Microsoft Surface Pro 3 vs Galaxy Tab S 10.5 Specs, Price Comparison: Features Review - Smaller Samsung Tablet Compensates with Optional Keyboard

Microsoft tried to bridge the gap between a laptop and a tablet with its Surface Pro 3, but it gets stiff competition from the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, which compensates for its smaller size with the optional use of a keyboard.

Design

The Surface Pro 3 is taller and wider than the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and looks like a huge tablet. On the other hand, the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is slimmer and lighter because of its plastic frame and back panel which is covered with dimples. The Surface Pro 3 has a premium magnesium frame which makes it prone to capturing fingerprints.

Display

The IPS LCD display on the Surface Pro 3 measures 12 inches, while the super AMOLED display on the Galaxy Tab S measures 10.5 inches. As for their resolution the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 has 2560 X1600 pixels with a higher density of 288 pixels per inch. The Surface Pro has a resolution of 2160 X 1440 pixels with a lower density of 216 pixels per inch.

Specs

The Galaxy Tab S 10.5 with LTE has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 chipset coupled with a Quad-core 2.3 GHz Krait 400 CPU and Adreno 330 GPU, while its Galaxy Tab S 10.5 model has a Exynos 5 Octa 5420 chipset coupled with Quad-core Cortex-A15 clocked at 1.9 GHz and quad-core Cortex-A7 clocked at 1.3 GHz. The Surface Pro 3 has either Intel Core i3,i5 or i7 dual core processors much like normal desktops and they are clocked anywhere between 1.6 GHz and 2.9 GHz.

Memory

There is 3 GB RAM on the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 and it ships with either 16 GB or 32 GB of internal storage. The Surface Pro 3 comes with 4 GB RAM on its 64 GB and 128 GB versions, and 8 GB of RAM in the higher-end models.

Price

The Surface Pro 3 with the Core i3 processor and 64GB of storage costs $799, while the Galaxy Tab S 10.5 is much cheaper at $500.