Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 vs Surface Pro 7 vs iPad Pro 11

So Samsung's Galaxy Tab S6, Microsoft's Surface Pro 7, and Apple's iPad Pro are three of the best tablets money can buy right now, and clearly have a chance to be your next computing device if you're watching this right now. In this head-to-head video, we're going to see which of these tablets stack up to be the better buy, and find out which is right for you. Let's get started. Starting with price. At the time of this video, the iPad Pro is $675 on Amazon, and the keyboard case comes in at $160. Throw a $120 Apple Pencil in the mix, and you're looking at $955 in total. The Tab S6 is on sale at the time of this video at $550, but a similar story here with its keyboard cover case running you an additional $180, bringing your price up to $730. Samsung throws in a pen for free, though, which is great, and the Surface Pro 7 includes their keyboard cover in the box, with pricing currently set at $650, and expect to pay an additional $100 for their Surface Pen. Links to all these products are in the description if you're interested. Now, opposed to the usual mimicking and copying we'll see among products like earbuds, smartwatches, and smartphones, we actually have three pretty different devices here. The Surface Pro 7 is definitely the largest of the bunch, while the iPad Pro and Tab S6 share similar and more compact form factors. Power and volume buttons and Type-C ports are present on all of the devices, and the Surface Pro 7 also provides a headphone jack, USB-A port, and their proprietary port which allows for charging, and some other features like the Surface Dock separately sold by Microsoft, which will allow you to plug into an ethernet and many other connections. The Surface and Tab also have microSD card slots for additional storage, which is great to see considering these base model devices have such small amounts of onboard storage. The Tab S6 is the smallest of the bunch here with a 10.5-inch screen, the iPad Pro gives us a bit more headroom at 11 inches, and the Surface Pro is packing a 12.3-inch screen within its thicker bezels. While the Tab S6's smaller size hasn't hindered my overall experience, I still think a larger 12-inch option would have been a more compelling device overall. We do have quad speaker setups on the iPad Pro and Tab S6, one in each corner, and the Surface Pro has a dual speaker setup on the front. Have a listen for yourself. Now, in day-to-day usage, the Surface Pro is getting the job done for me, but there's no doubt that the iPad Pro and Tab S6 are in a league of their own with incredible sound quality and much louder volume, and between those two, the Tab S6 comes out on top. Now, while the keyboards and pens are not literal requirements to using these tablets, they will enhance your experience greatly, especially the keyboards, and I wouldn't really recommend buying these tablets otherwise. At this price point, you're probably looking to get some work done, opposed to just getting a general media consumption tablet for a fraction of the cost that will only get used every now and then. Starting with the keyboard cover for the Surface Pro. It has a soft texture and will only cover your screen, which is definitely enough protection as I'll elaborate on towards the end of this video. The iPad Pro's keyboard has this smooth, fingerprint-susceptible finish that wraps around the entire tablet and also serves as a two-position stand, and the Tab S6 has this plastic-y but textured cover which is actually two separate parts, the front keyboard cover and the back cover which serves as a stand and the S Pen holder. The Tab S6's S Pen is the cheapest feeling here, but it is free with the Tab, which I'd prefer over having to spend an additional $100 to $120 on top of the tablet and keyboard cover expenses. But with that said, the Apple Pencil and Surface Pen feel very sturdy and premium. As far as the writing experience goes on all these devices, all of the pens do it well. Now, I assure you, when you head down to the comment section of this video, people are going to swear by the Apple Pencil because of the iPad's Pro's faster refresh rate screen, meaning the response time of the pencil writing on the screen is virtually zero to the naked eye, but in day-to-day usage of all of these pens, it is something that really won't be much different. And the writing experience wasn't worse for me when writing on the Tab S6 and Surface Pro compared to the iPad Pro. I was particularly impressed by the Surface Pen's writing experience, assuming it was going to be laggy and unresponsive on a device running Windows 10, but everything worked as it should in my daily usage. The Surface Pen also provides more functionality over the Apple Pencil and S Pen with its eraser tip, allowing you to simply flip your pen and erase like you would with a normal pencil. It's just easier and more intuitive in the moment to flip and erase, opposed to switching to an eraser setting and then going back to your writing setting. That eraser tip also functions as a button. A single press will take you to an area to write and sketch. A double press will take a snapshot of your screen, which you can then crop, edit, modify, and write over as much to your liking. And a triple press will bring up a sticky note, which is great to quickly jot something down and it will stay there when you open up the note again in the future, should you decide to close it after writing your initial note. There's also a button near the bottom of the pen, which when held down, will serve as a right-click the next time you touch the screen with the pen. The Apple Pencil and S Pen also have a button down in this area. The S Pen is a physical button and the Apple Pencils is digital, but these serve as your way to quickly switch over to your eraser when writing and also jot some quick notes down. They all have plenty of other features which I could dedicate an entire video to, but all in all, I have enjoyed the Surface Pen the most out of all these three considered. The magnetic connection is very strong on the Surface and is placed in a great spot away from areas you'd be holding onto the Surface Pro for transport and placed on the left side, away from where you'll be using a mouse and other ports, and the fact that I'm a lefty makes it even more convenient. The Apple Pencil hangs out on the side of the tablet with magnets as well, and the S Pen clips onto the back, but an extra level of security is added thanks to that back cover. I absolutely love this design and you'll never have to worry about your pen falling off your tablet or getting lost. The other half of that back cover serves as your stand and lets you use the Tab S6 in any angle you'd like. The Surface Pro has this flap built into the device which provides excellent versatility for whatever you want to do and wherever you want to do it, opposed to the iPad's limited stand options. On a tabletop, these two stand options usually get the job done, but anywhere else it just isn't really practical. The Surface Pro and Tab S6 have much better lap usage thanks to these adjustable viewing angles and the keyboard on the Surface Pro can clip to the bottom bezel of the Surface and that angled typing experience is helpful in lap usage just as much as tabletop use. But regarding the keyboards, the Surface Pro has the best all-around keyboard experience here with backlit keys and good key travel. The Tab S6 keyboard though also has excellent key travel and a satisfying sound with each keystroke. And the iPad's keys don't equate to much of anything. The typing experience hasn't been bad in my use case, it just doesn't feel as satisfying to use. Here's a quick sound bit of each keyboard in action. While the Tab S6 has excellent keys in addition to that trackpad right on the case, it doesn't come out on top in this matchup simply because the keys are smaller and crammed closer together to accommodate the 10.5 inch tablet size. The Surface Pro wins here for this reason, providing a more comfortable and conventional typing experience and the backlit keys of course. And for those wondering, the keyboard that comes with the Surface Pro 7 is not any different than previous generation Surface devices. I have a Surface Pro 4 side-by-side with the Surface Pro 7 here, and they look and feel identical. But something new on the 7 is the addition of the Type-C port, which adds some additional functionality to the device, including the ability to charge with that port. The advertised charging time with the Surface charger and that proprietary port is 80% in one hour, which is quite good. But I was curious to see what charging times were like using that new Type-C port, and I was able to get around 70% in one hour's time, which is great to see. But regardless of charging method, it beats the iPad Pro and Tab S6 here, which each get around 45-50% charge in an hour. Now that we have the basics covered, what is actual usage like on these devices? Starting with the Tab S6, you are getting a fully-fledged, no-compromise tablet in addition to offering desktop-like experience with Samsung DeX, which is a very similar layout to what you'd see on a desktop PC, being able to multitask with countless applications open, clicking and dragging windows, minimizing and maximizing windows, and other use cases similar to the use of a computer thanks to the keyboard and trackpad cover. Pairing up with a Bluetooth mouse works great as well. The audio on this tablet is great. The AMOLED display makes everything look better. Everything opens and runs smoothly. If you're okay with using mostly mobile applications, this is the perfect middle-ground device for tablet-meeting laptop. Now when it comes to the Surface Pro 7, you are getting the same experience as you would on a desktop PC, but in the form factor of a tablet, at the expense of some premium tablet features like inferior speakers, no AMOLED display, and lack of a super smooth and fluid mobile operating system. But this thing still certainly functions as a tablet after taking off that keyboard cover, with auto-rotate functionality to use your orientation of preference when holding it in your hands, and a pop-up keyboard will appear whenever you do need to type something, or you can tap that keyboard button on the bottom bar anytime you'd like as well for that keyboard. Overall, I was excited by how good of an experience you get here in tablet mode, despite this device focusing more on offering a PC experience with desktop applications. And while the iPad Pro with iPadOS is probably the least like a computer compared to these other two, it offers the best tablet experience while also providing some excellent features you'd expect from a computer or laptop like a file management system, ability to use external storage, some mouse capabilities, desktop-like web browsing, increased multitasking capabilities, and even connecting various accessories to the device like a PS4 controller to play games. I do want to talk a bit about gaming here, because expensive and multifunctional devices like these will definitely want to be used for work and play, and all of these are capable of gaming, but in their own ways. Starting with the iPad, you can of course just download games off the App Store as you normally would, but the Apple Arcade, Apple's new subscription-based service to play hundreds of different games, takes gaming to another level on iPad. These games are compatible on your other Apple devices, but I think the best experience is here on the iPad, and some of these games now have controller support, which is awesome to see. Some games like Oceanhorn, which is essentially a spin-off of Zelda, feel like I'm gaming on a console and not an iPad. I will say though that personally, not a whole lot of the Apple Arcade games appeal to me, and for $5 a month, it does add up quickly, especially when the library of games doesn't blow you away. But this is just my personal opinion, and I definitely want you to give it a try for yourself, because you can sign up for free for 30 days, and play as much as you want to see if the experience is down your alley. Now on the Tab S6, all of your mobile games from the Google Play Store will run great here, and when in DeX mode, you can also play a game in a smaller window, which might not seem like something you'd want to do, but when playing a game like RuneScape, which can be passive at times, you can easily throw the game up in one corner of your screen and get some work done in some other windows next to it, which is a very cool feature. And the Surface Pro 7 can of course download Steam, but graphically intense games will not be able to play here due to the lack of a powerful GPU. Skyrim, which is a game that can be handled by a slower than normal computer, is on the brink of being unplayable, but some older games that rely solely on the CPU can be played, which is awesome. I am able to play Age of Empires 3 on the Surface with absolutely no lag, and for me, this alone makes this thing worth picking up. One final note on the Surface Pro line that I want to share with you is on its durability. If you are part of the 1.4% of viewers who are actually subscribed to this channel, then you'll know from past videos of mine that I film a lot of my footage outside, and when doing some of my side-by-side shots of my Surface Pro 4 and Surface Pro 7 for this video, I accidentally left the Surface Pro 4 outside for around 24 hours, and of course in that 24 hours, it happened to rain and snow a lot. Here is a clip of the snowstorm taking place, and my cold, wet, and probably freezing Surface Pro helplessly trying to endure the elements. At this point, I had just assumed this device was dead. I figured all my files on the machine were gone and lost forever. But after brushing the snow off the keyboard cover and taking the device inside, I found that the device still turned on, which blew my mind. The keyboard cover was soaked, and the Surface had waterlogged ports all across the exterior, so I threw these in rice for 24 hours. Today, I took these out of the rice, and I find a completely dry keyboard cover and Surface Pro. I boot the device up, and it runs exactly the same. The keyboard amazingly still worked as well, backlit keyboard, the trackpad, and all the keys functioning normally. The only thing slightly compromised here were the speakers, which sounded a bit distorted, have a listen. Starts at $300, and the smaller 40mm size is $280. But it is crazy to me that this device is running as normal, and I know this is the Surface Pro 4 here, not the Surface Pro 7 which I have been talking about in this video, but the design and form factor of these Surface Pros haven't changed a bit over the years. And after taking on rain and snow for 24 hours, I can confidently say that the Surface Pro is going to last many years, and even has the potential to survive life's many mistakes we all run into at some point. So, which of these tablets is right for you? If you're looking for the best tablet experience, in addition to some great features you'd find on a laptop or computer, then the iPad Pro is your choice. Now it is the most expensive of the bunch here, which is also something you need to take into consideration. If you want the perfect middle ground between tablet and computer, then the Galaxy Tab S6 is your choice, and the Surface Pro 7, while lacking a bit in the tablet department, brings a fully-fledged Windows 10 PC experience to the form factor of a tablet.