(Pocket-lint) – The Surface Laptop Go 2 is Microsoft’s MacBook Air. But not today’s MacBook Air. It’s like the Air we had a few years ago that midrange buyers could actually afford to buy.
It’s the portable laptop you can imagine getting in the hands of a student or someone who doesn’t consider technology a hobby. The Surface Laptop Go 2 offers great portability, enough gloss to look like an expensive style laptop, and a starting price of £529.
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A flashier version of this laptop is the Surface Laptop 4, which starts at £1269 with the same class of CPU you see here.
The Surface Laptop Go 2 makes sense for many buyers, and the version Microsoft sent us is powerful enough for a completely uncompromising everyday experience. This version costs £729, which is significantly higher than the starting price of £529.
As always, Microsoft upgrades don’t come cheap. And sadly, this is the exact version I’d recommend to anyone who has to deal with large amounts of data and needs to do more than basic Office tasks.
Price competition from Asus, Acer, Lenovo, and HP is fierce, and some are worth more than the Surface Laptop Go 2. Most laptops in this level.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2
- light and slim
- super portable
- Comfortable design for laptops starting in the 500-pound range
- Uses capable Intel Core i5 CPU
- As usual
- Microsoft’s RAM and storage upgrades are expensive
- no backlight
- slightly squashed keyboard
- Base specs can come with obvious performance compromises
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design
Microsoft mainly makes high-end laptops. When cheaper models like the Surface Laptop Go 2 come out, the first question is:
They are not obvious at a glance. The Surface Laptop Go 2 has a beautiful anodized aluminum keyboard surround and lid. Microsoft generally prefers magnesium, but aluminum actually gives the finger a more metallic feel.
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Don’t look down because it looks like a very expensive non-Go Surface laptop.But the base is plastic just like the original Surface Laptop Go.
Microsoft didn’t try to match this plastic bottom with metal. Instead, it matches something like the milky coffee beige of the touchpad and keyboard keys.
The combination of aluminum and plastic helps keep the Surface Laptop Go 2’s weight low. According to our scale, it weighs only 1.129kg. Perfect portability.
You can’t get everything you see in other style-driven midrange laptops today. The hinge prevents the screen from tilting back as much. It is neither a hybrid nor a foldable design. And connectivity is limited. It has one fat USB-A port, one USB-C port, and one headphone socket.
Thankfully, the charger has its own port, the same magnetic style found on more expensive Surface laptops that will drop if you accidentally hook the cable.USB-C can also be used for charging. increase. A very handy bonus if your phone has a fast charging USB-PD adapter.
Tech geeks out there are probably angry that USB-C ports don’t support Thunderbolt. The bandwidth is only a quarter, 10Gbps. However, 60fps is enough for him to drive a 4K monitor. Are you sure it’s the right laptop for you if you want to connect dual 4K monitors to it?
screen
Surface Laptop Go 2 features a 12.4-inch 3:2 aspect display. This taller shape is one of the hallmarks of the traditional Surface, making the display-per-inch of the screen seem particularly spacious when running productivity apps.
Not so good for games, or for movies and movies with mind-boggling resolutions. But this is Microsoft, the people behind Office. It makes sense that work is the main focus.
Brightness is the highlight here. At 400 nits, he’s 10-20% brighter than what’s considered adequate for a mid-range laptop, and twice as bright as dreks you’ll find when they get really cheap.
The Surface Laptop Go 2 has a glossy touchscreen that reflects off your face in the sun. But we used it to write much of this review outdoors, and the Go has held up well.
Other aspects aren’t on the same level as the top-of-the-line Surface Laptop. Colors are slightly desaturated. It’s not as bad as the Acer Vero at first glance, but if you do a lot of image and video editing work, put it on.
The odd-sounding resolution of 1536 x 1024 pixels is a bit like fringed 1080p, and it’s enough to make small text look a little choppy. There is a possibility that
Contrast is a bit lower than the standard 1000:1, and blacks look a little grayish in dimly lit rooms. That said, you’d be hard-pressed to find a conventional laptop with a dramatically better screen at £529. Touches like the rounded corners of the display are rare, even on such a prominent and affordable model.
keyboard and touchpad
The keyboard and touchpad also have some compromises. However, the keys themselves feel pretty good.
Like other Surface laptops, the Surface Laptop Go 2’s key action is a little shallow. The key feels mellower than his MacBook, too, but you get used to the style after a day or so. Microsoft should have used a layout that was a bit crammed to fit the frame, but it’s a quality keyboard without a hint of “budget.”
It’s only a few millimeters less wide than a standard keyboard from the Q button to P along the top row of keys, but those sensitive to contracted keys might not like it.
The Surface Laptop Go 2 also doesn’t have a keyboard backlight. Almost every other good £729 laptop with a Core i5 CPU and 256GB RAM has one of these to make typing easier in dim lighting. A £500 laptop might make sense without a backlight, but a £700+ laptop like our review model doesn’t.
The touchpad is also a significant downgrade from non-Go Surface laptops. They use textured glass panels, which are soft-touch plastics that emulate glass.
Some comparable Lenovo laptops in the same price range come with a glass pad, like the Lenovo Yoga 7 Slim.
Still, it’s one of the best plastic pads you’ll find on any laptop. The clicker feels great, and Microsoft clearly put a lot of effort into making it look like glass. Do you prefer glass? absolutely.
performance
All the different prices of Surface Laptop Go 2 models depend on core specs. Microsoft uses the cheapo model as a lure. About £500 for a metal laptop – sounds good.
However, we have a fair amount of reservations about all models, except for the £729 model reviewed here, which only has 4GB of RAM at the bottom. Most other manufacturers don’t even make 4GB versions of laptops like this.
Windows 11 can behave strangely if you have too many browser tabs open. you have been warned.
The intermediate version has 8GB of RAM. great. However, it only has 128GB of storage. Keep in mind that there are larger games in your Steam library than that, and even if you’re not into games or data-hungry video editing, that doesn’t mean you can actually play with 128 GB.Windows 11 consumes chunks To do.
For example, the 256GB version has only 160GB left after only 2 days. The 128GB model is only recommended for those who do not intend to install large amounts of data.
Then we arrive at the “just right” specs of 8GB RAM and 256GB storage. But that’s also wrong because you’re paying £200 for 4 GB of RAM and an additional 128 GB of space. Other manufacturers charge (relative) peanuts for these upgrades. The baseline for most design-driven model laptops is 8GB/256GB, so most don’t offer them at all.
The Surface Laptop Go 2 we have runs Windows 11 beautifully. All versions of Surface Laptop Go 2 are powered by Intel’s Core i5-1135G7 processor. This is a powerful CPU designed to consume relatively little power. Coming to many laptops in 2021-2022.
As is often the case, Microsoft’s timing is a little off here. A lot of laptops with 12th Gen Intel chipsets have started to come out lately, with significantly more CPU power than the Surface Laptop Go 2.
However, the 11th and 12th gen chipsets at this tier both use Intel’s Xe chipset, so gaming doesn’t offer much of an advantage. It’s a nimble little thing that plays well with most games from the Xbox One and PS4 era. I did a few laps around the Nurburgring with Project Cars. The Surface Laptop Go 2 wasn’t able to clip at 60fps at most settings maxed out, but it was perfectly playable.
The Surface Laptop Go 2 wasn’t made to be a true performance machine. It’s here for ‘everyday’ performance, and this is demonstrated in laptop cooling.
There are no vents on the bottom and no vents on the sides or back. It all happens through a tiny gap in the screen hinge. Writing a document usually makes the Surface Laptop Go 2 completely silent.
However, just a few large file downloads can get the fan running. If you pull out the sound meter when this is maxed out, the Surface Laptop Go 2 doesn’t dial much. But the fan noise signature is exactly what we don’t want to hear, with high-pitched chirping more noticeable than bass that can technically be louder.
battery life
The Surface Laptop Go 2 has a fairly small 41 Wh battery, but Microsoft claims it can last up to 13.5 hours.
This is far from what we saw. It lasted 7.5 hours of YouTube streaming at 62% brightness for indoor use. Our outdoor stint suggested that the display lasted about five hours at maximum, while using the Surface Laptop Go 2 to charge the phone.
With Battery Saver on and using the laptop just for writing documents, it lasts about 11 hours, which is much closer to Microsoft’s claims. To get anywhere near all-day use, you’ll need to use this mode, and remembering to do so will be the main hurdle.
The laptop’s speakers have a fairly even tone, which is decent for a budget laptop. I don’t have anything
Unusually, the Surface Laptop Go 2’s speakers also seem to use the gaps in the keyboard for sound rather than the side vents. This leads to a narrower sound, but it makes sense when you think about it. Speakers like these often make the Go 2 sound the same regardless of whether the laptop is in your lap or on your desk.
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The Surface Laptop Go 2 is a cute and affordable alternative to the much more expensive Surface Laptop 4. It’s a shame I can’t recommend the most attractive £529 base model to many.
By Andrew Williams.
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