Microsoft pits Surface Pro 7 against MacBook Pro in new ad
Microsoft's latest attempt to promote its Surface tablet lineup has it comparing the Surface Pro 7 against Apple's MacBook Pro, despite the iPad Air potentially being a closer rival device.
Released on Friday, the YouTube video "Microsoft Surface Pro 7: The Better Choice" attempts to frame Microsoft's tablet as a suitable productivity competitor to Apple's MacBook Pro lineup. The 30-second ad spot sticks to a few talking points that the Surface seemingly excels at, rather than a more in-depth analysis.
Seemingly set up to look like a generic tech comparison video, the spot starts off by arguing the Surface is better for having a Pen and a touchscreen, before complaining about the MacBook Pro's "little" Touch Bar. "Why can't they just give me a whole touchscreen?" the on-screen actor declares in the video reported by iMore
The "Design" section references the detachable keyboard of the Surface Pro, while "you're kind of just stuck with what you got" on the MacBook Pro. Under "Power," the actor mentions how users can "run your favorite apps" on the Surface, and that it is a "much better gaming device."
Lastly, Microsoft mentions pricing, where the MacBook Pro is shown to be $1,299 while the Surface Pro is price-marked down from $1,130 to $890.
The ad spot seemingly takes on the MacBook Pro as an easy target with its fairly simplistic talking points, but at the same time it seems disingenuous as it isn't really comparing like-for-like hardware. To do that, the ad producers would have to go down the route of comparing the Surface Pro against an iPad, like the iPad Air or iPad Pro.
In all cases, the iPad range offers touchscreen support as well as the Apple Pencil, and can work with a variety of different keyboard-equipped covers, like the Magic Keyboard. Since many apps and games work in iPadOS, Microsoft's software mention is fairly moot.
As for price, while the iPad Pro line is fairly expensive for comparison, the iPad Air offers the styling and most of the benefits, at a cheaper rate. As it starts from $599 for the base model, adding the Magic Keyboard brings the price up to $899, practically equalling Microsoft's quoted price.
The ad surfaces roughly a month after a report claimed Microsoft was considering going down the same route as Apple in producing in-house processor designs that could be used in future Surface models. This would bring Microsoft in line with Apple for both the A-series chips used in the iPhone and iPad ranges, and the Apple Silicon chips used in the latest Macs.
Released on Friday, the YouTube video "Microsoft Surface Pro 7: The Better Choice" attempts to frame Microsoft's tablet as a suitable productivity competitor to Apple's MacBook Pro lineup. The 30-second ad spot sticks to a few talking points that the Surface seemingly excels at, rather than a more in-depth analysis.
Seemingly set up to look like a generic tech comparison video, the spot starts off by arguing the Surface is better for having a Pen and a touchscreen, before complaining about the MacBook Pro's "little" Touch Bar. "Why can't they just give me a whole touchscreen?" the on-screen actor declares in the video reported by iMore
The "Design" section references the detachable keyboard of the Surface Pro, while "you're kind of just stuck with what you got" on the MacBook Pro. Under "Power," the actor mentions how users can "run your favorite apps" on the Surface, and that it is a "much better gaming device."
Lastly, Microsoft mentions pricing, where the MacBook Pro is shown to be $1,299 while the Surface Pro is price-marked down from $1,130 to $890.
The ad spot seemingly takes on the MacBook Pro as an easy target with its fairly simplistic talking points, but at the same time it seems disingenuous as it isn't really comparing like-for-like hardware. To do that, the ad producers would have to go down the route of comparing the Surface Pro against an iPad, like the iPad Air or iPad Pro.
In all cases, the iPad range offers touchscreen support as well as the Apple Pencil, and can work with a variety of different keyboard-equipped covers, like the Magic Keyboard. Since many apps and games work in iPadOS, Microsoft's software mention is fairly moot.
As for price, while the iPad Pro line is fairly expensive for comparison, the iPad Air offers the styling and most of the benefits, at a cheaper rate. As it starts from $599 for the base model, adding the Magic Keyboard brings the price up to $899, practically equalling Microsoft's quoted price.
The ad surfaces roughly a month after a report claimed Microsoft was considering going down the same route as Apple in producing in-house processor designs that could be used in future Surface models. This would bring Microsoft in line with Apple for both the A-series chips used in the iPhone and iPad ranges, and the Apple Silicon chips used in the latest Macs.
Comments
For products that sell well, reducing the price is *always* the first thing you do. That alone speaks volumes more than any claims made by the child in that ad.
Or maybe compare it to a Tesla. The Tesla doesn't even come with a keyboard, and you can't play ANY games on it! Plus, the Tesla is WAY WAY more expensive. /s
But seriously... these days the biggest legit drawback of getting a Mac is gaming. That's the thing Apple needs to address. My hope is that with consistent silicon and software stack through Mac and iOS devices, Apple will now turn to making a serious investment in improving Mac gaming. If they can spend billions on making their own movies/TV shows, surely they can spend some $$ on making the Mac competitive for gaming
Look, Apple types have been claiming "an iPad can replace a Windows laptop because Windows is horrible and people who use Windows instead of Macs are cheap dump unsophisticated uneducated losers" for 10 years. It won't work. You can't use an iPad for software development or engineering. You can't use an iPad for cybersecurity, network architecture or other IT work. An mechanical engineer can't use an iPad for CAD/CAM work, an architect can't use it for drafting. You can't use an iPad for data science. You can't even run full Excel or Access on an iPad for entry level analyst work. And those are the software limitations. If you are a sales/marketing/HR guy and are creating a presentation and need to use 2 screens: sorry you can't. The most the iPad is capable of is mirroring its single screen to a bigger one. And for entertainment? Sorry, you can't do AAA gaming with an iPad beyond the xCloud/Stadia/GeForce Now cloud stuff that you can also do on a $60 Walmart Android tablet. But you can on a Surface device that has an Intel Core i7 CPU and an Nvidia graphics card. And you will be able to do so on the next generation Surface Pro 7 which will have Iris Xe graphics.
Sorry. The iPad is a tablet. The Surface is a PC. If you want a tablet to do real work, you should either get an iPad Pro - not an iPad Air - or a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7 Pro (which with DeX has desktop features that iPads lack). But if you want a PC, do not get an iPad or any other tablet. Get a MacBook, a Windows PC or - if you know Linux - a good Chromebook.
And if you want to know why Microsoft didn't compare this device with a MacBook Air ... honestly they should. The ad could show that the Surface can do all the PC things that a MacBook Air can do while pointing out the touchscreen/2-in-1 things that the MacBook Air can't do. But hey, remember it was Apple who began this in the first place with their utterly false advertising "the iPad can replace your Windows PC" campaign more than 10 years ago. So don't complain when Microsoft is throwing the same nonsense back at you.
I wouldn't know I don't watch them either just like I didn't watch this one I just went to see the comments...
But every company comparing their own products with Apple ones is admitting that Apple is the best.