The tablets of Microsoft Surface Pro 7 and Apple iPad Pro is compared here. Both tablets are the latest version in this period of time. Also, both are designed to use as a laptop. To decide which one is best for you, check out our detailed review.

Check more comparisons like this:- Microsoft Surface Pro 6 vs Surface Pro 7.

Microsoft Surface Pro 7	Apple iPad Pro
BUY NOW	BUY NOW
PROS	PROS
Powerful Intel Ice Lake CPU boosts performance. USB-C, USB-A ports allow for peripheral flexibility.	Fast A12Z Bionic performance. Brilliant display. iPadOS’s new and improved cursor control. Long battery life.
CONS	CONS
Lack of Thunderbolt and WWAN option are disappointing.	Charging cord too short. Some apps not optimized for trackpad. Rear cameras can’t do portraits or Night mode.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Detail Review

INTRODUCTION:

Microsoft Surface Pro 7

This is the 2 in 1 tablet cum laptop. We can use this device in both modes. This will be more useful as this can be used as two different devices. Also, it’s updated like for this generation with some great features.

Apple iPad Pro

I found a total of just 7 differences between the two which is the old one, and most of them are small differences. The addition of the ultrawide camera, upgraded microphone quality, 6GB of RAM across the board, WiFi 6, 128GB of storage on the base model, the new LiDar scanner, and switch to the A12Z chip. So with such a limited amount of changes, it quickly became apparent that those who already own the 2018 model should absolutely not upgrade to the 2020 iPad Pro. So it makes you wonder, why did Apple even release such a small update to the iPad Pro instead of just holding off for the rumored Mini-LED model? Let’s get into the detailed review for the answer.

DESIGN & DISPLAY:

Microsoft Surface Pro 7

The Microsoft Surface Pro 6 and service pro 7 have the same exact design. The only way you can tell them apart from the outside without looking under their kickstand and looking at the model number is by looking at the side ports because finally, we have USB-C that replaces the mini Displayport. So, it too can handle Displayport out. It’s not Thunderbolt 3 because Microsoft still thinks we should make do with the surface dock that connects to the surface connect port which is pretty old technology at this point but it does have an Ethernet and display out and USB port.

It’s still in terms of design, a pretty incredible product, there aren’t many products like it despite the fact there are a lot of clones out there including by major manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo. This thing is so small and so light, it’s 1.7 pounds which is like 770 grams without the type cover but it’s got the power of a nice high-end Ultrabook inside for something that is great. So, you travel for a lot of business, it still fits on the tray table. They haven’t redesigned it, it’s about time for that Thunderbolt 3 or a new surface dock would be nice to see. They are reaching the limitations of what surface connect can do in terms of docks and other things.

The display on this is the same as the last generation not much to see here, it’s still a lovely display. There’s no OLED 12.3 inch display on the market for them to use but this one is pretty color accurate from the factory. It’s got a good color gamut, full SRGB and it’s a pleasing sharp high resolution 3:2 aspect ratio display.

Apple iPad Pro

There are no big visual differences in iPad Pro 2020 compared to the old one. This is not a bad thing because already Apple iPad Pro is simply great in design. This one has equally narrow bezels at all the sides of the tablet. The big difference is made at the back which is the square-shaped ultra-wide camera. Also, this one looks so thin but it weighs around 1.41 pounds which are more compared to the old one which is about 1.39 pounds. Most of the major changes are made internally.

The display of this tablet is just simply awesome. This tablet provides a wide array of colors which is about 120% of the SRGB color gamut which is more than its competitors like Microsoft Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X. Also, this display gives the brightness of about 559 nits which also more compared to the competitors.

SPECIFICATIONS & PERFORMANCE:

Microsoft Surface Pro 7

The updates are Intel tenth generation CPUs. Pricing remains the same just like the design and as a previous version but this time, they’re offering a core i3 as the low-end model. The core i3 means that the base price for the lowest end model is a bit lower, it’s 749 dollars with 4GB of RAM and 128 GB SSD that’s all you can afford. If you want there that kind of nice solid in between, it’s still $1199, and that gives you a Core i5, 8 GB of RAM in a 256 GB SSD.

If you go all the way up to a Core i7 with 16 GB of RAM and a one terabyte SSD and you can spend around $2,000. What’s nice with the Intel tenth generation CPUs which for the core i5 and core i7 are quad-core just like the previous generation but now we have Intel iris plus graphics which is more good in verges on NVIDIA MX 150, low-end dedicated graphics. So, this isn’t going to rock your world, you’re not gonna be playing the latest Call of Duty or something like that. On the other side, this is not for gaming and all but for editing videos, photo editing, and something like that.

You can say that Surface Pro X is good in the updates but it runs on ARM, not an Intel processor, so basically a modified Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU. So, you have limited compatibility with existing Windows EXE programs. Whereas Surface Pro, being a little marble of a tablet that’s about the same size as a bigger iPad pro can run any Windows application that any other laptop can run.

The Pros of this tablet are the pen which has not changed, it’s the same pen that was selling with last year’s model but it just gets better and better. The intrigue technology behind this which is now Microsoft 10 protocol, they’ve gotten rid of most of the jitter in lines when you’re doing slow diagonal lines which also means for those who are writing slowly, very curvy handwriting, its gonna look smoother and nicer. For those who are using it for art, it becomes more and more viable. The pressure curves are also very nice.

The type covers are also the same as last year. You can have the basic black one which is 130 dollars and if you want more nifty colors, you’ve got the higher-end model type covers. Also, you can get the basic black one with a fingerprint scanner.

Wi-Fi is improved here too, so no more old Wi-Fi which nobody really loved. We have Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX 201 for better performance. Just like last year’s model, the Core i5 is found and the new Core i3 is also family. So, only if you move up to the Core i7, you get a fan which really isn’t that loud so that’s pretty neat because these are not usually passively cold CPUs, the Core i5 CPUs. Yet, Microsoft has done some pretty fancy stuff for cooling.

Performance on this is a little bit better than the eighth generation which we would like to see in terms of CPU performance and term GPU performance what you’re looking at a more significant boost. You don’t have to switch from Surface Pro 6 even if you want that USB port. But, if you’re coming from an older Model like Surface Pro 4 or a Surface Pro 5, certainly the jump in the core is gonna make it worthwhile.

There are competitors obviously the iPad pro particularly, the bigger model and really it depends on whether you need full Windows programs or whether you’re happy with mobile OS programs. There’s a Samsung Galaxy Tab at six which isn’t as big a screen but the drawback there is not so many Android optimized tablets. Then, there’s the Dell Latitude 7200 which is a perfectly good alternative, it even has Thunderbolt 3 and it is serviceable if you want to take it apart to fix it upgraded. It has a lower resolution displaying them.

Apple iPad Pro

The ultra-wide camera doesn’t matter who has already had an iPhone. So, I feel like Apple just added this in to make the large square camera bump look similar to the recent iPhones. Onto the microphone quality, this is actually something that could be useful for anyone doing online Zoom meetings, or for those who want to record podcasts or anything like that. However, the 2018 model still sounds pretty decent.

I’m glad that Apple decided to give the 2020 iPad Pro 6GB of RAM, since a major focus of the iPad is now multitasking, so this is one of the biggest advantages compared to the other iPads in the lineup. That’ll definitely help for productivity work like photo and video editing as well. However, I never really noticed any problems with 4GB of memory on the 2018 model, but I also didn’t push multitasking as much as others probably could.

The switch to WiFi-6 is a nice little addition, but it’s important to note that it really only makes a big difference if your house is set up with a WiFi-6 internet router. So if you don’t plan on getting one of those routers any time soon, then it shouldn’t really matter to you. It’s also likely that a lot of coffee shops and other businesses don’t yet have WiFi 6 routers installed. Now the bump up to 128GB of storage is probably the biggest deal that you’ll notice daily since there were a lot of people who bought the base 64GB 2018 iPad Pro as a laptop replacement and then realized that it was extremely limiting. So, I think 128 GB of storage is gonna help a lot for storing files, apps, photos, and games.

Now, the LiDAR scanner is a very interesting addition because it greatly improves the accuracy of object and depth tracking, which is used for augmented reality apps. However, there just aren’t very many compelling AR apps out right now. So chances are, you won’t have much use for it right now. But, I think Apple is actually looking towards the future by adding LiDAR. The final difference is the switch to the A12Z processor, and in my personal opinion, I think the reason we’re not seeing a significantly upgraded A13X chip is because Apple knows that the current A12X processor in the 2018 iPad Pro is already miles ahead of every other tablet on the market, and to this day, that chip is still overkilled in terms of performance. Even the best apps and games out there aren’t yet able to use it to its full potential.

Apple figured that they should keep this chip around for another year, but if they kept the same A12X name, people would get pretty upset and wouldn’t buy it. So they changed the name and slightly improved the chip by adding one more active core to the graphics just to make the appearance that it’s a new chip and to be honest, that marketing technique actually works.

Since a lot of these upgrades don’t matter very much for a lot of consumers, a lot of people are looking to buy the 2018 iPad Pro on sale instead. Currently, the base 2018 model is listed for $700 on Amazon, which is only $100 cheaper than the 2020 model. Now, the main difference is the jump from 64GB of storage to 128GB, and I personally think that this change alone makes it worth the extra $100, simply because of the fact that 64GB is cutting it way too close if you plan on doing anything but basic web browsing and gaming on it. Then, you also have to consider the other improvements like 6GB of RAM and the fact that it’s the latest 2020 model, and it feels good to have the latest model, which some people don’t like to admit, but it’s true.

I think Apple released such a small update to the iPad Pro instead of just waiting another year, and also why I think Apple chose to update those 7 things that seem insignificant by themselves. First off, if Apple didn’t update the iPad Pro this year, it would ultimately be bad for sales. The 2020 tablet just sounds better. So they updated it, but they didn’t change very much since the 2018 model was already the best and most powerful tablet out there. What I personally believe makes the iPad Pro so great this year is actually the new iPadOS software.

Apple has finally made the decision to market the iPad Pro as a modern laptop replacement. It achieves that goal by using a combination of a few different things. Namely, the new multitasking features in iPadOS, like the more capable split-view mode and in-depth app control, the ability to hook up an external storage drive and drag and drop files right onto the iPad within the Files app, and especially the recent addition of cursor and trackpad support for the iPad. Now you might be thinking, all of the other iPads in the lineup also have the same exact software features but the iPad Pro does it better. It’s got crazy amounts of power, it’s got double the RAM for multitasking, it’s got the latest and fastest WiFi specs.

It’s got one more thing that Apple is betting big on this year, support for their brand new Magic Keyboard case. I believe that this Magic keyboard case is gonna be seriously great and disruptive to the portable computing world, and Apple knows it. It’s got the perfect combination of features that are basically the final piece of the laptop replacement puzzle, including pass-through charging which essentially frees up the main USB-C port for things like file transferring files, a high-quality built-in trackpad that works perfectly with the new cursor support, a keyboard that finally gets backlighting and laptop-level scissor-switch keys directly from the 16” MacBook Pro, and lastly, a brand new floating iPad design that’s so unique and original that it’s gonna take the market by storm. The best part about it is that it also supports the 2018 iPad Pro model as well, so Apple doesn’t necessarily want users with the 2018 model to upgrade to the 2020 model, they simply want them to buy the new magic keyboard case.

I believe that the combination of the latest iPadOS software features, the great performance of the iPad Pro, and the Magic Keyboard case are gonna create the ultimate laptop replacement. This is gonna cause a lot of people to choose an iPad Pro instead of a MacBook and Apple’s totally okay with it because the iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard case costs just about the same as one of their entry-level MacBooks, especially if you get an extra storage or you go for the 12.9” model, so in the end, Apple is winning.

I am pretty sure that Apple’s gonna announce a lot of new changes and features to iPadOS at this year’s WWDC that are going to be focused on making the iPad an even better laptop replacement. This is also where the new LiDAR scanner comes in. While it doesn’t make much sense right now, Apple is most likely going to announce some pretty massive changes and new features to Augmented Reality that might just spark the beginning of AR becoming much more popular, and when it does, you’re gonna want a LiDAR scanner on your Apple device. So there you guys have it, that’s Apple’s master plan with the new 2020 iPad Pro, which admittedly, is more focused on the Magic keyboard case and iPadOS software than it is on the 2020 model since the 2018 iPad Pro reaps basically all of the same benefits.

BATTERY:

Microsoft Surface Pro 7

We get a 65-watt charger in the box, not a 45 watt so that’s good a little bit faster charging. It’s the same design with the USB-A port on, so you can also charge your phone. Now, Microsoft claims ten and a half hours of battery life for since thirteen and a half hours of battery life for Surface Pro 6 but this is because they also changed their metric, the kind of test they were running. I’m finding that battery life has been about the same for our core i5 model with eight GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, so that means about seven hours on average with 200 nits brightness on this.

Apple iPad Pro

It’s got the USB-C port for much easier file transfers and fast charging which is a good upgrade. It will give you about 10 hours of battery life, you can get even more by reducing the brightness, and web surfing doesn’t get that much battery life. I think this battery life is enough at least for the whole day. 

WHICH TO BUY?

We all know that both are just great in tablets and laptop-like devices, there is no need to explain why it is. But, each tablet will be useful as per your purposes, so you need to know what kind of tablet you want and for what purpose. If you like the OS system and the features, then you may choose that, it’s best with their features, or if you want a full official work tablet with some great features and with a set of accessories like a laptop at a reasonable price, then Surface Pro 7 will be great to buy.

If you want a tablet for art, then if you’re a straight out just drawing person for art, then the iPad is great with Procreate but if you’re more of a concept art professional illustrator who does a lot of concept art or matte painting, honestly, Photoshop is still though the go-to program for that a lot easier and we still don’t have full Photoshop yet on the iPad.

Expert Reviews on Microsoft Surface Pro 7:

By Techadvisor 
The Surface Pro 7 is a powerful tablet that doubles as a decent laptop if you opt for the Type Cover case, although trying to actually use it in your lap is a challenge not many will succeed with.The improved internals and upgraded graphics are where…

By Notebookcheck
After our initial extensive review of the i5 SKU of Microsoft Surface Pro 7 (Core i5, 8 GB) we were now able to review the most powerful model as well, and we very quickly noticed that the faster model is not much different from its more affordable…

By Lifewire
Enough to keep in the game.Microsoft isn’t going to find many new fans it didn’t already have with the introduction the Surface Pro 7, but they’ve done what’s necessary to keep the Surface Pro line in the game. It’s a common-sense upgrade for older…

By Techteamgb
By all accounts, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 7 is a great machine, with it’s problems. Lets see if it’s actually worth the somewhat high price tag!Unlike it’s baby brother, the Pro X, this has a fully loaded spec. My model is the i7, a 1065G7, 16GB of RAM…

By Hardwarezone
For the past few years, if you wanted a detachable notebook, you’ll go out and buy a Surface Pro. End of story. There have been challengers and pretenders but none close to matching the Surface Pro’s level of usability and refinement. So dominant is the…

Expert Reviews of Apple iPad Pro:

By Expert Reviews
The new Magic Keyboard turns the iPad Pro into almost the perfect laptop replacement but there are still some gaps to fill.

By Techadvisor
Apple’s new 12.9in iPad Pro is among the most powerful on the market right now, with the new A12Z chipset beating just about every competitor in benchmark tests, but it’s also one of the most expensive options in our chart. The huge 120Hz 12.9in display is great for graphics design, watching movies and browsing social media, but it’s not until you pair it with the Magic Keyboard that the potential becomes clear.

By Macworld
The 2020 iPad Pro is a fantastic tablet, although you’ll find most of its improvements over the previous model in the camera array. This model now has a 10MP ultra-wide lens and a LiDAR sensor for augmented reality—both of which seem like they’d see little use on a tablet.

By Engadget
The 2020 iPad Pro is a terrific tablet that, thanks to features like trackpad support and some under-the-hood tweaks, comes closer than ever to feeling like a traditional computer. It doesn’t quite get there because of some inherent iPadOS limitations, but there’s enough performance and flexibility here that I’ve largely been able to leave my laptop to the side.

By Wired
This support of a trackpad and mouse pushes the iPad Pro even closer to “computer” territory. But that’s a debate for later. As much as I’ve used the iPad over the past five days, there were plenty of things I couldn’t test—like how the microphones fared in crowded, noisy environments, or how well the ultra-wide rear camera captured photos of large groups of friends.