Microsoft Surface Pro 4 vs. Apple's new iPad Pro: the battle for the ultimate PC replacement

The tablet war is heating up again. Microsoft has already released its Surface Pro 4 while Apple is expected to launch the iPad Pro 9.7 (which it claims is the ultimate PC replacement) for sale on March 31, 2016. We’re going to compare both of these hybrid tablets and let you decide which one is right for you.

Design

The Surface Pro 4 measures 292.1 x 201.4 x 8.4mm and weighs 786 grams. Its chassis is made of magnesium alloy affording it a very sturdy construction, but it’s thinner and lighter than the previous Surface model. On the other hand, the iPad Pro 9.7 is slimmer and lighter than the Surface Pro 4, coming in at  240 x 169.5 x 6.1mm and weighing either 437 grams (Wi-Fi variant) or 444 grams (LTE variant). It sports a design similar to the rest of Apple’s tablets, with an aluminum body and three colors to choose from: Space Gray, Silver, and Gold.

Display

The Surface Pro 4 has a 12.3-inch PixelSense display that supports a resolution of 2736 x 1824 pixels. The iPad Pro 9.7 comes with a smaller 9.7-inch IPS LCD display that supports a lower resolution of 2480 x 1536 pixels.

Processors, Graphics Cards & RAM

The Surface Pro 4 features three variants in processors, graphics cards, and RAM:

– CPU: M3, i5, and i7;
– GPU: Intel HD graphics 515, Intel HD graphics 520, and Intel HD graphics 540;
– RAM: 4GB, 8GB, and 16GB.

You only get one choice with the iPad Pro 9.7: an Apple A9X chipset, a dual-core Twister processor clocked at 2.26GHz, a PowerVR Series 7 graphics card, and 2GB of RAM.

Storage

The Surface Pro 4 was released in four storage variants: 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB. The iPad Pro 9.7 comes with internal storage variants, too, albeit a much smaller range 32GB, 128GB, and 256GB. None of the tablets provide a card slot for storage expansion, so think twice about your storage needs before purchasing either of these two devices.

Cameras

The Surface Pro 4 sports an 8MP rear-facing camera and a 5MP on its front side. The iPad Pro 9.7 has a more advanced 12MP rear camera with dual-LEDs, touch focus, face detection, and HDR joined by a 5MP front facing camera.