This is not a comprehensive review of the Microsoft Surface Pro, but instead a little blab about one aspect of the device that makes the iPad seem more like a toy.

It is no secret, I am a professional software developer. I know, right? Shocked? I architect, engineer, test, deploy, and support complex software development projects every day of the week. Because I am a producer I need hardware that accommodates that aspect of my life.

Since I live the life of productivity, I have found that the Microsoft Surface Pro does a much better job at satisfying my needs over the Apple iPad. I see the iPad as a mass consumption device. If you like to consume stuff (movies, TV shows, tweets, etc) the iPad has everything you need. I view the Surface Pro as a productivity machine. If you like to create stuff then the Surface Pro has what you need, AND you can consume as well.

I have been using the iPad for a few years now at work. I bring it to meetings, and write emails on it. Since I am not a big consumer of media, most of the apps on the device (except for Doom) stay pretty much dormant. I want to be productive on it, but I find that in order to do what I need to do I need to employ a hacky work-around. It is just not a mobile device that satisfies all the demands of a person like me.

I got my Surface Pro the week it came out with very high expectations, and so far it has not fallen short of any of them. I love it, and a lot of other professionals that I know personally also love the Surface Pro. The only people that I know that hate it are Apple loyalists and people that have never used the device at all and trust the pro-Apple bloggers (who probably haven’t used the device at all also).

When I got my Surface Pro there was only one thing I wanted to do with it to prove its value… I wanted a full installation of Visual Studio 2012, write a Windows 8 Store App, compile and run it ON THE SAME DEVICE! After I did this, I immediately thought “this is totally worth it!”.