Surface Go Thoughts?

[mattdmg]

So I have been looking for a 2 in 1 laptop (I understand it's more of a tablet) for a while now for just regular use things like media and school. I just saw the Surface Go on Best Buy and I believe it has just come out recently. The price really is what has intrigued me the most from this device. 

 

Link: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/microsoft-surface-go-10-touch-screen-intel-pentium-gold-4gb-memory-64gb-storage-silver/6261393.p?skuId=6261393

 

Edit: Just noticed it's on pre-order and actually has not come out yet (Agust 2nd) 

[79wjd]

If you plan to heavily use the pen to take notes, then maybe, if not, then it's garbage and isn't worth touching. 

 

The Surface lineup is terrible at being a laptop and mediocre at being a tablet. The only thing it's great at is the pen support. As a laptop it's awkward to use on a small desk and very unnerving and uncomfortable to use on your lap. The keyboard and trackpad are also pretty mediocre (although not compared to $500~ devices). As a tablet, Windows is just pretty terrible compared to iOS/Android due to being a UI that really isn't designed for touch. 

 

I had a SP3 and an iPad Pro that I used exclusively for hand writing notes. Both were great at that (although I preferred the iPad due to it being an overall better touch experience, but both were still good). But I was ready to throw my SP3 out the window any time that I had to use it as a laptop (I didn't have the same desire to throw the iPad out the window mainly because I almost never used it as a laptop as I always had my laptop when using my iPad). 

[mattdmg]

3 hours ago, djdwosk97 said:

If you plan to heavily use the pen to take notes, then maybe, if not, then it's garbage and isn't worth touching. 

 

The Surface lineup is terrible at being a laptop and mediocre at being a tablet. The only thing it's great at is the pen support. As a laptop it's awkward to use on a small desk and very unnerving and uncomfortable to use on your lap. The keyboard and trackpad are also pretty mediocre (although not compared to $500~ devices). As a tablet, Windows is just pretty terrible compared to iOS/Android due to being a UI that really isn't designed for touch. 

 

I had a SP3 and an iPad Pro that I used exclusively for hand writing notes. Both were great at that (although I preferred the iPad due to it being an overall better touch experience, but both were still good). But I was ready to throw my SP3 out the window any time that I had to use it as a laptop (I didn't have the same desire to throw the iPad out the window mainly because I almost never used it as a laptop as I always had my laptop when using my iPad). 

So do you think that maybe their Surface Book meets a better criteria as a 2 in 1 tablet versus the Surface Pro and Go?

[79wjd]

8 hours ago, mattdmg said:

So do you think that maybe their Surface Book meets a better criteria as a 2 in 1 tablet versus the Surface Pro and Go?

The surface book is better since it has an actual usable base that can be more easily used on your lap and small desks, but it also suffers from being top heavy and expensive. 

[Cheesus182]

I recommend you look into refurbished machines. The Surface Go looks far too expensive for what it is and as someone mentioned before, they are mediocre tablets and poor laptops. 

In the UK you have official refurbish partners like "MCS Technology" for Dell. I got my self a Dell XPS 7275, refurbished for around 600$, cost 1200-1300$ new. (a bit less now that GBP has gone down). It came with 8GB of Ram, 256GB SSD a CPU that is plenty enough for work, word etc (no video/image editing) and its overall a good machine. 

 

In Europe refurb partners offer 1 year warranty and if you check reviews of them you can sometimes get better service than when you buy the device new.
My dell had a bug with the keyboard and they offered to immediately send me a new one and I could keep the old one or to try a change in a bios setting which ultimately solved the problem but they still offered to send a second keyboard if anything changed.

 

My point is, if you are looking for the best value/price options then look at refurbished devices. Most people stay away from them thinking they could be faulty or used but most of the refurbed devices have tiny cosmetic damages that means they can't sell them as new anymore. Also, refurbed machines tend to undergo more thorough testing than new devices.

The cosmetic "damage" on my Dell was 3 tiny scratches, the length or the tip of a pencil at the top of the screen that you can only see if you tilt it at an unusable angle. I've never noticed them after looking for them on day 1.

 

 

[Darkseth]

Depends what exactly you want to do with it.

 

I can see a niche on the surface Go:

Students who want to take notes digitally, instead pen/paper. Going "paperless" etc, who still gonna do some x86 stuff, like special applications (full Photoshop (but Adobe want to bring it to iOS soon), AutoCAD software for some basic stuff), full Office with USB-Stick support and Mouse....

.... While keeping a high focus on Digital note taking with One Note.

 

Otherwise, an iPad 2018 will be like over 100 bucks cheaper, and will do perfectly fine with Digital Note Taking (even better, because there are much more Apps to chose from - i personally prefer Notability over One note).

 

If you do NOT want to use the surface Pen / don't need the Surface Pen, a surface isn't really the best choice.