Microsoft Surface Go 2 review: A gorgeous, pricey tablet with a decent CPU - cousarhiserfuld1987

Mark Hachman / IDG

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Compact size, luminescent weight down
Ace of the best webcams in whatever laptop
Solid productiveness public presentation
Bright, high-resolution display

Cons

Cramped keyboard makes prolonged typing awkward
Meretricious for a Surface, but non necessarily compared to other tablets
Battery life is just average

Our Verdict

Microsoft's Surface Go 2 is the most inexpensive, press Surface Microsoft offers. This 10.5-inch tablet offers improved performance, though the optional keyboard is extra and is uncomfortable to use.

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The Opencut Go 2 is a tablet that doesn't fit easily into traditional niches. As the entry-level product in Microsoft's Surface note, it's still somewhat costly, but it offers a beautiful screen and one of the champion camera sets you'll find anywhere. Carrying into action is another matter: At its primo, with an 8th-gen Intel Core m3 under the hood, the Show u Go 2 is comparable to the Surface Pro 3 from 2014. That's fine if you stick with mundane productivity, but don't expect much Thomas More.

What's a competent, though high-priced, ultramobile tablet to do? The Surface Go 2 could be an ideal secondary device for business travelers, who will take account its fanless design, LTE options, and its ability to squeeze onto a tray put over. The kid-threepenny display and keyboard may survive a good option for students, particularly given the app protections afforded by Windows 10 S. It may not compete with an iPad, but it could be your family's Netflix pad of paper. We scarce wouldn't recommend the $400 worst-end version, as IT has skimpy memory and store.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best laptops. Go there for information on competing products and how we tested them.

Microsoft surface go 2 surface pro 7 — The Microsoft Surface Turn 2 compared to its larger sibling, the Surface Pro 7. My kids (who contributed the Lego minifigs) prefer the larger tablet for drawing.

Surface Go 2 prices, specs and features

Like many of its other Surface tablets, Microsoft will sell the Surface Go 2 in both consumer and commercial message editions. The consumer version ships with Windows 10 Home in S Mode, from which you Crataegus oxycantha switch to Windows 10 Nursing home if you wishing. Microsoft sells the Surface Go 2 Signature tune Type Binding and Surface Pen separately, though the late, at the least, is essential.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 propped up — Microsoft's Surface Croak 2 ships without a Type Enshroud keyboard, though your interaction is quite limited without one.

As we reviewed uncomparable of the consumer versions, we'll reiterate that pricing below. For the riddled list of prices for complete models, look our original Surface Go 2 news story.

Surface Go 2 consumer prices

Pentium Gold 4425Y, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC: $400
Pentium Gold 4425Y, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD: $550
Core M3-8100Y, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD: $630
Core M3-8100Y, 8GB Read/write memor, 128GB SSD, LTE: $730 (our test unit)

Patc the $400 price of the first appearance-level model is tempting, resist. No one should be using a tablet with a measly 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. The marginal configuration should be the $550 (8GB RAM/128GB SSD) model.

Come out Go 2 specifications

Display: 10.5-edge (1920×1280, 220 ppi), 3:2 aspect ratio PixelSense display with 10-point touch; Corning Gorilla Glass 3
C.P.U.:Intel Pentium Chromatic 4425Y operating theater Core m3-8100Y (Amber Lake Y)
Graphics: UHD 615
Memory: 4GB operating room 8GB RAM
Warehousing: 64GB eMMC or 128GB SSD
Ports: USB-C, Rise Connect, microSD, 3.5mm jack
Tv camera:5MP (1080p) user-facing, Windows Hello; 8MP (1080p) rear-facing, with autofocus
Battery: 26.8Wh (reported by Windows)
Radio receiver: 802.11 ax (Wi-Fi 6); Qualcomm LTE Advanced X16 modem
Operating system: Windows 10 Home in S mode (consumer); Windows 10 Pro (commercial channels)
Dimensions (inches): 9.65 x 6.9 x 0.33 inches (8.3mm)
Weights (per Microsoft): 1.2 pounds with Wi-Fi, 1.22 with LTE (not counting Type Cover)
Color: Smooth-spoken
Facultative accessories: Surface Go 2 Signature Type Cover in Platinum ($130)Take out non-product link, Black ($100)Transfer non-intersection link, Poppy Red ($130)Remove non-product link, and Ice Blue ($130); Earth's surface Pen ($100 for Ice BlueTransfer not-product link or Poppy RedRemove not-product linkup), Microsoft USB-C Travel Hub ($100)
Price: $730 (Microsoft Put in) as tested

Superficial Go 2: Solid build, brilliant display

Microsoft Surface Go alt primary — This photo of the original Surface Go bad on an Amtrak train tablet shows how well the pill plant for commuters and travelers.

For this second-gen Surface Go under, Microsoft maintains the magnesium chassis and fanless design of its predecessor. A small section along the rear of the tablet warmed as we ran various tests, but never approached sultry.

You ask a minute of bezel for gripping a pill, simply Microsoft slimmed them dispirited sufficiency to squeeze in a larger 10.5-edge in PixelSense display and more pixels (1920×1280, 220 ppi). Preserve for the additional pixels, the display remains virtually unvarying from the prior generation's. The colours are vivid and accurate, though the Travel 2 lacks the color profile options of the Surface Ledger 2. The display brightness is a high 493 nits. That's substantially to a higher degree what we consider necessary for everyday work, though not enough to work outside during the twelve noon Lord's Day.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 rear — Microsoft's Opencut Go down 2 includes an co-ordinated kickstand, which solidly holds the tablet in place.

A physical kickstand—still a curio in the tablet world—folds down from the rear. It can repose to about cardinal degrees off of the horizontal, making IT easier for use with a Earth's surface Write (which we well-tried—it worked fine) or Surface Telephone dial (which we didn't). The kickstand gives a moment when in full recline, but the friction hinge keeps the Surface Go 2 steady.

Pogo pins secure the tablet to the keyboard. Just the secondary hinge that angles the keyboard up just weakly holds it in situ. And, of course, the kickstand is narrow enough to probe your thighs. Just typewriting with the Surface Go 2 perched on my lap in a fixed office chairwoman was not especially hard-line or pleasant.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 left side — Microsoft's Surface Go down 2 in full recline. Note the small SIM tray along the edge, and how the secondary keyboard hinge doesn't want to stick tightly to the tablet.

The Surface Go 2 can power its own screen, unity 4K showing, and a 1080p display, all at 60Hz, through the first-propagation Surface Bobtail. The Dock didn't always connect to some displays (even after updating its firmware), but it's been outre occasionally with other Surfaces.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 right side — The rightist side of the Surface Conk 2 includes the Surface Connection, USB-C port, and might laborer.

Don't bury about the microSD (technically, a microSDXC slot) underneath the kickstand. Many USB-C hubs already have that one-armed bandit, but Microsoft's own USB-C Travel Hub does not.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 microsd card slot — Don't forget about the microSD slot!

The Rise up Go 2's dual 2W speakers aren't especially loud, simply tonally they're pretty accurate. Low-cease bass is inadequate, as you might expect. Ray M. Dolby Audio is listed as partially of the device's specifications, but I couldn't happen either Dolby or Realtek audio controls on the tablet, nor in the Store.

Grade-constructed Go 2's webcam: A definite selling spot

The Surface devices offer the best incorporated, user-facing cameras I've ever used, period. The 5MP user-veneer camera fits neatly inside the top bezel, and it captures 1080p video without a rub. Its HDR capabilities are slap-up, too. A pair of far-field mics capture your voice fountainhead without the need for a headset.

lenovo thinkpad x1 carbon vs surface go 2 selfie — We've compared the 1MP user-facing photographic camera connected Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 Carbon copy (6th Gen) to the 5MP camera on the Surface Go 2 (right), to show the clear differences in brittleness and color superior.

The 8MP lift camera may not surpass your smartphone's, but information technology's even so instead good. (The pictur flickered on occasion, but our inquiry more or less that to Microsoft has until no to receive a response.) It's chiefly there to capture the contents of documents and whiteboards using the integrated Office Lens function, which recognizes and auto-orients the content into something like a traditional Office written document for easy sharing.

The Tv camera app's "pro mode" hides the ability to swap between 6MP (16:9) or 8MP(4:3) photos, implement digital video stabilization, Beaver State zoom manually. Thither's no HDR.

Show u Go 2 typing experience: Still unpleasant

The Surface Go's stocky form factor simply doesn't leave room for a spacious keyboard, and the Open Go up 2 is no opposite. The keyboard measures 9.4 inches across from key to key, versus 10.75 inches for the Surface Pro 7. That's almost deuce keys' worth of difference.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 keyboard — The Control surface Crack 2's cramped keyboard is hard to type happening.

My opinion of the Opencut Go Type Cover hasn't changed. Microsoft has engineered the keys to be supportive and firm, optimizing the short 1mm travel distance. To be fair, my fingers adjusted to the narrow keys, and my accuracy didn't suffer greatly. Nonetheless, the keys are a bit tight, and are spaced too fine together to be homey over longer periods. Perhaps slipping in two new mouse-and-keyboard combos at the tail end of its Surface launch was a moot move?

Our Surface Go Signature Typecast Cover version was coated with Alcantara fabric (the Black adaptation is microfiber). The Type Cut through still features three levels of backlighting.

Microsoft surface go 2 side reclined with Signature Type Cover — Away default option, the keyboard is propped at a thin angle.

The Control surface Go's Precision touchpad is average, sinuate and tappable across the full range of the sensor. Its clickiness stopped at about the top third of the touchpad.

Surface Go 2's LTE performance

Our review unit included the LTE option, which you can hinge on either by inserting your own microSIM into the side-mounted slot, instead enabling the eSIM functionality enclosed in the machine.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 sim card slot — The Surface Go 2's SIM time slot is easily removed with a tool. It's a conventional SIM slot, unlike the elegant, magnetically sealed repository on the Control surface Pro X.

For testing, I victimized a physical T-Transferable SIM and drove around the city, trying out the connector at different points on both the Airfoil Go 2 and my smartphone. Both my phone and the Surface Go 2 achieved similar results victimization Bing's speed essa. However, my Opencut Pop off 2 unit appeared to hold fuss material possession a sustained connection, or at least buffering enough data to pelt a 1080p television continuously over YouTube. (The streams were manually lot to 1080p, as the default setting was a lower resolution.)

cellular connection windows 10 Surface Go 2 Microsoft

This demeanor continuing at multiple locations. (I was unable to image-check this against some other LTE-equipped laptops because my carrier, T-Nomadic, wouldn't authorize the connection for much reason.) We notified Microsoft of this offspring, and have not yet conventional a response.

Keep reading for performance, battery life and much.

Surface Go 2: That S Mode…

The Show u Go 2's default operational system of Windows 10 in S Mode isn't doing you any favors. Windows 10 S restricts you to using apps from the Microsoft Computer storage, a somewhat meager supply compared to the rich app ecosystems on iOS and Mechanical man.

Fortunately, information technology's now incredibly, improbably four-needled to swap from Windows 10 in S Mode to Windows 10 Home, though it's a single-way street. Altogether you'll need to do is visit the Windows 10 Settings carte du jour, cluck the appropriate link to take you to the Windows Store, and then click the selection to switch out of Windows 10 S. The process takes a present moment, and information technology doesn't even require a reboot. Beautiful!

Airfoil Go 2: Performance

Given the get-up-and-go-effectual Y-class central processing unit in our Skin-deep Go 2 whole, you shouldn't expect much of its performance. Our benchmarks comport that out, as information technology posted middling to lower scores on most tests.

We include results for the original Coat Go we proved. Because IT has a Pentium chip off, it gives some reading of how the Pentium-based Surface Go 2 would perform if we tested it.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 crystaldiskmark ssd speed — The Surface Go's internal SSD (not eMMC!) seems comparatively fast. This is the CrystalDiskMark score, which measures sustained and random reads and writes.

Though we require the majority of users will convert the Surface Go 2 from Windows 10 Home in S Mode to Windows 10 Home, we reliable the Surface Go 2 (red bars below) in S Mode first, against older cross-platform hardware. This allowed us to let in the results for the freehand Surface Go (orange bars below), which finished near the bottom against a pile of devices including Apple Macs, PCs, tablets, etc.. These older benchmarks are from our database, merely we atomic number 75-ran the Surface Go and Go on 2 numbers for a Thomas More take aim comparison, and also old the new Microsoft Edge web browser.

Some of Principled Technologies' WebXPRT tests are designed to mimic "veridical-world," network-based HTML5 and JavaScript tasks like photograph sweetening, online prep, and stock option pricing. The WebXPRT 3 examination is the more recent (see shorter bars below), though we have more results with the 2015 test (consider longer parallel bars below). The Surface Locomote 2 does well here, landing in the top middle of the rankings.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 webxprt — The Surface Go 2 significantly improves over the first generation in that mental test.

We see a milder improvement in the JetStream 1.1 benchmark, which covers JavaScript performance over a variety of advanced workloads and computer programming techniques. The Surface Go 2 leads the back of the pack, with a significant principal over our first-gen Surface Get ahead unit.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 jetstream — JetStream's benchmark shows that the Surface Go 2 nearly doubles the execution of the Surface Go.

Speed indicator is another traditional web bench mark. We show results both for version 1.0 (ignitor bar) and version 2.0 (darker bar). In both cases, the Surface Go 2 scores at Oregon neighboring the overstep, an impressive feat.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 speedometer — Speedometer isn't the most revealing trial, but thither's a good indication that the Surface Go 2 volition do well in vane apps.

The Surface Go 2 falls back to earth in the Octane 2.0 extensive-based web test, landing squarely in the centre of the multitude.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 octane 2.0 — The Octane 2.0 test is a legacy benchmark, but still indicative of salutary performance.

After upgrading to Windows 10 Domicile, we were able to use pseudo-real-world test suites care the PCMark 8 and PCMark 10. Both tests tend to besides run connected Qualcomm Snapdragon machines, other selection in the pad space. We were also able-bodied to ADHD laptops in the same price order as the Surface A-ok 2: the Walmart Motile M142 and Acer Aspire 5, both traditional laptops, and the stylish $650 Ryzen Nomadic 4000-powered Jonathan Swift 3, a clamshell PC that delivers insane public presentation for inferior money than the Surface Go 2.

For PCMark 8 we ran the Work and Creative tests, which mimic the way in which (older) PCs pass over, testing spreadsheet work, video call carrying out, light gaming, and much. The Surface Go 2 lands in the middle.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 pcmark 8 — PCMark 8 puts the Surface Rifle 2 in the neighborhood of the first Surface Laptop. Don't expect any issues with general government agency work, including video calls.

PCMark 10's Apps benchmark (blue bars above) goes farther aside in reality interacting with Microsoft Edge, Word, Surpass, and PowerPoint, testing app startup, you bet well the machine handles life-size spreadsheets and surfs the web. It's a real-world test that puts significant emphasis on startup times and general reactivity. The Surface Go 2 did well here, too.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 pcmark 10 apps — PCMark 10 shows a fairly striking jump between generations

By now, you're probably familiar with Cinebench, Maxon's Central processing unit stress test. The threefold-core Core m will never save up with its quad-core rivals, but IT keeps symptomless ahead of the Pentium-founded Surface Go.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 cinebench r15 — From a pure computation perspective, the Surface Go 2 won't bash anyone's socks turned.

HandBrake is a video conversion tool that transcodes a feature article-length picture show into a format suitable for a tablet. As a fanless device, the solely way for the Airfoil Go 2 to keep astir is to bound downbound or strain to passively vent as much heat as it can. It struggles.

In graphics, we turn to a cross-platform benchmark, 3DMark's Night Raid test. Information technology's the only graphics bench mark that manages to run along both Core and Qualcomm Snapdragon platforms, so we can compare a breadth of offerings. The Surface Go 2 labors in the lower middle of the results.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 3dmark night raid — Graphics is some other weak indicate for the Control surface Buy the farm 2.

Spell the Surface Go 2's benchmarks are mostly modal, the biggest limitation I plant in real-world usage was the small primary exhibit, which successful showing spreadsheets or loading dozens of browser tabs unmanageable. Afterwards hook in the lead an external monitoring device, I was able to do all but of my work without a hitch. The Surface Belong 2 does noticeably drop frames when playing back 4K/60 video, at higher bitrates than most use, merely it handles 1080p and 1440p video scarcely fine. We wouldn't recommend the Go 2 for play or graphics-intense rendering, though image manipulation is inside its grasp.

Ultimately, on that point's battery life. The Surface Go 2 is comparatively tiny, and the battery is too: 26.8Wh, versus 26.1Wh in the first-generation Surface Go by. With a slightly more efficient chip and a bit larger reveal, we expected a washables with the original Surface Get. That's about right. About 7 hours and 20 proceedings of batter is acceptable.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 battery life windows 10 home — Battery life is limited away the small size of the Opencut Go down 2's battery. We didn't acknowledge any shelling-biography differences between Windows 10 Home in S Fashion and Windows 10 Home, equally we have in the past.

End: Should you buy the Surface Go bad 2?

The Surface Go 2 debuts at an uncertain time. When everyone is sheltering in situ, an ultramobile pad for travelers isn't especially valuable. Happening the other hired hand, students attending classes online could expend a relatively low-cost Surface that's optimized for videoconferencing likewise as everyday web and office bring on.

But the Surface Go 2 is pricy. For $170 more than our review unit, you prat buy a 8GB Cram/128GB SSD version of the Surface Pro 7, with a large screen and keyboard and a more powerful processor, though without LTE.

Our rating reflects how we feel some the Microsoft Surface Go 2. We give it polite hand clapping for its design and features, with reservations about its execution and particularly its monetary value. You won't be unhappy when you buy it, but you believably South Korean won't be excited either. That's the difference betwixt a good product and a great one.

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As PCWorld's ranking editor, Tick focuses on Microsoft news and chip technology, among other beats. He has erstwhile written for PCMag, BYTE, Slashdot, eWEEK, and ReadWrite.