Case Study

With the consumer market being flooded with more and more tablet manufacturers, it has become hard for the normal consumer to know what is worth buying and what is not. What most end up doing is buying the product which has the most popularity or the biggest name at the time. Currently the big names on the block for the tablet market are Apple, and Google. One of the biggest names in the tech industry has been missing from this market, Microsoft. With the launch of Windows 8 they also released the Microsoft Surface Tablet, this tablet is an attempt by Microsoft to break into a market dominated by the other two companies named. The question the consumer should be asking is whether it’s worth the money being asked or is it another product being overpriced because of a name brand.
I will be looking at the specs on the Microsoft Surface (32 GB Valued at $500.00) and compare it to the current front runner the iPad 4 (16 GB valued at $514.00) as well as the COBY MID1045 tablet (Which can be purchased for under $200.00). Of course I will be looking at all three objectively, but I feel I must warn you I don’t like Apple products too much but will give credit where it is due.
To begin with let us look at the specs each has.

At first glance we see that there is not much separating the two big boys and the underdog of the group appears to hold his own and does not get completely left in the dust. In the processor department we have the Microsoft Surface running laps around the competition sporting a quad core processor. Impressive considering that the iPad only has a dual core. Our little underdog lags behind with a meek single core processor. But let’s not count out the little guy yet because it is running a less complex OS when compared to the M.S. and let’s not forget that the average user is not going to be multi-tasking and using every bit of processing power that the higher end processors have. If I may add my two cents here, The M.S. is suffering from an Identity crisis. It has the power to run any of the mobile OSs’ out there but it tries to run something that is more similar to that of a laptop, without the RAM to back it up. That is why people are complaining about the lag when multi-tasking or using MS Word. When we first look at the display resolutions we see that Apple is blowing the other away. After some research we find that the M.S. has some fancy software installed called “Microsoft ClearType” which is a sub-pixel rendering software which bumps up the Surface Pro display to a resolution of 1,920 x 1,080, which converts to just shy of 208 pixels per inch. Very Good but falls just shy of what the iPad is capable of. The only one that truly gets destroyed in this category is the COBY. The HD space is really not as important to most tablets as it is to the M.S. the reason being the size of the OS itself. Battery life speaks for itself and there is almost no difference between them. As far as external inputs and outputs goes the surface includes a full-size USB 3.0 slot and a microSDXC card reader and a Mini Display Port that can drive 2,560 x 1,440. The COBY has a similar make up as far as external ports go without the USB port, and instead of a Mini Display Port it has a HDMI port.

We look at these three and personally I don’t see anything besides the display that makes it worth the extra price tag. This includes the iPad not just the M.S. A display is all good and well but maybe the price tag difference lays in the way it interacts with the user. All 3 have an accurate touch screen and supports peripherals like keyboards and mice. They all sport Rear and Front facing cameras with video recording capabilities. The Surface has Bluetooth like the iPad but the COBY only possesses WIFI capabilities, and they all have scratch resistant glass.

On a side note, I know that everyone likes Gorilla glass and thinks it is the best glass to use for electronics but I would like to point out that if it is possible to use Sapphire Glass. Tests have shown that if gorilla glass gets a scratch on it and then is dropped it shatters because of the scratch. Sapphire glass is very nearly scratch proof and much harder than gorilla glass. Any way just a bit of information I wanted to share.

From the looks of things there doesn’t seem to be much difference between what these tablets can do, unless you’re going to be multi-tasking or working with visual media, there is no reason to purchase any of the more expensive options. Windows RT is still very young but very promising, and the Microsoft app shop lacks any real variety for now, which works against the Surface. The iPad is running the very polished and popular iOS 6 and is backed by the APP store which has much variety and always seems to maintain a level of quality. That being said the COBY is running Android 4.0 and has the android market available to it. This makes the COBY the one with the most variety available to it as far as apps are concerned (at the expense of quality of course, that being because android is not as tight with its guidelines as far as programing for them goes).
So my verdict unless you plan on working with visual media from your tablet there is no need to pay the large sticker prices for a tablet because of a name. The M.S. is a great looking product I just believe it is to early in its tablet life to be asking prices that the iPad has earned after years of success