Microsoft says Surface Pro 3 more powerful, flexible than MacBook Air in latest ads

The trio of 30-second spots, uploaded to Microsoft's Surface YouTube channel, harkens back to the days when Apple directly compared its Mac products against Windows-based machines as part of the "I'm a Mac" campaign.

In two narrated commercials, Microsoft touts the Surface Pro 3's processing power, a specification where most tablets fall short of their notebook cousins. As seen below in the spot titled "Crowded," the Mac user notes his machine is running an Intel Core i5, which gets a "this does too" response from the Surface owner.

Surface apparently stacks up favorably to the Air as it "runs Office, full Adobe Photoshop and it's got a touchscreen."

The Mac user says he also has a touchscreen, then pulls out an iPad mini. Undeterred, the Surface owner points out his tablet supports pen-based input, allowing note taking and on-the-go document markups.

Laughably, the Apple user pulls out a memo pad with a big red note to "Call Bill," perhaps an allusion to Bill Gates.

"Wow, I have got a lot of stuff to carry," he says.

"You are more powerful than you think," the Surface owner retorts, an obvious jab at Apple's latest iPhone spots.

The "Power" ad echoes the sentiment that Microsoft's Surface Pro 3 is just as fast as a MacBook Air, but includes a touchscreen and pen input as a bonus. In addition, the tablet features Mini DisplayPort and a USB input, albeit just one compared to the Air's two, as well as a detachable keyboard with kickstand.

"So you're saying it does more than my Mac," says the Air owner.

Finally, the "Head to head" ad lacks narration, but does feature the exceptionally hairless arms and hands seen in Microsoft's recent hardware campaigns. Here again specs are compared, from the 128GB of onboard storage to 4GB of RAM.

From there, Microsoft contrasts the two computers having the MacBook Air user haplessly attempt to perform on the Apple laptop what the Surface user can do on their tablet. For example, the Air owner pokes away at the non-touchscreen display and even attempts to rip it off, highlighting the Surface's multitouch display and keyboard cover typing solution.

Microsoft has been pushing hard to move its "tablet and a laptop" since the first Surface was unveiled in 2012, but sales have been slower than the company expected. The latest Surface Pro 3 is the closest iteration yet to meeting Microsoft's vision of a tablet that can run full versions of Windows 8 and corresponding applications without sacrificing portability, though evidence of its success has yet to surface.