3 Up, 3 Down: Microsoft Laptop Surface Go Edition
My wife has heard me complain about my laptop since the pandemic started, which seems like forever now. She’s getting sick of hearing me gripe about my old crappy Lenovo laptop that can’t run any decent games, consistently slows down, and is sometimes possessed by a demon when I am doing something absolutely critical to COGconnected. I need to retire it, but I am cheap and picky, so inevitably I will likely keep driving this old beater into the ground.
When the opportunity surfaced (see what I did there?) to take a look at Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Go, I was all over it. On the surface (okay, I’ll stop now) this seems like a perfect fit for me. It’s a small laptop with a touch screen that I can take anywhere, can stream anything and it can do pretty much everything most affordable laptops can do. It’s certainly an upgrade from my current clunker and maybe, just maybe, this could become my permanent day-to-day lappy. Yet after a couple of weeks of use, I have determined the Surface Go isn’t quite for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad laptop. It just doesn’t do everything I need it to do and that is okay, it might be perfect for you.
In any event, here are some things I love (and hate) about the Surface Laptop Go:
The Love List
Thin & Light
Simply put, the Surface Laptop Go is perfect for students or adults who are looking for a basic starter laptop that is small, can stream all their shows, surf the internet, and draft reports. The size of it is truly the star of the show. It’s got a 12.4” screen that makes it perfect for taking on a plane or in a classroom. So if you are looking for a laptop that is cute and does all the basic things you need it to do, the Surface Go is perfect.
It weighs much less than I anticipated too. It’s easy to carry around the house and super light which is fantastic. It weighs just over 1100g and its ultra-thin design makes it perfect for throwing into any backpack or large handbag. I love how light it is and certainly does weigh me down like this cruddy Lenovo.
Looks Sharp
It really is a sharp-looking laptop that feels and looks much more expensive than it is. It doesn’t look cheap and its mostly metallic finish makes it comparable to some of those older mac notebooks. While the bottom of the laptop is plastic (which apparently keeps the weight down), the top and monitor have a metal casing which makes the Go look like a premium product. To a certain extent it is, but regardless, the Go is a great-looking laptop that you won’t be embarrassed hauling around.
Decent Processor And Battery Power
The unit I looked at has an Intel Core i5, 8GB ram, and 256 GB SSD, which is the most expensive model. It can run some basic games with no issues, run any streaming service, and have numerous tabs open while working away. I pushed this sucker to its limits and it still performed great. It managed to keep up with everything I was doing. Once you start downloading several apps and playing some bigger games, you do notice a bit of a slowdown, so I’d recommend playing games at the lowest settings. So if you are looking at picking this up for gaming, I’d recommend you don’t.
The battery power is excellent and lasted just over 12 hours during my time with it. I really have no complaints about its battery life and am quite happy with its performance in this regard.
Head over to PAGE 2 for the hate list…