Microsoft Just Released Their New Surface Go Tablet: A Comprehensive Review

As part of their overall surface line, Microsoft has released a new product, the Surface Go tablet. I was fortunate enough to borrow one and take it through a thorough walkthrough of its features.

The first thing that stands out about the Surface Go is its styling. It's essentially a baby version of the other Surface 2-in-ones, with the same magnesium casing. This casing is also compatible with the Type Cover, although it's specific to the Surface Go due to its smaller size. The device itself is a 10-inch, 1800x1200, 3:2 aspect ratio touchscreen.

One notable feature of the Surface Go is its bezels. They do look like they belong on an older device, and Microsoft explains that this is because the bottom bezel needs to accommodate the magnetic keyboard while still providing enough surface area to hold the device up against the hinge. The top bezel is also larger due to the need to house the front camera and other components for Windows Hello. While I can understand the reasoning behind these design choices, I have to admit that they don't particularly impress me.

Moving on to the specs, the Surface Go features Windows Hello hardware above the screen, including a 5-megapixel camera that can capture 1080p video for conference calls. It also has stereo Dolby audio speakers, with a 3.5mm headphone jack and a proprietary Surface charger port. Underneath the stand, there's a microSD card slot and a USB-C port that's capable of charging the device. These specs are certainly impressive, especially considering the price point.

As for software, the Surface Go runs Windows 10 in S mode, which supposedly increases battery life, performance, and security. However, this means that users can only install apps from the Windows App Store. If you need to use other applications, you'll need to upgrade to Windows 10 Home, which is a one-way process.

One of the biggest selling points of the Surface Go is its price. It starts at $399 for the base model, with an 8GB RAM and 64GB storage. The Type Cover adds another $99 for the black model or $129 for the colored Alcantara fabric. This makes the total price around $498, but considering the specs and features, it's actually a relatively good deal.

However, I do think that you'll need to consider purchasing a keyboard if you want this device to be truly viable. The Surface Pen is also an excellent accessory, priced at $99. If you're looking for a more affordable option, there's also the Surface Mobile Mouse for $30. Both of these accessories will enhance your overall experience with the Surface Go.

In conclusion, the Surface Go is a solid addition to Microsoft's surface line. Its portability, price, and full-blown Windows 10 experience make it an attractive option for those who need a computer that can keep up with their daily tasks while also being easy to take on the go. While it may not be the most powerful machine, its value lies in its versatility and practicality.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enMicrosoft just released their new surface go tablet a new product in their overall surface life and they were kind enough to let me borrow it which meant that I was gonna try to do one of mine complete walkthrough it's pretty good maybe not from their complete walkthrough my channels where I try to go through every single feature I possibly can on a device so that you are better prepared should you be in the market to buy them with that said there's a lot to go through let's start with the styling there's no other way to put it it's a baby surface prep and it's the same magnesium casing as the other surface is two-in-ones and can be attached to a type cover although it's a specific one for the surface go because of its smaller size it is small by the way the device is a 10-inch 1800 by 1200 3 the 2 aspect ratio touchscreen and wait let's get this out of the way the bezels sure they look like they're from a much older device in today's day and age of near bezel as laptops but Microsoft had an explanation for them the basis says that the bottom bezel has to be of a certain size to accommodate the magnetic keyboard while still providing enough surface area to physically hold the device up against the hinge and the keyboard angle and the top as well is because of all this stuff to handle the front camera and all the components to use in Windows hello of which device is capable by the way and can unlock using your face like other windows hello laptops and that by that the signs had to be a certain size to account for the aspect ratio to have a place to hold this device without touching on the screen and you can decide for yourself what you think about those explanations but I for one could care less because of the price but we'll get to that in a second as mentioned there is Windows hello hardware above the screen including a 5 megapixel camera that can do 1080p video for conference calls finding the bezels on either side are stereo Dolby audio speakers reports we have a 3.5 millimeter headphone jack the proprietary surface charger port magnetic connector for the type cover a micro SD card slot under the stand and a USB C port that is also capable being used to charge the laptop which makes it able to work off of portable battery packs like the ones you use for your phone for example also since this device is all about portability with a name like go I think we need to mention that the charging brick which can sometimes add a significant amount of weight to what you carry around with your ultra portable laptop is also tiny and light and even has retractable outlet prongs which make it less likely to scratch other things in your bag while trekking around god I appreciate the little things sometimes on the back of the vice we have our infinitely positionable hinge that can go back to the same degree basically as the surface pro we have our rear facing 8 megapixel camera also capable of 1080p video at the top of the Vice we have our power button and volume buttons and we have talked about the keyboard really quickly - as though it is an optional accessory technically I can't recommend getting a surface go without it the keyboard comes in a black version for $99 or one of the colored al-qantara signature versions for 129 the keys have decent amount of travel are backlit and have a glass trackpad that is precision trackpad meaning it is more precise can use Windows gestures and it's just better than not being won trust me it also has a mechanical click mechanism which I appreciate now the keyboard is specific to the surface go you can't use it on the surface pro and vice versa this is due to the size of the keyboard which is slightly squished in order to fit the 10-inch device this size also means the keys are squished horizontally and it does take some getting used to but I got used to it easily within a day finally the device only way is 1.15 pounds and with the keyboard it's about 2 and a half pounds which is still very light and still deserving of the go moniker I think under the hood we have an Intel Pentium Gold 44 15y processor paired with an Intel HD graphics 615 you get in two varieties one with four ramen 64 gigs of storage or 8 gigs of RAM and 128 gigs of storage battery wise we have a 21 point 6 watt hour battery as per iFixit staredown which you can check out below which is positively tiny the 2018 ipad is a 32 point 6 watt hour battery to put that into perspective but honestly I've been using it for a little under a week now and I can say I have no complaints about battery life also though keep in mind that I usually use a high performance razor blade 15 that can't really last a few hours under heavy load now with those configurations it is of course not a powerful machine it's obviously meant to be used to browse the web use the office suite and it values portability over power for the software we're running Windows 10 in S mode the new name for Windows 10 S which supposedly increases battery life performance and security but you can only use apps from the Windows app store and since that is pretty limited and a lot of us have an application at least one or two that aren't in the App Store we use on a daily basis you might want to upgrade it to Windows 10 home when you get it thankfully though you can do so easily by just clicking a few buttons in the settings this is a one way upgrade on all laptops by the way but if you need it you're not looking back anyway as far as bloatware they're the usual Windows 10 included whether you want them or not games basically but you can easily uninstall any of them if you want and now for anyone wondering here are a few scores in some of the most popular benchmarking now the biggest thing about this in my opinion is that it's a surface product in a previously untouched category by Microsoft the service line is becoming more and more popular thanks in part to a better styling decent Hardware attention to detail and a lot of other things and so it's nice to finally see something in this category of the inexpensive ultra portable two-in-one from them as well so how inexpensive well it starts at 399 for the 4 gig 64 gigabyte now that doesn't include the type pad which as I mentioned is another 99 for the black one and 129 for the colored Alcantara fabrics and frankly I think you sort of need a keyboard for this to be a viable device so let's just say that it starts at $4.99 now the 8 gig 128 gig model isn't 549 at making the total width that with the keyboard to 640 mm but $4.99 and 649 are still a damn good price for a full-blown computer like this you know one that can use that obscure printer software that you have to have at your office in order to print that doesn't work on any other platform for some dumb reason or Photoshop or Lightroom the full version so long as you don't go crazy with layers to a full web browser and all the other little programs that we've probably accumulated over the years if you've ever used Windows you'd even add $99 to get the surface pen which works pretty well with it or the surface Mobile Mouse for $30 that I've been using for a while now that I kind of like now selling to run more tests like a battery test the performance test and had just spent a little more time with it before I can kind of give a final verdict upon this product but I can say that because of the portability and the price and the fact that it runs full-blown win the next time somebody asks me for a computer that they need just to do web browsing and they want to be able to travel with easily etc I'm at least going to have them probably look at the surface go instead of just telling them to go get a Chromebook\n"