- Conclusion Get the lowdown
- Features How they compare
- Performance Real world benchmarks
- Differences Technical showdown
- Reviews Word on the street
- Competition Others to consider
- Discussion Answers and opinions
Compare with...
- Google Nexus 10
- Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1
- Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF300
- Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1"
- Samsung ATIV Tab
- 10.6"
- 32 GB
- WiFi
- Windows 8
Released October, 2012
Rated 93% by by The Verge (Mar, 2012)As far as the battery life of the new iPad is concerned, I can say that the device pretty much lives up to Apple's ambitious claims.
Conclusion Which is better for you?
Features Key features of the Microsoft Surface RT compared to the Apple iPad 3
“10.6
Windows 8
Rated 100% by by Brennan (Nov, 2012)The multitasking is brilliant and I've been able to do almost everything I wanted without ever thinking about loading times... I just click and it's there.
9.7”
iOS 6
Rated 93% by by The Verge (Mar, 2012)The original iPhone was a 2G-only device (ostensibly to conserve battery life), and clearly the antenna on the original iPhone 4 had form-over-function syndrome (at least for some users).
screen size
10.6"
9.7"
Surface RT by Maximilian (Nov, 2012)You will scroll very long (big) lists, go between a lot of screens back and forth.
iPad 3 by Roaming-Seer--RoamingSeer (Jun, 2012)The big screen makes it fun to take pictures or videos as I recently did at the National Air and Space Museum.
memory
| 0 GB | 2 GB | 2 GB |
processor
Surface RT by Christopher-LeeThe interface is clean, sleek, and performs great- one reason Microsoft limited the resolution was to ensure that the processor (the formidable A9 nVIDIA Tegra 3) could run everything at speeds and smoothness rivaling anything iOS and Android 4.1.1 Jelly Bean can toss out.
iPad 3 by Vincent-E.-Martin--Darkbard (Apr, 2012)Featuring an Apple designed Dual-core A5X, low power, high performance processor, the 1.44 pound (1.46 pounds for the Wi-Fi + 4G) iPad 3 is a tad thinner than the iPad 2, though the screen size stays the same.
Performance Real world tests of Microsoft Surface RT vs Apple iPad 3
cpu speed
sunspider 0.9.1 benchmark
Surface RT by MacAttack (Dec, 2012)What you get with Microsoft surface rt is Internet explorer 10(internet explorer finally beats firefox and google chrome), Microsoft office 2013(fully operational office on the a tablet and it works perfectly), apps through Microsoft office store(app store not the best but growing fast), and the great windows 8 UI(best UI ever, yes you have to learn some gestures, but once you do well worth it).
battery life
8 hour
10 hour
Surface RT by Eric-Hon (Nov, 2012)To summarize:Strengths- versatility, lightweight, solid battery life, solid construction, USB port; productivity software (but limited apps in Windows Store); touch keyboard is actually way better and responsive than expected; best Operating System for touch; more bang for your buck out of the box experience.
iPad 3 by The Verge (Mar, 2012)Another nice perk is that if you buy into the Verizon version, not only do you get your LTE service on the iPad, but you also can use the device as a wireless hotspot at no extra charge (AT&T says they're working on it, but they don't offer the same luxury).
Differences What are the advantages of each
Advantages compared to the Apple iPad 3
| More cores | Quad core | vs | Dual core |
|---|---|---|---|
| Twice as many cores; run more applications at once | |||
| Supports multitasking | Yes (Windows) | vs | No (iOS 6) |
| Somewhat common; Run multiple apps at once | |||
| Significantly faster processor | 1.5 GHz | vs | 1 GHz |
| 50% faster processor; run computation-intensive applications, such as photo editing, faster | |||
| Bigger screen | 10.6" | vs | 9.7" |
| Around 10% bigger screen | |||
| Supports Adobe Flash | Yes | vs | No (iOS 6) |
| Somewhat common; Many games and videos on the Internet require Adobe Flash | |||
| More RAM | 2 GB | vs | 1 GB |
| Twice as much RAM; Better able to run big apps with lots of content | |||
| Faster sunspider 0.9.1 benchmark | 994 ms | vs | 1,817 ms |
| Around 50% faster sunspider 0.9.1 benchmark; better web browsing experience | |||
| Marginally newer | Oct, 2012 | vs | Apr, 2012 |
| Release date 6 months later | |||
Advantages compared to the Microsoft Surface RT
| Longer battery life | 10 hour | vs | 8 hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| Around 30% longer battery life; surf the web longer without having to plug in | |||
| More storage capacity | 64 GB | vs | 32 GB |
| 2x more storage capacity; Holds more music, movies and photos | |||
| Has a GPS | Yes | vs | No |
| Somewhat common; Get directions and navigation, geotag photos | |||
| Supports voice commands | Yes (iOS 6) | vs | No (Windows 8) |
| Somewhat common; Can be operated hands free | |||
| Smaller | 241 x 186 x 9 mm | vs | 275 x 172 x 14 mm |
| More than 30% smaller | |||
| Thinner | 9 mm | vs | 14 mm |
| More than 30% thinner | |||
Reviews Word on the street
Microsoft Surface RT | Apple iPad 3 | ||
 |  
| 
| |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Rated by 81 users at amazon.com Rated 80% by by Christopher-Lee  Rated 100% by by CAH (Nov, 2012) Rated 80% by by G.-Clough--Garrett (Nov, 2012) | Rated by 190 users at amazon.com Rated 100% by by AgingBoomer Rated 20% by by reviewman (Jul, 2012) Rated 80% by by x59htes (Apr, 2012) | |
apps
Apple iPad 3 64 GB 4G Verizon | Rated 100% by by Vincent-E.-Martin--Darkbard (Apr, 2012)iPad 3 64GB Wi-Fi +4G even allows you to choose whether or not you want to download your business contacts and calendar; sweet!
Apple iPad 3 64 GB 4G Verizon | Rated 40% by by Serpentiz (Sep, 2012)In order to sync my Gmail contacts, I had to set up my Gmail account as a Microsoft Exchange account, this is stupid, why can't I just set it up as a Gmail account and automatically sync my contacts without the extra hassle?
Apple iPad 3 64 GB 4G Verizon | Rated 100% by by Vincent-E.-Martin--Darkbard (Apr, 2012)I was able to sync the iPad 3 to iTunes and like magic everything that was on my iPad 2 showed up on my iPad 3, since the last time I "physically" backed up the tablet via iTunes, right before I started using iCloud to perform back-ups.
Competition What else you should consider
 | 1 | Google Nexus 10 OK operating system |
 | 2 | Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 4-way tie: Most CPU cores |
 | 4 | Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1" 5-way tie: Supports face unlock |
 | 5 | Samsung ATIV Tab Longest battery life |
 | 6 | Dell Latitude 10 Largest amount of storage capacity |
