iPad vs Surface Pro as an Engineering Student

The great debate, iPad vs Surface Pro. Two great devices, yet quite different. In this video I go over some of the considerations that you should keep in mind when choosing between an iPad and a Surface Pro as an engineering student. Enjoy :)

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:29 iPad OS vs Windows
02:30 App Compatibility
03:46 Note Taking
05:55 Work vs Consumption Device
07:01 Final Thoughts

CONNECT:

WHO AM I:
I'm Ben, a graduate structural engineer working in Australia. I make videos about engineering and tech. In these videos I hope to provide entertainment, advice, and knowledge for aspiring and young engineers.

[RcFlyer]

I got my aeronautical engineering degree with my Surface Pro (the original!). I ran Solidworks, MATLAB, and a host of other engineering programs using the i5 processor and 128GB HDD. I LOVE OneNote. It's functionality was incredible. Being able to record the audio from lectures and play it back at the time I wrote the corresponding notes was so valuable.

[gustavocortez]

This is exactly what I was looking for. Hours of searching and I finally found you. You are very well spoken and clear. Thank you.

[nulla]

I started university with a gaming laptop. Bought the M1 ipad pro later that year, was very happy with it. Next year I got fed up with the very poor battery life on my laptop (around 2 hours) so I bought a M1 macbook air. I'm now considering selling my laptop, ipad and macbook and buying the surface pro 9 with an egpu (the egpu is mainly for gaming). I didn't enjoy macOS like I thought I would. The file manager is horrendous and small things that annoy me, like not being able to move a window without making it smaller first, add up to the less enjoyable experience. I'm overall happy with the ipad but don't expect to do more than note taking and some basic word or excel use.
I would highly recommend buying the surface pro as an engineering student. You don't need to bring 2 devices if you need an actual laptop and all my courses are windows based and I Did run in some problems with needing windows-only programs while I was using macOS which forced me to use a windows VM (which was a very bad experience as well).
Imo, if you've used windows your whole life, don't switch to mac. ipad is not so bad but it's the first step in being pulled in the Apple ecosystem.
P.S. arguably ipad's best note taking app, goodnotes, is coming to windows as well so unless you already have a mac and iphone, there is not really a reason to buy the ipad over the surface

[bro...]

I have a dell xps and a Ipad Air. Honestly it's the best of both worlds. Using the ipad for the hand written notes while using the Dell for computational work makes life easier. This keeps the load off the laptop and helps that I have onenote synced up so I am never without my notes.

[themanunleashed]

Great Video! I was an engineering student as well. I used, and still use, the Surface pro 2 when I was in school, and it handled SolidWorks 2014 pretty decently with an i5 processor. Note taking was amazing with it because of One Note's ability to have all your notes organized and searchable. With math and physics courses, it was helpful because I did not have to waste time sharpening pencils or have illegible marks, or waste time turning a page. I did a little bit of Coding with Visual Studios, so the Surface pro did a great job handling it with ease. I now have the Surface pro 8 with an i7 processor and it handles SolidWorks great, and for fun, can run Rocket League very nicely.

[sullya]

The “Final Thoughts” section was very helpful and carefully thought out

[ch-coox]

Ipad is for entertainment and surface is for work

[peterblackmore]

Great comparison! I made the leap from a Lenovo X1 laptop to a Surface Pro2 many years ago (now up to an SPro 7). In both cases, they were my main computer with dual monitors at the office via the Dock. I use MS Office, AutoCAD/Revit BDS, an SQL program that wraps around AutoCAD and other stuff. My current config at the office is based on a Samsung 34" curved monitor, which has a resolution that is very close to the SPro7 (a few hundred pixels).
I agree with you that if your "tablet" is your only computer then the range of Windows tech apps and real multi-tasking makes it a no brainer. The idea of having a phone OS on a tablet for serious technical work freaks me out! Good video - keep it up.

[davidebrusa]

I bought an iPad Pro and i’ll explain my choice. I have a laptop bought in 2017, at the time a Great device… but in the years it has become heavy and the battery life inneficient. From a software point of view it’s still perfect, i’m a student of phisics and all i need is in the pc, it basically became a home pc. On the other hand the iPad Pro is a light and durable device with an optimized battery life and a very smooth os for note taking and studying. But the surface pro still remains a fantastic device.

[aneeshprasobhan]

i did my masters in Electrical Engineering 2 years ago on a 150€ used Thinkpad T430. Its solïd as a rock even after 10 years and you can upgrade/replace every single components in it.

[TheMomotarosu]

The reason I chose my iPad Pro 11' was purely because it was never intended to be a substitute for my laptop. I have a powerful laptop that I use for simulations and other software, and I now have an iPad to take notes so I don't have to carry around 5kgs of books!

If you're looking for one device to do everything, go for the surface pro, if you're looking for something to just take notes and do other light work, go for the iPad.

[rockyiu]

Just FYI (to the audience): windows's air-drop equivalent is called nearby sharing, which supports windows-to-windows. For mobile, there is no such wireless feature yet (phone link only supports photos as of now), but USB PTP is always an option.

[sterlinghawk_g]

I have both. iPad Pro 11 and Surface 9 Pro for business w/1TB SSD which just arrived at my house today. To PiperCub49's comment, I use OneNote extensively. I found when going overseas several times now for long periods, the iPad Pro 11 was great until I needed to write documents and then I found over time it fell short. Pros and Cons to both but this Surface 9 Pro for business is very light nor did I want to buy two of everything in important apps. One for the iPad and one for the windows device for example

[sephinanah]

Nice comparison.. iPad pro is still a No No mostly for us engineering students. iPads are more like giant iPhones and killer factor is with the ipadOS maybe in the future if apple can use MacOS instead, then iPad pro will be best on till that happens the Surface pro is by far the best option

[onlysublime]

Love my Surface Pro 8 but can't wait to upgrade to a blue surface pro 9!

[airair]

I was fortunate to have a Surface pro 7 and entry level ipad during my computer engineering undergrad. Lots of engineering programs only run on Windows so it was an easy win for the Surface. When it came to notetaking, ipad was best and loved it. Quick things I had to do was done on the ipad. Everything else, the Surface.

[ricdonato]

Okay, one uses an iPhone, iPad, and a MBP. Notice each have their own OS and in many cases the same app has different features on each device setting oneself for frustration. Using Windows on the tablet and their PC all apps behave the same having the same feature set. Frustration and anxiety eliminated.

[AJewFR]

you can use the double tap for lasso if you use any other app besides one note. In notability I set it to last used. so i only have to select the lasso if i was previously erasing. I find this feature more useful than a permanent eraser button at the top.

[fatemekashkouie]

Hi, thanks for your information.
I'm a math PhD student with a disability in my hands. So, I use my legs to do all my tasks.
I'm considering buying a device with which I can take notes and run mathematical software. I have taken notes with an iPad and a pencil which was very smooth. I also worked with a Surface some years ago and I couldn't take notes with it. Since I have an iPad Air2 with which the apple pencil is not compatible, I don't know what to choose. I can either buy an Adonit dash4 stylus and work with my ipad air 2 for note taking, and buy a wacom intous as a substitute for my mouse and keyboard, or I can buy Surface pro 8. As you mentioned, note taking with an iPad is much easier than that with Surface pro 8. I wonder if the quality of note taking with surface pro 8 has drastically improved in comparison with the older versions.

[JohnFarnham-dnfo]

Came super fast and I love that I had to sign for me instead of them leaving it on the porch. The pink is so cute and I can’t wait to use it more!