(playful music)
- So I review a lot of products.
When I do, I often think about who a thing is made for.
So take the Surface Go 2 right here.
Who is this for?
I have a bunch of guesses.
I think it's for families that need a second computer
for their kid who is now doing
all of their school work at home.
I think it's for gadget heads who just wanna tiny,
cool, little computer that's,
that's me by the way.
But I kinda hate breaking gadgets down demographically.
I hate saying if you wanna touch screen
and you wanna tablet and if you need Windows,
and if you want a small computer,
or if you wanna save money, plus if you're Virgo
or if you're a Scorpio.
Look, you get the idea.
So well, I fit in the middle of one
of those Venn diagrams for the Surface Go 2
because I love tiny computers and I know
how to work with it when there're many, many limitations.
I don't think that the Go 2 works
for the large Venn diagram of people
who just wanna use a computer.
And I think I can explain why, so let's do that.
Should we just get into it?
We should get into it, let's get into it.
(soft music)
Now, if you're unfamiliar with these Surface Go line,
it is a tiny, little tablet that is about the same
size as an iPad or iPad Air or 11 inch iPad.
It starts at $399, but nobody uses these things
without a keyboard and the keyboard cost about a $100
or you can spend a $130 for the Alcantara version.
So that's 500 bucks for the base model with a keyboard,
which is about the same price
as a basic iPad with a basic keyboard.
And this thing is adorable.
I love this hardware.
Microsoft kept the exact same body size,
but they made the bezels on the screen
a little bit smaller, they up the resolution a tad,
it's now a 10.5 inch screen
with a 1920 by 2080 resolution.
There's still a kick stand on the back.
There's a micro SD card slot, there's a couple of ports,
and there's a headphone jack, hooray!
Second to maybe the Surface Pro X,
this is probably my favorite Microsoft hardware.
Now, the version I got here to review
is the fancy pants version
with a real Intel Core m3 processor
instead of the Pentium Gold processor
that comes in the base model.
This has eight gigs of RAM,
which really is what you want for Windows
to not be a suffer fest.
It also has a proper SSD while the base model
has a slower eMMC storage.
Oh, also they threw LTE in this thing,
which means that all in with keyboard,
this model costs 860 buck,
which is just a little bit cheaper
than the equivalent respect iPad Air with a keyboard.
But look, it still a lot of money
for such a tiny computer.
(soft music)
I keep bring up the iPad
because it's the same size as this.
But also because it's kind of the same idea.
You get a tiny, little portable tablet
that can do a lot of things, but not everything.
There's always a compromise when you pay
this little money and you use a computer
that's this little.
You get stopped from doing what you wanna do sometimes.
Now, with the iPad, you're stopped from doing stuff
mainly because either the apps just aren't there
or because the operating system just won't let you.
Now, with the Surface Go 2, that's not a problem.
You can install literally any Windows app that you want.
Like here, I installed Photoshop.
The full, real Photoshop with every single
Photoshop feature and I can just launch it.
And well, see, with the Surface Go 2,
even my very fancy one here,
the thing that stops you isn't the OS or the lack of apps.
Instead, it has a way lower ceiling
for running multiple apps or very powerful apps.
Another way of putting that is that it's slow,
but that's not exactly what I mean.
See, when you're just browsing
with a few tabs or doing Office app stuff,
or some email or watching Netflix
and maybe not all that stuff all at once,
then it's not a problem.
At least on the Core m3 version of the Surface Go 2,
it handles all of those tasks one by one just fine.
Just don't run Photoshop on this or edit video.
I mean, you can, I'm looking at Photoshop right now,
but you really don't want to.
But if you keep this thing with in its limits,
it is a super fun machine that gets the job done.
(soft music)
But look, I still have a hard time
with this little computer.
Last year, I felt like that if Microsoft
could fix three things with the original Surface Go,
I could really buy into the idea of this device
and even start recommending it.
The first thing was screen size.
And that's fixed basically.
I wish it had gotten a little brighter,
and I wished the bezels were still
even little bit smaller, but it's enough.
The second thing is speed.
And that's sort of fixed as long as you're willing
to spend the extra money on the Core m3 version.
And the third thing was battery life.
Right, so the battery on the Surface Go 2
is 0.7 watt hours bigger
than on the original Surface Go,
and that has meant point nothing
in terms of longer battery life.
It wasn't great last year and this year
I'm barely getting through a whole work day.
I'm talking five or maybe six hours of battery life
and I'm not pushing it to get those five or six hours.
I think that in ultra portable device
should ultra portable battery life and this just isn't.
But say you can live with that, should you?
I keep coming back to that Venn diagram
and all the or, if's, and's and who's and stuff.
So say you want an inexpensive computer
for your kids to use for school.
That's kind of what Microsoft is pushing
in the commercials for this device.
Okay, but for 500 bucks, you can get a Chromebook
with really good specs that just flies.
Would Chrome OS work for you?
Or say your main thing is you want a really small tablet.
Okay, but an iPad is honestly going to be faster
and have better battery life.
Would iPad a less work for you?
I mean, how badly do you really need Windows?
Okay, say you really need Windows.
I totally get that, but then how badly
do you need a device that's this size.
Because if you spend this 750-ish bucks
for the faster Core m3 version
of the Surface Go 2 with a keyboard,
well, you can get a used or refurbed
Surface Pro 6 or 7 that's going to be way faster
and have a bigger screen for basically
the same amount of money and just a little bit more.
So this thing is great but you need
to ask yourself why you need this
instead of a faster Chromebook and iPad
that works better as a tablet,
a Surface Pro or even an inexpensive Windows laptop
from Dell or Lenovo or whoever.
If you have good answers for why
you don't want any of those things,
then hey, welcome to the center
of the Venn diagram with me.
We're gonna make t-shirts and stuff.
If you want a small tablet
and it has to run Windows,
then lucky for you, the Surface Go 2
does those two things fairly well.
It is a nice, tiny tablet.
But I think it only makes sense
for a tiny number of people.
I also think it's gadget heads
who just wanna tiny, cool,
what am I doing?