Surface Go Reviews Are All Over the Place (arstechnica.com) 98
The reviews for Microsoft's Surface Go tablet are in, and they're all over the place. While the press generally agrees that the processor is slow and can only handle light tasks, such as browsing and mail, there are mixed conclusions as to whether or not the 10-inch, $399 tablet is worth buying. Ars Technica's Peter Bright summarizes: So, should you buy one? That's hard to say. Mashable was a fairly unequivocal "no:" for light productivity, a Chromebook or iPad does the job for less money, and the performance is too problematic for anything much beyond that. On the other side of the coin, Windows Central reckoned that "as a mini-PC [Surface Go] is about as good as you can get," and Ed Bott said, "It's the best cheap PC I've ever used." Gizmodo called it the "perfect representation of what laptops at this price should be."
For everyone else, it depends. TechCrunch says that it's worth a look, but there's no shortage of competition around this price point. Acer and Lenovo, among others, offer decent systems that are a bit cheaper. PCWorld concludes that, if you want a tablet, get an honest-to-god tablet (which is to say, an iPad) rather than a system with Windows 10. But if you want something small and light and might just need the full flexibility of a PC, Go is the system to go for. Engadget acknowledged that the Go is "full of compromises" but that, as a "secondary device," the keyboard and software compatibility give it the edge over other tablets. The Verge concludes similarly: it's "probably not the right thing to be your only computer," but it could have a "real place" as a secondary machine. And VentureBeat took a similar line: if you really want the flexibility of a two-in-one, "you're unlikely to find anything better," but if you want either a laptop or a tablet, "you'll find better options for less." As a refresher, the Surface Go features a 10-inch touchscreen display with a 1800x1200 (217 PPI) resolution and 3:2 aspect ratio, an Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y Kaby Lake processor with up to 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage via a SSD (the 64GB eMMC variant features 4GB of RAM), integrated Intel HD Graphics 615, and "up to 9 hours" of battery life. The base model is just $399, compared to the $549 model with 128GB/8GB RAM.
$700 bucks (after the keyboard) is not a cheap PC (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:$700 bucks (after the keyboard) is not a cheap (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh look at that. You can buy a non tablet, without stylus or touchscreen for that price. Please tell us about all those other things that are completely different you can buy for that price.
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https://www.amazon.com/GPD-WIN... [amazon.com]
GPD Win 2. Actually a tablet with touchscreen, but also folds out into gaming controls. If I had money to burn I'd do it but I don't have the around $750-850 USD to burn depending on where you get it.
Neato (Score:2)
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> tablet with touchscreen
It is more like a phablet (minus the phone stuff) with a controller.
GPD is a very niche product, not anywhere in the same space as the Surface Go.
Go was reviewed to have a good keyboard, for the form factor. I would not do any serious typing or reading with the GPD.
Or I could buy the $500 Asus (Score:2)
Tablets are for consuming quick, cheap content. They're the computer equivalent to potato chips. I don't need a $700 potato chip when a $90 one will do nicely.
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I don't need a $700 potato chip when a $90 one will do nicely.
What concerns me is all these high end tablets and smart phones store a ridiculous amount of energy in their batteries. They are one structural breach away from a very serious situation, yet look how well they aren't built.
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While your point might seem to make sense, it doesn't match up with realty.
There are the literal billions of phones and tablets that have been sold and the number that have failed dangerously is exceedingly small. The few times the failure rate reached approached single digit percentages (Note7, certain 'hoverboards', etc.) have prompted speedy recalls.
So no, it's not one structural breach away from an apocalypse.
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I have one, it really isn't all that great performace-wise even though I think that is mostly due to the eMMC storage. The screen is very nice, and touch works well.
It works surprisingly well for a tablet though, and the (outdated) Android is smooth as silk. Windows 10 less so, but I'm not certain whether that's due to the tablet or the clunkiness of Windows in tablet mode. It works well enough for casual surfing and the keyboard is good enough for the occasional longer email.
Is it as
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That 3:2 aspect ratio, RAM is worth paying for. Add Linux in and the user has some real nice computing.
Which distro would you use the get the most out of touchscreen and stylus?
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Keyboard and mouse?
Might as well buy a decent laptop with built in keyboard then
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Why are you comparing with laptops that are in an entirely different class? These laptops weigh 3 times more and have 1/2 the battery life.
I have one of these laptops. I don't intend to lug mine around very much. The power brick is heavy and I don't trust it to last my day on battery alone. If I was in the market for a Surface Go, it would be because I need a simple, ergonomic machine that I can carry with me all the time.
If you think this is overpriced, by all means, compare with other 10" Windows devices
Because performance (Score:2)
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You sound like a dumb carpenter who bought all light tools because they were easier to carry. Small hammers, tiny saws, oh wait, kind of stupid huh. How much time do you spend carrying it around versus how much time do you spend using it versus how much it slows you down when you are trying to use.
M$ you get the review you pay for, surprise, surprise, surprise. M$ is left with nothing but it's desktop monopoly and it is killing that as we speak, due to insatiable greed, and that greed being pretty darned
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I'm not a huge fan of these as I had a surface pro with work that was flakey as, but it's $500 including keyboard for the base model, and you've compared a 10" lightweight tablet with two 15" laptops, neither of which have touch or a tablet mode of any sort.
So a search for 2 in 1 with a 10-12" screen, no atom processor, 4+gb ram, 64+gb SSD gives you this:
https://www.newegg.com/Product... [newegg.com]
eMMC or flash storage is basically worthless, so ignore any of those.
https://www.newegg.com/Product... [newegg.com]
That guy is $150 che
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I was checking out the ASUS laptop you linked. I think the SSD is SATA rather than NVMe.
Is getting a SATA SSD a good idea? I thought SATA doesn't allow you to use the full potential of SSD.
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To be fair, you don't have to buy the official keyboard. You could always get a regular portable bluetooth keyboard for $20-$30. They also sell third party Surface keyboard replicas for under $50 if you really want a trackpad.
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sure people are using it like a laptop but it's a tablet
I'd flip that around: sure people are using it like a tablet, but it's a laptop. Please don't mind that it's even less ergonomic than an ultrabook, way slower, awful keyboard, falls over when you poke the screen. But it is lighter than an ultrabook, pretty good for a backpack or airplane dinner tray, and there is the tablet thing.
I can see this being mildly popular. Linux probably installs on it easily, without the developer mode annoyance of Chromebook. Similar price to low end Chromebooks but with several
So it's good then... (Score:2)
A niche product that is very appealing for a specific use case is successful when that use case is common enough to be profitable.
The overall sentiment from the reviews looks like it's good as a secondary/convenience device. It's relatively affordable, and tablets are the clear winner for comfortable casual use on beds, couches, etc.
It should be a good entertainment device which can support basic productivity apps.
I honestly don't know why anyone tried running Photoshop on it; with 8 GB and 16 GB options, i
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Because one of uses for these devices it to take on vacation/trips to allow immediate processing of photos without being concerned about leaving it in the hotel room or car.
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In general I agree, although noting that any camera beyond a cell phone these days is generating 25 MB images and a lightweight machine does need to be able to handle them in Photoshop or just Irfan. The ultralightweight Lenovo I purchased for that purpose turned out to be unable to handle the load, so testing in Photoshop with a few modern-sized files is reasonable.
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There are two distinct models. The higher end model has an SSD with 8gb of ram.
The real niche for a product like this is for those of us who, for better or worse, use Microsoft products for work. Outlook for iOS just isn't robust enough. I have a top of the line Surface Book 2, so this device - when an LTE model becomes available - will be far more useful than an iPad. I can run Office 365, full outlook, word and excel and most importantly my firm's custom plugins. I don't plan on getting a huge amount o
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At which point what is the point? There are android tablets of similar price range if all you want to do is surf and watch YouTube. It's not like it's gutsy enough to run any of the windows software that would differentiate it enough, and Microsoft's app store still blows compared to Google's or Apple's. So you're going to buy a tablet that's at the bottom end, can only run the lowest part of the windows ecosydtem's available software. If I still wanted a tablet (which I don't) I'd buy something that would
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tablets are the clear winner for comfortable casual use on beds, couches, etc.
AKA 'watching porn'.
Microsoft Math (Score:3, Insightful)
$399 for the tablet, $99 for the pen, $99 for the keyboard
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don't forget that the base model has not-enough RAM and slow-as-shit storage...
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I was going to call you out for that ridiculous estimate on the price of the pen.
DAAAAMMMMNNNN...they really are $99.
That's ridiculous.
Okay, maybe they are super and special in some way. I don't know, and I don't care. But you were right...I almost apologize for my initial disbelief.
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How the fuck are a pen and keyboard worth $100 each? That's Apple levels of bullshit pricing right there.
Sorry Microsoft, your reality distortion field isn't nearly powerful enough to justify that kind of pricing. At least they don't block cheaper 3rd party pens though.
Honestly I don't get this one (Score:5, Informative)
It's marketed as more of a workhorse compared to the iPad pro and then proceeds to include something more restrictive to actual work: Windows 10 S locked down with the complete lack of software that is available from the Windows Store.
It's compared to the rest of the Surface line which is mostly made up higher end and quite capable devices, and like the original abortion of the Surface RT is nothing like it's brethren.
It's pushed towards education at a higher price class than most of the competitors.
It's being compared to laptops which it's not. It's being compared to cheap which it's not.
Honestly, buy a tablet, buy a laptop, or buy a proper Surface Pro, and if you're hell bent on restrictive cheaper devices there's a Chromebook that is right for you.
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It's a reboot of Surface 3; better processor, better battery life, smaller, lighter.
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It's a reboot of Surface 3; better processor, better battery life, smaller, lighter.
Higher screen resolution. Retargeted to the K-12 market imho. Maybe if they drop it to $450 with the keyboard it will get some traction.
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It's pushed towards education at a higher price class than most of the competitors.
Microsoft owns a sizable chunk of that market, especially outside USA:
Windows PCs gain share in K-12 in the US, but Chromebooks still dominate [zdnet.com]
Interesting point is how thoroughly Google and Microsoft have killed off Apple in the education space. Fact is, this market is price sensitive and Apple just can't deliver. Remember how Apple use to regard educational sales as a priority, because kids then grow up with built in brand loyalty? I sense a disturbance in that force.
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Windows owns that market. Microsoft hardware does not.
Also my wife is a teacher and Apple is still in that market well and truly much to her disgust. The difference in what we're hearing is that Apple regarded the tablet as the future of education. That has been utterly killed now. Places where you see Apple in education are using Macbooks very against the Apple strategy, but the reality is many people tried iPads then replaced them with PCs.
Her current school is a Macbook school (formerly an iPad school).
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You're not locked on 10S, you can switch to the regular version of windows anytime.
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You clearly do not understand anything about Windows 10. The Windows 10 S lockdown is welcome, as the singular problem with Windows is its legacy support. For a student - using Office and Edge are more than sufficient. All of that said, turning off the S mode is simple.
I'm mystified people who praise the iPad pro. What kind of work can be done on it?
I'm a professional who writes technical, financial reports for a living. For better or worse, my world is Microsoft Office, and while the iOS apps are some
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Windows 10 S is dead, they replaced it with "S Mode". This is just normal Windows 10 Home or Pro but with a box ticked to enable the S mode restrictions.
You can untick the box for free.
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+1 Informative. Anyone with mod points?
Cheers for that. Did not know MS backtracked on that.
6 watt Pentium processor (Score:4, Informative)
6 watt Pentium processor, Windows 10... what could possibly go wrong? I think Microsoft is going to sell quite a few of these, to people who want real windows on a real PC that is also a kind of heavy and slow tablet with mediocre battery life. But Windows! Outlook express (is that still a thing?) Microsoft Office, student edition or whatever. The list of compelling reasons why you need this gets really short, but hey, there are a lot of Windows users out there and just by the numbers game a bunch of them will buy in on the principle that it works exactly as badly as the aging laptop they already have, except slower and not upgradaeble. Booyah.
This may be the product that convincingly demonstrates the unfixable weakness of Intel Architecture for ultra mobile. Two cores + hyperthreading, 1.6 GHz. 15 watt TDP. Thirsty little bugger for such a low clock rate and core count. OK, it's going to work but the 4+4 core Snapdragon 845 at 2.8 GHz will absolutely kick its tail. Microsoft's problem: ARM Windows is not Real Windows. Ouch.
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6 watt Pentium processor, Windows 10... what could possibly go wrong?
MELTDOWN, SPECTRE, and the most invasive piece of spyware in history.
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The processor is fine for what most people would use it for.
I don't know about that. It's a relatively high resolution screen and the single core throughput is low at 1.6 GHz even decent IPC on Kaby Lake. Marginally better than Atom. Reviewers are less than impressed.
Probably fine for KDE/Linux, but Windows 10... hmm.
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The worst Achilles Heel for the $399 Surface Go is the 32GB eMMC storage. eMMC has close to the same performance as an old 5400RPM laptop hard drive. You have to upgrade to the more expensive models of the Go to get a higher performance SSD.
Does it run... (Score:2)
eeepc replacement? (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually bought one. I've been looking for a while for something that's lighter and has better battery life than my antique Thinkpad.
It wasn't cheap. $550 for the tablet part, $100 for a keyboard, and $100 to upgrade to non-crippleware Windows. You can actually switch to Windows 10 Home for free but it doesn't support Bitlocker. (WTF?)
Despite all the astroturfing I've seen about these online, no one else was looking at them in the store and the staff seemed surprised when I asked to buy it.
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Despite all the astroturfing I've seen about these online, no one else was looking at them in the store and the staff seemed surprised when I asked to buy it.
When even the salesdroids wonder what's wrong with you when you declare your intention to make a purchase, you should be smart enough to spin on your heel and walk over to a different decision.
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You should have seen the look on their faces when I asked for a paper receipt. After some deliberation they sent the smallest guy crawling through the dust bunnies to get it. Apparently the printer is taped to the bottom of a huge table.
And yeah I'm fully prepared to use the return policy if I don't like it.
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There are better Windows tablets than a Surface Pro though. That's the problem, the market is saturated with low-end cheap tablets and iPad-like devices running Linux, Windows and Android (both ARM and x86). The Surface Pro is about twice the cost than its competition.
If you want a productivity device, get a true tablet (Android or iOS), you can get all the "productivity" applications (eg. MS Office, OpenOffice, Terminal emulators, Remote Desktop of various sort (VNC, RDP, X11) and SSH. Windows isn't necess
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You're a sysadmin. You have no idea what "productivity" applications are. iOS and Android are useless for anyone who makes money writing complex analytical documents.
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Word is available on both iOS and Android, tablets aren't intended to be desktop-replacements though. You're not coding or writing papers on them for 8 hours straight, they are simply not dimensioned for that.
Not sure I would have gone that route? (Score:2)
I work at a company where we deploy Surface Pros as our standard issue Windows portable for employees -- so I'm quite familiar with them. I looked at the new Surface Go the first day they announced it, but I thought it was a little too small and under-powered. The low starting price only gives you a 128GB SSD for storage, too. That's just a non-starter to me for a Windows machine.
And really? The keyboard covers are a pretty big compromise with any Surface... I hate typing on them except for real casual us
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The Surface Laptop looks nice but at that point I might as well grab my Thinkpad x201 and have a better keyboard than anything on the market today :)
I guess I have fond memories of using my old Eee PC rather than lugging around a proper laptop. I don't know yet if the Go can actually fill that role but it has a better chance than any other 10-inch device that I've been able to find.
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Your EeePC cost half as much, had USB ports and in most of them you could upgrade the memory and harddrive/SSD.
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Correct Link (Score:2)
The correct Ars Technica link - https://arstechnica.com/gadget... [arstechnica.com]
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Oh no! I'm sure Microsoft is devastated!
The problem isn't the hardware (Score:2)
The problem isn't the hardware, it's worse - it's Windows. Windows users don't seem to notice it, because they haven't seen anything else run on the same hardware. But geeze, once you've used a Chromebook or Linux for a while then load Windows on the same machine, it's infuriating. Particularly on the slower stuff (that still works perfectly well running something else), Windows is like moving through molasses. I've seen it take 10 seconds to response to a click on the start menu. Microsoft has gone to
The reviews are all over the place... (Score:2)
...because the Surface Go is all over the place. The lowest priced model, the from $399 model is not worth the price with its shitty specs running Windows 10. The higher end models with more capable specs fit their price a little better but are then hobbled by their shitty ergonomics and UX. In order to remedy the ergonomics you need to spend more money to add a keyboard and trackpad that doesn't totally destroy the mobility of the device.
At every step you've got a inadequate device. If you want a small Win
I stopped (Score:2)
I stopped when I saw the Microsoft logo. Some of their hardware is okay, but the Surface has always been an overpriced dog in which I have zero interest.
If it fits someone else's use case, great, but I'd never buy one even with deep, deep discounts.
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Get a used ThinkPad instead (Score:4, Funny)
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But the bezels, man, the bezels....
(I have two similar boxes. IMHO, you only want the X230s. Pretty sure X200 and 210 only have the eraser mouse thing, and the X220 keyboard layout is ridiculous.
Completely usable, of course.)
For light tasks (Score:1)