2 ms·

I tried both, and my subjective impression was that the iPad had a nicer display, better precision on the stylus with somewhere under half the latency, and a be

I tried both, and my subjective impression was that the iPad had a nicer display, better precision on the stylus with somewhere under half the latency, and a better feel when drawing. The software also seemed to do a better job of interpreting pen input (but admittedly I only tried MS’s first-party software and a few other tools pre-installed at the MS store, and conceivably a team of DSP experts could fix this in third-party software). I also found the tablet versions of MS Windows to be kludgy and uninspiring with some weird corner cases, but I’m not enough of an expert with it to really offer a fair review. When I’m reviewing/proofreading someone’s paper, doodling mathematical notes, making a flow chart, sketching a user interface design, or drawing an illustration, I don’t want a “real computer”. I want one app at a time, and I want the UI chrome to get the hell out of the way. YMMV.

pavlov 10y ago
Which version of the Surface did you try? I recall they changed the stylus implementation at some point (after Microsoft acquired a digitizer company). Personally, I want a real computer for the things you mention for a simple reason: managing files on iOS is hell. The single-app model and app-specific content silos would be a poor fit for my workflow, where files come and go.
- egypturnash 10y ago
  Surface 1/2 are Wacom styli, Surface 3/4 are NTrig styli. I know this all too well because I got a Surface 4 and it was really great except for the part where my main use for it was "run Adobe Illustrator in smaller spaces than a laptop and a drawing tablet require" and Illustrator drops the first half second or so of every line I draw with the pencil tool. I now have a Wacom Mobile Studio which is pretty good when it's not failing to connect to the pen/touch drivers after waking from sleep, which happens just often enough to be annoying. It's got enough other problems that I would replace it with an OSX-capable IPad in a heartbeat.
  - jacobolus 10y ago
    I found the iPad stylus to have significantly lower latency than both types of MS Surface stylus tech.

pavlov 10y ago

Which version of the Surface did you try? I recall they changed the stylus implementation at some point (after Microsoft acquired a digitizer company). Personally, I want a real computer for the things you mention for a simple reason: managing files on iOS is hell. The single-app model and app-specific content silos would be a poor fit for my workflow, where files come and go.

egypturnash 10y ago
Surface 1/2 are Wacom styli, Surface 3/4 are NTrig styli. I know this all too well because I got a Surface 4 and it was really great except for the part where my main use for it was "run Adobe Illustrator in smaller spaces than a laptop and a drawing tablet require" and Illustrator drops the first half second or so of every line I draw with the pencil tool. I now have a Wacom Mobile Studio which is pretty good when it's not failing to connect to the pen/touch drivers after waking from sleep, which happens just often enough to be annoying. It's got enough other problems that I would replace it with an OSX-capable IPad in a heartbeat.
- jacobolus 10y ago
  I found the iPad stylus to have significantly lower latency than both types of MS Surface stylus tech.