Microsoft reveals their £379 Surface Go
Microsoft reveals their £379 Surface Go
This new device is the Microsoft Surface Go, which ships with a mass of little more than 500 grams in tablet mode, offering a 10-inch screen to maximise portability while retaining an 1800×1200 (3:2) resolution.
Unlike most tablets, this device is a full-on Windows machine, with an Intel x86 Pentium Gold processor. Unlike ARM-based Windows devices, the Surface Go offers support for all x86 applications without the bugs or performance disadvantages that ARM-to-x86 emulation provides. This hardware enables the Surface Go to deliver both the full mobility of a tablet while retaining the versatility of an x86-powered Windows PC.
On the hardware side, Microsoft has opted to use an Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y processor, offering users two cores and four threads with a base frequency of 1.6GHz and a TDP of 6W.
This processor only supports LPDDR3 and DDR3L memory, which means that the device cannot take advantage of the efficiency offered by DDR4 or LPDDR4 DRAM memory, a disadvantage of using a low-power processor from mid-2017.
Another problem worth considering is that Microsoft does not ship this unit with a “Type Cover”, a keyboard accessory that will be considered mandatory by most of this tablet’s userbase, with the device’s one year warranty also proving too short for most consumers.
| Surface Go £379 | Surface Go £509 | |
| OS | Windows 10 (In S mode) | Windows 10 (In S mode) |
| Weight | 522 grams | 522 grams |
| Storage | 64GB eMMC | 128GB SSD |
| Display | 10-inch PixelSense Touch Display | |
| Resolution | 1800×1200 | |
| Processor | Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y | |
| RAM | 4GB | 8GB |
| Wireless |
WiFi: IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible |
|
| Connections |
1 x USB-C |
|
| Camera Front-facing | 5.0 MP with 1080p Skype HD Video | |
| Camera Rear-facing | 8.0 MP with autofocus camera with 1080P video | |
| Audio | 2W stereo speakers | |
| Graphics | Intel HD 615 | |
| Warranty | 1-year | |
| Included in box |
Surface Go |
|
While the form factor of Microsoft’s new Surface Go tablet is impressive, the device itself will be undesirable outside of the “I need a small, portable device to use Microsoft Office on” crowd. The Surface Go offers a price tag that will be too high for budget users (considering the device’s lack of a keyboard at stock) and is underpowered when compared to most modern laptops, making the device undesirable for a large number of potential users.
While this is an admirable effort from Microsoft, their device is difficult to recommend outside of niche use cases. Would you buy a Windows PC that lacks a full-sized USB port?
You can join the discussion on Microsoft’s Surface Go tablet PC on the OC3D Forums.