Microsoft has been attempting to straddle two totally different worlds with the Surface Go. When it launched in late 2018, Microsoft positioned it as a reasonable option to get the 2-in-1 Surface expertise. Three years later, that’s nonetheless true: The Surface Go 3, which Microsoft unveiled in late September, is an exceedingly well-built pill, with a beautiful display screen and powerful kickstand. For a tool that begins at $400, it feels nice.

But the total reality of the Surface Go 3 is a bit more sophisticated. You have to shell out at the least one other $100 for a keyboard. And, seeing as Windows nonetheless doesn’t supply an amazing pill expertise you want the keyboard. Not to say the essential $400 Surface Go 3 is underpowered – so by the point you’re shopping for a keyboard and bumping up the processor, storage and RAM, you’re spending as a lot cash as you may on a full-fledged laptop computer with a bigger show and extra highly effective internals.

Pros

• Elegant {hardware}
• Bright and responsive touchscreen
• Extremely mild and moveable

Cons

• No notable efficiency enhance over final 12 months’s mannequin
• Battery life is common at greatest
• Windows nonetheless isn’t an amazing pill OS
• Expensive for what you get

Our evaluate unit got here with a Tenth-generation Intel Core i3-10100Y processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. But that configuration prices $630, not together with the $130 Alcantara-clad Type Cover and $100 Surface pen Microsoft despatched alongside as nicely. It’s a reasonably succesful machine regardless of its tiny measurement, making it a probably nice journey companion. But when you’re going to spend $860 for the package that I’m testing, you must know precisely what you wish to do with it that you may’t do with an ordinary laptop computer.

When we reviewed the Surface Go 2 final spring, we famous that it was almost an identical to the primary model, with the notable exception of a bigger display screen. This trip, I’m fairly positive the exterior {hardware} is totally an identical. The Surface Go 3 is the very same measurement and weight as its predecessor, and the show is similar 10.5-inch, 1,920 x 1,280 touchscreen as earlier than.

That’s not a knock on the {hardware}, although, because the Surface Go 3 is a splendidly designed and constructed gadget. I haven’t used earlier Surface units extensively, however Microsoft’s popularity for considerate {hardware} is nicely deserved. The display screen is vibrant, sharp and colourful, with nice viewing angles. I additionally very a lot respect the taller 3:2 facet ratio – a 16:9 panel right here would really feel very cramped for vertical area.

I’m additionally an enormous fan of the infinitely adjustable kickstand. I’m no visible artist, however the way in which you may push it almost all the way in which round to prop up the pill for drawing is an excellent design determination, and the way in which the Surface Pen magnetically snaps to the facet for straightforward entry could be very helpful. It actually makes me want I might draw, however alas.

As earlier than, the Surface Go 3 solely has a number of ports and buttons. There’s a USB-C port on one facet in addition to a headphone jack and Microsoft’s proprietary charging port. The excellent news is you need to use the USB-C port for quicker charging (in addition to every other peripherals you might have) and use the cables you most likely have already got as an alternative of the slower charger. Up prime, there’s an influence button and quantity rocker; an 8-megapixel digital camera stares out from the again of the pill. Two stereo audio system flank the show, and there’s a 5-megapixel front-facing digital camera with a 1080p decision for video calls. It additionally works with Windows Hello for face unlock. Finally, beneath the kickstand you’ll discover a Micro SDXC card reader, however you actually have to search around for it.

Every time Microsoft releases new Surface tablets, questions comply with about whether or not Windows is definitely a viable platform for touchscreen use. With Windows 11, the reply remains to be “not really.” But purely on the power of its {hardware}, the Surface Go 3 is a beautiful pill. The 3:2 facet ratio makes it work nicely when holding it in both portrait or panorama mode. And at 1.2 kilos it’s somewhat heavier than an iPad, however not a lot so that you simply’ll get uninterested in holding it.

We usually suggest Surface patrons use the gadget with some form of keyboard, so almost all my time testing the Go 3 was with Microsoft’s Type Cover hooked up. It’s unchanged from final 12 months’s model, however that’s OK as a result of Microsoft’s Surface keyboards are surprisingly good. Given the Go’s small measurement, it felt a bit cramped at first, however after giving my fingers somewhat time to regulate it wasn’t a difficulty. 

The keys have respectable journey and really feel very stable, regardless of the Type Cover’s extraordinarily skinny design, and the magnets that connect it to the Go are very sturdy. The touchpad is ok given its reasonably small measurement, however – just like the keyboard – it is not one thing I wish to use for hours on finish. When I used to be utilizing the Go 3 at my desk for prolonged work classes, I most popular utilizing a Bluetooth mouse.

The Type Cover weighs simply over half a pound, so the pill plus its keyboard cowl is an effective bit lower than two kilos whole. While the general design hasn’t modified, the Surface Go 3 and its keyboard cowl are nonetheless a really compact and well-designed set. There aren’t many units that may present the total Windows expertise in such a transportable package deal.

Unfortunately, as with the prior Surface Go fashions, you’re buying and selling portability for efficiency. The Core i3 powering the $630 Go 3 that I’ve been testing is sufficient for primary duties, however when you attempt to push issues an excessive amount of you’re going to be disenchanted. My workflow is pretty modest: I principally stay in a browser (I used Edge for this evaluate), and I additionally run apps together with Trello, Slack, Todoist and Spotify. I additionally wrote this evaluate in Word, to get the total Windows expertise. Usually, the Surface Go 3 saved up with these duties, however I had occasional music stutters and tabs usually needed to be reloaded if I navigated away from them for greater than a minute or two.

Occasionally, issues obtained worse. The Surface Go 3 principally ran Adobe Lightroom fantastic, however shifting by means of the interface positively required endurance as UI components and photographs took some time to load. And if I had it open together with every other applications, issues slowed down considerably. Browser tabs have been extra more likely to reload, and opening or switching between different apps took so much longer. Lightroom efficiency itself was not horrible, although exporting an edited RAW file to a JPG took lengthy sufficient that I did most of my photograph modifying and exporting for this evaluate on my MacGuide Pro. Exporting a single picture most likely took about 10 seconds, in comparison with a second or two on my Mac.

I’m positive you’ll be shocked to know that being on a video name additionally led to critical efficiency points. When I used to be on a Google Meet name with some co-workers, switching that and Slack was painfully gradual, and Slack needed to refresh fully as if I simply opened it. While we’re at it, Slack efficiency was mediocre on this machine; leaping between totally different channels and conversations led to noticeable delays. (I’m keen to place a few of the blame on Google and significantly Slack, as a result of Slack’s Windows app just isn’t good. But not all of it.) That sums up the Surface Go 3 expertise fairly nicely — I usually simply needed to wait so much for issues to catch up.

Running our typical suite of Windows benchmarks confirmed my impressions – certainly, in response to Geekbench 5 and PCMark10, the brand new Core i3 processor is almost an identical to the m3 that it replaces. This simply highlights that Intel nonetheless doesn’t have an amazing answer for smaller units. Apple’s $330 iPad, which I simply reviewed, hit 1,336 (single-core) / 3,349 (multi-core) on Geekbench 5, in comparison with the 859/1,450 I obtained working it on the Surface Go 3.

The battery state of affairs additionally leaves one thing to be desired. I obtained about 5 hours utilizing the Surface Go 3 throughout regular use doing my regular work routine — not terrible, however given how low-powered the processor is, I anticipated extra. It additionally makes the Go’s portability much less helpful, as a result of when you can’t be away from a charger for a full work day, what’s the purpose of getting such a small gadget? The gadget did final fairly a very long time in a lower-power take a look at. The Go 3 lasted nearly 11 hours whereas taking part in again HD video, which matches up with Microsoft’s estimates for 11 hours. 

The Surface Go 3 is not the quickest to cost, both. I had the gadget plugged in whereas working some benchmarks, and it took a whopping three hours to cost from 50 % to one hundred pc utilizing the included charger. I used to be pushing the system fairly arduous throughout that point, however even after I was doing much less intense work, it took a very good lengthy whereas to cost. When the Go 3 was asleep, it nonetheless took about two hours to completely cost it up from 20 %. 

Benchmarks don’t inform the complete story, however they need to offer you a good suggestion of what to anticipate with the Surface Go 3. I might see the Go 3 making sense as a second pc, a companion to a extra highly effective Windows desktop for journey. If I used to be nonetheless commuting, I’d be pleased to make use of the Go 3 on my hour-long prepare trip to undergo electronic mail, perform a little writing and handle all my to-dos. I might additionally see it being a very good companion for working round at occasions like CES or E3. But I’d most likely get uninterested in writing on that tiny display screen.

But $630 plus one other $100 minimal for the Type Cover is some huge cash for a tool that feels reasonably gradual and reasonably cramped. For that form of cash you could possibly definitely get a extra succesful Windows laptop computer. Apple’s iPad can be an amazing possibility for a secondary computing gadget, and has the advantage of an OS that was constructed with tablets in thoughts; it’s additionally way more responsive than the Surface Go 3, and there are many keyboard covers on the market for getting actual work accomplished.

The worth calculus does change when you’re a visible artist, I feel. I’ve zero drawing capability, so the Surface Pen isn’t terribly helpful for me. But it’s an excellent stylus, and I might see artists who like to make use of Windows appreciating the Go 3 as a transportable drawing software that can be a full-fledged pc while you want it. But as soon as once more, an iPad most likely has higher app assist for artists preferring a stylus.

Probably the largest difficulty with the Surface Go 3 is that nothing has considerably modified since Microsoft launched the Go 2 nearly a 12 months and a half in the past. The design remains to be good, however efficiency and battery life are basically unchanged, regardless of the brand new chip. I can’t suggest that anybody get a Surface Go 3 with the Pentium Gold processor; it feels just like the low-end mannequin exists solely so Microsoft can say it sells a $400 pill.

Just like its predecessors, the Surface Go 3 is usually a fairly helpful tiny Windows gadget, although you’re paying a premium for the portability. And the worth for efficiency ration is significantly out of whack. If you’re a Windows fan, it’a good possibility as a secondary gadget for informal work and for while you need one thing extraordinarily moveable. There aren’t quite a lot of comparable Windows units on the market, and the {hardware}’s design and constructed high quality stays excellent. Just be sure you purchase the Type Cover, don’t count on a lot from pill mode and be affected person when you’re working quite a lot of apps.