I did the unthinkable and chose a 2017 iPad over a 2017 Surface Pro M3

[Robinator]

A couple of years ago I moved myself and some of the fam from Apple Everything to Windows 10. Yesterday however, I bought an new 2017 iPad. I really love the Surface devices, so why?

LEAVING THE PLATFORM BECAUSE OF WINDOWS MOBILE

First, because Microsoft are no longer supporting the phones that are in our house, we are being forced from that platform. So rather than living and breathing completely and happily inside the Microsoft ecosystem, I am now forced to diversify and go elsewhere. This really is a big deal, and changes my thinking from the unthinkable (leaving the MS ecosystem) to the possible (shifting back towards Apple). That being the case, why should I then buy a Microsoft Surface tablet (I was planning to buying a new Surface Pro M3) when I an now FORCED to be open to Apple and Android?

EASE OF MOVING PLATFORMS

Second, Microsoft have made my leap back to Apple so easy, because they have done what Apple and Google have refused to do, which is to make their software available on the others' platforms. Thus the transition to iPad is easy. For example, Word and PowerPoint are effectively free (via my 365 account that I will not be renewing at full cost next time; I will use the academic version which costs me almost nothing). Outlook on iPad is a great app (better than on PC platform). Lots of other apps that Microsoft that I use are also really nice on iPad (e.g. Wunderlist) and made the transition really simple and clean.

FACEBOOK

Third, the Facebook app on iPad is great and the PC version is terrible. Just read the comments on the Microsoft Store. The tight Facebook integration and simple sharing on iPad is a big thing for me, and not having it on PC was a big part of the final deal breaker.

PRICING, PEN, KEYBOARD, MEMORY

Fourth, the Surface Pro M3 could have had pricing available already, but a couple of stores that I visited did not even know the new Surface Pro was coming in really soon, let alone knowing pricing. I chose an iPad because $630 (New Zealand) is about half the guestimated Surface Pro M3 price. Further, the RAM in the SP M3 is only 4 GB and as the Eve V people know well, the people who want tablets want a minimum of 8 GB. Lastly, no pen and no keyboard just pushes the price up further to around 2.5x the iPad price. And there is no USB-C.

SIZE AND KICKSTAND

Fifth, I wanted a tablet for reading books, researching, highlighting passages, Bible study, and watching videos (I am an academic and the device was not for watching movies or playing games). The 9.7" iPad is slightly too large to be ideal for reading, and lacks a kickstand. And yes, I really do think the kickstand on the surface is a big deal, because it makes reading and watching a lot easier since it props the Surface Pro up so nicely at any angle. At the end of the day however, the surface was really nicely and tempting, but slightly oversized (A4 paper sized). If there was a Surface Mini in the same space that Apple fills (they have 9.7" iPad and the large Surface-sized iPad) then it would have been even more tempting. But no signs of other sized devices have come from Redmond or even from their partners and the selection of tablets on the Windows platform is really quite pathetic.

DOWNSIDES OF THE IPAD

Sixth, the Opera web browser that works so well on PC and Mac is not well supported on iPad. I never expected to ever use Opera, but the speed, stability, and importantly the cross platform syncing is brilliant. This cannot be mimiced using Edge or Safari as they are platform locked, and I will not use Google's Chrome trojan browser.

And finally.....

No kickstand is unfortunate but something I will live with.

iPad battery life is not as good as Microsoft's claimed 13.5 hours.

Availability for the iPad was here and now compared to the slower released Surface Pro.

CONCLUSION / SUMMARY

Don't get me wrong -- I love the Surface concept and the hardware and would have preferred to stay with Windows 10 which I also really love (I am an Insider). What weakened me in the end was the phone problem (I love my Lumia 650) which forced open the door to leaving, and the ease of leaving thanks to Microsoft's cross platform strategy.

I wonder how Microsoft would view these thoughts of mine? If they are simply mine, they they will not care, but if it is a trend then how are they going to gain market share in this space? As for revenue, sure it may go upwards due to Android and Apple apps making $$$ for Microsoft, but at what cost? How are Microsoft planning to take money from my wallet in future since I just gave most of it to Apple? What apps and services am I going to pay for in future? Pages and Keynote are free (compare that to Office 365). pCloud is a great service with 20 GB free space and proper encryption if you want to pay a bit more.

 

[Drael646464]

Microsoft are no longer supporting the phones that are in our house, we are being forced from that platform

Can't make sense of that. Presumably you have really old windows phones that no longer get updates?

And what does that have to do with what tablet you use? Windows has timeline, cloud clipboard and a whole host of platform agnostic features coming this fall, so Windows will play nice with android or ios (better than those OSes play with any other).

You don't even need your tablet, desktop and phone to be the same platform. You just need the same services, which for MSFT, exist on every platform.

 

[anthonyng]

They are just toys and tools, use what you need to use that works for you and keeps you happy

 

[Johnny Tremaine]

Yep, agree with anthonyng.

Life is short: use whatever tech makes you happy. Myself, I have a mix of devices from the different platforms (Windows desktop, Macbook Air, old Windows phone, now used as a camera/mp3 player, Android/Sony Xperia Z4 tablet and iPhone 6s)
Anything else, 'all Windows' or 'all Apple' is just hyperbole or marketing or simply fanboism.

If you're say, an artist, an engineer, a published author or filmmaker, you'll use the tools that help you reach your end result. Hell, JK Rowling wrote her first drafts of her Harry Potter novels in regular notebooks; early on, she was too poor, on welfare, to afford high tech toys.

 

[gazuga6176]

you simply can't get a better tablet for media consumption then an ipad. for the bed, the bathroom, and the couch, it's just butter. I rarely used my SP3 as a tablet, unless I was showing projects that looked better in portrait.

 

[Drael646464]

you simply can't get a better tablet for media consumption then an ipad. for the bed, the bathroom, and the couch, it's just butter. I rarely used my SP3 as a tablet, unless I was showing projects that looked better in portrait.

There are windows tablets in non-surface screen ratios. My windows tablet is 9.7 inches, 4:3. But whatever makes you happy, of course.

 

[SeaBuf]

I wanted a tablet for reading books, researching, highlighting passages, Bible study, and watching videos (I am an academic and the device was not for watching movies or playing games)

As an academic, who also owns an iPad, I doubt that the iPad (non Pro) is the right device for serious academic research. There is no better device than the Surface Pro when it comes to productivity. An iPad is great for media consumption, and that's about it.
If you can substitute your Surface Pro with an iPad, the Surface was never the right device for your needs.

 

[Old_Mil]

I agree that abandoning the mobile space was a massive strategic blunder on Microsoft's part. However, I think you would have been happier with an Android device. I suspect you will grow frustrated with Apples closed architecture.

 

[xandros9]

I picked up a 2017 iPad as well to see how well it pairs with my current iPhone, but isn’t it something like one-half to one-third the cost of the M3? I’m not sure they even compete beyond both being tablets as they both have the pros and cons of their phone and PC-based natures respectively.

 

[diego3336]

Well, for the way you want to use, the iPad makes more sense than a Surface Pro. I had this same doubt when the first SP came out, and I opted for a Galaxy TabPro 10.1 running Android because the SP was way too overkill for my needs, and the other Surface option at the time was the RT, so no, thanks.

But if I had the option of the Atom-based Surface 3, I would've bought it without thinking twice...

 

[Jakoh]

I have them both. IPad pro 10.5 and the new Intel M3 surface pro 2017.
Honestly, win 10 is a better tablet experience with pen input everywhere. IPad is still an iPhone. Silos of files, you get used doing things the long way. The best thing about the new iPad is the swipe up from bottom, but multitasking is still shifty and not very well supported by apps.
And that multi drag thing, who uses that?

Guess what, despite of getting blown by geek bench numbers the m3 is slightly faster at web browsing.