The Future of Office Productivity: A Comparison of Microsoft Surface and iPad

For me, the future of office productivity is about having access to my work from anywhere, as long as I can get to the web. This means that I don't have to be tethered to one computer or another. With a service PC and an iPad, I can get to both from either device, which is the way I would like to go with my documents.

Microsoft has Office available on its Surface PC, but it's not as straightforward to get it directly on an iPad. While this may be worth paying the extra money for, it ultimately comes down to how much you're willing to spend on a computer. The Baseline configuration of the iPad is certainly lower than that of the Surface Pro or Surface Pro 2 running Windows 8.

Cost is something to consider when choosing between these options. Compatibility is also a factor, but ultimately, it's about finding the experience that works best for you. If you want a traditional PC with all the bells and whistles, such as USB ports, the Surface Pro may be the better choice. However, if you're happy with just basic tasks like checking email, browsing the web, and playing games, an iPad is more than sufficient.

There are many services available that can be accessed from both a service PC and an iPad. Microsoft's SkyDrive and Skype are two examples of this. In terms of software, iOS provides access to Google apps, either through direct app downloads or by accessing them via the web. However, Google's offerings on Windows 8 have been limited in recent times.

Microsoft's biggest hurdle is changing people's expectations about what a computer should be. The Surface Pro is not your traditional PC, but it's more than just a device - it's an experience that provides a new way of working. When I first got my hands on a Surface Pro, I was blown away by its capabilities and versatility. It's hard to compare the two devices directly, as everyone's needs are different.

One thing is certain: both the iPad and Surface Pro have their strengths and weaknesses. The iPad excels at tasks that don't require a traditional keyboard or mouse, such as browsing the web, checking email, and playing games. The Surface Pro, on the other hand, offers a more traditional computing experience with its USB ports and keyboard.

In conclusion, when it comes to office productivity, there's no one-size-fits-all solution. It ultimately depends on what you need from your device. If you're looking for a traditional PC experience, the Surface Pro is the way to go. However, if you're happy with a more streamlined and mobile computing experience, an iPad may be the better choice. As I always say, it's impossible to make a recommendation that applies to everyone, as each person has their unique needs and preferences.

In terms of recommending devices, I don't have an inherent issue with either company - Microsoft or Apple. Both offer high-quality products that cater to different needs and preferences. Ultimately, it comes down to finding the experience that works best for you. If you're unsure where to start, I would suggest considering your own needs and priorities.

The final thing is that it's so difficult to do these versus videos. I don't have an inherent issue with one company over another - everybody's got to make up their own mind. I am very happy to have been able to use and have both of these devices, and I hope this information has been helpful in making your decision about which device is right for you.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthank you for watching liking commenting sharing and subscribing right now hello world I'm Chris Perillo and today I would like to talk to you about the Surface Pro 2 versus the iPad Air or as I will continue to refer to these devices throughout this video the iPad versus the surface now this is the Surface Pro not the Surface RT it is running Windows 8.1 the latest operating system from Microsoft at least as far as desktop and notebook and laptop and mobile computers are concerned versus iOS running on the iPad Air or the iPad uh people are asking what's the difference between these two computers and there are a few differences between the two and for the most part I think many users could be served very well by either one of these PCS personal computers hello Hardware software operating system it is a personal computer is it like a traditional PC much like the surface would be no not necessarily but that's not a bad thing there are certainly benefits and drawbacks to having either one and the good news is some people don't want you to know this but it's okay to have both and like both for what they are not dislike them for what they're not but these two computers being the same hardly in fact your choice may be very difficult if you have to make a choice between the Surface and the iPad uh I have unboxed each one of these products uh on this channel usually that's done live and you know having used Windows 8 pretty much well certainly before it was officially released I don't want to get into that at this point I use the developer preview and the consumer uh experience preview uh I've been using iOS ever since the very beginning the uh uh iOS 7 is still getting fleshed out it's definitely not perfect uh but it's you know works well enough for me to be able to do what I need to do on an iPad just like uh Windows 8 does everything I might need it to do if I'm using a surface these two are different computers they offer completely different Computing experiences if you are looking for more of a traditional type of computing experience the surface is going to make you happier uh it's got um a USB port and it's got an operating system that was designed for everything that you could possibly throw at it tops notebook computers etc but that may be a strength and a drawback it's a drawback because I haven't found the battery life to be amazing on this surface not just because I'm running uh the latest firmware which Microsoft pulled because of alleged battery issues uh in fact I believe I'm running the previous version of the firmware so I i' be cleared on that it's just that in my experience when the operating system is not optimized for its primary use case in this case being mobile I yeah you could use this at your desktop but hello it's a surface PC you can go around with it and do anything wherever and you don't have to be Tethered to power uh but it's still running uh an operating system that just was not designed with power consumption or I guess saving power in mind compared to say iOS which was designed for a mobile Computing touch experience from the ground up so not only is usability prime but actual use Cas is prime as well when you have iOS or the operating system really um optimized for the use case if it sounds like I'm repeating myself it's because I have a lot of this stuff swimming in my head but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing I mean maybe you need a fullon Windows PC with you wherever you go and Battery life's not an issue you really can't go wrong with the surface now that does not mean that you couldn't access your Windows desktop by the way of software and services through an iPad because you can right it's it's not going to be a native experience like you would have on a Surface but that doesn't mean that you couldn't necessarily use it in one way shape or form remote desktop is becoming kind of the way of the future in terms of being able to access things from things that you're using okay uh one is heavier than the other empirically speaking this is a fat boy right here this two pounds pretty heavy versus less than a pound on the iPad Air I that's not bad I mean certainly it's lighter than a lot of the laptops that I've used it's just that you can't really compare the two the surface pro has a kick that's nice in fact the Service Pro 2 has a kickstand with two settings there's no such kickstand on the iPad it may be an issue uh you could also buy separately a type cover directly from Microsoft or a touch cover uh and attach it directly to the surface uh Apple doesn't make a keyboard but there are plenty of thirdparty uh accessory manufacturers who make covers there's smart or I'm sorry keyboards for the iPad there's Smart Cover doubles as not just a cover but also a stand that you could use the iPad in either this position or this position trying to okay this one number one or number two number one or number two uh I'm not going to demonstrate it because you've likely seen that before at this point in time um the screens are both very fantastic screens for doing just about anything you might want to do on either one of these computers uh check email browse the web do social watch movies listen to music uh it may very well boiled down to uh you know another part of the experience and that's software uh Microsoft has been doing its best to to bridge the gap between what we used to consider the primary Computing experience and the new type of computing experience which kind of crept up on them even though Microsoft was really one of the first in the field if not the first to have a tablet computer uh it just didn't catch on because it was too pricey uh the fact that you can run all your windows software if you have Windows software these days on a surface that may be a boon for you and I don't want to take away from that at all but in terms of the ecosystem in the App Store the official app store which is how you would most people probably should be downloading software onto their surface because Microsoft's made sure that it's not going to ruin the Computing experience if you get it through the App Store uh you're going you're going to find yourself a little frustrated with I'm not going to say a lack of apps there are a lot of apps I'm sure in the Windows 8 app store it's just that I didn't find many that I would want or I would hope would be interesting and help me transform this computer into something truly amazing and developers will hopefully eventually catch on and and I know it gets better with every year that goes by it's just that the apps on Windows 8 aren't as plentiful as what might be uh found on iOS specifically apps that are optimized for the screen and the Computing experience that you're using that's a big deal and I don't I also don't want to get tripped up on one platform has more apps than the other because you know what every platform brags about how many apps it has but most of them on any platform suck uh it's just the question of how many of them would suck less on one platform versus the other that you would have to ask or how many of those apps were optimized for the experience that you have in front of you that piece of Hardware in conjunction with that piece of software and an operating system it's that entire experience that you may have to look at very seriously if you are trying to make a decision between these two computers uh another thing that is going to be a very difficult uh decision for some people to make and I know Microsoft keeps going back to office for productivity and that's fine if you like office if you need office if your work relies on office Office Works exceedingly well on a Windows PC um but there are plenty of quote unquote office Alternatives that have worked well or at least well enough over time I keep most of my documents in Google Drive so I access them on pretty much any platform from anywhere as long as I can get to the web I am good to go that to me is the future of office productivity and I'm already living in it because then I don't have to be worried about uh being Tethered to one computer or another I could get to it from either one of these computers and that to me is the way that I would like to go with my documents um yeah obviously Microsoft has office on its surface PC can't necessarily get it directly on an iPad that may be worth paying the extra money for a service PC to you that's the thing you got to consider the the surface is a bit more expensive than an iPad well not every single one because you can spec or I guess configure each one of these computers differently right depending on how much RAM you put in it or I'm sorry storage space or the capacity you know how how gigs you buy uh you're you're going to have a difference in in price you know the higher capacity the higher uh or more money you're going to spend on either one of these computer so I don't want to talk you know you know price for Price Point um but I would say like the Baseline configuration the iPad is certainly uh lower than the Surface computer at this point in time we're talking about the Surface Pro or the Surface Pro 2 running Windows 8 we're not talking about the window or Windows RT or the Surface RT or the Surface 2 which is also RT they're trying to get away from the RT moniker for all a lot of good reasons um and that would be Microsoft um so you know cost is something to to factor in uh you could think about compatibility but ultimately I I just steer everybody to think about the type of experience that you want that you've seen that that you know is is going to work for you and that's going to be different for everybody out there right uh you may want something a computer that has a USB port there you go go with the surface you'd be happy you may not care about usbb Port fine an iPad is going to do you just just just as well they're going to be different so the question then you you may have to ask is well who who are these computers for if you want more of a traditional PC the Surface Pro is going to make you happier if you don't care about the type of computer that you have you just want to get online check your email do social basic stuff browse the web play a couple of games the iPad is going to make you happy there are a lot of services uh between the two as a matter of fact Sky Drive is a service that Microsoft has Skype is a service that Microsoft has you can get to it from a service PC as well as the iPad so you know I would say Well it comes down to services but not necessarily I mean if if there's anything that's kind of the middle ground for software these days it's actually iOS I can get to Google sof I've got Google apps on here I can get to Google from uh iOS directly through apps or by way of the web you could do the same thing by way of Windows 8 Al though not every one of Google's pieces of software exist on Windows 8 Google's a little iffy on Windows right now probably because they're you know fighting over Enterprise and you know selling computers to various segments of the marketplace um so if I it's not even about how much money you have to spend either I I I come back to having that that experience and getting that experience closer to what you're expect expecta what you're expecting and that that is really I think the biggest hurdle that Microsoft has is I don't know if many people are expecting to have a traditional computer when they buy a new computer right this is not a a traditional computer as we have defined a computer or PC but it is every bit a this is more of a PC than my first PC which by the way was a Commodore 64 way back in the day you want to talk about a lack of ass uh boy you could play Baler Dash like nothing else you know there you could be happy with either one of these computers um it's just that you may be ha more happy with one over the other and that's going to boil down to something that you want that only one of them provides and you know if you're looking for you know a specific recommendation it's impossible to make because everybody's looking for something different I just want to let you know it's so difficult to do these versus videos um I don't have an inherent issue with one company over another everybody's got to make up their own mind I am very very happy to have been able to use and have both of these so thanks again for remembering to comment like subscribe and of course share and watch even more of our videos right nowthank you for watching liking commenting sharing and subscribing right now hello world I'm Chris Perillo and today I would like to talk to you about the Surface Pro 2 versus the iPad Air or as I will continue to refer to these devices throughout this video the iPad versus the surface now this is the Surface Pro not the Surface RT it is running Windows 8.1 the latest operating system from Microsoft at least as far as desktop and notebook and laptop and mobile computers are concerned versus iOS running on the iPad Air or the iPad uh people are asking what's the difference between these two computers and there are a few differences between the two and for the most part I think many users could be served very well by either one of these PCS personal computers hello Hardware software operating system it is a personal computer is it like a traditional PC much like the surface would be no not necessarily but that's not a bad thing there are certainly benefits and drawbacks to having either one and the good news is some people don't want you to know this but it's okay to have both and like both for what they are not dislike them for what they're not but these two computers being the same hardly in fact your choice may be very difficult if you have to make a choice between the Surface and the iPad uh I have unboxed each one of these products uh on this channel usually that's done live and you know having used Windows 8 pretty much well certainly before it was officially released I don't want to get into that at this point I use the developer preview and the consumer uh experience preview uh I've been using iOS ever since the very beginning the uh uh iOS 7 is still getting fleshed out it's definitely not perfect uh but it's you know works well enough for me to be able to do what I need to do on an iPad just like uh Windows 8 does everything I might need it to do if I'm using a surface these two are different computers they offer completely different Computing experiences if you are looking for more of a traditional type of computing experience the surface is going to make you happier uh it's got um a USB port and it's got an operating system that was designed for everything that you could possibly throw at it tops notebook computers etc but that may be a strength and a drawback it's a drawback because I haven't found the battery life to be amazing on this surface not just because I'm running uh the latest firmware which Microsoft pulled because of alleged battery issues uh in fact I believe I'm running the previous version of the firmware so I i' be cleared on that it's just that in my experience when the operating system is not optimized for its primary use case in this case being mobile I yeah you could use this at your desktop but hello it's a surface PC you can go around with it and do anything wherever and you don't have to be Tethered to power uh but it's still running uh an operating system that just was not designed with power consumption or I guess saving power in mind compared to say iOS which was designed for a mobile Computing touch experience from the ground up so not only is usability prime but actual use Cas is prime as well when you have iOS or the operating system really um optimized for the use case if it sounds like I'm repeating myself it's because I have a lot of this stuff swimming in my head but that doesn't mean it's a bad thing I mean maybe you need a fullon Windows PC with you wherever you go and Battery life's not an issue you really can't go wrong with the surface now that does not mean that you couldn't access your Windows desktop by the way of software and services through an iPad because you can right it's it's not going to be a native experience like you would have on a Surface but that doesn't mean that you couldn't necessarily use it in one way shape or form remote desktop is becoming kind of the way of the future in terms of being able to access things from things that you're using okay uh one is heavier than the other empirically speaking this is a fat boy right here this two pounds pretty heavy versus less than a pound on the iPad Air I that's not bad I mean certainly it's lighter than a lot of the laptops that I've used it's just that you can't really compare the two the surface pro has a kick that's nice in fact the Service Pro 2 has a kickstand with two settings there's no such kickstand on the iPad it may be an issue uh you could also buy separately a type cover directly from Microsoft or a touch cover uh and attach it directly to the surface uh Apple doesn't make a keyboard but there are plenty of thirdparty uh accessory manufacturers who make covers there's smart or I'm sorry keyboards for the iPad there's Smart Cover doubles as not just a cover but also a stand that you could use the iPad in either this position or this position trying to okay this one number one or number two number one or number two uh I'm not going to demonstrate it because you've likely seen that before at this point in time um the screens are both very fantastic screens for doing just about anything you might want to do on either one of these computers uh check email browse the web do social watch movies listen to music uh it may very well boiled down to uh you know another part of the experience and that's software uh Microsoft has been doing its best to to bridge the gap between what we used to consider the primary Computing experience and the new type of computing experience which kind of crept up on them even though Microsoft was really one of the first in the field if not the first to have a tablet computer uh it just didn't catch on because it was too pricey uh the fact that you can run all your windows software if you have Windows software these days on a surface that may be a boon for you and I don't want to take away from that at all but in terms of the ecosystem in the App Store the official app store which is how you would most people probably should be downloading software onto their surface because Microsoft's made sure that it's not going to ruin the Computing experience if you get it through the App Store uh you're going you're going to find yourself a little frustrated with I'm not going to say a lack of apps there are a lot of apps I'm sure in the Windows 8 app store it's just that I didn't find many that I would want or I would hope would be interesting and help me transform this computer into something truly amazing and developers will hopefully eventually catch on and and I know it gets better with every year that goes by it's just that the apps on Windows 8 aren't as plentiful as what might be uh found on iOS specifically apps that are optimized for the screen and the Computing experience that you're using that's a big deal and I don't I also don't want to get tripped up on one platform has more apps than the other because you know what every platform brags about how many apps it has but most of them on any platform suck uh it's just the question of how many of them would suck less on one platform versus the other that you would have to ask or how many of those apps were optimized for the experience that you have in front of you that piece of Hardware in conjunction with that piece of software and an operating system it's that entire experience that you may have to look at very seriously if you are trying to make a decision between these two computers uh another thing that is going to be a very difficult uh decision for some people to make and I know Microsoft keeps going back to office for productivity and that's fine if you like office if you need office if your work relies on office Office Works exceedingly well on a Windows PC um but there are plenty of quote unquote office Alternatives that have worked well or at least well enough over time I keep most of my documents in Google Drive so I access them on pretty much any platform from anywhere as long as I can get to the web I am good to go that to me is the future of office productivity and I'm already living in it because then I don't have to be worried about uh being Tethered to one computer or another I could get to it from either one of these computers and that to me is the way that I would like to go with my documents um yeah obviously Microsoft has office on its surface PC can't necessarily get it directly on an iPad that may be worth paying the extra money for a service PC to you that's the thing you got to consider the the surface is a bit more expensive than an iPad well not every single one because you can spec or I guess configure each one of these computers differently right depending on how much RAM you put in it or I'm sorry storage space or the capacity you know how how gigs you buy uh you're you're going to have a difference in in price you know the higher capacity the higher uh or more money you're going to spend on either one of these computer so I don't want to talk you know you know price for Price Point um but I would say like the Baseline configuration the iPad is certainly uh lower than the Surface computer at this point in time we're talking about the Surface Pro or the Surface Pro 2 running Windows 8 we're not talking about the window or Windows RT or the Surface RT or the Surface 2 which is also RT they're trying to get away from the RT moniker for all a lot of good reasons um and that would be Microsoft um so you know cost is something to to factor in uh you could think about compatibility but ultimately I I just steer everybody to think about the type of experience that you want that you've seen that that you know is is going to work for you and that's going to be different for everybody out there right uh you may want something a computer that has a USB port there you go go with the surface you'd be happy you may not care about usbb Port fine an iPad is going to do you just just just as well they're going to be different so the question then you you may have to ask is well who who are these computers for if you want more of a traditional PC the Surface Pro is going to make you happier if you don't care about the type of computer that you have you just want to get online check your email do social basic stuff browse the web play a couple of games the iPad is going to make you happy there are a lot of services uh between the two as a matter of fact Sky Drive is a service that Microsoft has Skype is a service that Microsoft has you can get to it from a service PC as well as the iPad so you know I would say Well it comes down to services but not necessarily I mean if if there's anything that's kind of the middle ground for software these days it's actually iOS I can get to Google sof I've got Google apps on here I can get to Google from uh iOS directly through apps or by way of the web you could do the same thing by way of Windows 8 Al though not every one of Google's pieces of software exist on Windows 8 Google's a little iffy on Windows right now probably because they're you know fighting over Enterprise and you know selling computers to various segments of the marketplace um so if I it's not even about how much money you have to spend either I I I come back to having that that experience and getting that experience closer to what you're expect expecta what you're expecting and that that is really I think the biggest hurdle that Microsoft has is I don't know if many people are expecting to have a traditional computer when they buy a new computer right this is not a a traditional computer as we have defined a computer or PC but it is every bit a this is more of a PC than my first PC which by the way was a Commodore 64 way back in the day you want to talk about a lack of ass uh boy you could play Baler Dash like nothing else you know there you could be happy with either one of these computers um it's just that you may be ha more happy with one over the other and that's going to boil down to something that you want that only one of them provides and you know if you're looking for you know a specific recommendation it's impossible to make because everybody's looking for something different I just want to let you know it's so difficult to do these versus videos um I don't have an inherent issue with one company over another everybody's got to make up their own mind I am very very happy to have been able to use and have both of these so thanks again for remembering to comment like subscribe and of course share and watch even more of our videos right now\n"