iPad Pro vs Surface Pro 3, is Either for You?

[Canon Rumors Guy]

A lot of debate has hit the photography world since Apple announced the 12.9″ iPad Pro. Is it really the professional tool that Apples claims it to be, and can it compete with Microsoft’s Surface Pro 3 for professional productivity.</p>
<p>Lee Morris at <a href="http://www.fstoppers.com" target="_blank">Fstoppers</a> has jumped into the debate between the two most popular large tablets, along with Wacom’s Cintiq.</p>
<blockquote><p>I have little doubt that the iPad Pro will be fantastic when it comes to its hardware. Sadly, the hardware is only half of the story. Without applications that are complete enough to pull us away from our desktops and laptops, I’m not sure that the iPad Pro will actually take off as a professional photographer’s work station. I’m sure photographers will be excited to edit their photographs on the iPad Pro in the beginning because they <em>can</em>, but if it isn’t easier or faster, they will quickly go back to their standard computers. <a href="http://Read the full article at F-Stoppers" target="_blank">Read the full article</a></p></blockquote>
<p>I have been eagerly awaiting the Surface Pro 4, as have a lot of people. I have been using an 11″ MacBook Air, which I think is the best laptop ever made for my purposes, but I want to have one device instead of carrying both an iPad and MacBook Air when I travel. Watching the Keynote for the iPad Pro, I quickly lost interest, as it will still not be able to do the things I need a laptop to do. Clearly, the software and accessories to mate with the iPad Pro will have to improve.</p>
<p>That said, the Surface Pro 3 isn’t the perfect solution either as professional photo software UI’s aren’t optimized for smaller screens. Although Microsoft is working on this with the Windows Continuum project. I will note that I have become used to the annoyances with the 11″ screen and software like Lightroom, but I would love a UI optimized for the smaller screens.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-oi1B9fjVs4" width="728" height="409" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe></p>
<p>The “professional” tablet space is definitely starting to heat up and here’s hoping software makes some major advancements over the next year or two to get us all on board.</p>
<p>Oh, and Microsoft, let’s see the Surface Pro 4 sooner than later.</p>

 

[replay0]

I am waiting for the Surface Pro 4 as well, and all rumors/gossip believe it will be announced next month. Microsoft is presumed to have delayed the launch of the SP4, so that they could take advantage of the newly announced Intel Skylake chips. We as the users will reap the benefits of a Skylake based SP4 versus the older Broadwells. Also, I'm liking everything about Windows 10 so far.

 

[9VIII]

I've been waiting for the Ubuntu phone for years. It really doesn't matter what they throw into a non-x86 set, nothing can equal or replace full native PC compatibility.

The iPad Pro looks like it has some good functionality... that I'm going to enjoy once they implement everything on the Mini.
This fall I'll get the 4K Laptop from Dell. Unless the Surface 4 has a few surprises.

 

[tomscott]

I currently use the same format for traveling. A 2013 11' MBA i7 8gbs and 512gb ssd along with an iPad mini 2 128gb.

I think the combo is great, but is a pain taking both. I think if adobe brought out a fully fledged lightroom for it instead of the current rubbish LR mobile which relies on the internet, it could be great.

But editing Raws on a machine that maybe desktop processor standard but compared to what? Eagerly await benchmarks, also 4gbs of ram won't cut it either. My 6 core mac pro gets a little slow sometimes with lightroom and it has 48gbs ram and a 512gb SSD.

We will have to see but I think if the developers start making these desktop apps more mobile friendly I think it would be a great tool for editing images, using the stylus to paint adjustments directly on the display… looks great.

What I think it needs is more… I know apple like to keep the OS's separate but if your the strategy is to replace laptops with these pro tablets it needs more professional application let the OS become more advanced, at least a thunderbolt port if nothing else… If it were to be my only travel tool I would need a backup which doesn't rely on the internet as in most places I travel uploading the days say 32gbs of 5DMKIII files just isn't possible. Even moving them by wifi or blutooth would take forever!!! For a serious tool that could be used outside our current infrastructure… even here in Britain 3G isn't everywhere, I struggle to get 3G sometimes in my town… just isn't practical and even on 3g uploading that sort of size would take forever and 128gb wouldn't last long so it needs something...

For the time being its just a big iPad but this space could get interesting! But just how long… I thought the iPad would evolve in this direction and hoped so for my application but its taken 5 years so far… how much longer. Surface is currently a better tool in terms of fully fledged OS and you can install desktop apps, but I hate windows so its never going to be an option for me.

If they brought out a MBA with retina thats where my money would be.

 

[Dr Dangerous]

I moved to a Surface Pro 3 6 months ago and ditched both the laptop and iPad. It's worked very well for me, although I did get the i7 max memory version to ensure that creative studio would run well - I suspect the i5 and i3 versions would be a bit sluggish with Photoshop and Lightroom running. With a type cover keyboard the i7 configuration costs a bit more than the top end Mac book pro, but it is rather more portable/hand baggage packable, and the touch screen pen is very good for photoshop work.

In terms of UI, Photoshop 2015 has been optimised for the surface pro 3 screen (you have to enable this mode) and the UI is fine. The latest version of lightroom also works pretty well with the small high res screen of the surface (and the dedicated lightroom tablet mode is excellent for editing with the stylus. Indesign is not so good - the UI comes up a bit large. The ability to drive two other monitors has been handy (although I haven't tried the 4k single monitor option). And, of course, I can run any PC software on it (such as the Canon utilities, MS office, software for my screen calibrator etc).

The worst aspect (for me) is the battery life. Despite Microsoft's claims of 10+ hours, I usually get only 4 - 5. I would have also liked to be able to get a bigger disc (500gb isn't that much when you're away for a week and backing up raw files) and more RAM (although I haven't had any problems with the 8GB so far).

Initially, I ran windows 8 which really suited the touch screen capability. I moved to windows 10 about a month ago and I've just about got everything the way I want. The virtual desktops in W10 are very handy. The battery life under W10 seems inconsistent. With nothing running I can get 9 hours one day, 3 hours the next - still trying to work out why this is the case.

It's well built (although the detachable keyboard is of noticeably lower build quality than the surface itself). I've put it through heavy use on shoots around the world and it hasn't let me down so far. (I also like that if I take the keyboard off, it's a tablet and airlines allow me to use it during take off and landing).

The iPad Pro doesn't appeal to me as it won't let me run full software packages - just apps. The Mac Book pro is larger than I wanted for a lightweight field laptop and, for me, the mac book air is a little slow processor-speed wise and doesn't have USB ports.

 

[McRphoto]

The screen of the Surface Pro 3 is also very good. I did a few screens calibration at my Photography Club with Datacolor Syper 3. On Surface Pro 3 the result was 97% of wide gamut RGB color space and 93% on Mac book pro 13 with Retina.

 

[psolberg]

surface pro 4 is rumored to be 12 or 14 inches. two versions. also going as high as 1TB of SSD storage and 8GB of RAM, maybe even 16GB. It is supposed to be very close to 4K resolution and given it comes with skylake, it will support 4K external displays at 60fps (SP3 only does at 30fps in 4K mode, and 60fps in dual 1080 panels).

The ipad pro is an ipad replacement only. The surface may not replace a real ultrabook, but it will take on a smaller device anyday. The big issue holding surface today is not the software or design, but the thermal envelope of the intel chips. They have used ultrabook chips (U series in intel lingo) instead of the (Y series) tablet chips or even core Ms. These chips perform, but they run hot to do so. yes, skylake is better, but to get it to be fanless they would have to downclock it. This is another reason why the ipad pro will never match it: apple's ARM chips would never work without fans if they were asked to match a skylake U chip. And if apple used a skylake U chip, the ipad would have a fan. period.

So not only is surface allegedly going to be larger in size to even the ipad pro (at least a SKU will be), but it will retain a powerful chip, alas, with a compromise: fan. From a photographer's perspective it is no contest: surface will come out on top if your primary goal is productivity. Not only do you get the ability to drive external displays with the docking station or simply DP cable but you get mouse support (and trackpad), which is essential for productivity apps as the UI is far too dense and the stylus/pencil too clumsy.

 

[LetTheRightLensIn]

Not sure the iPad Pro will cut it. It doesn't support external HD plug in does it? And it only has more App-like programs written for it at this time. it can't understand things like ExFAT and store offloaded ML RAW videos etc.

The Surface actually does a lot more.

The iPad Pro seems neither here nor there, not nice a compact and ultra mini for reading newspapers and this and that like a regular iPad Air nor does it do all sorts of advanced regular stuff like a Surface can.