Surface Go—Microsoft’s 10-inch, $399 tablet—launches today in 25 markets. Many publications around the Web have had a couple of days to review Microsoft’s latest attempt at a cheap(ish) computer, and opinions are surprisingly varied.
Surface Go is a shrunk-down version of the Surface Pro, Microsoft’s kickstand-equipped two-in-one tablet/laptop. It has a smaller screen (10-inches, 1800×1200), a weaker processor (an Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y, which is a two-core, four-thread Kaby Lake chip that was launched about 18 months ago), slower and smaller storage (64GB, using an eMMC interface), and reduced battery life (estimated at 9 hours). But it’s cheaper. A lot cheaper: the base model is just $399, compared to $799 for the base Surface Pro.
Go keeps all the major Surface design elements: a variable-position kickstand, 8MP rear/5MP front cameras with Windows Hello facial recognition, the Surface Connect magnetic charging and dock port, and a 10-finger multitouch screen with Surface Pen support. It retains the microSDXC card reader and 3.5mm headset jack and adds to this a USB 3.1 generation 1 Type-C port. As with other Surface tablets, Surface Go supports the Type Cover detachable keyboard covers, though because of its new, smaller size, it’ll need new, smaller Type Covers. The keys are about 85 percent of full-size, with about 1mm of travel compared to the 1.3mm on the Surface Pro.
For $399, you get 4GB RAM, 64GB of eMMC storage, and Windows 10 Home. An extra $50 upgrades to Windows 10 Pro, and an extra $150 upgrades to 8GB RAM and a 128GB NVMe SSD. The review systems all seem to have been the 8GB/128GB configuration; this means that their storage, in particular, will be considerably quicker than the base 4GB/64GB version. Microsoft has plans to introduce a version with integrated LTE and 256GB storage, but there’s no price or availability for these just yet.
