A month with the Surface Go: Near-perfect portable productivity

It has been nearly four months since Microsoft has lifted the lid on its all-new ultra-portable Surface device.

Early verdicts and reviews, and the overall positive consensus, though with some reservations around its performance.

Sometimes, however, you can only have a proper perspective on a new product. Having a good time with the surface Go, I decided to put together words on what it's like working with the device – the good, the bad, and the meh. This is a collection of general thoughts and feelings on the most recent entering the Surface lineup.

Secondary laptop

I've been on the hunt for the perfect laptop "secondary" laptop for quite some time. I would have been able to make my day to day when I was going to be at home when I was going to work, I would like to use Windows machines, Android tablets mounted in keyboard cases, iPads, and Chromebooks. Not one of them has been suitable for my purposes.

I can say here that the Surface Go is the first machine I've used it, but it's not without its flaws.

My Surface Book is my day-to-day machine. It's a good device and is perfectly portable, but with a 13.5-inch screen and 1.5kg of heft it's just that little bit too bulky for light traveling. With a 10-inch screen and a weight of just one kilo (not including the keyboard), the Surface Go is a fine alternative when it comes to a machine.

I'm reading plenty of reports. I honestly did not find that to be the case – however, my hands are about average-sized for a guy. I would like to see how it would be too small for those with larger hands.

Another common complaint with the Surface Go has been directed at its performance – after all, Microsoft elected to use an Intel Pentium Gold chip, which is typically aimed at lower-end "budget" machines.

I can honestly say, but I must stress that I have not played any of these tests or benchmarks. My hunch is if you're a serious gamer, you would not be interested in the Surface Go anyway.

I usually have two browsers (Firefox and Chrome) open at any given time, each running up to 10 tabs. In terms of other desktop applications, I run Slack, Skype, Thunderbird, OneNote, Dropbox, WhatsApp, and Periodically open Affinity Photo, Microsoft Picture Manager, and Spotify. While I would not call it blazing fast, the machine rarely struggled to cope, but it was so easy. On other lower-end machines I used, that stuttering buffer icon becomes a little too commonplace for my liking – this was not an issue for me with the Surface Go.

Separately, I streamed Netflix and YouTube videos just fine.

Could I use the Surface Go as my main machine? Perhaps. But despite the benefits of its slight dimensions, my work surface book is noticeably better for my primary workflow.

But the Surface Go has got to be the perfect little machine for "on-the-go" productivity – you can slip it into the smallest of bags, and its performance really is great. Of course, its size is going to be an issue after a while – a big screen with the extra keyboard buttons has its benefits.

Power

My main complaint with the Surface Go is battery life. According to official estimates, you'll get 9 hours worth of juice under normal use – but you'll get nowhere near that. I never ran the battery completely dry, but I found that I would typically start looking at the battery after around 3 to 4 hours, and I think in a pinch I could get this 5 hours before it cuts out.

Writing this piece today while traveling, I started out with 93 percent battery, and 3.5 hours into the trip, which was 12 percent, or 24 minutes, remaining. I better plug in.

However, that is one of the trade-offs of using such a small machine. Unless you're heading out for just a few hours, you'll probably want to carry your power cable with you.

Another potential downside for many users will be the lack of ports. There is one USB-C port which, admittedly, is better than nothing, but it also renders most us USB peripherals useless. That said, I bought a small adapter from Amazon that gave me access to multiple additional ports, including USB, HDMI, and SD. You can, of course, use Bluetooth as well.

There is also a 3.5mm headphone jack, which is a nice touch, given the direction we're currently heading in the smartphone world.

The pitch

One underlying problem I have the Surface Go is the way it is pitched and marketed by Microsoft. Yes, you can use the Surface Go without the Cover Type Cover, but you probably would not want to. It really, really, really needs the Type Cover. That's what makes it what it is.

Selling the Surface Go with the type Covered by the shaded lenses, or Pizza Hut charging you extra for the base. It feels a bit like a con to me.

To be clear, I'm not saying that I can not say that this is the only way I can say that the vast majority of people will probably want this for their laptop-like qualities. And for that they will need the Type Cover.

My Surface Book was sold as a laptop, but the keyboard is bundled with the screen. When Microsoft launched the Surface Go a few months ago, I wondered how many people would buy the device.

I wonder how many people will surface Go? The marketing around it is pretty misleading IMHO. pic.twitter.com/pBk6tlRHnm

– Paul Sawers (@psawers) July 11, 2018

Bang for buck

This leads us to the value-for-money issue. On the surface, so to speak, the Surface Go represents great value for money – it starts at $ 399. But that gets you a 64GB / 4GB RAM Windows tablet, with no Type Cover. For more information, please contact me 128GB / 8GB RAM, which costs $ 549. And then you have to pay $ 99 for the Cover Type.

As you can see, an under $ 400 machine becomes a $ 650 purchase when you get into the details of what you actually get.

For my needs, it represents a value for money, but it can be used for a device. I thought it was a very important thing for me, but I thought it was just too small to be used in such a fashion. Compared to other lower-end Windows machines I've used, though, it's certainly possible to use the Surface Go as a Primary PC.

The only other thing I'd rather wait for the cellular version of the Surface Go to come to market. Being able to whip this machine out any time, any place, and not worry about Wi-Fi availability or setting up tethering on my phone would be sweet. On the flip side, which would also mean more, and the extra convenience is something.

Sure, the Surface Go will not be for everyone. If you're all-in on the cloud and Google's services, Chromebook might be better for you. But for someone with 20 years of Windows workflow and keyboard shortcuts ingrained into them, who needs access to the usual array of Windows apps embedded in a powerful-enough body, the Surface Go is just about the perfect little machine.