Microsoft Surface Pro vs Surface RT
Microsoft may have turned a few heads with the announcement of the Surface RT tablet, but their initial release was far from the major success the company had hoped it would be. Despite looking very similar, the Surface Windows 8 Pro and Surface RT are wildly different computers, and Microsoftis going to have to work hard to show that to those who have already soured on the Surface.
Hardware
If you’re looking at these two tablets from the front, there’s no perceptible difference between the Surface Pro and Surface RT. The screen size is identical, and they both use the same VaporMg casing with a kickstand designed to place the screen at the same angle. Both tablets use the Touch and Type covers in the same way. Even the power and volume buttons are identical. You’ll only notice the big difference between the two if you look at them from the side, or if you pick both up at the same time. The Surface Pro is noticeably thicker and heavier than the Surface RT, due to the air vents needed to keep the Intel processor cool and to house the larger battery. (The Surface RT uses a much less demanding ARM processor.)
The ports on the Surface Pro are different than those on the RT. The Pro’s USB 3.0 port is in the same place as the USB 2.0 port on the RT, but obviously it’s more useful with a full version of Windows and USB 3.0 speeds. The power port on the Surface Pro is raised slightly to make room for the Mini DisplayPort that Microsoft has used for video out, instead of the microHDMI used on the Surface RT. The Surface Pro includes DisplayPort adapters for HDMI and monitor out, so you can use your existing cables to connect the Surface Pro to a monitor or television.
Interestingly, the cover port on the Surface Pro includes some extra pins that are not on the Surface RT. Microsoft has yet to explain what these pins are for, and they don’t exist in any of the specs listings or even the promotional renders for the Surface Pro. It seems likely that Microsoft will announce some additional hardware in the future to take advantage of these pins, perhaps with a keyboard that offers an additional battery like we’ve seen with the other convertible Windows 8tablets. These pins could also serve as a desktop dock of some kind, similar to what was seen with the Samsung developer preview tablet that was given out during the Windows 8 testing period.
Using the Surface Pro and RT
When you start the Surface Pro next to the Surface RT, the difference between these two tablets becomes quiet clear. The Surface Pro boots in under five seconds, while the Surface RT takes nearly thirty seconds to reach the Start page. When actually using Windows 8, you’ll find that there’s very little difference between the two tablets when navigating the UI, but any time you want to load an application, a website, or execute any complex task at all, the Surface Pro is significantly faster. The Intel Core i5 and HD4000 in the Surface Pro are clearly more capable than the Tegra 3 processor in the Surface RT when comparing tasks that the RT is capable of performing.
The Surface Pro is also running Windows 8 Pro, which means it is capable of running apps from the Microsoft Store as well as any other application that you can run on a desktop version of Windows. You can install Diablo 3 right next to Jetpack Joyride, and brag about how much fun it is using your social network of choice on whatever browser you’d like. The experience is significantly better than that of the Surface RT, which isn’t capable of any of these things yet. Where the Surface RT seems barely capable of competing with the iPad and Android tablets, the Surface Pro is more than enough to compete with the MacBook Air and all of Microsoft’s OEM partners.
Surface Pro (left) and Surface RT (right) – can’t you tell?
Both the Surface RT and the Surface Pro are using Microsoft’s ClearType HD displays, though the Pro is running a 1920×1080 display versus the 1366×768 resolution on the RT. For the majority of things that you do on either of these tablets, you won’t notice a difference in the displays. You can fit more text on the screen with the Surface Pro, but the quality of these screens is so high that you’re unlikely to be able to tell which display is which. The touchscreen on the Surface Pro is more functional, offering ten-point multitouch instead of the five offered on the RT. Additionally, the Surface Pro allows a Wacom stylus input that isn’t available on the RT.
Using the Surface stylus is a jarring experience at first, unless you’re used to this kind of input. You can’t use the stylus to navigate the operating system in the same way that you can use finger gestures. The stylus input replicates the mouse input, so when you’re using the two input types together you have to be careful to remove your hand from the screen and swipe with your finger. When using the stylus you can rest your hand comfortably on the Surface without confusing the two input types.
Surface Pro under an iPad Mini
Microsoft has a lot of work to do in order to convince users that the Surface Pro is not the Surface RT, especially now that the RT has been seen as a commercial failure. There are plenty of good reasons to own a Surface Pro, but in order to move units in any quantity, Microsoft needs to demonstrate that the Windows 8/Surface combination is worth the money, and distance what is essentially a $1000 ultrabook with an abbreviated battery life from the initial impressions of the Surface RT.
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