Microsoft reveals the $399 Surface Go

[midian182]

What just happened? After the company all but confirmed that the device was about to be unveiled, Microsoft has lifted the lid on the Surface Go. The 10-inch hybrid tablet is the newest entry in the Surface line and is essentially a smaller and less powerful version of the Surface Pro.

With a $399 starting price, the new device is a lot cheaper than the Surface Pro’s $799. When it launches on August 2, the Surface Go’s base model will come with 4GB of 1866MHz LPDDR3 RAM and 64 GB of eMMC storage, though this can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, raising the price to $549.

The Go retains the Surface’s 3:2 aspect ratio, while the 10-inch IPS touchscreen sports an 1800 x 1200 resolution. It’s powered by a seventh-generation (Kaby Lake) dual-core 1.6GHz Pentium Gold 4415Y processor, which Microsoft says gives a good balance of performance, thermal properties, and battery life—it has a fanless design and the company says you'll get nine hours from a single charge. A Wi-Fi-only model will arrive first, with LTE-equipped versions launching later in the year.

The Surface Go’s keyboard seen in the photos will be sold separately for $99 or $129 for the Signature Type Cover, which uses a scissor key mechanism and has 1mm of key travel. There’s also a new version of the Surface Pen, which also costs $99. Another new accessory is the Surface Mobile Mouse, an ambidextrous, Bluetooth mouse powered by a pair of AAA batteries and priced at $34.99.

Connectivity-wise, there’s the Surface Connect port and USB Type-C 3.1, as well as a 3.5mm headphone jack and MicroSDXC.

As it’s aimed at the education market, taking on the likes of the new iPad and Chromebooks, the Surface Go runs Windows 10 Home in S Mode out of the box, meaning owners can only access Microsoft Store apps. It is possible, however, to switch to the full Windows 10 experience for free. There will be a commercial variant that ships with Windows 10 Pro and features a 256GB SSD.

The Surface Go is available to pre-order now in select countries. It arrives in stores on August 2. Full specs are below:

• OS: Windows 10 Home in S mode (consumers), Windows 10 Pro configurable to S mode (commercial)
• Dimensions: 9.6 inches x 6.9 inches x .33 inches (245mm x 175mm x 8.3mm)
• Mechanical features: Magnesium body, kickstand with full-friction multiposition hinge to 165 degrees, magnetic attach for keyboard fold stability
• Color: Platinum
• Physical buttons: volume, power
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Screen: 10-inch PixelSense Display
• Resolution: 1800×1200 (217 PPI)
• Aspect Ratio: 3:2 Touch: 10-point multi-touch
• Processor: Intel Pentium Gold Processor 4415Y
• Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 615
• Memory: 4GB/8GB RAM 1866Mhz LPDDR3
• Storage: 64GB eMMC, 128GB/256GB Solid State Drive
• Security: Enterprise-grade protection with Windows Hello face sign-in TPM 2.0 for enterprise security
• Network: Wi-Fi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac compatible, Bluetooth Wireless 4.1 technology, LTE Optional
• Cameras: 5.0MP front-facing camera with 1080p HD video, 8.0MP rear-facing autofocus camera with 1080p HD video
• Audio: Dual microphones, stereo speakers with Dolby Audio Premium
• Ports: USB Type C, Surface Connect, MicroSDXC card reader, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Sensors: Ambient light sensor, Accelerometer, Gyroscope
• Power supply: 24 W power supply

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https://www.techspot.com/news/75425-microsoft-reveals-399-surface-go-10-inch-ipad.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Well, they are getting closer but by the time you outfit it you can buy a decent laptop with more bells and whistles ..... can't say they impressed me on this go around .....

 

[Trillionsin]

Looks like a glorified netbook to me. Least it has a Pentium in it, could have put a Celeron in the damn things.

You'd be stupid to get the 64GB model... then again I'm a little confused...

Storage: 64GB eMMC, 128GB/256GB Solid State Drive

Is that 64GB + 128 or 256? or is that just three different options? eMMC is still solid state, correct? Not sure why it's listing this like it is. I'm assuming there's 3 different models and 64 is the base, as per the start of the article.

Uncle Al has a good point, add in a keyboard at 99, a pen at 99, and a mouse at 35 and you may as well just bought a nicer laptop with an i5 in it at least.

Since you can't really do **** with a 64GB model...

though this can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, raising the price to $549.
Plus pen, plus keyboard, plus mouse = $782 roughly.

Here's your basic run of the mill HP WITH an i7 processor. @ $619.89
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B8X7Z5G/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20

Alright, so you don't get a pen, and a mouse for that price sure... but one guy was already saying the pen is crap and not to buy it. I mean, why you going to buy a surface tablet and not get the pen? that's like the whole point... like getting a Galaxy Note phone and not ever using the sPen... you probably should have just gotten the S series (or other brand android phone of your choice) and saved the money. lmao

I guess it really just depends on what you want to do with it, but if more people realized that everything comes down to the processor, when it's a Celeron or Pentium, there's nothing you can do about it... you have an expensive slow piece of junk that all you can really do is check your email and maybe stream some video. That could be handled by a <$200 netbook.

 

[Kibaruk]

The pen is rubbish, I've almost never used it in the pro version, you can get that one out of the need-to-have list.

I like the mouse it's cool looking while being way less expensive than the ARC bluetooth.

I don't believe it's meant to be the one source of computing, the device is interesting, I'll give them that.

 

[GregonMaui]

Now if they would just ditch Windows!

 

[Faplyboy]

Common
we are in 2018 and there are such big bezzels as fist ipads had had them… I know price "isnt much" during 2018 price range standards (iphone x) but less bezzels would be apreciated

 

[Faplyboy]

Looks like a glorified netbook to me. Least it has a Pentium in it, could have put a Celeron in the damn things.

You'd be stupid to get the 64GB model... then again I'm a little confused...

Storage: 64GB eMMC, 128GB/256GB Solid State Drive

Is that 64GB + 128 or 256? or is that just three different options? eMMC is still solid state, correct? Not sure why it's listing this like it is. I'm assuming there's 3 different models and 64 is the base, as per the start of the article.

Uncle Al has a good point, add in a keyboard at 99, a pen at 99, and a mouse at 35 and you may as well just bought a nicer laptop with an i5 in it at least.

Since you can't really do **** with a 64GB model...

though this can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, raising the price to $549.
Plus pen, plus keyboard, plus mouse = $782 roughly.

Here's your basic run of the mill HP WITH an i7 processor. @ $619.89
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B8X7Z5G/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20

Alright, so you don't get a pen, and a mouse for that price sure... but one guy was already saying the pen is crap and not to buy it. I mean, why you going to buy a surface tablet and not get the pen? that's like the whole point... like getting a Galaxy Note phone and not ever using the sPen... you probably should have just gotten the S series (or other brand android phone of your choice) and saved the money. lmao

I guess it really just depends on what you want to do with it, but if more people realized that everything comes down to the processor, when it's a Celeron or Pentium, there's nothing you can do about it... you have an expensive slow piece of junk that all you can really do is check your email and maybe stream some video. That could be handled by a <$200 netbook.

ur damn right

 

[regiq]

Nice, but will it run linux?

 

[petert]

Thick bezels around the screen like it is 2012. S mode makes it unusable. Already obsolete hardware wise ... yep ... just like ... previous surface models.

 

[texasrattler]

MS would had to have to add the keyboard or at least the pen to make it a good deal. the low 4gb and 64gb space is just ridiculous. Several computers that are like that are slow, have very lil space to even add anything, most people will also forget that MS updates will override everything when more space is needed. Meaning you will have to uninstall adds when more space is needed for the updates.

Another issue, S Mode? Wtf are they thinking, MS has already announced S mode will simply be apart of win 10 in the future. There is no reason for it in a device as a main OS.

 

[texasrattler]

The pen is rubbish, I've almost never used it in the pro version, you can get that one out of the need-to-have list.

I like the mouse it's cool looking while being way less expensive than the ARC bluetooth.

I don't believe it's meant to be the one source of computing, the device is interesting, I'll give them that.

Umm, im pretty sure the pen has been classed as one of the best pens made. Ive never heard it classed as rubbish. Sounds like personal nonsense.
Im not referring to the new pen but the one Pro versions use.

 

[texasrattler]

Looks like a glorified netbook to me. Least it has a Pentium in it, could have put a Celeron in the damn things.

You'd be stupid to get the 64GB model... then again I'm a little confused...



Is that 64GB + 128 or 256? or is that just three different options? eMMC is still solid state, correct? Not sure why it's listing this like it is. I'm assuming there's 3 different models and 64 is the base, as per the start of the article.

Uncle Al has a good point, add in a keyboard at 99, a pen at 99, and a mouse at 35 and you may as well just bought a nicer laptop with an i5 in it at least.

Since you can't really do **** with a 64GB model...

though this can be upgraded to 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, raising the price to $549.
Plus pen, plus keyboard, plus mouse = $782 roughly.

Here's your basic run of the mill HP WITH an i7 processor. @ $619.89
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B8X7Z5G/?tag=httpwwwtechsp-20

Alright, so you don't get a pen, and a mouse for that price sure... but one guy was already saying the pen is crap and not to buy it. I mean, why you going to buy a surface tablet and not get the pen? that's like the whole point... like getting a Galaxy Note phone and not ever using the sPen... you probably should have just gotten the S series (or other brand android phone of your choice) and saved the money. lmao

I guess it really just depends on what you want to do with it, but if more people realized that everything comes down to the processor, when it's a Celeron or Pentium, there's nothing you can do about it... you have an expensive slow piece of junk that all you can really do is check your email and maybe stream some video. That could be handled by a <$200 netbook.

MS pricing and they way they do any of it, is nothing new. Not sure why you seem to be surprised by it when they have been doing it this way for years. The Surface has always sold so I doubt that will be changing.

The 256gb version is not for consumers for what I could tell. So itll be sold to like corporations or the NFL.

The pen has never been crap unless the new one is a cheap version of the Pros version.

 

[Sausagemeat]

Unbelievable that they are shipping 4GB of RAM in the cheap models. 4GB really isn’t fit for purpose anymore, even for office based machines. MS own Office 365 suite will push the limits on that let alone Chrome. Looks like pretty good waste of money to me.

 

[nismo91]

At this price you also have the acer switch, which comes with worse N4200 cpu, similar memory and storage but with 12.2" FHD screen. although I predict the surface will have "better" screen and built quality.

the 549$ option is not worth as with 629$ you can get acer switch alpha with i7 processor and 256gb storage.

and what's with the Windows 10 "S" mode again? it just doesn't work.

 

[Kibaruk]

Umm, im pretty sure the pen has been classed as one of the best pens made. Ive never heard it classed as rubbish. Sounds like personal nonsense.
Im not referring to the new pen but the one Pro versions use.

It might be the best constructed and feature packed pen out there, for all that I care it could write upside down, have I seen anyone in the company actually using it? I use it sometimes to present or to explain certain things, using it as a sort of whiteboard pen (And even then I get comments like "You are the first one I see actually using it for something productive"), I can do almost exactly the same thing with my hand so in a 99,9% of the time it sits in the bag.
We also have a bunch of Hubs around so it's not that no one knows how to work with a digital pen.

It's rubbish as in it's not really useful.

 

[bas416]

Pathetic cpu. Battery and ssd will be non repairable, anything need to be done cracks the screen. This is a fancy netbook.

 

[mark kram]

This is essentially an updated surface 3. We have the 4GB memory, 64 GB MMC, base model that I got for my wife. We use Edge and surprisingly Edge does not eat up the memory. I got her a docking station and a 128K flash drive to support it and give it more storage. All pictures, movies, and apps are stored on the flash drive. The 2 core Pentium appears to be slower than her 4 core Atom and compared to an i5 or i7 the atom is slower than molasses.

 

[mark kram]

Unbelievable that they are shipping 4GB of RAM in the cheap models. 4GB really isn’t fit for purpose anymore, even for office based machines. MS own Office 365 suite will push the limits on that let alone Chrome. Looks like pretty good waste of money to me.

My wife has a surface 3 and edge has worked well with it. Edge will still eat 4gb of desktop memory with 9 tabs running.

 

[woofer]

Thick bezels around the screen like it is 2012. S mode makes it unusable. Already obsolete hardware wise ... yep ... just like ... previous surface models.

Look just about big enough to get a decent grip on it in tablet mode. Bigger, heavier tablets need more bezel for leverage (unless you squeeze tennis balls all the time, and don't have carpal tunnel syndrome...).

S Mode is for something of a lockdown on "rogue" programs, which might be suitable for k-12 school usage. From what I have read, it is easy enough to convert it to the optional Windows Pro version for full software flexibility (as much as Win 10 allows, anyway - hoping Linux will be an option to add ourselves as I understand the predecessor Surface 3 could be done).

 

[woofer]

Nice, but will it run linux?

Hoping for that, and that its edges will fit in the slot of my Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet 2 bluetooth keyboard with optical Trackpoint (no pad under my thumbs for random cursor placement!), which has dimensions very close to this model (half-inch difference in both length/width dimensions, so dunno if that would be tolerable for packing...).