Surface Pro 11 vs M4 iPad Pro - The REAL Pro Tablet?!

Microsoft's NEW Surface Pro 11 comes with the Snapdragon X Elite chip, but is it GOOD enough to beat Apple's M4 iPad Pro? You have NO idea...

Timestamps ⬇️
X Elite 13" Surface Pro 11 vs M4 13" iPad Pro - 00:00
Design Difference - 00:29
Display Comparison - 03:52
Camera & Mic Comparison - 05:06
Sound Comparison - 05:38
Geekbench 6 Cpu - 06:26
Speedometer 3.0 - 07:35
3D Mark Steel Nomad Light - 08:09
Lightroom Photo Editing - 09:11
Battery Life - 12:40
Which of these would I buy? - 13:07

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[mdfxewe]

The main problem of the iPad is always its limited OS.

[ahmedalsadi]

For all students, i recommend Surface Pro, except if you are okay buying ipad and macbook

[maravreloaded]

The biggest problem of the iPad is the OS
_The Surface Pro is a laptop trying to be a tablet and the iPad Pro is a tablet trying to be a laptop._

[UCnhHegbqCv_CnRAETfCSsA]

I bought the Surface Pro 11 and it’s fantastic. Sold my M2 iPad Pro after the purchase I was hoping for two years they could allow professional softwares but now I do was watching YouTube I could literally do nothing productive😂

[sjefhoudoe]

And the weight... The massive heavy steel counterweight in the Apple Magic keyboard makes the keyboard actually heavier than the Ipad itself... and put together together makes it heavier than a 13 inch Macbook Air

[rowaystarco]

This is how it was for me. I had an earlier Surface Pro but performance and battery life was sub par. Switched to an iPad Pro and was wowed by the design, performance, battery life. But the OS just really really sucked for productivity. I jumped on Surface Pro once again, as soon as the new ARM Pro 11 dropped. And I'm loving it! And while it's often buggy, it still surprised me that quite a few relatively modern games can run okay on the Pro. More compatibility out of the box than my iPad and Macbook had. And being able to install Steam is so much better than having to rebuy games on an iPad (on my Mac Steam worked great of course).

[EnochGitongaKimathi]

The new Flex Keyboard Cover for the Surface Pro 11 is even better with a haptic touchpad, backlit keys and best of all it can be used detached via Bluetooth.
I prefer the pen storage and charging option on the Flex Keyboard Cover as it makes the pen always available when you are typing.
I'm actually waiting to see Intel's response with how Lunar Lake will perform on a tablet formfactor.
I also hope Windows 12 will fix the minor issues I have with the GUI when using it just as a tablet with touch and pen input.
Snapdragon X Elite is the 1st generation and is using TSMC N4 while Apple M4 is on TSMC N3E. I can't wait for the follow up.
I hope Microsoft borrow the Lidar idea from Apple.

Mac OS has no touch or pen support, iPad OS is more a mobile OS than a desktop OS, Windows on ARM is a full desktop OS with touch and pen support.

[jackkelly]

Wow can finally say that's a massive jump from Microsoft with the tablet lineup I remember when the surface pro used to perform pretty terrible, but in geekbench used to perform good with the score but in real world testing the iPad demolish it

Good job.

[jeffmiller]

There is a large difference in the price of the keyboard, Apple really overprices their keyboards.

[anonymoususer]

Good review!

I think the Surface Pro is more functional - can be used for all the regular tablet things like laying in bed and watching YouTube, writing on it with the pen, etc, without also sacrificing the desktop operating system with the apps available on it.

I think the new Surface Pro has significantly bridged the gap - webcam and display are so much better than before - and my main issue with garbage battery life and performance is gone.

I think it was important to mention that you can get the more expensive Surface Pro keyboard with a haptic trackpad and the ability to use it detached - I'll take that last feature over anything the form factor of the iPad offers.

[SweetSweetCandyBoyz]

If in some alternate reality where Apple doesn’t want to keep the iPad locked down to the App Store - there exists a Surface Pro/iPad Pro running iPadOS in a “mobility mode”, interchangeable with a full macOS experience when a keyboard + mouse are docked, that’s the dream.

[sjefhoudoe]

Wrong keyboard comparison, you should either compare Apple Magic Keyboard plus pen (eur 550, -) vs Microsoft Surface Pro Flex keyboard plus pen (eur 530, -); or the Apple/Logitech Combo Touch keyboard (eur 300, -) vs. Microsoft Surface Pro keyboard (eur 160, -)

[shackf]

For a channel that has been a big proponent of Apple products, I’m impressed by the transparency of this comparison. I’ve owned a SP3 back in the day and loved the tablet form factor back when it kinda sucked. I’ve also used a Samsung Galaxy Book 2 w/ an older Snapdragon processor before they started the 8cx models with only 4Gb of RAM (and 4G LTE), but it worked surprisingly well for mostly office tasks and media consumption. Using full fat MS Office was way better on that than my wife’s M4 WW-inch iPad Pro! I can use the mouse as a mouse and right click and everything. 😅 DeX mode on my Galaxy S8+ still doesn’t quite cut it, although the performance of that is way better than the old Samsung Galaxy Book 2 for most tasks.

I will be buying the 5G Surface Pro 11 when it is released this fall and will finally have my Goldilocks device. Thanks for this great review.

[pcefbol]

Surface with X Elite is incredibly powerful and runs a full Windows OS. Qualcomm, Microsoft, and ARM have done an amazing job. The next generation is expected to be even more efficient.

[Addakhel]

Those mics on the surface sound phenomenal!

[linkfang]

It's important to mention that iPad with keyboard is actually heavier than Surface with keyboard, mainly because the magic keyboard is toooo heavy.

[MinhThang]

Ipad for Netflix and Youtube. Surface for work

[Bizmops]

finally! an even competition!
oversized screen iphone vs workstation device.

[dunamiswihmee]

I don’t know how many times I tell people IPad cannot replace a laptop! Because Apple has so much limitations on it. Until Apple gets their greedy hands out of their pockets iPad is just another monitor.

[orangeofmars]

This discussion is always the fun one for me since it is the decision I have. My wife and I right now mix Windows and Apple systems. We both have Apple Watches and iPad Mini's that we love. We both however have Windows PCs. I would prefer to just stick with one ecosystem. The issue always comes down to these two machines. It always does seem the Surface Pro overall is the choice if one can only get one of the 2. And really, for our household, spending the extra $2-3 thousand every year to maintain 2 systems is not workable in the long run. Apple's stubbornness in not making iPad OS more efficient in fundamental ways like MacOS really make's the choice of going completely Apple very difficult. If Apple doesn't want to put MacOS on the iPad then how about making a MacOS Finder/Disk Manager App for iPad OS that can replace the Files App.