Snippet: Ben Brooks on the Surface Pro 4 ☇

Ben Brooks reviews the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 from a MacBook and iPad Pro user’s perspective:

On a good note, I loved carrying the Surface Pro 4 and setting it up. It is a much better system, case, and pen holder than the iPad Pro. It feels more solid too. As a package of hardware it is really great and I loved taking it around and using it. But then you run into the battery life issue — this is a device you need to treat like a laptop: bring your charger with you. I opted to just bring the iPad Pro as a backup — almost a threat to the Surface Pro 4 each day that if it died the iPad Pro would take over. That threat didn’t work, unfortunately.

I think this is a really good look at the product—the Surface Pro 4 is a fascinating device approaching the idea of mobile computing from a laptop perspective that just happens to look like a tablet. The iPad Pro with a keyboard attached is the opposite of that, a tablet that is masquerading as a laptop. A number of my coworkers have replaced their PC laptops with Surface Pro 3s and absolutely love them, but most of the usage is either with the Type Cover or an external keyboard and mouse attached, just like traditional PCs. There’s nothing wrong with that, it just makes the Surface Pro and iPad Pro comparisons difficult.