Surface Laptop Go review: A solid starter PC -- with limits

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Go is the newest in their smaller, cheaper "Go" line. The Surface Laptop is impressively light, though this is partly due to a plastic base. It feel sturdy, but less premium than the all-aluminum laptops many folks are used it. The Surface Laptop Go packs a solid processor, but no additional GPU options, and lacks Intel's more powerful Iris Pro graphics. It also has pretty limited RAM, 8GB, and 256GB of storage. The biggest issue might be a surprisingly low-res screen, an oddity in this age of retina displays. The Surface Laptop Go is not a bad device, but it comes with a lot of compromises that make the price hard to justify. A tablet or chromebook might work better than the lowest-end machine, and you can probably find a laptop from last year with better specs than the higher end ones. Still, Microsoft has made a well designed small laptop for under $1000, and it may be perfect for folks looking for a reliable work machine, or a school computer for a student.

Video Transcript

DEVINDRA HARDAWAR: It's hard not to love the Surface Laptop Go. Microsoft basically took its premium Surface Laptop style, shrunk it down, and put in a 12.4 inch screen to create a really cute and adorable machine. And best of all, it starts at $549. How can you have a problem with that?

It's almost impossible to find a truly premium feeling laptop under $1000. And somehow, Microsoft managed to pull it off. But after using the Surface Laptop Go for the past week, it's not too long before the issues really rise to the forefront. It won't take you long to learn what Microsoft compromised to create such a affordable machine.

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Its screen is surprisingly low-res. For consumers, it maxes out with 8 gigabytes of RAM, and we'll talk a little bit more about that later. And its case also is largely made out of plastic, too, which I found kind of surprising.

But here's the thing. I realize that for many users, kids, and first time PC buyers, or people who just don't really stress their machines, none of this would really matter. I think if anything, what Microsoft really accomplished with the Surface Laptop go is that first impression because from far away it really does look like a miniature, adorable Surface Laptop. But if you get up close, you'll notice a couple of things.

While the top part with the monitor has a metal case, the bottom is actually plastic. It's a polycarbonate material that Microsoft says has glass fibers woven in. It feels like really high quality plastic. It doesn't feel like something you'd find on like a cheap HP or Dell. But it's still plastic. It is not metal. Microsoft tells us that one reason they did that is just to keep the weight down, especially for a machine that may be aimed at kids. And you know, they did do a good job of that. This machine just weighs 2.45 pounds, which is noticeably lighter than the 2.8 pound Surface Laptop 3. And that's the 13 inch version. That might not seem like a huge difference at first, but I noticed as I was testing it that I was just handling it a little differently. I was able to walk from room to room in my house while I'm staying here during the pandemic pretty easily. I didn't have to, like, feel the actual weight of it. It felt more like an oversized tablet rather than a laptop. And actually, I quickly learned that, you know, the Surface Pro 7 with the keyboard case is also 2.4 pounds. So I guess that's my gadget muscle memory kicking in there.

The Surface Laptop Go's 12.4 inch screen really reminds me of that cute 12 inch MacBook that Apple sadly killed off. It's not as cramped as the Surface Go 2's 10.5 inch screen. And I think that's a big, big difference. And it makes it more usable and workable for me.

On the Surface Go 2, I just had trouble multitasking because everything felt just so crammed in. It felt, you know-- it's a tablet. It felt like that's what you'd be using it for, single screen, full-sized apps. On the Surface Laptop Go, on the other hand, I had enough room to have a note taking app open and a web browser or a little YouTube window and, you know, a document that I was working on. So multitasking and using it like a normal laptop just felt more natural.

And like all of the Surface devices, it has a 3 by 2 screen. So it's a little taller than a typical wide screen laptop, which makes it more functional to me. You can read longer documents and web pages and just feel like you're more immersed in whatever you're working on.

There's touch screen support, naturally because this is a surface. But Microsoft cheaped out a bit. There is no Surface Pen support. So if you want to do any stylus drawing, this is not the machine for you.

As useful as the screen is for something so small, there is a major, major downside. It is the lowest resolution screen we've ever seen on a surface device. It has a 1536 by 1,024 resolution. That's well below 1080p. And even the first Surface Go had a higher resolution screen. That's insane to me. The Laptop Go screen just has 148 pixels per inch, or PPI. And that is a stat we don't really talk about much these days because I feel like after Apple's Retina MacBooks and after everybody started putting in higher res displays in laptops and tablets, it just seemed like something we didn't need to talk about anymore. But 148 PPI-- that's not great. That means if you lean in really close to the screen, you can definitely see pixels along the edges of fonts and words and pictures. It's something we haven't seen in notebooks for years. So using the Surface Laptop Go kind of made me feel like I was reviewing a laptop from 2012.

Microsoft says that the reason they went with that resolution is because most users are, you know, using their laptops from further away than a tablet like the Surface Go or Go 2. And even if that were true, I still feel like there are major downsides here. If you're bingeing Netflix in bed, you'll probably have the laptop maybe on your chest or close to you. There are going to be instances where you're going to be up close to this thing. And the display just feels ancient and archaic.

I'll admit, from a typical laptop distance, if it's on your desk or on your lap or something, then sure, the screen looks fine. The colors really pop. It is bright enough to use outdoor, even in direct sunlight. Although I really wish Microsoft would do something about these PixelSense displays it's making because they just black out when I look at them in my polarized sunglasses. And that's not an issue I have with many other laptops. It's really just Microsoft's.

While its screen is a bit of a disappointment, it is nice to see that Microsoft is kind of modernizing its design a bit. The Surface Laptop Go has thinner bezels than the rest of the Surface Laptop line, which is nice to see. They're not as, you know, impossibly thin as, like, the Dell XPS 13. But it's getting there, and it's making the Surface Laptop Go feel like more of a modern machine in that respect. So there's a weird push and pull of archaic screen resolution and modern design going on here.

And throughout this machine, it is really interesting to see how Microsoft balanced the idea of giving you something that's premium feeling while being very cost conscious. So for example, the keyboard-- it is full sized. It feels as good as a typical Surface Laptop keyboard with 1.3 millimeters of travel. You know, it feels like a joy to type on. But as I started working on this review at night, I realized there is no backlight. And that is a huge disappointment because if I'm in a low light environment, if I'm in a room where I don't want bright lights on me, it is sometimes hard to see the keys. And that's not a problem I typically have with any laptop these days.

And similarly, the glass trackpad feels smooth and accurate to use. But it's a little small compared to what I'm used to seeing from other ultraportables. I guess that's to be expected for the size. But again, it feels a bit like a step back.

Thankfully, there is one area where Microsoft didn't skimp too much, and that's the Surface Laptop Go's processor. Every model is powered by Intel's 1035G1 chip. It's a quad core processor that maxes out at 3.6 gigahertz. And that may not sound like much, but I think for a tiny, tiny machine like this, that's pretty impressive. Most of the time you'll see manufacturers aim for Intel's Y-Series chips, which are much more efficient and better for thin machines, but they don't have as much power. We saw one in the Surface Go 2, and I feel like I was maxing that thing out, even while just having a few apps open.

Consumers can equip the Laptop Go with up to 8 gigabytes of RAM and 256 gigabytes of storage, both of which are stats that make it really clear this is not something aimed at prosumers. Interestingly enough, Microsoft is letting commercial buyers equip it with up to 16 gigabytes of RAM if you go through their commercial site. I probably wouldn't recommend that, though, because that model costs $1,200. And at that point, you can look at any other ultraportable out there.

So my main takeaway from using the Surface Laptop Go over the past week is that it's fast enough. It managed to keep up with my workflow, which typically involves having many browsers, dozens of browser tabs open, Evernote, Spotify, Slack, image editing. Like, it handled all that stuff just fine, although I did feel like I was starting to get to the limits of that 8 gigabytes of RAM. And I will say that its 256 gigabyte SSD just felt immediately restrictive because you have to have Windows on there. So that takes up a chunk of space. So as I was installing apps, I was quickly seeing my available free space just disappear.

I think for a machine that's meant mainly for schoolwork and streaming video and really, like, competing tasks, this is just fine. And surprisingly enough, it also did a decent job battery wise. It lasted over 12 and 1/2 hours in our battery test.

To really stress the power of this machine, I ran a few games, which is not something I typically do with something aimed at the low end or middle range of the market here. But I wanted to see how this chip works. And I think the Intel UHD graphics were great for "Minecraft" because it's running the game at a lower monitor resolution. So it was able to hit 60 FPS just fine. And it was even able to play "Overwatch" at the native resolution in low settings, around 40 to 50 FPS, which isn't smooth but workable. And you could probably even reduce the resolution more to kind of make that work. This definitely isn't a gaming machine. But I think if you're getting it for your kids or something and they may need to do some 3D apps like "Minecraft" for school, it at least we'll be able to run those decently.

Now I really would have liked to see the Iris Plus graphics from last year's Intel chips, but that's probably too expensive for a machine at this price.

And really, that kind of seems to be the running theme of the Surface Laptop Go. It offers good enough performance for less demanding users. Its 720p webcam is fine for Skype. But you know, it doesn't look great, and it doesn't hold a candle to any of the Surface cameras out there. It also has no facial recognition for Windows Hello. You have to use a fingerprint sensor on the power button, which is just fine. It's pretty fast and accurate from what I saw.

There are only two accessory ports, but at least Microsoft gives you a choice of either USB Type A or USB-C. And yes, you can charge over USB-C, but it also comes with the Surface charger as well for that proprietary Microsoft connector.

It's also worth noting that the Surface Laptop Go comes with Windows 10 S mode turned on, which means you can only install apps from the Windows Store. And it really restricts anything third party or downloaded. You can turn that off from the Microsoft Store just easily. It's not a thing you have to pay for anymore. It's an annoyance, but it's kind of a security feature that's there to protect Windows users from themselves.

What I'd really like to see is how well the $550 Surface Laptop Go configuration performs. That model only has four gigabytes of RAM and 64 gigabytes of slow eMMC storage. That's kind of the same stuff that flash drives are made out of.

Our review unit, on the other hand, cost around $900. So that's the performance you're seeing. You're not seeing the performance on our benchmarks from the $550 model.

And I think much like the Surface Go 2, I wouldn't recommend the base model to anybody. Microsoft says they wanted to have something available to people who mainly stream content or do work over the internet. And in that case, maybe you won't be using up to get 8 gigabytes of RAM or need much storage. And that's kind of positioning this as a Chromebook competitor. But even at that price range, you could get a really nice Chromebook that is more capable and will be able to do more at $550.

If you're really intrigued by the Surface Laptop Go, we'd recommend making the jump to the $700 model. That one only gets you 128 gigabytes of storage, but at least that's a faster SSD. And you'll get 8 gigabytes of RAM from there, too. So you'll have a lot faster performance in general.

The $900 model we reviewed, on the other hand, is a bit of a conundrum because I think at that price, you can start to find great laptop deals, especially machines from last year, you know, with better hardware, better screens pretty easily. As I was writing this review, I saw a 2019 XPS 13 with a 4K screen for $900. That model was refurbished. But even if you're looking for newer models, if you go a year back in time or something, you'll find older stock that will be cheap and more powerful than the Surface Laptop Go.

I think at the very least, the Surface Laptop Go proves that Microsoft can make a capable budget notebook. It may not have all the bells and whistles you'd want from a more powerful ultraportable, but for under $1,000, It's a pretty solid deal. And after the disappointment of the Surface Go 2, it's nice to have a cheaper Surface that I may actually be able to recommend to people.

Stay tuned to engadget.com for more of our Surface reviews and laptop reviews. And if you dug this video, be sure to like and subscribe.

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