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Surface Pro 3 Handily Outperforms iPad Air 2 and Nexus 9
An anonymous reader points to an interesting comparison of current tablets' peformance, as measured with the Geekbench benchmarking tool, which boils down various aspects of performance to produce a single number. The clear winner from the models fielded wasn't from Apple of Samsung (Samsung's entrants came much lower down, in fact), but from Microsoft: the i5-equipped Surface Pro 3, with a Geekbench score of 5069.; second place goes to the Apple iPad Air 2, with 4046. The Nexus 9 rated third, with 3537. One model on the list that U.S. buyers may not be familiar with is the Tesco Hudl 2, a bargain tablet which Trusted Reviews seems quite taken by.
Posted rather quick and a bit mockingly, I was surprised to find that ... it actually does!
A myriad of guides exist to install Ubuntu on a Surface Pro 3 after somebody showed it could be done more than a year ago.
Now the first hit in Google is how to set up dual boot. Amazing.
Comparing retail prices hint what might be the better performer here.
€ 999,- Surface Pro 3
€ 450,- Apple iPad Air 2
€ 350,- Nexus 9
In these form factors, it's no longer a question of peak CPU performance. These processors all thermal-throttle to the point where none of them are going to be performing at peak while in these form factors. The same i5 in the Surface will provide significantly more performance when in another form factor (like a NUC).
Which is interesting in that it means today, the design of the device itself -- in terms of heat dissipation coupled with total system power -- is what determines performance, not which processor model you have.