Would you convert to an iPad Pro and replace your SP3?
- Thread starter spinachpie
- Start date
size and weight, performance per pound, versatility. Fact it gets better battery life than my laptops, it weighs much less than my laptops, its much smaller than my laptops and still provides adequate screen space, docks and works as good as a business desktop or laptop. Is only slightly heavier than other tablets, works on websites without having to get an app or worry about if there is an app or which app to use. etc. I think you would lose your wager. OneNote is just one more thing although the Pen is mightier than the finger.
VickiFL
Active Member
The reason I bought my SP3 was not One Note. It was because it was a powerful device that ran full fledged Windows, and it fit nicely in my Coach backpack with room to spare!
The day you can run Windows software on an iPad, sue the daylights out of them until you can run Apple software/Apps on anything else.
maverick777
New Member
Possibly, given the right conditions.
- It could run Windows 10
- It has a Wacom digitizer with perfect edge dectection (now that Microsoft bought N-Trig)
- It has an infinite hinge kickstand
- 3:2 screen ratio (4:3 is terrible and needs to die, but so does 16:9/16:10 on a large tablet)
- Thinner and lighter than a SP3 with better battery life
- i5/8gb/256gb SSD for the same price as the SP3 (no Apple tax/premium)
dstrauss
Active Member
Do not be fooled by Hollywood - I watched MacBreak Weekly (an OBVIOUS fanboy webcast) yesterday and there was a spirited debate over that upcoming episode, because the Apple gear they were using was doing stuff it actually can't - like multi-party FaceTime conversation - all via "simulated screens."
As one of the most reliable waffler/switchers in the blog universe (just read my posts here and elsewhere), and having bounced around from Windows to Apple to Android, and all places in between, a RESOUNDING NO to replacing my SPro 3 with an iPad Pro. At best it may be thinner than the SPro3, but that would be its only advantage to a Windows user. If you are in the Apple walled garden already, then it would be a great alternative to a plain MacBook Air. But there is nothing it can do better than the SPro 3, other than tablet style games and fart apps.
If you really want to see the reason I'd never switch, watch the David Pogue mashup over at Yahoo News in a mock debate between MacGuy and PCGuy comparing the iPad Air to the Surface Pro 3 (Pogue is an avowed Apple supporter) and he put it better than anyone else since:
"MacGuy: (Apple has) over 175 quintillion apps...PCGuy: I didn't say apps, I said real programs, desktop programs, the 4 million existing Windows programs...the full Office...real software"
and he concludes with the real answer to the iPad technorati...
"MacGuy (looking at iPad and SPro 3 in his hands)...Nobody's buying this thing, the iPad is so much more...PCGuy: Limited, awkward, claustropbic...MacGuy I-PADDY!..PCGuy: Well, you got me there..."
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dstrauss
Active Member
I want someone, just once, to explain WHY the Surface Pro 3 is not a great tablet. And don't quote me stats about a "quintillion" iPad/Android Apps, the vast majority of which are WORTHLESS. They have a lead in gaming, no doubt, but what is so critical to your use of a tablet that makes the SPro 3 inferior? Browsers run great; Netflix, Amazon Prime, other media available. Email, Calendar, Contacts all covered. Just what is it that make SPro 3 inferior as a tablet?
Where's the nearly invisible and excellent kickstand on ANY OTHER TABLET? Mini DP anyone? Full-size USB 3 port? Thinner and lighter than all of the iPads up until the Air? Give me a break world!
maverick777
New Member
I want someone, just once, to explain WHY the Surface Pro 3 is not a great tablet. And don't quote me stats about a "quintillion" iPad/Android Apps, the vast majority of which are WORTHLESS. They have a lead in gaming, no doubt, but what is so critical to your use of a tablet that makes the SPro 3 inferior? Browsers run great; Netflix, Amazon Prime, other media available. Email, Calendar, Contacts all covered. Just what is it that make SPro 3 inferior as a tablet?
Where's the nearly invisible and excellent kickstand on ANY OTHER TABLET? Mini DP anyone? Full-size USB 3 port? Thinner and lighter than all of the iPads up until the Air? Give me a break world!
Audible doesn't currently sync using the Windows 8 app. The actual Windows program is horrid. I use Audible pretty often. None of the church apps I use are available. The apps are easier to use for podcasting than websites. So while there aren't a ton of apps I say are superior, there's a handful I deem significant.
Also, sometimes bigger is not better. As slim and light as the SP3 is compared to my laptops, my Kindle HDX 8.9 is much lighter (46% lighter), more portable, and has much better battery life for media consumption (over 10 hours). The SP3 is also too big to replace my phone or tablets for reading books. Sometimes a smaller screen is actually better. It's not just size and weight.
So while the SP3 will get used 90% of the time, it's still not 100% superior to smaller tablets and never will be in some cases. If they can close the gap on apps, then the one remaining area for me will be reading books where I think a smaller screen is actually better. And more specifically for use laying down on the couch or in bed. In other indoor locations, I don't mind reading on the SP3.
Also not necessarily a tablet, but a Kindle is superior for reading outdoors as well.
compnovo
Active Member
Last Friday I gave a four hour PowerPoint presentation using my mini-Displayport to VGA adapter and a USB remote for advancing the slides. That evening in my motel room I booted up Portal 2 from my Steam account and played that for a while.
Apple makes nice hardware, and when an iPad can do all of the above natively I MIGHT consider changing, but in all honesty it's unlikely. I prefer Windows phones over iPhones (I use both extensively, the iPhone is my work device), and all my Windows toys integrate nicely, so I don't have any compelling reason to change.
Apple makes nice hardware, and when an iPad can do all of the above natively I MIGHT consider changing, but in all honesty it's unlikely. I prefer Windows phones over iPhones (I use both extensively, the iPhone is my work device), and all my Windows toys integrate nicely, so I don't have any compelling reason to change.
i dont think anyone will deny that there are many apps that doesnt exist under windows, or function as well as their andrpid or ios cointerparts, but that aside, the surface does everything a tablet needs to do. size is rather irrelevant, that is simply personal preference. A 7 inch tablet user can say that a 10 inch tablet is less convenient in X situation to their 7ninch, just as i can say that my 12 inch tablet with its kickstand is more convenient for films than my 7 inch tablet. Noone is necessarily wrong. But the fact remains, personal preferences aside, this surface does everything for me that my nexus 10 does. it plays games, music, videos, youtube, browses the web, receives emails etc. As dstrauss sais, i cant find any reason for someone to claim objectively that the surface fails as a tablet.
I want someone, just once, to explain WHY the Surface Pro 3 is not a great tablet. And don't quote me stats about a "quintillion" iPad/Android Apps, the vast majority of which are WORTHLESS. They have a lead in gaming, no doubt, but what is so critical to your use of a tablet that makes the SPro 3 inferior? Browsers run great; Netflix, Amazon Prime, other media available. Email, Calendar, Contacts all covered. Just what is it that make SPro 3 inferior as a tablet?
Where's the nearly invisible and excellent kickstand on ANY OTHER TABLET? Mini DP anyone? Full-size USB 3 port? Thinner and lighter than all of the iPads up until the Air? Give me a break world!
The answer has been given many, many times.
The Surface cannot stream music to a Bluetooth or wireless music system without changing power settings which then consume a considerable amount of power to do this simple task.
If I want email with a notification system, I have to use the awful Mail app. I use Microsoft's own Outlook on iOS because it is so good on that platform. Where is it in the Windows store?
There are no decent chat apps, that again, have a good notification system. On iOS I have access to both Google Hangouts and iMessage which means I can send or receive messages - text, video, photo, whatever, from any of those devices, respond via whatever is in hand at the moment.
A number of magazines and newspapers are not available at all on Windows. The majority of the ones that are have apps that are 3 years or more behind their counterparts on iOS.
Sending video content to a 2nd screen via Miracast is decidedly clunky. It works great if all you want to do is mirror your screen. Less well if you want to interact with the video that is playing on that screen. On iOS this works flawlessly and the controls are always intuitively available from the iOS device with no weirdness. It's consistent and reliable.
Battery life. I am extremely careful about what I have open when I use the SP as a tablet, have switched to IE, etc. yet my battery life cycles between ~4-7 hours. My iPad consistently goes 12 hours, often 20. I charge it once a week. If it has 10% battery left, I know that will last me at least another hour and a half of normal use.
Camera quality. We use our iPads to video chat every day. The cameras on the Surface are terrible indoors in the evening. Worse than iPads now 4 generations old.
There are apps that are just better than their websites. This definitely applies to Facebook, Twitter, any music streaming site, etc. On Twitter, especially, many sites give you access to their articles through the iOS app links, but not through the website interface or the (terrible) Windows apps.
Password managers. Try logging in to your password manager on the Surface without the keyboard attached. On my iPad it takes the touch of a finger and I'm in, or logged in to any compatible app or website. On the Surface I have to navigate a desktop app that doesn't respond well to touch, and type out my 15+ character password on the on-screen keyboard.
These are just a few of the things that apply mostly to me. Other users could add to this list 10 fold. The Surface is a nice lightweight laptop. It's a great note-taking device with a great digitizer. It's a mediocre tablet.
The thing about an iPad is that it can begin to fill a space in your life where previously there was no computer that fit there. It's not intended to be a replacement for a laptop or desktop. It's intended to be much better than those devices at a lot of the things people use computing devices for today. And that's why they've sold 250 million of them in less than 5 years.
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