Battle Royale (with Cheese): Apple’s iPad Pro Vs Microsoft’s Surface Pro

Not a Computer Vs. Anything but Ordinary

I’ve reviewed a few Surface products recently- the Surface Laptop 3 (more than once), Surface Laptop Go, and the Surface Go 2, to be specific.

But the one I didn’t look at was the O.G.: The Surface Pro. And honestly, I never wanted to look at it; my first Surface experience was with a used Surface Pro 3, and I had some real issues with that machine. It overheated constantly, either getting too hot to hold or running the fan very loud (or a combination of both), it was slow, heavy, and cumbersome to use (especially in my lap, which is where I do most of my computer-ing), and the design (read: bezels) looked dated.

But the keyword there, dear reader, was that it was used. When I purchased the Surface Pro 3, it was already a couple of years old- I believe the 5th generation was available at that time- and most likely it had already been run through some wringers by the previous owner. And while I’ll never knock buying used or open-box, there is definitely something to be said for spending a little extra cash and buying new (foreshadowing).

But the form factor never seemed to be one that I was keen on revisiting; despite my undying love for the built-in kickstand design, I was never able to get accustomed to using it properly in my day-to-day life, at least, not as a replacement for the traditional laptop form factor. And when I started my search for a new computer at the beginning of the year (and I can’t believe the year is already almost over), I was drawn towards several Windows computers- including the Surface Laptop, but never the Surface Pro.

So… what changed? Well, a couple weeks ago, my wife decided that she needed a new computer. And if that sounds like deja vu to anyone who has followed my trek through computers, well, they’d be right; just a few months back, she picked up Lenovo’s Yoga c740. But lately, she’s been having problems with it; her’s was an open-box from Best Buy (read: used; read further: foreshadowing fulfilled), and while it worked like a charm for the first couple of months-long enough for it to be outside of Best Buy’s return policy- it eventually started having issues, turning itself off while in use. The…