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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.
For Facebook, which is all most users want it for.
The Surface pro 3 is a laptop equivalent. The ipad and the nexus are strictly tablets. I would never expect them to compare from a performance perspective.
Arguably a far, FAR more important metric than performance for the majority of users, given that tablets are used mostly for media consumption, is battery life. I have a feeling that the Surface Pro 3 will trail the field badly here. (I don't know what the iPad series can manage these days, but a good Android tablet can manage close to 20 hours of screen-on time at a brightness of 170cd/m2.
It runs Windows and cannot be bought without paying for Windows. Not interested.
The i5 Surface Pro 3 with 128 GB of storage costs $1000.
The iPad Air 2 with 128 GB of storage costs $500.
So the Surface Pro costs 100% more for a 25% bump in speed? And we're spinning this as a win for MS?
surface pro 3 is not a tablet. it's a pc. And it's worthless without it's keyboard, everyone that owns one knows this.
Disclaimer, I own one.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
all the antimalware programs you'd want on a PC
If you're trying to draw on the notion that only PC's get malware I have news for you...
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
Funny people comparing cost. Apple stuff was (still is expensive)... Surface Pro 3 is not cheap either. That being said, the evaluation was done on performance, not cost. Folks, you need to realize that the surface pro 3 is a full blown computer, not simply a tablet. I purchased a Surface Pro 3 last year. The device is solid. I prefer it over my apple macbook pro - don't kid yourself, the keyboard on the Surface is way better than the Apple MBP. It replaced my table, laptop and desktop computer(s). I purchased two docking stations which connect to my 30" dell monitors at home and work. I purchased the i5 with 8GB/256 SSD, the machine runs Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop perfectly. Battery is fantastic. I wish it had 4G/LTE built in, but it doesn't. As far as WiFi, it goofs up occasionally, but overall not too bad, but can get frustrating - it's been about a year and I would have figured a software update would have fixed that by now. Maybe it's just me. I wish the device had Intel's wifi for the wireless display stuff, but MS has some sort of device for wireless display, I haven't tried it, I'm not sure how good it is. Otherwise, having been using it for about a year now as my primary computer, I am super impressed by the device. Only thing that truly sucks in my opinion is using it like a laptop (not notebook) actually on your lap. It's top heavy and the keyboard can detach if you operate it this way, the device could easily fall and break. If you're on the fence, don't mind using Windows - take the plunge, it's pretty good. Besides, in a year you'll toss it anyways (we're always upgrading!) I hope the surface pro 4 works with the SP3 docking station. Waiting for folks to reply giving me a hard time because I actually like a Microsoft product - sorry, but it's a good device - and I've gotten over Windows 8/8.1 - I mostly 99.99% of the time just run in desktop mode - not a giant adjustment like folks claim. I agree, there should be NO adjustment, but MS is just trying stuff. They say they consulted with users while developing the Windows 8 interface, I'm not sure who those users actually are! As far as the OS - it's stable. I've had ZERO crashes/bluescreens/etc on the Surface over the year aside from one Windows update which made my heart skip a beat thinking the machine was cooked - i was just impatient. I am running Visual Studio/Adobe products/Office mostly.
If you're trying to imply that an iPad has as much malware "available" for it as a wintel tablet (which is basically just a pc), I have news for you, too.
Physicists get Hadrons!
A $900 tablet is faster than a $500 tablet. Who would have guessed that you can pay almost twice as much for something that is 30% faster on certain benchmark tests. I actually like the Surface Pro 3, but this article is more of a fanboy blog post than a real review of a product.
"I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions."