Microsoft is looking to make an impact in the tablet market with the latest Surface.
Apple isn't too far behind, although they dominate the tablet market with their iPad series, they have launched last Friday the iPad Mini.
Just as the holiday shopping season is set to begin, the tablets will surely be on the wish list of many, but which would be the best stocking-stuffer?
The Surface is slightly bigger than the iPad Mini. The Microsoft tablet has a length of 10.81-inches, width of 6.77-inches, and a depth of 0.37-inches while the small Apple tablet's length is 7.87-inches, width of 5.30-inches, and a depth of 0.28-inches.
The Surface weighs almost double compared to the iPad Mini, with 680.4 grams (g) to 308g.
With the bigger size of the Surface, it allows for a bigger screen. The Surface's screen measures at 10.6-inches with 1,366x768 pixel resolution and 148 pixels per inch (ppi).
The screen size for the iPad Mini is 7.9-inches with a pixel resolution of 1,024x768 and slightly higher ppi of 162.
When it comes to memory, the Surface might have the advantage. The Microsoft tablet offers internal storage models of 32GB and 64GB with 2GB of RAM. A microSD card slot is also available for up to 64GB. The iPad Mini does not offer a card slot but does offer an additional GB model of 16GB along with 32GB and 64GB but with 512MB of RAM.
The wireless connectivity is very similar, offering Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n and Bluetooth version 4.0.
The iPad Mini appears to have the advantage when it comes to the cameras. Its rear-facing camera has five-megapixels with 2,592x1,944 pixels compared to the Surface's rear-facing camera's 1.2-megepixels.
The front-facing camera of the Surface and iPad Mini is the same at 1.2-megapixels.
Video for the iPad Mini is 1080p at 30 frames per second (fps) to the Surface's 720p but maintaining the 30fps.
The front-facing camera of the iPad Mini also offers FaceTime.
For the operating system, the new iOS 6 will come with the iPad Mini while Windows RT, a variation of Windows 8, will serve as the operating system for the Surface.
The chipset for the iPad Mini is the A5 as the Nvidia Tegra 3 T30 will help the Surface run.
For the battery, the Surface uses 31.5 Wh and has a talk time of up to eight hours when fully charged. The iPad Mini uses 16.33 Wh with up to 10 hours of talk time.
The iPad Mini also has an advantage to colors with black and white while the Surface has dark titanium.
The Microsoft Surface and Apple iPad Mini offer different features, for the most part, but is it enough for Microsoft to be considered as a competitor to Tim Cook and folks at Apple?
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