If you want to charge it faster, you have to use the Surface power adapter provided, and even so it does not charge as fast as the iPad. While it's great you can charge with phone cables plugged to the computer, it charges very slowly. Tbe battery port is a micro-USB port, those commonly used by phones for charging.

BATTERY LIFE AND MANAGEMENTĭownside of the Surface 3 is the battery management. If you run out of storage on the Surface 3, you can get a microSD ( 128GB for $50 or 200GB for $100) and plug it in. scanner, SD card reader, keyboard, Wacom tablet. In actual use, I plug the USB port into my Dell monitor which acts as a USB hub where I plug in many other devices, e.g. One major advantage of the Surface 3 compared to the iPad Air is the existence of the USB port.

In terms of thickness, there's not much difference but Surface 3 is noticeably heavier. Thickness comparison with iPad Air on the top. Windows tablet apps are designed with larger user interface. However, note that you can run Windows tablet apps as well as desktop software on the Surface. I feel that iPad's user interface and buttons there are usually bigger. The screen can be considered small when you need to accessing things like menus and buttons of applications that have user interfaces not optimized for tablet use. The 10.8-inch screen has wonderful colour reproduction and viewing angles. Surface 3 comes with an incredibly useful built-in stand because you can make the tablet prop up on its own without additional accessory. The Windows logo at the back is a fingerprint magnet. The iPad Air 2 is lighter, but I don't feel that the Surface 3 is really that much heavier. iPad Air 2 has a significant weight advantage at 437g. The magnesium body is sturdy, thin and has a nice matte feel to the finishing. Here's the tablet for a quick specs comparison.Ħ4GB with 2GB RAM, 128GB storage with 4GB RAMīuild quality of the Surface 3 is fantastic. What I mean is, I find it easier to locate things on Windows 10, especially with the return of the Start menu and the visible desktop. The tablet experience is slightly better with Windows 10 than 8. It came with Windows 8 but I've since upgraded it to Windows 10 for free. The unit that I bought has a 10.8 inch screen, 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage. There will be an artist comparison of the Surface Pro 4 and iPad Pro tablets in the future. This review compares my user experience of the Surface 3 and iPad Air because they are quite similar in size and price. However, you have to factor in the extra $50 for the Surface Pen because it's not bundled with Surface 3.

By the way, at the time of this review, the 128GB storage Surface 3 cost USD $500 while the iPad Air 2 cost $600. So when I saw a secondhand Surface (non-Pro) 3 on sale at a great price, I bought it.

I've always been interested to find out how the Microsoft Surface 3 would compare to my old iPad Air when it comes to drawing on it.

Krita ipad