Microsoft surprised us positively with the announcement of Surface Laptop Go, an affordable proposal in its class Surface Laptop series.
Just like with the Surface Go, the Surface Laptop Go is a cheaper, smaller, and more portable proposal in the Surface Laptop series, which looks more at students, pupils, and those who want to do light work on foot.
Design
As a member of the Surface family, the Surface Laptop Go comes with an emphasis on design and build quality.
The top of the laptop, where we see the screen, is made of aluminum, as Microsoft has become accustomed to on tablets and laptops. The bottom, where we see the keyboard and trackpad, is made of polycarbonate plastic.
If you are bothered by plastic, it is definitely something you will not notice, as it is quite good quality, nothing to do with the cheap laptops we see from other companies.
From the first opening, you will understand that this is solid construction, that you will not be afraid of the many open - close. In addition, thanks to the use of plastic, the Surface Laptop Go is very light, weighing just 1.1 kg.
Screen and camera
With the first opening of the Surface Laptop Go, you will notice the quite small bezels, especially if you have come from another device in the Surface series.
They may not be the smallest on the market, but they are definitely the smallest we have seen in the Surface Laptop series. But this comes with some downsides.
The first is the webcam, which is 720p resolution and, although it will respond to your video chats, it is definitely not the quality that Microsoft is used to. Additionally, there is no room for a face recognition sensor via Windows Hello.
The second negative is the screen itself. The 12.4-inch PixelSense screen of the Surface Laptop Go comes in a 3: 2 ratio, which is ideal for work. Although it offers very good brightness and you can use it comfortably outside, its resolution is 1536 × 1024, an even lower resolution than the first generation Surface Go. At just 148ppi, if you get close enough you will definitely see some pixels, not to the extent that it makes it unusable.
But what impressed us is the fidelity of the colors. Despite the low resolution, the colors were vibrant and vibrant, thanks to 99% coverage of the sRGB color gamut and 74% of the Adobe RGB color gamut.
In addition, the touch screen responds quickly to functions, with the multi-touch having no problem recognizing our fingers. But one big drawback is the lack of Surface Pen support, something that former Surface device owners will definitely not like.
Performance and functional
The model we have in our hands comes with a tenth generation Intel i5-1035G1 processor, accompanied by 16GB LPDDR4x RAM and 256GB fast SSD.
In our tests, the Surface Laptop Go was able to respond to all functions, with multiple tabs in the browser, parallel text editing, and other background work. In short, for your daily tasks, it will definitely provide you with the strength you need, without straining.
Plus, you will have absolutely no problems with streaming movies or videos. Where the Surface Laptop Go will definitely not respond is if you want to play games, as the onboard GPU Intel UHD is not going to respond to new games. Of course, if you want something lighter, like Minecraft, you will be able to play quite satisfactorily.
What should be noted is that the Surface Laptop Go comes with Windows 10 operating system in S mode. This means that from the first moment you run it you will only be able to install applications through the Microsoft Store, which may meet your needs if the laptop is intended for younger ages.
Fortunately, Microsoft provides the option to turn off the S feature, with a free upgrade to Windows 10 Home, so you can run all x64 applications.
Keyboard, ports, sound, and battery
Where once again Microsoft made (almost) no discount is the keyboard. Full size, with proper space between the keys and 1.3 mm key travel, the Surface Laptop Go offers the top typing experience that we are used to (and spoiled) all the products of the Surface series. However, there is a discount, as the keyboard does not have a backlight.
Due to the lack of a sensor for Windows Hello we see a fingerprint sensor, integrated in the power button of the device, for safe entry into your computer. In addition, the glass trackpad remains one of the best we have seen on a Windows laptop, with immediate response and a nice feel, but relatively smaller than the competition, although this is not necessarily a bad thing. The sound also comes from the keyboard, with the Omnisonic speakers (with Dolby Audio support) offering clear and loud sound, despite the small size of the laptop.
The battery is another good thing, with Microsoft claiming it can last up to 13 hours of continuous use.
In our tests we saw just over 11 hours, so surely someone who will do fewer processes will be able to get closer to the hours mentioned by the company.
Charging is done either with the 39 Watt proprietary charger supplied with the device (Surface Connector) or via the USB-C port. In addition to the above two ports, unfortunately, we find only 1 USB-A port, but also a 3.5 mm headphone port. Of course, users have the option to choose between the two USB standards for mounting the corresponding dongle, if they want more devices.
So who is for the Surface Laptop Go?
The Surface Laptop Go is for those who want a light, fast, and quality laptop to do their daily work. The ease of typing through the top keyboard that it offers in combination with its robust construction shows that laptops should be of good quality in the economy class.
In addition, the tenth generation i5 will definitely be able to meet your expectations, as long as you know what work you want to do.
It should be noted that the version we have has an SSD drive, like all 128GB and 256GB versions. If you choose the cheaper version of 64GB you will have lower write and read speeds, as the disk is eMMC.
In addition, you will have 4GB of RAM, so your experience can be quite different.
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