MacBook versus Surface Pro 4: Battle of the ultra-lights

It’s funny, and a little humbling, to realize you’ve been doing it wrong.

I mean, all this time, I was comparing the Surface Pro 4 to Apple’s giant iPad Pro. It made intuitive sense. Both have touch screens, both have detachable keyboards. Both are super thin and light. Both have multi-tasking. But I made a fundamental error. Only one of these systems runs a X86 CPU and offers a file system. One of them, the Surface Pro 4, is a personal computer and one is a powerful mobile system reaching to be the same.

When I got my hands on the latest MacBook, a follow-up to the ultra-light single-input-port MacBook launched a year ago, I realized I’d made a mistake. With its new Intel 6th Generation Core CPU, size (12-inches), weight (2 lbs.), keyboard and touchpad configuration, it’s the actually the best counter to Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4.

Honestly, if you’re shopping for an ultra-portable computer, with laptop chops, a desktop OS, applications and all-day battery life, these are probably the two systems you want to consider. And it won’t be an easy choice. Leaving aside the obvious differences in operating systems (which aren’t as big as you think), these two systems compare quite favorably.

To help you decide and for my own personal entertainment, I’ve decided to do a feature-by-feature comparison, focusing in on areas that I think impact ultraportable use the most. I will also try to choose a winner in each category.

This should be fun.

Size

The MacBook and Microsoft Surface are surprisingly close in size: The Surface Pro is almost a half-inch wider and the difference along the short edge is just under a quarter of an inch. The depth of the two systems is a little harder to compare. For the sake of parity, I looked at the Surface Pro 4 with the Type Cover attached (when on-the-go, I rarely – if ever – use it without it). Even so, Because the MacBook’s thickness varies so widely from edge to edge, it’s tough to compare.

Without a doubt, the MacBook is, at its thinnest edge (.14 inches), way thinner than the Surface Pro 4. However, at the MacBook’s thickest edge, which measures a little over a half an inch, the two systems are virtually equal.

Since the differences in size are fairly minimal, I have to focus a bit on feel. With its aluminum chassis and smooth curves the MacBook is a pleasure to hold. The Surface Pro 4, by contrast, feels solid and pleasant, but its magnesium body is all corners and flat edges. I like the look of both, but if I close my eyes, the MacBook just feels better.

Score one for the MacBook.

Weight

As I said, in order to make this a fair fight, I have to compare the MacBook to the Surface Pro 4 with the Type Cover attached. Without that keyboard, the Surface Pro 4 running a Core i5 CPU weighs 1.73 lbs. (with the baseline Core m3, it weighs 1.69 lbs.). When you add the Type Cover, the total weight is 2.28 lbs.

The MacBook, regardless of CPU configuration (it only comes with Intel Core m-class), weighs a flat two pounds. You’d be surprised, but that quarter of a pound is noticeable. This is partly because, while most of the weight on the Surface Pro 4 sits, naturally, in the tablet, the MacBook gets to spread it (meaning all the components) out more evenly between the keyboard and display. As a result, it’s more comfortable to carry an open MacBook than it is a Surface Pro.

Score one for the MacBook.

Lapability

Microsoft coined the word, but it’s a key aspect of any ultraportable: How well does it work in your lap?

Apple’s MacBook has a traditional laptop look, but I am impressed with how balanced it feels when sitting open in my lap. What it lacks, though is the Surface Pro 4’s adjustability, which comes from the integrated kickstand. So while the MacBook can open to a roughly 135-degree angle, the Surface Pro 4 can tip back to virtually any angle.

Score one for the Surface Pro 4.

Screen

At 12.3 inches diagonally, Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 is slightly larger than the MacBook’s Retina display. Plus, even though Microsoft doesn’t call the display “Retina,” its screen actually has a higher resolution. The Surface Pro 4 comes in at 2736 x 1824, while the MacBook, which has the exact same screen as last year, is 2304 x 1440 pixels. That translates into a 41 pixels per inch difference, which may sound like a lot, but I defy anyone to eyeball the difference.

Microsoft Surface Pro 4 screen on left and the MacBook on the right.

IMAGE: LANCEULANOFF/MASHABLE

However, the Surface Pro 4 has something the MacBook doesn’t: a touch screen. Apple will tell you that’s not necessary when you have a trackpad, but the Surface Pro 4 with the Type Cover has one, as well. Personally, I find myself using both and anytime I switch to the MacBook, I have to stop myself from trying to use the Retina Display as a touch screen.

Aside from gestures, the Surface Pro 4’s display lets me draw on it. Obviously, if I want to draw on an Apple product, I should buy an iPad, but that’s not the point. This is a full-blown, no compromises PC, that also happens to have a very adept touch screen. Apple knows touch-displays. They could introduce a MacBook Touch. It would be an amazing ultraportable.

Score one for the Surface Pro 4.

Keyboard

There are some striking similarities between the MacBook keyboard and the ones the one found in the Type Cover for the Surface Pro 4. They are virtually the same size. Neither one feels cramped and both Microsoft and Apple managed to leave ample space between the keys. And yet the Type Cover offers the better typing experience and this is mostly due to travel, which is another way of saying “how much the key moves when you type on it.”

A portrait of two very good keyboards. On the left is the Type Cover on the right is the MacBook.

IMAGE: LANCE ULANOFF/MASHABLE

Apple did its best to invent a new way for keyboard keys to move up and down — they had to because there’s so little space under the keyboard (the batteries for the system are spread throughput the base). Typing on the MacBook keyboard feels fine, even satisfying, but pales in comparison to the feeling you get when you type on a Type Cover. The travel is at least double what you get with MacBook keys.

There’s also the fact that the Type Cover can fold all the way to the back of the Surface Pro 4 and it can detach completely from the tablet.

Score one for the Surface Pro 4.