “New”

September 10, 2015 by Tiffany Mueller 22 Comments

Apple just announced the latest flavor of iPad, the all new iPad Pro. It packs a giant 12.9 inch display with an impressive resolution of 2732 x 2048. While that is quite a magnificent display to look at photos on, the rest of the the iPad Pro specs kinda miss the mark in terms of it’s competition (i.e. the Microsoft Surface Pro 3).

Now, I realize there’s an immense amount of brand loyalty between Apple and Microsoft users, but hear me out…

About That “Desktop class processor”…

A major selling point of the iPad Pro is it’s process, the new A9X, which Apples says performs 2.5x faster than the A8X chip found in the iPad Air. Apple labels the A9X a “desktop class” processor, which would be even more fantastic if the iPad Pro could actually run desktop programs, but instead, it just seems to allow you to run more programs simultaneously. I agree that’s useful to a certain extent, but when you compare it to the Microsoft Surface Pro 3, which can run the full on desktop version of Adobe Photoshop and, Lightroom, the A9X seems to have been short changed.

Stifling The A9X

You see, it’s not necessarily the A9X’s fault it can’t run desktop programs. With the Surface Pro 3, which comes with either an Intel Core i3, Core i5, or Core i7 processor, Microsoft made the choice to fully utilize it’s desktop class processors by installing a desktop class operating system on it–initially Windows 8, and improved on with Windows 10–giving users the ability to switch back and forth between “desktop” mode and “tablet” mode.

Apple, however, opted to stick with their mobile operating system, iOS (albeit the newly updated iOS 9), which seems kinda like a waste of a good processor. To be fair, I could understand this move more if they were releasing a new iPad Air, but they are marketing this as a professional level tablet, which, in my opinion, should pack as much punch as we know is possible.

iPad Pro

Okay, The iPad Pro’s Rear Camera Is Better, But….

Compared to the Surface Pro 3’s 5MP rear camera, iPad Pro’s 8MP camera looks slightly more appealing. Then, one starts to remember this is a tablet we’re talking about here, and I’m pretty sure the majority of us want to avoid being that guy blocking the view with his giant a** iPad.

To me, it would have made more sense to put a little more attention on the front facing camera, which I would venture to guess sees a lot use from Facetime, selfie addictions, etc…But, instead, Apple opted for a rather basic 1.2MP front camera, capable of recording 720p video. The Surface Pro 3 has the same 5MP camera in the front as it uses as the rear facing camera–giving Surface Pro 3 users the ability to capture 1080p footage with either the front or rear cameras.

Cost Comparison

Side By Side Comparison of Apple iPad Pro vs Microsoft Surface Pro 3

Storage And Expandable Memory

And, there’s other things, too…Like the difference in storage capacity between the two. The iPad comes in either 32GB or 128GB options. The Surface Pro 3 comes in 64GB or 128GB storage with 4GB RAM, or 256GB or 512GB storage with 8GB RAM. Not to mention the ability to add more storage via the Surface Pro 3’s full size USB port and/or it’s MicroSD card slot. This also makes it A LOT easier to move photos back and forth between your tablet and camera/memory cards/external hard drives. Especially when you don’t have wifi to access the cloud.

Surface Pro 3

(I’ll give credit to Apple for releasing a iPad Pro model with the option to connect to a data plan. The Surface Pro 3 is wifi only, but you can wirelessly tether to your smartphone to share it’s data plan.)

Or, Just Wait Until October

With an announcement being expected sometime in October for a Surface Pro 4, it may be in your best interest to stick it out and see what Microsoft plans on bringing to the table. TechTimes has reported rumors that suggest the Surface Pro 4 will come in a 12-inch and 14-inch size, though the resolution will most likely remain at 2k. They also suggest the Pro 4 will feature updated, high-end Core processors and a more sensitive N-Trig stylus. The price point is expected to be comparable to the initial Pro 3 pricing with models starting at $800 for the 12-inch and about $950 for the 14-inch.

Bonus Video Reviews

[ via The Verge ]

About Tiffany Mueller

Tiffany Mueller is a photographer based in Hawi, Hawaii. You can follow her Twitter here and her personal life here.

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JZaring.com

great comparison. Sounds like any other apple product to me.. too much hype, lacking features. Maybe its “Pro-Internet”
- jason bourne
  
  Yup, Apple products are more about the sizzle than the steak.
JP Danko

Have a MS Surface Pro – it’s awesome – legit keyboard, mouse, USB – the difference between a tool & a toy.
- Tiffany Mueller
  
  Everyone I’ve spoken with who has a Surface Pro absolutely loves it. I think “the difference between a tool & a toy” perfectly sums it up!
  - Paul Menard
    
    i got a pro 1, main niggles was lack of sd card reader (full size) and the hinge, but thats fixed, and only 1 usb
    - a_eh
      
      At least there’s a microSD slot and one USB (3.0), amirite?
      - Paul Menard
        
        yes, and the usb3 is good, can do atleast 80meg a sec
        theres a displayport too
Steve

The real difference is that Apple focuses on 1 thing and they do it really well.

Microsoft does many things pretty well.

For those of us that need power and storage, microsoft is the only real option.
- JP Danko
  
  Owned an iPad for a little while – to be completely honest, I couldn’t find a single task that it was actually useful for (unless you count checking Facebook and letting the kids play games as core tasks) – coupled with a huge list of things that I couldn’t do. Surface Pro is a whole other animal – iPads are for ordering Sushi – Surface Pro is for actual use. Having said that I have a close friend who is a wizard with her iPad and uses it as her own personal reference library – so its not impossible.
  - Aleksander Miz Warski
    
    u wrong, tablets are for ordering sushi, laptops are for actual use,
    - Tiffany Mueller
      
      Well, technically the Surface Pro can be a tablet AND a laptop, so….best of both worlds?
newworld666

I use a surface pro 3 with core i7 for a year now with a wireless transmitter for powerpoint présentation on video projectors..
Where is the docking station for Ipad ? I come back office I plugg the surface 3 => I have 4K display working fine with all office apps (Outlook, Excel, mouse, full keybord, Lan 2 USB ports)
Is there a full office 2013 with vba included (I can use all large Excel files with VBA components)
Photoshop PSCC is also fully operational on a surface 3 included addons (Noiseware, etc)

I doubt we can call this ipad 12″ “pro” … still limited to basic functions, but can’t be used a full working day with enough comfort like a surface pro 3.. we need a tablet function, but also a complete oparational desktop.
- Tiffany Mueller
  
  Agreed, Apple needs to step up their game–I would have been embarrassed up there trying to convince people the iPad Pro was actually a “Pro” piece of equipment. But, hey, at least the screen is shiny… ;)
  - canonboi
    
    Surface users still don’t get it.
    - Tiffany Mueller
      
      Care to enlighten?
    - AdamBoltGC
      
      I’m not a Surface user but I don’t get why Apple fans say You Surface people don’t get the iPad Pro… To me its more you Apple iPad users do,t get it. 2 in 1 devices are growing at a far more rapid rate than iPads… Oh wait, that’s right iPads aren’t growing, they are declining…. and there’s a reason for that that you obviously don’t understand.
cbenci

The iPad concept is really dying in 2015. I believe the populous really want something that has flexibility and power; keyboard, mouse, easy connectivity, a more open ecosystem, etc.

The iPad Air is the last iPad I will own.
Simon Whitley

Surface Pro users are easily confused.
a_eh

You’re looking at it all wrong. Logic doesn’t work with diehard apple users. The iPad pro will still sell more than the SPs.

I’ll just be here waiting for the sp4 or other PC hybrids/convertibles if I want to spend less. There’s that Lenovo SP twin with core m and a lower price tag for example…
TheInconvenientRuth

Can the Surface Pro screen be hardware calibrated?
- JP Danko
  
  It runs full Windows – so I don’t see why you couldn’t use a Spyder or similar (although I haven’t actually tried it myself https://www.diyphotography.net/hands-datacolor-spyder5-elite-review/
Ralph Hightower

Okay, when Apple switched from the PowerPC processor to Intel for the desktops and laptops, to me, that was a left turn that Apple made. But apparently the advances in the PowerPC chips couldn’t keep up with the technology advances that Intel was making.
PowerPC is a RISC chip (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), which supposed is faster than CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computers), such as Intel, since RISC has a simpler set of native commands than CISC (which have many more complex native instructions). The simpler the native instruction, the fewer clock cycles it takes the operation to complete.
If Apple wants to put “Desktop Performance” in the iPad Pro, they would put an Intel Core processor in there instead of a RISC chip such as the Apple A9/A9X which is based on the ARM architecture that commonly powers cell phones (including Androids).