Really? With THAT display?
When one thinks Surface, they also think of Microsoft. It’s a pretty good brand name. But the company has been slicing its product categories by form factors and price points deli-thin: would you like a premium, mid-tier, or entry-level Windows 2-in-1 or laptop? This week, the company updated its budget-ish laptop series with the Surface Laptop Go 2. On paper, it’s super-portable, surprisingly performant, and costs between $ 599 and $ 799 – sounds like Microsoft wants a piece of the personal Chromebook market. But which should you go with?
| Display | 12.4 “1536 x 1024 touch display |
| SoC | 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1135G7 w / Iris Xe GPU |
| RAM | 4 or 8GB LPDDR4X |
| Storage | 128 or 256GB SSD |
| Webcam | 720p f / 2.0 |
| Peripherals | USB-A, USB-C, 3.5mm audio, Surface Connect, fingerprint / power |
| Power | 41Wh (13.5 hours) w / 39W adapter |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1 |
| OS | Windows 11 Home |
| Size | 278 x 206 x 15.7mm / 1.12kg |
On its own, the Surface Laptop Go 2 presents a big dilemma with its configurations. If you’re looking for smooth sailing on Adobe Creative Cloud or some casual Steam titles, you’ll need to spend the extra $ 100 above base to get the 8GB of RAM. The display seems to be the worst casualty on the spec sheet with a pixel density of 148 ppi and peak brightness of 330 nits, so even the $ 599 model doesn’t sound too good for media consumption. If you absolutely need the capabilities or the UX familiarity of Windows, the premiums you’re paying for here are the small size and sturdy build – a combination of aluminum and polycarbonate resin with glass fiber.
The value propositions here aren’t as bad as the ones Google offers with its Pixelbook Go series, especially considering that we’re talking about 8th-gen Intel kit at generally higher prices ($ 649 up). The processing demands of Chrome OS might not mind, but again, if you’re all about spec sheet principles, the SLG2 wins out.
Other Chromebook makers will outdo Microsoft on displays at lower prices (more in pure resolution, less so in brightness, but the standard of 400 nits don’t lie). Part for part, though, Acer’s Chromebook Spin 713 – Android Police’s choicest Chrome OS machine last year – might be the best analog here. For $ 699, they have the same exact power plant, same amount of RAM, yet double the storage, a straight-up better screen, and two USB-C ports. Heck, it’s got early-stage Steam support, too, but don’t expect much out of the gate. Count us biased here at this publication, but Chrome OS seems to be the more forward-looking operating system than Windows, especially given that the latter is going with Amazon as its frontier for convergence with Android.
Taking a Windows machine from Microsoft for Windows’ sake seems to be coming up as less and less of a need these days, though. If you’re at personal liberty, you’ll enjoy a Spin 713 more thoroughly than the Surface Laptop Go 2.