Macbook Pro or Surface Book - which would you buy ?
Over the last two days both Apple and Microsoft announced refreshes to their laptop lines.
So now we have two bright shiny and very expensive top end laptops to compare.. Let's look at then from a a hardware, software and ecosystem standpoint.
First the hardware. We'll compare the top end offerings from each..
Both the new MacBook Pro (MBP) and Surface Book are based on the 6th generation Intel Core CPUs know as SkyLake and support up to 16GB of RAM.
Both come with PCI SSD with Apple supporting all the way to a 2TB model while the Surface Book stops at 1TB.
The Surface Book comes with a 13.5" 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) screen with 10 Point Touch and Pen Support. The screen is driven by an Nvidia GTX 965M GPU with 2GB RAM and is detachable and can used as a tablet or flips 180 degrees.
The MacBook Pro 15.4" 2880 x 1800 (220 PPI) screen with no touch or pen support. The screen is driven by an AMD Radeon Pro 455 with 2GB of RAM. Optionally you can get a Radeon Pro 460 with 4GB of RAM. The MacBook screen does not detach or flip 180 degrees.
The Macbook does have the new TouchBar interface that provides a contextual touch options. Microsoft just introduced the Surface Dial accessory with provide a haptic dial for similar options, but it is not integrated into the device.
The Surface Book is slightly lighter at 3.63lbs but that is due to the smaller 13.5" screen. The MacBook is 4.02lbs with it's 15.4" screen.
The Macbook has 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports. The Surface Book has 2 x USB 3.0 ports, and SD Card Slot and 1 x Mini Displayport.
Apples claims 10 hrs of battery life of iTunes Movie Playback while Microsoft claims 16hrs of video playback.
The Macbook has a 720p Facetime camera. The Surface Book has an 5MP 1080p Windows Hello front camera and a 8Mp 1080p rear camera.
The Macbook uses Apple's T1 Security processors for Touch ID support and the Surface Book uses a TPM 2.0 chipset for both credential and disk encryption.
Both have 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.x compatibility. Neither have a wired networking port.
The Macbook Pro described above is priced at $3,199. The Surface Book is $3,299.
Next the Software....
The MacBook Pro comes with MacOS Sierra. MacOS for several years now has also contained Pages, Numbers and Keynote as an alternative to Microsoft Office. There is also Maps, iTunes, Garage Band, Mail, Messages, Safari, etc...
The Surface Book comes with Windows 10 Anniversary Edition. Microsoft does NOT include office with the Surface Book so you have to buy Office 2016 separately either in stand alone ($499) or an Office365 subscription ($99 / Year) that includes 1TB of OneDrive Storage.
Windows 10 does include Hyper-V virtualization whereas you have to buy Parallels or VmWorkstation or install VirtualBox with MacOS.
Apple has done a good job integrating with iPhone in the last few released - so apps like Messages, and Universal Clipboard, Handoff and Apple Pay all work together.
While MS has some integration with Windows Phone, the overall failure of Windows Phone in the market place has slowed that integration, but the Surface Book will support Continuum phones. Apple has AirPlay for it's over the air streaming.
What Microsoft does have is touch and pen support. via Sticky Notes, Sketchpad or Screen sketch, you can draw an annotate on a growing number of apps including maps, doing simple math equations as well as within the Edge browser and Office applications. The Macbook does not support touch nor pen inputs.
Finally the EcoSystem...
While both Apple and Microsoft have "stores". iTunes is by far the industry leader in that space. Not only from breadth of portfolio, but ease of use. Microsoft does offer a subscription model for the Groove Music service that allows users access to entire catalog to play and even download. Apple has it's Music service, but it's not as broad.
Microsoft does have Office365, so a backend that Apple just does not have. Apple has Siri and Microsoft has Cortana. Both in my opinion are a mixed bag. Both companies have cloud storage (iCloud and OneDrive). In my opinion OneDrive gives you more for the money.
Conclusion...
To me this is a unique situation. For years Apple has produced both the hardware and software for their solutions. For MS this is a brand new world - with Surface Book being just a year old. This is the first time I'm really talking about both companies having brand new offering announced a day apart.
Apple has a reputation for excellent hardware and support while MS is actually still figuring that part out as seen by some of the pain last year around firmware and OS updates.
At over $3,000 each these are not mainstream devices.
So which do you choose ? Your decision will come down to use cases.
If you really plan on using touch and pen input, then there really is no choice - you have to go with the Surface Book.
If you don't and have an iPhone, the MacBook provides a better integrated experience and the new Touch Bar improves usability over the previous generation MacBooks.
If you use Office heavily, you have to lean towards the Surface Book since the Windows version of Office is just better... period. If you need Visio or MS Project - again the Surface Book - these apps just aren't available on Mac.
If you don't then the MacBook may make more sense since you don't have to buy the additional software.
Neither of these two devices I believe are going to sell in huge numbers - simply because of the price point. And unfortunately neither company will report unit sales in enough detail to say we have a clear winner.
But these are interesting times as Apple and MS battle this out...
So now we have two bright shiny and very expensive top end laptops to compare.. Let's look at then from a a hardware, software and ecosystem standpoint.
First the hardware. We'll compare the top end offerings from each..
Both the new MacBook Pro (MBP) and Surface Book are based on the 6th generation Intel Core CPUs know as SkyLake and support up to 16GB of RAM.
Both come with PCI SSD with Apple supporting all the way to a 2TB model while the Surface Book stops at 1TB.
The Surface Book comes with a 13.5" 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) screen with 10 Point Touch and Pen Support. The screen is driven by an Nvidia GTX 965M GPU with 2GB RAM and is detachable and can used as a tablet or flips 180 degrees.
The MacBook Pro 15.4" 2880 x 1800 (220 PPI) screen with no touch or pen support. The screen is driven by an AMD Radeon Pro 455 with 2GB of RAM. Optionally you can get a Radeon Pro 460 with 4GB of RAM. The MacBook screen does not detach or flip 180 degrees.
The Macbook does have the new TouchBar interface that provides a contextual touch options. Microsoft just introduced the Surface Dial accessory with provide a haptic dial for similar options, but it is not integrated into the device.
The Surface Book is slightly lighter at 3.63lbs but that is due to the smaller 13.5" screen. The MacBook is 4.02lbs with it's 15.4" screen.
The Macbook has 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports. The Surface Book has 2 x USB 3.0 ports, and SD Card Slot and 1 x Mini Displayport.
Apples claims 10 hrs of battery life of iTunes Movie Playback while Microsoft claims 16hrs of video playback.
The Macbook has a 720p Facetime camera. The Surface Book has an 5MP 1080p Windows Hello front camera and a 8Mp 1080p rear camera.
The Macbook uses Apple's T1 Security processors for Touch ID support and the Surface Book uses a TPM 2.0 chipset for both credential and disk encryption.
Both have 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.x compatibility. Neither have a wired networking port.
The Macbook Pro described above is priced at $3,199. The Surface Book is $3,299.
Next the Software....
The MacBook Pro comes with MacOS Sierra. MacOS for several years now has also contained Pages, Numbers and Keynote as an alternative to Microsoft Office. There is also Maps, iTunes, Garage Band, Mail, Messages, Safari, etc...
The Surface Book comes with Windows 10 Anniversary Edition. Microsoft does NOT include office with the Surface Book so you have to buy Office 2016 separately either in stand alone ($499) or an Office365 subscription ($99 / Year) that includes 1TB of OneDrive Storage.
Windows 10 does include Hyper-V virtualization whereas you have to buy Parallels or VmWorkstation or install VirtualBox with MacOS.
Apple has done a good job integrating with iPhone in the last few released - so apps like Messages, and Universal Clipboard, Handoff and Apple Pay all work together.
While MS has some integration with Windows Phone, the overall failure of Windows Phone in the market place has slowed that integration, but the Surface Book will support Continuum phones. Apple has AirPlay for it's over the air streaming.
What Microsoft does have is touch and pen support. via Sticky Notes, Sketchpad or Screen sketch, you can draw an annotate on a growing number of apps including maps, doing simple math equations as well as within the Edge browser and Office applications. The Macbook does not support touch nor pen inputs.
Finally the EcoSystem...
While both Apple and Microsoft have "stores". iTunes is by far the industry leader in that space. Not only from breadth of portfolio, but ease of use. Microsoft does offer a subscription model for the Groove Music service that allows users access to entire catalog to play and even download. Apple has it's Music service, but it's not as broad.
Microsoft does have Office365, so a backend that Apple just does not have. Apple has Siri and Microsoft has Cortana. Both in my opinion are a mixed bag. Both companies have cloud storage (iCloud and OneDrive). In my opinion OneDrive gives you more for the money.
Conclusion...
To me this is a unique situation. For years Apple has produced both the hardware and software for their solutions. For MS this is a brand new world - with Surface Book being just a year old. This is the first time I'm really talking about both companies having brand new offering announced a day apart.
Apple has a reputation for excellent hardware and support while MS is actually still figuring that part out as seen by some of the pain last year around firmware and OS updates.
At over $3,000 each these are not mainstream devices.
So which do you choose ? Your decision will come down to use cases.
If you really plan on using touch and pen input, then there really is no choice - you have to go with the Surface Book.
If you don't and have an iPhone, the MacBook provides a better integrated experience and the new Touch Bar improves usability over the previous generation MacBooks.
If you use Office heavily, you have to lean towards the Surface Book since the Windows version of Office is just better... period. If you need Visio or MS Project - again the Surface Book - these apps just aren't available on Mac.
If you don't then the MacBook may make more sense since you don't have to buy the additional software.
Neither of these two devices I believe are going to sell in huge numbers - simply because of the price point. And unfortunately neither company will report unit sales in enough detail to say we have a clear winner.
But these are interesting times as Apple and MS battle this out...
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