Over the weekend, Microsoft launched a new ad for the Surface Pro 4, continuing its marketing strategy of comparing the tablet computer to Apple's products, this time the 13-inch MacBook Air. The ad is the newest in Microsoft's anti-Apple theme of commercials, previously comparing the iPad Pro with the Surface Pro 4, the MacBook Pro with the Surface Book, and OS X with Windows 10. Just a few weeks ago, the MacBook Air was the focus of another Surface Pro 4 ad.
Simple titled "Get the Surface Pro," the new ad has a focus on the tablet's ability to write and doodle on the screen with the included stylus. Using the same musical accompaniment of the previous MacBook Air comparison spot, the singer in the new ad tells potential customers that "if you try to write on a plain old Mac, the difference can be seen. It doesn't work." Other advantages highlighted in the ad include the detachable keyboard, and the ending tagline states, "Surface does more. Just like you."
Microsoft positions the Surface Pro 4 as a true combination tablet and personal computer, leading to ads comparing it to both an iPad Pro and MacBook. In the previous iPad Pro commercial, Microsoft's personal assistant Cortana let customers, and Siri, know that the iPad lacks an Intel Core i7 processor, full access to Microsoft Office beyond the mobile app versions, a trackpad, and external port options, making Microsoft's tablet more of a computer than Apple's 12.9-inch tablet.
The 12.3-inch Surface Pro 4 starts at $899 for 128GB of internal storage and 4GB of RAM, and goes up to as much as $1,799 for 256GB of internal storage and 16GB of RAM. Comparatively, the 11-inch MacBook Air starts at $899, with 128GB of storage and 4GB of RAM, increasing to $1099 for 256GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, while the 13-inch model starts at $999 for 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM, and rising to $1199 for 256GB of storage.
Top Rated Comments
(View all)I used to love them before they stopped updating them.
"I can even start fires with my Note 7, I could never do that with my Mac".
What makes me say this? Well, the whole purpose with the Surface Pro for me was being capable of replacing both my notebook (MacBook Pro) and my tablet (iPad Air) and one thing became blatantly obvious; if you do enjoy the "touch-first" experience of tablet, the Surface Pro will fall way short.
It doesn't really matter if it's a tablet in form, and features a touchscreen etc.. When you have next to none "touch optimised" apps and user experiences to offer. All the "apps" in the Windows Store are plain horrible and lacklustre. The amount of apps offered are really low, and the ones being offered often costs money for no apparent reason and they don't really offer anything. The whole tablet / touch ecosystem is non-existent.
Most Surface Pro users tend to tell me to simply use the "real applications" aka full-blown X86 applications, that's the whole reason for a Surface Pro. But I can't agree with this logic. Using x86 applications when I simply want to use the Surface Pro as a tablet provides a really horrible and unoptimised experience. With UI not designed for touch in mind.
So compared to my iPad Air, the Surface Pro couldn't really deliver the tablet experience I have come to expect.
When it comes to being a notebook it does fare much better. It's a great devices, with great hardware and that shows. But when the tablet experience is so lacklustre, you being to feel and think about why would I want to live with a Surface Pro as primarily a notebook? The keyboard attachment is far from great, it's much better to have a "real" keyboard as the typing experience is much better and with a "real" keyboard you don't need to deal with the kickstand making it really awkward to use the Surface Pro when it's not able to sit on a table. Using it "in your lap" is a mixed experience, and that how I mostly use my notebooks, on my lap.
Not to mention the touchpad/trackpad. It's really small and it performs really bad. It's not even on the level of decent Windows touchpads/trackpads, and even they can't really compared to those of the MacBook's. It just doesn't provide a great user experience having to fiddle with that keyboard attachment.
If only the Surface Pro was able to offer a great tablet experience, then I might have been willing to pay with the fiddlyness that is the keyboard attachment and it's touchpad/trackpad. But when the Surface Pro doesn't really offer anything in terms of a touch-first tablet experience, why should I want to live with it as a rather fiddly notebook?
Once again; Jack of all trades, master of none in my experience.