Can smaller Surface replace Ipad

I have an old MBP running Windows. I use my Ipad a lot. I am wondering if the smaller Surface could replace an Ipad. I am particularly concerned about weight, since I often hold the Ipad in one hand.

 

I use the Surface 3 as my primary notebook. I can hold it in one hand and use it like a reader in portrait mode with no problem. My wife has an IPad Air, so I have been able to compare the two side by side. The 9.7" Ipad feels quite a bit smaller than the 10.8" Surface 3. The IPad is thinner and lighter than the Surface 3 too. But, when my wife travels with her IPad, she keeps it in a Zagg-like keyboard folio. At this point, the weight and size goes up quite a bit. The Surface 3 is a bit larger, thicker and heavier but with the keyboard cover, it gets closer in size. Plus, I find the Microsoft keyboard cover to be a far better typing solution than the Zagg keyboard folio. Best of all, there is nothing extra to charge and the KB on the S3 does not die on you when you need it most.

Best of all, the S3 runs full windows 10. Granted, the X7 Atom is not the equal of an Core I processor when running legacy programs, but in all but the most demanding situations, I have found my Surface 3 to perform acceptably.

If you are looking for more power than the atom, another option might be the Huawai Matebook. At 12', it is larger than the S3 but 20% thinner. It weighs only 3% more that the S3 but has a proper SSD (not eMMC like the S3) and Core M power.

 

I have an iPad mini 4 and a Surface Pro 3 and they're their own machines. I couldn't compare the two really. For messing around, light browsing, plus a few games, I head for the iPad mini. For anything serious or reading Kindle comics it's the Surface Pro 3 (Especially seeing as the mini 4 screen is a bit small and the kindle app is annoying).

 

I have to agree with the last speaker here.

I have an iPad Pro, an iPad mini and the Surface Pro 4. The Surface has too short battery life and the touch implementation in windows 10 is far too bad to compare the two.

For casual use I always reach for the iPads. After I got the Apple Pencil I barely use the Surface any more, save for apps I cannot get on the iPads.


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Be careful about comparing the Surface 3 with the Pro line (i.e., the Surface Pro 3 or 4). The Pro series are larger, much heavier and use far more power with their ICore CPU. I get an easy 7 or 8 hours of battery life with my fanless Atom S3.

 

Sure, but the iPads get 50 % more than that again in most use cases.

Also the touch interface of Windows 10 is rubbish compared to iOS, so my point still stands.

 

Hmmm. Have no problem with W10s touch interface. The S3's x86 processor make me think that if I was getting one device, it would be the S3 over the Ipad. Guess that's what makes the world go round.

 

Are you using your fingers to navigate, or are you using the pen?

I have trouble hitting all kinds of menus and shortcuts in both Windows and apps like Chrome etc.

Might be my fingers, but if you compare Windows to Android or iOS, touch is only partially implemented. Stuff like the legacy control panel or non Metro apps kind of defies the whole touch idea.


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I rarely use the pen to navigate. I use the S3 at 150x with the touch enhancements at their maximum. I think the lower 1080p resolution helps too. The Pros have higher resolution and the Windows scaling problem is more acute.

 

Ah. Good call. I didn't even think of the resolution difference.


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I owned the the surface 3, actually 2 of them, and the dock, keyboard, pen etc. They are fine devices for most stuff. But if you really wanted to use it as a tablet, software was lacking. Texture magazine was useless, etc. BUT....It was great for other things. When I had mine, MS never had the touch actions working correctly for browsing etc, so I did not like that. We sold them, I bought a mac, and hated it. I bought a new dell inspiron 11 3000 for my wife, and an inspiron 13 5000 for me. We enjoy them much more than the surface...coupled with our ipads and iphones...we don't miss our surface 3's at all.

 

I've had little trouble with mine, and I prefer it to the ipad but mine's a pro and the weight doesn't bother me much, so YMMV.