More than an iPad doesnt mean better than an iPad. Making that final judgment has a lot to do with what you want out of a portable device and whether you already have an investment in or a preference for Apples enormous app ecosystem.
But, objectively, the Surface with Windows RT does five things an iPad simply cant:
It allows connections to external devices. You can plug a micro-SD card into the slot hidden beneath the kickstand and instantly increase available storage. My review unit came with 64GB of internal storage and a 64GB SD card, giving it a very impressive 113.5GB of storage. The availability of a USB 2.0 slot means you can connect USB flash drives for easy file transfer, or connect to a printer to produce a hard copy of a document without having to jump through hoops.
It supports Adobe Flash in Internet Explorer. Yes, Flash takes some much-justified abuse for its performance and security woes, but it also powers a lot of web-based applications that people depend on, especially in educational segments.
It has a keyboard (and a touchpad!) Technically, theTouch Cover and Type Cover are optional accessories for the Surface RT. But I cant imagine using this device without it. Yes, you can equip an iPad with a third-party keyboard to make data input faster, but the Surface covers have multiple advantages: theyre integrated into the cover, so you dont have to carry an extra device, they work on a direct connection instead of requiring finicky Bluetooth and an external power source, and they include a touchpad, which lets you use Office apps and the Windows RT desktop without having to mess with the touchscreen. (The touchpad, by the way, scrolls in the opposite direction from most existing PC touchpads when you use the two-finger scroll gesture, a feature it shares with Macs running OS X Mountain Lion.)
Microsoft Office is included. Windows RT includes four apps from Office 2013, all of which were updated this week to the final release. For creating and editing documents, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote work exactly as they do on a Windows PC. Trying to open those documents on an iPad offers only a vague approximation of the formatting, with no editing capabilities unless you pay for a separate app.
Multiple users can share a Surface. An iPad is an intensely personal device, designed for a single user. By contrast, Windows RT has full support for multiple Windows accounts. And because it synchronizes settings, bookmarks, email and calendar items, and saved passwords with Windows 8, those individual accounts are personal and private.
