Microsoft Surface Tablet Vs Apple iPad 3 : Comparison

Microsoft has re-joined the race with its new product, Surface. Surface will be available in two versions – Surface Windows RT and Surface Windows 8 Pro tablets.

Comparison of Microsoft Surface Tablet Vs Apple iPad 3 : 

Form :

Apple iPad 3 – 241.2 x 185.7 x 9.4mm, 652g
Microsoft Surface for Windows RT – 9.4mm thick, other dimensions TBA

With the iPad 3, Apple stuck to its guns on design and overall there’s no noticeable difference from its predecessor, the iPad 2. It’s less than a millimetre thicker at 9.4mm and a little bit heavier at 652g, but put the iPad 3 and iPad 2 side-by-side and you’d be hard pushed to tell they’re different devices.

Display :

Apple sets the standard for mobile displays thanks to its Retina technology and the iPad 3 was, and remains, the first tablet to sport this tech on a larger scale.

It has a 9.7-inch LED-backlit IPS TFT capacitive multi-touch display with a 2048×1536 pixel resolution and a pixel density of 256 pixels-per-inch (ppi). This delivers one of the sharpest displays you’re likely to see on a tablet.

At this early stage, details of the Surface tablet’s display are somewhat sparse, we do know it’ll have a 720p resolution, a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and measure 10.6-inches with Gorilla Glass reinforcement.

Storage :

Apple’s iPad 3 comes in a range of storage options, either 16GB, 32GB or 64GB available ,each with 1GB of RAM. As usual with Apple devices there’s no microSD support.

The Surface for Windows RT has the same top two options as the iPad and only omits the lower-end 16GB choice.

Microsoft hasn’t yet revealed how much RAM is in the device but we reckon at least 1GB and we know it will have micro SD support for cards up to 32GB

Processor :

The iPad 3 uses a dual core ARM Cortex-A9 processor clocked at 1GHz and running Apple’s own A5X chipset with a quad core PowerVR SGX543MP4 graphics processing unit (GPU).

Being well optimised for the iOS platform, this setup runs very quickly indeed but with the quad core graphics capability it will be able to push out some seriously high-end gaming and apps.

Microsoft’s Surface for Windows RT is based on ARM’s Cortex processor architecture and runs an Nvidia Tegra chip, although the company hasn’t clarified exactly what kind of innards the tablet has we’re guessing it’s a Tegra 3 quad core and would therefore expect a clock speed of around 1.5GHz and a Geforce GPU.

Operating System :

Apple’s iPad 3 runs on the latest version of iOS, which is now up to iOS 6. It has all the features of iOS 5, which included things like iMessage, a BlackBerry Messenger-like service, Newsstand for aggregating subscribed magazines and newspapers, and an enhanced browser with additional modes for stripping down webpages and storing them for offline use.

In iOS 6 you can now use the Facetime video calling function over a 3G connection as well as Wi-Fi and there’s a deeper level of Facebook and Twitter integration to keep you connected. Apart from this, it’s business as usual with Apple’s optimised and easy-to-use system. There’s a wealth of apps already available for the iPad and many of them now take full advantage of the crispy Retina Display.

Microsoft Windows RT platform aims to bring all the intuitive loveliness of Windows Phone’s Metro UI to the tablet format. As a result, you’ve got the colourful Live Tiles we’re now familiar with, which act as both app shortcuts and widgets to push information out to the Start page.

Although this area hasn’t been shown off by Microsoft just yet, we expect Windows RT to carry on Windows Phone’s tradition of heavily integrated social networking, such as Facebook and Twitter, alongside extensively aggregated contacts, feeds and other information.

One of the main advantages of Windows 8/Windows RT over other mobile operating systems is some of the best multi-tasking we’ve seen to date. Not only will you be able to run several apps in the background and quickly switch between them, but you will actually be able to have multiple apps occupying the screen space simultaneously, just like on a conventional PC or Mac.

Another significant pull is that Windows RT will ship with a fully touch-optimised build of Microsoft’s Office suite and, when you combine this with the keyboard and true multi-tasking, it will give genuine productivity on a tablet for the first time.

As nice as iOS 6 is, Windows RT looks set to be game-changing for the mobile space.

Connectivity :

While Microsoft did mention about the sturdy Wi-Fi connectivity on its tablets, nothing has been said about cellular connectivity. iPad could pose a threat to the Microsoft products in these terms because it offers Wi-Fi as well as cellular connectivity functioning perfectly on Verizon or AT&T networks.

Device	iPad (Third Generation)	Surface (Windows RT)	Surface (Windows Pro)
Price	$499	Not Declared	Not Declared
CPU	Apple A5X dual-core	Nvidia Tegra 3	Intel Core i5
OS	iOS 5	Windows 8 RT	Windows 8 Pro
Display	9.7 inches (2048 x 1536)	10.6 inches (Resolution Not Declared)	10.6 inches (Resolution Not Declared)
Storage  (In GB)	16, 32, 64	32, 64	64, 128
Ports	10-pin	microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video,2×2 MiMO Antenne	microSDXC, USB 3.0, 2×2 MiMO Antenae,Mini DisplayPort,
3G/4G support	Yes	Not Declared	Not Declared
Ports	10-pin	microSD, USB 2.0, Micro HD Video, 2×2 MiMO Antenne	microSDXC, USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort, 2×2 MiMO Antenae
Size (inches)	9.5 x 7.31 x 0.37	0.37 inches thick	0.53 inches thick
Weight (pounds)	1.44	1.49	1.99