Apple announced the iPad Pro on March 7, 2026, while Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 9 on February 15, 2026—and both are now competing fiercely for professional workflows. If you’re a designer, developer, or business executive trying to pick between these two, it’s not a straightforward call.

Here’s what you need to know to make the right choice.

The 2026 Hardware Showdown: M2 Chip vs. Intel Core i7

Apple’s latest iPad Pro comes with an M2 chip featuring an 8-core CPU and 10-core GPU. That translates to impressive single-threaded performance for creative work. The 11-inch model starts at $1,099, while the 12.9-inch goes for $1,299, and you can configure it with up to 2TB of storage. Tom’s Hardware reports.

Microsoft’s Surface Pro 9 runs an Intel Core i7-1260P processor with up to 32GB of RAM. The base model with an Intel Core i5 and 8GB RAM starts at $999.

Storage maxes out at 1TB on the Surface. When it comes to single-core rendering—crucial for AI tasks in 2026—the iPad Pro pulls ahead. But the Surface dominates multi-threaded Windows applications like AutoCAD and enterprise software. Both support 5G, though the iPad Pro edges out the competition with up to 10 hours of web browsing battery life.

Display, Storage, and the Real-World Verdict

You’ll find a Liquid Retina XDR display on the iPad Pro at 2732 x 2048 pixels. The Surface Pro 9’s PixelSense touchscreen delivers 2880 x 1920 pixels. The Surface wins on pixel density; the iPad takes the prize for color accuracy and brightness when editing video.

Storage capacity is where the iPad really separates itself—it doubles the Surface’s maximum at 2TB versus 1TB. For professionals juggling large video libraries or AI model datasets, that difference matters. The Huawei MatePad Pro is worth considering if you’re not tied to a specific ecosystem, though it doesn’t have the same professional software support.