IPad Air or Surface Pro 3, for work and school

My mother was kind enough to send me an iPad Air for Christmas, but i haven't opened it because I am contemplating just returning it and getting a Surface Pro 3 instead. The reason being is that I have an Android phone, a Windows 8.1 gaming laptop, a smart tv and a bunch of other online items in just my bed room, so i'm not going to be using it much there. I will only be using the device for school (to take notes, write papers, do homework) and for work (I work at Best Buy and use devices to various times with customers.)

I will not download any games (i don't have any on my phone) nor will i use anything but Microsoft Office and the web browser. I like the Surface Pro's keyboard, pen and the fact that it can run Photoshop and Illustrator, as well as the fact it use a USB drive which i carry around with me. I will probably switch the IPad for the Pro 3, but was wondering if anyone had any takes on the matter or if there is something i am not considering.

surface pro 3.

i've got one and it's perfect for everything the ipad sucks at. it's got windows 8.1 so basically infinite great free apps from games to office software to anything you can imagine. it also comes with a pressure-sensitive stylus so it's really good for taking notes whether you use onenote or evernote.

the keyboard is really good too, you can type for comfortably for hours. the touch works great in windows and internet explorer, though 3rd party apps might make it a little uncomfortable. however, since it has a keyboard with touchpad and perfect support for any USB mouse it's a moot point. the keyboard is $150 though, but it's the best keyboard for a tablet i've ever seen so it's worth it.

even though you have a gaming laptop, some games are still fun on it when you don't need the full gaming experience. games like FTL, or some light turn-based RPGs. then there's hearthstone which was made with tablets in mind.

lastly, the display is larger than the ipad, and high enough resolution to make a4 size notes/magazines readable without having to zoom (you still might want to).

Surface pro, One Note + the pen means you can practically use it like a piece of infinite paper. Plus you can download all the powerpoint presentations, PDF's etc. and shit and write notes right on those (just import into One Note and voila). Plus you can use 3G or Wi-Fi to check stuff up on the internet in the middle of class etc.

I have the Samsung ATIV Tab 7 (or ATIV Smart PC Pro 900t before the rebranding), which is pretty much the same as a Surface Pro except it uses a Wacom digitizer pen and has a detachable hard keyboard. For note taking and stuff like that it's wonderful. Plus the Surface Pro 3 is newer so it has a better CPU and it has a 4:3 aspect ratio instead of the ATIV's 16:9, so it's better for reading and writing. And the infinite- position kickstand thing-a-majig is really awesome from what I saw.

iPad's are just big iPod Touches, so you only get a gimped Office suite, it doesn't have digitizer pen support so taking notes on it is nowhere near as good as with the Surface, it isn't x86 or Windows so you can't use full blown PC software on it (like SPSS statistics, full Photoshop, full Office etc. etc. etc.). The surface also has USB slots and storage card slots.

The only real downside for the Surface is that a lot of 3rd party stuff isn't touch optimized, but you still have the touchpad on the keyboard cover so you always have that if touch support is bad. But the Office suite is optimized and One Note works wonderfully with a pen.

But really it's the Pen that destroys the iPad. Active digitizer pens/screens are amazing, they are pressure sensitive so you can make thicker or finer lines by just pressing down harder or softer (and this also means that any writing done with it looks very good since at the end of each stroke it slowly thins out, instead of just the abrupt ending on regular touchscreens), allow hover pointing (so you can use it like a mouse pointer), is absurdly precise, and includes palm rejection so you can rest your hand on the screen and write comfortably.

UNLESS you want the latest apps that release first on Apple, the Surface Pro 3 does everything else better and gives you more options since it's a full blown Windows OS.

@Zelda99: It's pretty simple actually. The Surface Pro 3 is a legit full on computer in a tablet form. The Ipad is well, an Ipad. The Surface Pro is more powerful as well and like you said, can use any desktop application you want. Also, has that little bigger screen and is a lot more versatile with the new and improved kickstand. They aren't even in the same league haha. A macbook air v the surface pro would be a better comparison, but even then, that pen is crazy good and accurate and with Onenote and being able to edit PDF's and what not, it's perfect for school. Go check one out at the store!

Basically this, Surface Pro 3 is a full computer in a tablet format, iPad is basically only for content consumption/goofing around.

+1 to what everyone else has already said. The only advantage the iPad will have over the Surface is battery life.

-Byshop

... and getting the latest Apps quicker than Android and Windows Store.

You already have Android.....check

You already have Windows 8.1 (gaming laptop).....check

Take the iPad. I've seen a number of instructors/professors use iPads as an instructing tool.

Widen your options a bit. MS Office is free for it too.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-001/mobile/

You don't need store apps when you have a real OS. iPads are cool and I had one for a long time, but the entire time I had one I was constantly trying to find an equivilent app in the iTunes store to do the various things I did on my PC (play MKV files, IRC clients, file downloaders, etc). Eventually when tablet form factor laptops got to the point that they were the same size as an iPad and lasted more than 2 hours on a battery charge I switched over and haven't looked back. Unless there are specific iOS games you want to play, the PC will always have a better version of whatever it is you want to do.

-Byshop

If the hardware aspect is that important, you might as well go for the Surface Pro 3. if I had to pay for either iPad or Surface Pro, I'd pick the latter because of the keyboard, pen and USB port.

On the software side though, it's a wash. Just like on Windows, it's not hard to find software (with a particular function) for the iPad.

I was more referring to casual games and those utility apps that always come out first on iOS. (for example, bank apps or taxi apps etc).

Absolutely the Surface Pro will be a more versatile tool

I used the iPad for a few days and ultimately returned it because i just did not like it. I'm not an app person so found it near useless. I'll be picking up the Surface Pro 3 soon, but i am a bit worried that Microsoft has all but given up on the Surface Pro 3 and may move on soon. I hate buying outdated tech, especially for such a high price.

glad you decided to try it before returning it. i can't deal with iOS crap anymore because it's so much harder to do anything on it than plain old windows.

file management is a pain on both android and iOS. sometimes you just need something and it's near impossible on anything other than windows. think programming or niche apps. for example, with connectify on surface pro 3, you could turn your tablet into a wifi repeater, something like that is impossible on other OSes without root/jailbreak and even with it's pretty difficult to do something that requires mere clicks on windows.

Didn't the Surface Pro 3 release not that long ago?

MS can't do that. I'm contemplating going from an Android tablet to a Win 8.1 one.

I would pick the Surface Pro 3. It has Windows 8.1 and all of the other features mentioned by the other users in this thread.

@jun_aka_pekto: Recently Windows just has a this thing about giving up on things prematurely or moving on from said things. I head that windows was dropping the Surface line because it wasn't selling well. I had a Windows Phone and loved it but had to switch to Android because Windows just did not release any flagship phones at the same pace as Android.

Well you heard incorrectly then, there was some rumor of that, but was debunked by Microsoft literally the same day. Microsoft's report for last quarter has the Surface bringing in a revenue of $908 million, a 127% increase from last year, and is projected to be Microsoft's next billion dollar business. Microsoft has stated that they are fully committed to the Surface line and will maintain long term support for the Surface Pro 3, and its accessories will be cross compatible with next gen models. Microsoft has also stated that they will provide support for the Surface Pro 3 on Windows 10 along with continued support for 8.1

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2824534/microsoft-pledges-commitment-to-surface-line-and-surface-pro-3-accessories.html

http://blog.surface.com/2014/10/surface-commitment-to-business/

http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/23/7030831/microsoft-q1-2015-financial-earnings

Just to suggest an alternative to the Surface Pro 3, the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140.

Specifications (starting price is $699 USD):

• Windows 8.1 64-bit
• 10.8" 1920x1080 IPS display
• Intel Core M 5Y10 (fanless)
• 4 GB DDR3L 1600 RAM
• 64 GB or 128 GB M.2 SSD
• Full size USB 3.0 (on the tablet)
• 1.62 lbs
• Optional active stylus
• Optional slim keyboard cover
• Optional keyboard dock with additional battery
• Optional desktop dock

Performance of the Core M 5Y10 is above the i3 Surface Pro 3, and close to the i5 Surface Pro 3.

A lot of my classmates use surface pros, they handle 99% of what I would need a laptop for.

I use an iPad air, mostly because it was free for me. It's great for reading pdf files and reading anything in general (powerpoint, excel, word). It also has a pretty effective circuit simulation app called iCircuit that I use a bunch when I can't access my desktop. But on the content creation side the ipad feels limited, if you're going to write a lot of reports I wouldn't get the ipad.

I like NVIDIATI's suggestion.

Yeah, I don't know where you heard that rumor but there's no truth to it. The Surface Pro 3 is Microsoft's flagship hardware and it has only been out for about six months. It's not going anywhere anytime soon.

-Byshop

As a follow-up to my previous post:

Dell has added a more powerful version of the Venue 11 Pro 7140 to their website. This version uses the just released Core M 5Y71, which is the most powerful version of Intel's Core M. This variant also includes the options for a 256 GB SSD and up to 8 GB of RAM.

Specifications (starting price is $859):

• Windows 8.1 64-bit
• 10.8" 1920x1080 IPS display
• Intel Core M 5Y71 (fanless)
• 4 GB or 8 GB DDR3L 1600 RAM
• 128 GB or 256 GB M.2 SSD

Nonsense.

They just now stopped producing Surface 1.

They will move onto Surface 4, 5, 6 etc over the next 5 years. It's doing great sale wise.

I just completed the last semester (and my last semester to graduate!) using a Surface Pro 3 (i5, 128 SSD, 4GB memory) and it was great. I previously had an HP Touchsmart TM2T convertible laptop and it was decent for school, but the battery started to fail since it was 4 years old at that point. I decided to get a Surface Pro 3 and i was pretty happy about the decision. It is nearly the perfect tool for school, especially when you don't have to bring a notebook for math classes, and all my textbooks had digital versions. Everyone else had a notebook and a bunch of books; those with laptops still had a notebook for math classes. I went the entire semester with a single tool: a lightweight Surface Pro 3.

My only complaint about the Surface Pro 3 is the fact that it only has a single USB port. Couldn't they have added at least one more :( Everything else about it is nearly perfect. EDIT: Oh yeah, gaming performance is absolutely terrible. My 4 year old HP Touchsmart can run circles around the Surface Pro 3 when theres any kind of 3D gaming going on.

- USB: remember, it's a hybrid, not just a laptop. Most tablets don't even come with one full sized USB port.

- Gaming: which model did you get? The higher i5 and i7 versions do fine with light to medium gaming.

@FelipeInside: Still. It could really benefit from at least one more USB port. The keyboard/trackpad is only decently functional, i much prefer my wireless Logitech Mouse. Just plugging in my thumbdrive meant removing my mouse. Not a huge inconvenience, but still, you are paying mid-ranged laptop prices for it.

I got the i5 using the Intel HD 4400. Its pretty poor. Anything with more than a few hundred polygons is just awful. Its made even worse by the fact that since it has such a high native resolution, you practically can't run anything at its native resolution. Diablo 3, X-Com: Enemy Unknown, Age of Wonders 3, and a few other, all at the lowest settings and sometimes at half the resolution, would run terrible. Hearthstone and Torchlight 2 were just tolerable to play. My HP Touchsmart running a 4 year old mid-ranged laptop AMD GPU could still run those games at it's native resolution. Pretty much every Intel HD is just awful.

@XaosII I wouldn't expect the Surface Pro 3 to run games at its native resolution of 2160x1440, but I would imagine heavy throttling is what's cutting your performance.

The Core M 5Y70, in a 6W configuration, inside of Intel's Llama Mountain reference tablet (fanless) can run Diablo 3 at 2560x1440:

The 5Y71 uses higher clocks than the 5Y70, but inside of the Dell Venue 11 Pro 7140 it's likely running in a 4.5W configuration. However, it might still beat out the i5 Surface Pro 3.

Another possible alternative that was based heavily on Intel's initial Llama Mountain reference device:

The ASUS Transformer Book T300 Chi (fanless) coming out in February with prices starting at $799 (or $699 for model with a 1920x1080 display).

Specifications:

• Windows 8.1 64-bit
• 12.5" 2560x1440 IPS display
• Intel Core M 5Y10C or 5Y71
• 4 GB or 8 GB LPDDR3 1600 RAM
• 64 GB or 128 GB iSSD
• microUSB 3.0
• 1.58 lbs (tablet only)
• Aluminium body
• Included Bluetooth keyboard dock

In the press release, ASUS indicated an Active Stylus Pen as an accessory for the Chi series, but we have only seen it on the T90 Chi so far.

USB: yeah it could, but I think they were going for the perfect weight/size/battery ratio so putting a lot of USB ports would lower the standard of each thing.

Gaming: running the games at native rez I wouldn't think would be wise for that configuration, but bringing them down to something like 1920x1080 should run most medium games fine.