The Microsoft Surface Pro 3 may not be the best-selling tablet in the market but it is the fastest tablet available, suggests consumer watchdog Which.

Microsoft launched the Surface Pro 3 in May 2014 and the latest hit the shelves in June 2014. The company markets the Surface Pro 3 as "the tablet than can replace your laptop."

Which examined the top 10 tablets available in the UK, which included: Microsoft Surface Pro 3 128GB i5, Apple iPad Air 2, Apple iPad Air 32GB (Wi-Fi), Apple iPad mini 3, Google Nexus 9, Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 2014, Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1, Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, Asus MEMO Pad 7 ME572C and Tesco Hudl 2.

The UK-based company used industry recognized Geekbench's cross-platform processor benchmark that runs checks and simulations based on real-world tasks.

"Their performance is then quantified to give a final numeric score - the bigger the score, the faster the tablet. So if you're somebody who doesn't like to be left waiting for apps and web pages to load, then only the highest scorers will do," per Which.

The consumer watchdog found that the Surface Pro 3 scored 5069 in the tests and the tablet is at least 20 percent faster than any other tablets being tested, including the most-popular iPad. The iPad Air 2 is the second fastest tablet that achieved a score of 4046.

The slim 9-inch Nexus 9 came third with a score of 3537. Amazon Kindle Fire HDX 8.9 2014 scored 3060, Apple iPad Air 32GB (Wi-Fi) scored 2687 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 achieved 2650 in the Geekbench processor benchmark score.

Asus MEMO Pad 7 (ME572C) received a score of 2351 followed by Tesco Hudl 2 that got a score of 2084. The iPad mini 3 is one of the most-popular tablets around but it was placed last in the list with a score of 1790, which means the Apple tablet is three times slower than the Surface Pro 3.

The iPad mini 3 is a 7.9-inch tablet so a comparison with the 12-inch tablet Surface Pro 3 may not sound fair. However, it may come as a surprise that the Apple offering is also slower than two of its lesser-known rivals the Asus MEMO Pad 7 (ME572C) and the Tesco Hudl 2.

A customer looks at various features of tablets including processor, screen size, operating system, internal storage, display quality and more before making a decision to buy a device. Performance may not be the only thing that impacts a customer's decision to buy a tablet.

However, the processor speed matters a lot to customers who would use their tablet for multi-tasking and running graphic oriented apps.

Check out a short video released by Which about the speed test of the tablets.

Photo: Sinchen.Lin | Flickr