Microsoft will soon be pushing out their Windows 8 tablets to challenge rival platforms Android and iOS, and recently Microsoft made available the Windows 8 consumer preview for download, and we have a comparison video that pits Windows 8 on a tablet up against the current leader in the market, the Apple iPad 2 for your viewing consideration below.

The Windows 8 versus iPad feature comparison video comes our way courtesy of the guys over at The Verge who put together the almost ten and a half minutes of comparison footage and kicks off looking at the basics.

The guys do say that iOS 5.0 and Windows 8 do share some similarities, however the user experience is fundamentally different and “informed by different interaction metaphors.”

I’m sure those that use an Apple iPad 2 know all about its gestures so I won’t bother going over then here, and Windows 8 is apparently very gesture heavy for numerous things, and allows the user to swipe up to get the app menu or pinch the screen to see an overview of their apps, and you can swipe down from the top to close an app whilst on the right side a swipe will bring up the Charm bar menu.

In the comparison video below you will also get to see multitasking on Windows 8, adding an account in mail, the Internet Explorer browser, scrolling, pinch and zoom, and the like.

However as I do not wish to spoil your viewing enjoyment of this Apple iPad 2 versus Windows 8 comparison video I’ll stop right there and let you head on down to check out the footage to make up your own mind if Windows 8 is a fitting challenger to the iPad 2 …enjoy.