Voice of the Customer: MacBook Pro vs. Surface Pro 4
Whenever you think about computers, there are probably 2 technological behemoths that come to mind: Microsoft and Apple. Although Microsoft is older company, Apple is the one who currently dominates the industry and has been growing at a faster rate than Microsoft. That’s not to say that Microsoft’s products can’t compete with Apple’s. In fact, both companies, with their own unique operating systems and products, are still as robust as ever. However, it’s fair to say that Apple’s laptops and tablets are seen far more commonly among the general population. In order to understand why there is such a difference, let’s compare two of the most popular products from each company with similar specs: the MacBook Pro and the Surface Pro 4.
MacBook Pro:
- 15 inches
- 2 GHz Intel Core i7 Processor
- 16 GB RAM
- 256 GB Hard Drive
- Mac OS X
- $1,849.00
Surface Pro 4
- 3 inches
- 4 GHz Intel Core M Family
- 16 GB Ram
- 256 GB Hard Drive
- Windows 10
- $1,569.92
At first glance, it seems like the Surface Pro 4 wins out. Despite having a smaller screen, it has the same amount of Hard Drive space and RAM and additionally has a faster processor all for about $300 cheaper than a Mac. And yet, the ratings for the Surface Pro 4 is at a moderate 3.8 stars while the MacBook Pro dominates with an average of 4.7 stars. As we know, though, star ratings don’t give us all the details, so we must dive in deeper to find out what truly separates these 2 products from each other.
Advantages of the MacBook Pro
Throughout the last year, the MacBook Pro has seen a steady stream of sales (graph depicts sales on Amazon), affirming that it is still a relevant and much sought after product. So, what makes it so great?
By looking at the buzzwords and category overview, we see that customers highly value the Retina Display of the laptop as well as its build quality, battery life, and trackpad. Much of the feedback regarding the retina display comments on how visually pleasing and high quality the resolution is. Meanwhile, a large portion of the feedback also comments on how long the battery life is. Additional feedback mentioned the laptop’s fantastic build quality and improved, user-friendly Force Touch trackpad. Overall, we get the sense that the MacBook Pro is appealing not because it has some insane computer specs, but rather because it is aesthetically pleasing, easy to use, well built, and offers a solid overall performance.
Advantages of the Surface Pro 4
On the other hand, we have Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4, which serves not only as a laptop, but a tablet as well.
From the temporal trends, we see that the Surface Pro 4 has done quite well for itself since its release. In fact, the average amount of feedback seemingly surpasses the MacBook Pro’s. Yet, the overall satisfaction for the Surface Pro 4 seems to be much lower judging just from its 3.8 star rating in contrast to the MacBook Pro’s 4.7 stars. Why is there such a considerable difference?
There were a few positive features that customers mentioned including its build quality, light weight, and processing speed; all of which are desirable qualities for a laptop. Unfortunately, customers were none too pleased with the problems they faced using the laptop. The term “Battery Life” appeared the most frequently. When we click on it, we get over 100 reviews with the majority unsatisfied with the laptop’s battery life. Next, terms containing the term “Sleep” appear very often and when clicked, yield reviews that complain about the unreliability of sleep mode and how the laptop will not turn back on half the time when put into sleep mode. Lastly, some customers had problems with their display driver crashing at random.
Though the Surface Pro 4, a combination between a laptop and a tablet, is a good concept and performs well when it’s working, the problems it faces make it inconvenient to use; convenience being a critical attribute to a good laptop. On the other hand, the MacBook Pro has been optimized both in aesthetics and user-friendliness with fewer glitches, making up for its higher cost. Although the Surface Pro still has much more potential, its current flaws prevent it from out-competing its rival. The Surface Pro still remains a strong product and perhaps future models of it will have fixed these flaws.
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