Microsoft Surface Go review: Solid tablet for work, $50 off for Black Friday

The 

Insider
Picks 

team writes about stuff we
think you’ll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships,
so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

The
Microsoft Surface Go is a $399 tablet. Combined with a $99
keyboard, it’s a teeny-tiny, affordable little Windows 10
laptop.
Microsoft

• The Microsoft Surface Go is one
  of the best work-focused portable tablets out there.
• It’s a great way to get a desktop-class operating system in a
  portable and inexpensive device — though keep in mind that you
  will need to upgrade to Windows 10 Home if you want to download
  third-party apps from the web.
• Right now, you can save $50 on the Surface Go as a
  Black Friday deal at the Microsoft Store.
• To potentially save more on Black Friday and Cyber Monday,
  you can visit Business Insider
  Coupons to find up-to-date promo codes for a range of
  online stores, including the Microsoft Store.

Gone are the days when Microsoft
was a software company and that’s it.

These days, the company releases
excellent hardware on a yearly basis, and that hardware has been
well-reviewed and much-loved. This year, Microsoft took the wraps
off of three new mobile computers — including the Surface Laptop 2, Surface Pro 6, and the new
Surface Go. We’ve already
taken a look at the previous two devices, so now it’s time to
take a look at the Surface Go.

The Microsoft Surface Go is
the smallest and least powerful of the three new devices, but
it’s also the cheapest — making it one of the better choices for
a portable computer in its price-range. Notably, it’s far cheaper
than the new iPad Pro, yet it still runs a desktop-class
operating system, Windows 10, albeit with less processing
power.

Is the Microsoft Surface Go the way
to go for those looking for a relatively powerful device they can
take on the road with them?

Microsoft

At first glance, the Microsoft
Surface Go looks like a Microsoft device. That’s to say, it
carries many of the same characteristics as other Surface
devices, like the infinitely adjustable kickstand on the back,
plus if you opt for the keyboard
accessory ($100), it boasts the same Alcantara feel
around the keyboard, which is looks and feels great.

When it comes to ports, however,
things are a little different. You will find the same type of
magnetic charging port as other Microsoft devices, which is
pretty nice, although we do wish Microsoft would just go for
the more universal USB-C port.
Speaking of USB-C, there’s one on the right side of the device —
essentially meaning that it has more modern ports than the
Surface Pro and the Surface Laptop. Above that, there’s a
headphone jack — thankfully.

The overall design of the Surface
Go isn’t bad, but in an age of slimming bezels, it does look
slightly dated, especially when you use it in tablet mode. The
keyboard, however, helps make it look a little better, plus the
design doesn’t really have an effect on the power under the hood.
The device itself is only available in one color, but you can
buy the keyboard in a few
different colors, which is nice. We got the matching gray
one, and quite liked it.

The display on the device
is pretty nice, but it won’t blow any minds like the display on
the Surface Pro or Surface Laptop might.

It has an aspect ratio of 3:2 and
a resolution of 1,800 x 1,200. That’s noticeably less than the
new 10-inch iPad’s display, which comes in at 2,048 x 1,536.
That’s not to say the display is bad — it’s not. Just don’t
expect to get the best 10-inch tablet display out there.

Read more: The best tablets you can buy

Microsoft

While this is a Windows
10 device, it runs Windows 10 S rather than Windows 10
Home.

That means there are a few
limitations to it — including that you can only run apps
downloaded from the Microsoft Store app. For many, that won’t be
such a big deal — especially those who really only need the
device for web-browsing, typing in Microsoft Word, and so on. For
others, however, that may be a deal breaker. Thankfully, you can
switch the device to Windows 10 Home — though if you decide to do
that, keep in mind that things like battery life and overall
performance may suffer a little.

Under the hood, the
Surface Go isn’t bad, but don’t expect a
powerhouse.

The base model comes with a
dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y processor, coupled with
4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. You can upgrade it from there,
however, all the way up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.
There’s also options for either Wi-Fi-only, or LTE connectivity
too.

In use, we found the Surface Go
to be quite a nice device. For basic use, it seemed quick and
easy to use. Of course, it’s important to go into using the
device with tempered expectations — it’s not a powerhouse like the new
iPad, so don’t expect to much more than basic working, a few
basic games, and so on. Word processing was easy with Microsoft’s
suite of Office 365 apps, and you’ll find it easy to keep several
tabs open in your web browser — which will need to be Edge unless
you make the switch to Windows 10 Home.

Read more: Microsoft has revealed its Black Friday deals
for the Surface Pro 6, Surface Laptop 2, and Xbox
One

The Surface Go also
has a few accessories, though
you’ll need to buy them separately.

We found that all of the
accessories worked very well with the device — the Alcantara keyboard, for
starters, felt quite nice. The keys were a little small, but
they’re about as big as they possibly could be on a tablet this
size, and they offered a good amount of travel and a nice, clicky
feel.

The Microsoft Surface
Pen also worked quite well with the device. If you’re a
serious artist looking for a digital device to take your art to a
new level, we recommend the more expensive Surface Pro or the
iPad Pro, but the Surface Go is still more than capable for some
things. The Surface Pen in general is a great device — it offers
4,096 levels of sensitivity, tilt support, and more, making it
one of the better options for a stylus on a tablet. Ultimately,
many consider the Apple Pencil to be a better option — but for
the Apple Pencil you also have to buy a much more expensive
device.

Ultimately, the Microsoft Surface Go is one of
the best work-focused portable tablets out there.

It’s a solid option for those who
type a lot, though you will have to pay extra
for the Alcantara keyboard. It’s a great way to get a
desktop-class operating system in a portable and inexpensive
device — though keep in mind that you will need to upgrade to
Windows 10 Home if you want to download third-party apps from the
web. If, however, you need processing power, then we recommend
instead opting for the slightly more expensive Surface
Pro, or considering buying an iPad.

Buy the base model Microsoft
Surface Go for $349 (normally $399) at the Microsoft
Store and Amazon [You save $50 until November
24]

See all of Microsoft’s Black
Friday and Cyber Monday deals here