Anyone move from iPad to Surface Pro?

trentlad

trentlad

trentlad

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I'm looking for opinions from anyone that's been a long time user of the iPad as their primary tablet then purchased a Surface Pro for themselves.

My iPad 1 is definitely becoming dated now and I see the Surface Pro has dropped down to £300 and my trigger finger is getting itchy... :D Were you happy with the move? What do you miss? Should I fork out the extra for a new(er) iPad?

Sorry to be candid but I'm not looking for opinions from folks who have never owned an iPad/SP or owned one for a week and returned it, I want actual long term user opinions for both.
 
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trentlad said:
My iPad 1 is definitely becoming dated now and I see the Surface Pro has dropped down to £300 and my trigger finger is getting itchy... :D Were you happy with the move? What do you miss? Should I fork out the extra for a new(er) iPad?
Click to expand...

Since when was the pro £300? Can you say where or is it competitor?
 
I made the move from an iPad 1 to a surface pro 2 before Xmas and wouldn't go back. Bought primarily to take notes on my open university course , I have found I do pretty much everything on it now. Full windows and office is awesome to have, I love the kickstand and it's got enough power to play a range of games (I've tried walking dead, dragon age and FM13). The touch type 2 keyboard is also worthy of a mention as it is a great, if pricey, accessory.

You might miss:

the App Store as the windows store is far inferior, but with full windows, you'll find whatever you need somewhere.
The ipad, is far lighter and thinner. However , I found that the natural hold for a surface is in landscape so you tend to hold it two handed anyway. Also the kickstand helps massively in most situations (bare in mind the Surface pro only has one position compared to the newer models two).
Coming from an iPad 1 any screen is going to be an improvement for you, personally I think the SP2 screen is great and I believe the older model has the same.
The battery time is better on the newer iPads.
The cameras are certainly better on the iPads.
The iPad is a more simple experience and better for casual use.



Pop down your local currys/pc world if you can, they probably have one on display for you to test out, but for my mind the SP2 has gotten a lot more usage out of it than my old iPad ever did.
 
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meandu229 said:
Since when was the pro £300? Can you say where or is it competitor?
Click to expand...

I've seen Pro 1st gen 64GB on offer for $399 (£238) in US about 2 weeks ago. but doubt it would be anywhere £300 price in UK, when RT 32GB sells for around £250-280.
 
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you can buy the surface pro student version for £395 for 64gb or £476 for 128GB but this is for the students offer only.

still a great pice of kit, my brother just bougt one and although it gets some getting used to there is no going back to ipad.

Its full blown pc and play some games quite well, still prefer a laptop for the kind of work I do but i think adroid type tablets are going to be used only for basic tasks now.

great little machine, just large enough to carry about, just wished it was little lighter.
 
I did, and have gone back to a normal tablet. The Surface Pro has poor battery life 4 hours is what I managed, even when just browsing or watching videos and has a tendency to get very hot. I'd have gone for a Surface Pro 2 but couldn't justify the price for one over the Surface Pro.
 
Keep in mind the Surface Pro is more of a laptop replacement than a tablet - it's closer to MacBook Air than iPad. If you want a tablet the closest to iPad is the Nokia 2520 which looks and feels stunning and is 4G, it's WinRT however which might put some off, depends what you need it for. Surface 2 is also RT but has the Surface style kickstand, magnetic keyboard etc and 9 hours plus battery. For full Windows you could try the Sell Venue Pro 11 which is 11" with full x86 windows on Baytrail so 8 hours plus battery.
 
The Surfaces are nice, but my ultimate favourite is the Venue 8 Pro.

x86 compatibility brings so much extra.

I have to own an iPad for application testing but I choose not to use it and it sits in a cupboard most of the time. (I find it unstable and annoying)

Ultimately my Surface Pro 2 gets little use, but I do use it as a laptop when travelling which is really great at.
 
As mentioned the Surface Pro sacrifices a lot of the things that are nice about pure tablets (size, weight, battery life etc.) for raw power. It really does boil down to whether you need that extra capability and flexibility. The two devices serve very different kinds of users.
 
Thanks for all the input lads, some really helpful information here.

Sounds like the Surface Pro is the way forward for my needs but when I look at the gaming abilities of SP2 it makes me feel like I'm wasting time with the SP1. That's quite a power difference.

Take a look at the plethora of games this guy pops on the SP2:
 
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