Customer Ratings & Reviews

Wanted the laptop that had 128GB HD. Bought the one that had 64 GB by mistake

This is a long review, so for the impatient here’s the bottom line: I picked up the 8GB Ram/128 SSD bundle with the included keyboard cover on sale for $499.00 and would highly recommend *at that price* if you are looking for a very-portable travel machine. For more details, please read on… First a word about how I am using a PC like this. I have a very powerful virtual reality and triple-screen desktop for high-end gaming and getting real work done. I also have a couple other laptops that serve specific needs (gaming, scientific computation). What I was looking for with the Surface Go was a super-portable, reasonably capable machine for traveling. I wanted something I could use on a plane and in a hotel room to listen to music, read books and pdfs, get some typical productivity work done (documents and presentations, mostly, but also writing sheet music and tablature) and do some gaming. (Gaming on a Surface Go? Yep. I’ll write more on that below.) For my needs as described above, the Go is a great travel companion. I’ll list some pros and cons below. Pros: Build Quality - very good. No complaints. Audio Quality – surprisingly good for such a small computer. It’s not particularly loud, but it actually sounds decent with the types of music I listen to most often on it (acoustic stringed instruments, female vocals, chamber music. Don’t expect much if your tastes lean toward bass-heavy music.) Sometimes, the openness of the soundstage surprises me. Weight – excellent. Even with the keyboard cover, this is a very light package. Portability – excellent. Tablet + keyboard cover is still a very small, portable package. Keyboard – very nice for a keyboard this small. It’s backlit, the keys have a decent amount of travel and click for my tastes, and the trackpad is great (good size, responsive, smooth). USB-C charging – yes! I use a 60W Anker USN-C charger I have and works perfectly. It’s nice to be able to travel with only a single power cable for phone, computer and Android tablet. Cons: Battery life – average. It’s not horrible, but it’s not great either. Price – As I wrote, I bought the bundle on sale and think it’s a good deal at the price I paid, but at or near normal price I think the Go is too expensive. You can find more performance for the money elsewhere (though it must be said, not in this super-portable form factor). SSD size – 128GB today is just too small, though I’ve managed to get quite a bit on there. Lack of upgradability/replaceability. I don’t believe anything in the Go is easily upgradable/replaceable, so this really is a shame. Connectivity – There’s not much of it. You’ve got the Surface connector for charging, one USB-C, and a microSD slot. A USB-A port would’ve been very nice. Neither Pro nor Con: Performance - It’s not the most powerful computer (not by a long shot), but it’s powerful *enough* for how I’m using it, and once you switch it out of S mode, it is a full 64-bit Win 10 machine, which makes it *much* more versatile than an iPad or Android tablet. And now a word about gaming: many people will look at a PC like the Surface Go and not even bother, but I love to see exactly how far I can push hardware, and I also believe that any PC is a *gaming* PC if you choose the right games. There are plenty of fantastic games from many genres that run very well on the Go. Many are older titles, but great games do not cease to be fun because they are old. So…I’ve loaded up my Go with a number of these classics, all of which can be run at 60fps or more. Yes, for some you’ll need to reduce graphical options or screen resolution, but the Go’s screen is so small that even at very reduced resolutions the games look fine and are still completely playable. Here is the list of games I am currently playing on my Go: • Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 • Counter-Strike: Condition Zero • Counter-Strike: Source • DIRT • Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion • Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved • GTR 2 – FIA GT Racing Game • No One Lives Forever • No One Lives Forever 2 • Pinball Arcade • Race 07 with the following expansions: GT Power, GTR Evolution, Formula Raceroom, Race On, STCC, STCC2, WTCC 2010 pack, the Retro Expansion • Sid Meier’s Civilization IV • Silent Hunter III • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic • Thief Gold • Unreal Tournament 2004 This gives me a nice variety of first-person shooters, racing simulations, arcade games, RPGs and strategy. On a little machine like this, I prefer playing games against AI and bots rather than against actual humans, and most of these titles are particularly good for that purpose, offering endless replay-ability. Other applications I’m running without problems include: • Microsoft Office • Firefox browser • VLC • Audacity • Revo Uninstaller • CCleaner • Cloud Library • Kindle for PC • TablEdit (sheet music and tablature creation) • Zoom video conferencing • Steam • Gog • Pandora • Overdrive • Amazon Music I’ve got about 29 GB free on the SSD (but that’s because I also keep a 256GB micro-SD card in with about 200GB filled with music and the rest free for my files and for Pinball Arcade, a fairly large title that I knew from past experience runs with no issue from a microSD card). One tip – when you first get the Go, after all the Windows 10 updates are completed, make sure you run Disk Cleanup and click Clean Up System Files. Then make sure you delete previous installations of Windows. This freed up over 30 GB (!) on my Go. I’m using the Go with a Logitech M535 Bluetooth mouse (~$25.00) without any issues. And for those games that really shine with a gamepad, I use the Logitech F310, a great controller that can be had for ~$15.00. The F310 has a USB-A connector (and the Go does not), but I use a USB-A to USB-C adapter by Benfei to plug it into the Go (you can pick up a 5 pack of these for ~$12.00). Works perfectly. I’ve also used the Sony Dualshock4 controller via Bluetooth using DS4Windows. It too works perfectly well. So...to wrap this up I will again just state that if you are looking for a versatile and extremely portable travel companion that will allow you to be productive, consume media (movies, books, etc.) and have some fun gaming, the Surface Go really has no peer. While there are some things that may be done better on an iPad or an Android tablet, neither is as versatile as this tiny fully functional Windows 10 machine. Combine this with a 10” Kindle Fire for a killer travel combo. (Just don’t forget to add the Google Play Store to the Fire.) I find the two complement each other very well, but that’s a story for a different review. I hope someone found this helpful.

Great product. Would recommend this merchandise to anyone attending college.

Love it just what I needed. Had it since 1/7/20. Would recommend to others.

Easy to use and great quality. The customer service is so so.

Replacing a tablet with a more versatile option. Very pleased so far.

It’s good for word processing but if you are going to use for much multitasking then this isn’t for you.

I am pleased wit my purchase. however I have tried 3x to install my protection and I am having problems.

Works good i’d like the Microsoft office tris compurer was perfect for a gift

Great salesman helped my mother and I pick the perfect new computer for her.

Feels like a laptop and a tablet. So quick and great screen quality

No complaints so far and works great as a weekday substitute for my laptop

Is just the right size with enough memory for what we need to do daily.

This is a really great product but I do wish the pen wasn’t extra.

Not a bad product. Would definitely recommend to a friend!

It is great for school students, also for adult Love it.

Working well for games, program watching and communications.

Love this for school and play. So amazing. Very satisfied.

Great laptop/tablet. good speed and memory. Screen is small.

Grandkids love it for digital art especially.. Great buy.