Best Review Of Surface Go 2
When I do, I often think about who a thing is made for. So take the Surface Go 2 right here. Who is this for? I have a bunch of guesses. I think it's for families that need a second computer for their kid who is now doing all of their school work at home. I think it's for gadget heads who just wanna tiny, cool, little computer that's, that's me by the way.
But I kinda hate breaking gadgets down demographically. I hate saying if you wanna touch screen and you wanna tablet and if you need Windows, and if you want a small computer, or if you wanna save money, plus if you're Virgo or if you're a Scorpio. Look, you get the idea. So well, I fit in the middle of one of those Venn diagrams for the Surface Go 2 because I love tiny computers and I know how to work with it when there're many, many limitations. I don't think that the Go 2 works for the large Venn diagram of people who just wanna use a computer.
And I think I can explainwhy, so let's do that. Should we just get into it? We should get into it, let's get into it. (soft music) Now, if you're unfamiliarwith these Surface Go line, it is a tiny, little table that is about the same size as an iPad or iPad air or 11 inches iPad. It starts at $399, butnobody uses these things without a keyboard and the keyboard cost about $100 or you can spend $130for the Alcantara version. So that's 500 bucks for the base model with a keyboard, which is about the same price as a basic iPad with a basic keyboard.
And this thing is adorable. I love this hardware. Microsoft kept the exact same body size, but they made the bezels on the screen a little bit smaller, they up the resolution a tad, it's now a 10.5-inch screen with 1920 by 2080 resolution. There's still a kickstand on the back. There's a micro SD card slot, there's a couple of ports, and there's a headphone jack, hooray! Second, to maybe the Surface Pro X, this is probably my favorite Microsoft hardware.
Now, the version I got here to review is the fancy pants version with a real Intel Core m3 processor instead of the Pentium Gold processor that comes in the base model. This has eight gigs of RAM, which really is what you want for Windows to not be a suffer fest. It also has a properSSD while the base model has a slower eMMC storage. Oh, also they threw LTE in this thing, which means that all in with the keyboard, this model costs 860 buck, which is just a little bit cheaper than the equivalent respected Air with a keyboard.
But look, it still a lot of money for such a tiny computer. (soft music) I keep bring up the iPad because it's the same size as this. But also because it kind of the same idea. You get a tiny, little portable tablet that can do a lot of things, but not everything. There's always a compromise when you pay this little money and you use a computer that's this little. You get stopped from doing what you wanna do sometimes.
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Now, with the iPad, you're stopped from doing stuff mainly because either the apps just aren't there or because the operating system just won't let you. Now, with the Surface Go2, that's not a problem. You can install literally any windows app that you want. Like here, I installed Photoshop. The full, real Photoshop with every single Photoshop feature and can just launch it. And well, see, with the Surface Go 2, even my very fancy one here, the thing that stops you isn't the OS or the lack of apps. Instead, it has a way lower ceiling for running multiple apps or very powerful apps.Another way of puttingthat is that it's slow, but that's not exactly what I mean. See, when you're just browsing with a few tabs or doing Office app stuff, or some email or watching Netflix and maybe not all that stuff all at once, then it's not a problem. At least on the Core m3version of the Surface Go 2, it handles all of those tasks one by one just fine. Just don't run Photoshopon this or edit video.
I mean, you can, I'm looking at Photoshop right now, but you really don't want to. But if you keep thisthing within its limits, it is a super fun machine that gets the job done. (soft music) But look, I still have a hard time with this little computer. Last year, I felt like that if Microsoft could fix three things with the original Surface Go, I could really buy into the idea of this device and even start recommending it.
The first thing was the screen size. And that's fixed basically. I wish it had gotten a little brighter, and I wished the bezels were still even a little bit smaller, but it's enough. The second thing is the speed. And that's sort of fixed as long as you're willing to spend the extra money on the Core m3 version. And the third thing was battery life. Right, so the battery on the Surface Go 2 is 0.7-watt hours bigger than on the original Surface Go, and that has meant point nothing in terms of longer battery life.
It wasn't great last year and this year I'm barely getting through a whole workday. I'm talking five or maybesix hours of battery life and I'm not pushing it to get those five or six hours. I think that in the ultra portable device should ultra-portable battery life and this just isn't. But say you can livewith that, should you? I keep coming back to that Venn diagram and all the or, if's, and's and who's and stuff. So say you want an inexpensive computer for your kids to use for school. That's kind of what Microsoft is pushing in the commercials for this device.
Okay, but for 500 bucks, you can get a Chromebook with really good specs that just flies. Would Chrome OS work for you? Or say your main thing is youwant a really small tablet. Okay, but an iPad is honestly going to be faster and have better battery life. Would the iPad less work for you? I mean, how badly do you really need Windows? Okay, say you really need Windows. I totally get that, but then how badly do you need a device that's this size.
Because if you spend this 750-ish bucks for the faster Core m3 version of the Surface Go 2 with a keyboard, well, you can get a used or refurbed Surface Pro 6 or 7 that going to be way faster and have a bigger screen for basically the same amount of money and just a little bit more. So this thing is great but you need to ask yourself why you need this instead of a faster Chromebook and iPad that works better as a tablet, a Surface Pro, or even an inexpensive Windows laptop from Dell or Lenovo or whoever.
If you have good answers for why you don't want any of those things, then hey, welcome to the center of the Venn diagram with me. We're gonna make t-shirts and stuff. If you want a small tablet and it has to run Windows, then lucky for you, the Surface Go 2 does those two things fairly well. It is a nice, tiny tablet. But I think it only makes sense for a tiny number of people. I also think it's gadget heads who just wanna tiny, cool, what am I doing?
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