I am sorry however my Floor Professional nonetheless beats the iPad in 3 key methods

Earlier than getting my palms on the new Microsoft Surface Pro 12-inch, I had by no means a lot as held a Floor pill exterior a retail show setting. As a lover of pill computing, I’ve used a justifiable share of Apple iPads, Android tabs, and even the Blackberry Playbook over time, however the Floor line remained a mysterious and nearly unique product line in my eyes.

The Floor Professional’s kickstand, attachable keyboard cowl, I/O choice, 3:2 side ratio, and Windows-based PC working system are attributes which have at all times intrigued me, and apparently they’ve piqued the curiosity of massive tech corporations, too: Apple, Samsung, Google and different giants have been steadily transferring within the path of pill PCificastion lately, supercharging their slates with extra succesful {hardware} and software program.

I have been testing out the Floor Professional 12-inch for just a few days now, and I’ve had the prospect to include the gadget into my workflow proper alongside one in all its direct opponents — the iPad Air (working the first beta of iPadOS 26, no much less). After pitting the 2 machines in opposition to each other in the actual world, I’ve come to understand a number of key features of the Floor Professional expertise. Listed below are three issues specifically that my Floor supplies me, and that my iPad merely would not.

1

It might probably stand upright by itself

The Floor kickstand is in a league of its personal

Since the very beginning of Surface, Microsoft has held a selected {hardware} conviction that I could not agree extra with: tablets with built-in kickstands are higher than these with out one. Over time, the corporate has perfected the artwork of friction hinges, and the brand new Floor Professional 12-inch inherits this engineering prowess. Its full-width kickstand feels extremely sturdy, articulates easily, and provides numerous angle flexibility (as much as 165 levels when absolutely prolonged).

Against this, my iPad cannot perch itself in a helpful angle with out the usage of equipment, such because the Magic Keyboard or the Sensible Folio. These peripherals are glorious, however additionally they price a reasonably penny. Third-party instances and stands can be found at quite a lot of value factors, too, however they’re nonetheless one other factor you must buy and hull round. There’s an magnificence to having a built-in kickstand on a slate-style laptop, and it makes interacting with and consuming media on a big show all of the extra handy and easy.

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2

It has extra I/O

Two USB-C ports are higher than one

One other staple of the Floor Professional expertise is its laptop-class choice of I/O ports. Gone are the times of USB-A, Mini DisplayPort, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a microSD card slot, and a Surface Connect port, however Microsoft’s newest slab does not less than supply x2 USB-C ports. In the meantime, each iPad mannequin ships with solely a single USB-C port — even the highest-end iPad Professional with an M4 chipset and 16 GB of RAM is constrained to just one lowly port for charging, information switch, and exterior show connectivity.

It goes with out saying that more USB-C ports are better than less in relation to modern-day cell devices, and that is very true within the pill area. USB-C is an extremely versatile I/O commonplace, and entry to a number of ports on a single gadget could be a game-changer relying on workflow. Pairing an iPad Air with one in all Apple’s Magic Keyboard instances provides a secondary USB-C port for charging into the combination, however that is hardly an acceptable various to having a second full-fledged port proper on the slab itself.

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3

It runs full-fat Home windows

A blessing and a curse — however largely a blessing

Microsoft’s Floor Professional line has at all times been distinctive throughout the pill area, because it’s powered by a full-fat desktop working system. The brand new Floor Professional 12-inch runs Home windows 11, with entry to all of the AI-based Copilot+ PC software features that require a robust Neural Processing Unit (NPU) with a purpose to operate. Against this, my iPad is working iPadOS 26 developer beta 1, with software program roots firmly entrenched throughout the iPhone’s cell OS paradigm.

iPadOS 26 brings numerous Mac-like additions to the iPad expertise, together with background duties, an improved cursor, higher window administration, and a correct Menu Bar, however the system nonetheless lacks many necessities, like the flexibility to play a number of audio sources on the similar time. Windows 11, however, is a robust PC OS that makes the Floor Professional 12-inch feel and appear identical to a laptop computer or desktop laptop, making for a productiveness machine that Apple nonetheless cannot fairly measure as much as.

After all, Home windows is not fairly as slick as iPadOS in relation to contact interplay and gestures, however it’s ok that I could make do each time I am and not using a mouse and keyboard. That being mentioned, I’d love to see Microsoft re-implement among the glorious touchscreen UX options that had been initially part of 2012’s Home windows 8 — specifically the fantastic left bezel multitasking gesture.

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