Is your laptop at the end of it’s shelf life? Or maybe you’re just looking to get something a little more cutting edge into your hands, or rather at your fingertips.  Nowadays, laptops are in direct competition with tablets or vice versa depending on how you look at it. With each new release of tablets, they are adding more and more features, and the need for both a laptop and a tablet is decreasing. If you walk into a business meeting chances are you’ll see a room of professionals working on extremely small laptops, but more than likely a tablet.  There are tons of options ranging from high end to generic, but I wanted to look at the two dominating the market: Microsoft Surface and Apple’s iPad.

I can vouch for the iPad since I have one. I do tons of work on it everyday, but I’ve definitely glanced over at the Microsoft Surface a few times out of curiosity.

As you know Apple has several versions of its flagship tablet, the iPad.  There’s the iPad Mini, as well as the traditional iPad, and this year they announced the new iPad Pro.  Fresh out the gate (or package rather,) it immediately grabs your attention because of it’s size. The iPad Pro has a 12.9″ screen and holds the title as the biggest iPad to date.

Looking at my laptop, I think it may be bigger.  But don’t let the massive screen size fool you, it’s still only 6.9mm thin.

Fortunately, it’s not just big for the sake of being bigger. Along with the larger size comes a full-size virtual keyboard making it easier to type and work from. With the release of iOS 9 you can work with a split screen view, so you can run two apps side by side (like when you’re working on your laptop).

If you’re working in multiple projects you’ll need more processing power, right? The iPad Pro has a A9X processor chip designed on 64-bit architecture. Simply put, it can run at the speed of your desktop/laptop.  Not to mention, you can access millions of apps from Apple’s App Store.  What most intrigued me was the Adobe mobile app capability that is beautifully demonstrated on the iPad Pro. For creative professionals on the go, this can make editing photos and designing on move much easier. I almost forgot the Apple Pencil, designed just for the iPad Pro, which makes bringing these creations to life even easier, as well as more accurate.  I mean drawing with your finger on a touch screen is so 2014.

The iPad Pro is available in November and starts at $799 for the 32GB version.

Microsoft has been making its mark in the tablet arena with the powerful Surface tablet.  The latest version is the Surface 3. There is a Surface 4 currently in the works, but we’re going to look at the Surface Pro 3.

You’re likely already familiar with Windows (well, if you’re not a Mac user.)  So you’re essentially working with a touchscreen Windows laptop and for a lot of business users, this is a huge plus. There isn’t a worry about if this will serve all of it’s needs, as it has native support for Office.  It too, like the iPad Pro, has a 12″ screen, but it has a kickstand. So no need to hold it at an awkward angle or worry about getting an additional case that allows you to do so.  Now the keyboard is virtual and there’s also a keyboard that comes on the type cover (not included).

Another distinguishing component is that like normal laptops on the Surface Pro 3, you can have different user accounts, something that isn’t available on the iPad Pro.  The Surface Pro 3 also has USB 3.0 ports for accessing external media.  Like most Microsoft products it also uses Intel processors available in i3, i5, and i7.  There’s more flexibility in what you get or pay for with the Surface Pro 3.  The base one starts at $799 (but right now on sale for $699) and includes 64GB and the Surface Pen (yes the Surface Pen) is currently available.  The Surface Pro 4 is expected to be announced at the Microsoft event in October.

I’m still eyeing the tablet, but my iPad 2 (yes still runs great and does a lot) is working just fine. However, I might need to get some more storage space. Which one will you be getting PenPalz?