Your geek bench numbers are completely , completely wrong. 5K single and 18K multi at its lowest clock speed......I had such difficulty reading through this comparison that I was expecting to find some sanity by sifting through the comments. I’m in complete shock at the misinformation here. I own both an iPad Pro 12.9” and a surface book 2. I just ordered the surface book 3 with quadro graphics. I am a designer, draftsperson, 3D model creator and rendering artist. I love my iPad for a great number of things that it excels at...it is not, not even a little bit, a solution for production based tools that require better hardware and the full power of a desktop-rated OS. Even if we could port MacOS, No way in hell my iPad could run even 1 of the 10 applications I use on a weekly basis...it doesn’t have the hardware. It is not comparable as it is not capable. It cannot use any of the Adobe suite applications which is why Adobe created trimmed down versions for iOS. Whew...I thought about really digging deep and listing the thousands of operations that the iPad can’t handle and just decided it is such a waste of effort. These two devices are not comparable, their is no argument there. The tablet portion of the surface book 3 has enough graphic fidelity to handle OpenGL based vector graphics from all of the top applications in the industry. Nuff said, iPad cannot. That’s ignoring the fact that the keyboard portion can remain attached and reversed, creating a tablet that sports some of the best Mobile GPU’s in the industry, albeit a heavy tablet. We’re talking about a device that sports 240 tensor cores and can be carried around in one arm.
Pressure sensitivity of the Apple Pencil is unlisted and for good reason, it’s not as sophisticated of a device as the surface pen with 4K pressure sensitivity and lower parallax and latency. Having owned 19 apple devices I can understand the vortex that is created by the Apple culture. Lock down and dependency is core to Apples values masked under the veil of the security-trumps-customization approach. I still love my iPad Pro for everything that it excels at, truly. But their is simply no comparison here. Surface book destroys an iPad for professionals in every way...and yes it costs a lot more.
The Geekbench numbers are for version 5, not 4 (the ones you're quoting).
Yes, the iPad Pro is not even remotely close to the Surface Book for productivity.
The Surface Book 3 attempts to solve the problem of making a notebook work similar to a tablet. Apple has looked at things from the opposite direction, making a tablet work similar to a notebook.
It seems a lot easier (or at least more "natural") to build upon a "touch first" OS to add notebook/desktop OS features than the other way around.
Who can say if this was the strategy all along, but Apple has the luxury of being able to do this with iPadOS.
While the MS 1st-party apps and perhaps certain other major app providers grow accommodations for touch, it seems Windows will continue to be hobbled by the huge numbers of smaller, niche and legacy apps that just can't or won't be able to adapt to new UI paradigms. For all these apps designed with a mouse-centric point-and-click UI, that becomes the only practical method of interaction, limiting what might be considered "Windows compatibility" in the future.
IMO, not every application have to adapt to touch UI paradigms, since touch is not always the best UI, even in an iPad. That's the reason you are seeing an Apple keyboard + trackpad, and it's something the Surface had since day 1. For example, there are touch optimized versions of MS Office, AutoCAD and Photoshop for iPadOS, and they may work for some limited tasks with a touch UI. As soon as you work in complex documents, spreadsheets, photos and engineering diagrams, touch UI is not the best option, and adding the Magic Keyboard don't solve the problem, since you only add a trackpad to the same limited touch optimized app. Plus the multitasking in iPadOS is far behind compared to macOS and Windows. At the end, both devices have the good and bad things. iPadOS works better as a touch first device, not so good as a desktop laptop / desktop replacement. Windows touch UI may not be as good as iPadOS, but as a laptop / desktop replacement is far better than iPadOS.
With iPadOS apps built with touch in mind, interacting via mouse has recently been neatly sorted out, so we can already go either way.
I agree with with you that Apple did a nice thing with the cursor / pointer in iPadOS. But from an usability POV, I see no difference from what I do in my Surface with the pointer in touch apps.
The arrival of Microsoft's Surface Book 3 has given mobile workers another option for a high-performance notebook-tablet hybrid, but could potential buyers be better served by an iPad Pro?
That's nice. But you have only probably compared specs of a smart device with PC. How about you tell us which softwares ipad can run and surface cant? Like is it suitable for software development, Web development, gamers, general net surfing? What are you comparing these for? Can an ipad run Unity, Unreal, android studio, vscode, node and many more! Otherwise this detailed compare is I guess waste of time. You are simply telling us what we get if we buy any of these and we can find that all on their websites. Tell us some insight detailed marks.
The arrival of Microsoft's Surface Book 3 has given mobile workers another option for a high-performance notebook-tablet hybrid, but could potential buyers be better served by an iPad Pro? ... Ultimately, if it's a Windows tablet that's required, the Surface Book 3 is an outstanding example of that kind of device. For everyone else, an iPad Pro will probably suffice.
That's nice. But you have only probably compared specs of a smart device with PC. How about you tell us which softwares ipad can run and surface cant? Like is it suitable for software development, Web development, gamers, general net surfing? What are you comparing these for? Can an ipad run Unity, Unreal, android studio, vscode, node and many more! Otherwise this detailed compare is I guess waste of time. You are simply telling us what we get if we buy any of these and we can find that all on their websites. Tell us some insight detailed marks.
I see you're new, so I'd like to point out that there is no need to quote the entire article in your reply! (It is possible to cut out the bits you don't want, or you can reply without quoting at all.)
In answer to your comment, I'd say that the last sentence of the article pretty much sums it up.
I’ve been an iPad “fanboy” for just about 10 years, and frankly, it was that old “there’s an app for that” ad campaign that hooked me, and I never looked back.
It was more than an attachment to a piece of hardware: it was an association with a company that got off of its elitist throne, and delivered technology for everyday computer users.
The iPad has succeeded by making computers simple, and there’s nothing on the horizon that will supplant the iPad for the millions of users that appreciate “just enough computer” to serve as the “compleat digital assistant.”
IOS is the future, and I just don’t see how a computer based on MS-DOS — of any stripe — will supplant the iPad for everyday, user friendly, “pedestrian” use. I remember those old commercials saying “if you can point your finger, you can operate an iPad.” Apple was the computer “... for the rest of us.” On that point, Apple should stop “chasing” Microsoft.
Remember that Apple was “on its death bed” a decade ago, when “mean old Microsoft” ruled the consumer digital realm. But there are times when you “bet the farm” on an idea or concept; and Apple did just that with the iPad — and MS never caught up.
No doubt the Surface will continue to serve it’s “snobby, horn-rimmed glasses” consumer base well. But the iPad has charted a new direction. And that is where the future lies.
I would first like to correct you, windows hasn't been based off of MS-DOS since Windows 98 SE. Secondly what sort of description is this “snobby, horn-rimmed glasses” for surface users? We use them because they are faster, more durable, last longer on a single charge, run a real desktop operating system and can be used throughout the workplace and connected to setups with just the magnetic surface connect cable. Oh, and they don't run the risk of coming bent out of the box 🤦♂️. Its became very clear you are a fanboy as you claim. And a mobile os is never going to replace a desktop, why do you think the macbook gets refreshed every year?
I'm a digital artist . I have a XP-Pen Artist 15.6 pro drawing tablet with screen 16" , Surface Book 3 with gpu, and ipad 10.5 the experience regarding drawing goes like this:
Ipad Pro > Artist 15.6 pro > >>>>Surface The Surface has little to no pressure curve compared to the other two, has pen jitter, lag (even the 15.6 pro connected to the Surface doesn't lag, it's not the processor, it's the N-Trig tech that lags)
Get a desktop(a dencent one would be about 1000 dollar ) and a second hand ipad pro 10.5( 500 dollar ) + a Artist 15.6 pro (400 dollar ) you're even gonna save money in the end .
Comments
Yes, the iPad Pro is not even remotely close to the Surface Book for productivity.
I agree with with you that Apple did a nice thing with the cursor / pointer in iPadOS. But from an usability POV, I see no difference from what I do in my Surface with the pointer in touch apps.
That's all you need to know.
In answer to your comment, I'd say that the last sentence of the article pretty much sums it up.
I would first like to correct you, windows hasn't been based off of MS-DOS since Windows 98 SE. Secondly what sort of description is this “snobby, horn-rimmed glasses” for surface users? We use them because they are faster, more durable, last longer on a single charge, run a real desktop operating system and can be used throughout the workplace and connected to setups with just the magnetic surface connect cable. Oh, and they don't run the risk of coming bent out of the box 🤦♂️. Its became very clear you are a fanboy as you claim. And a mobile os is never going to replace a desktop, why do you think the macbook gets refreshed every year?
And there is the rub KITA.
The iPad Pro is built for the rest of us, which the audience is much larger, and growing.
I made the same mistake and kept looking at and comparing the devices, rather than the user.