Apple recently unveiled its iPad Air 2 and other devices with improved specifications. iPad Air 2 offers a slim and lightweight design. Meanwhile, Microsoft Surface Pro 3 could replace your desktop with unique features.

Choosing between these two tablets can be difficult, but studying their specifications could help the users to choose the best tablet for their personal use.

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Hardware, software, and storage

iPad Air 2: It is powered by a 64-bit A8X processor and M8 coprocessor and has the latest iOS 8 system. It offers 1GB of RAM with three choices of internal storage (16GB, 64GB, and 128GB).

Surface Pro 3: The device runs on Windows 8.1 Pro with 1.9GHz Intel Core i5-4300U. It offers an 8GB of RAM 256GB of internal storage.

Display, exterior design and size

iPad Air 2: It measures 9.4 inches tall and 0.24 inches thick and weighs 0.96 pound (437 g). It offers a 9.7-inch IPS display with 2048 x 1536 screen resolution, while the pixel density is 264 ppi. It offers a Retina Display treatment to the users.

Surface Pro 3: Its 12-inch full HD display has 2160 × 1440 screen resolution. The dimension is 11.5 × 7.9 × 0.36 inches and weighs 1.76 pounds.

Camera

iPad Air 2: It uses an updated 8-megapixel iSight camera. Apple Inc. made sure to improve the low-light capability without LED flash. It adds burst mode, slow-motion, face-detection, exposure compensation, and autofocus. The 1.3-megapixel camera is good for video calls and produces crisper and cleaner images.

Surface Pro 3: The 5-megapixel rear camera takes fairly grainy images and can be a bit distorted. Its front camera is also 5-megapixel and good for video calls.

Work hours

iPad Air 2: The tablet can perform up to 10 hours.

Surface Pro 3: It has an average battery life of 9 hours.

Added features

iPad Air 2 has Touch ID, the Home button-based security system that enables logging in via fingerprint.

Apple's new tablet is also Apple Pay enabled that can be used to make purchase online.

Surface Pro 3 has Kickstand (allows the users to choose different positions for comfortable work condition), optional click-in keyboard and multiple ports like USB 3.0, Mini DisplayPort and microSD card reader.

Price

iPad Air 2: The 16GB is US$499, 64GB is US$599, and 128GB is US$699.

Surface Pro 3: You can get the tablet for US$799.

Microsoft's tablet has a Surface Pen that users can use to take notes using their own handwriting and create electronic signatures.

TagsiPad Air 2 vs. Surface Pro 3, iPad Air 2, Surface Pro 3, bigger screen tablets