{"id":20209,"date":"2022-07-20T13:18:53","date_gmt":"2022-07-20T13:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/review-microsofts-surface-laptop-go-2-has-a-lot-of-problems-but-i-like-it-anyway\/"},"modified":"2022-07-20T13:18:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T13:18:53","slug":"review-microsofts-surface-laptop-go-2-has-a-lot-of-problems-but-i-like-it-anyway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/review-microsofts-surface-laptop-go-2-has-a-lot-of-problems-but-i-like-it-anyway\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Microsoft&#8217;s Surface Laptop Go 2 has a lot of problems, but I like it anyway"},"content":{"rendered":"<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\">\n  <figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">enlarge <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Microsoft&#8217;s Surface Laptop Go 2.<\/div>\n<p>Andrew Cunningham<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside id=\"social-left\" class=\"social-left\" aria-label=\"Read the comments or share this article\">\n<\/aside>\n<p><!-- cache hit 59:single\/related:08788a8891affd9ee529543bc20a0abf --><!-- empty --><\/p>\n<p>Anyone who buys a Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 should go into it fully aware of the laptop&#8217;s shortcomings.<\/p>\n<p>The first and most important is that the base model, the one that gives it its attractive $600 starting price, comes with only 4GB of non-upgradeable RAM and should be ignored by pretty much everybody.  Seriously, don&#8217;t buy it, and don&#8217;t try to talk yourself into it just to save money.<\/p>\n<p>Behave as though the actual starting price is $700, the amount it costs to get the configuration with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage.  This is still closer to &#8220;budget&#8221; than &#8220;high-end&#8221; as ultrabooks go, but the list of omissions, shortcomings, and odd decisions does get harder to overlook as you spend more money.  The generation-old processor.  The un-backlit keyboard.  The tiny port selection.  A touchscreen that is neither particularly high-resolution nor very colorful.  A 128GB SSD that will feel cramped for many people, and a 256GB option that (1) isn&#8217;t all <em>that<\/em> much bigger and (2) adds another $100 to the price.<\/p>\n<p>None of these problems should be glossed over or ignored.  But as frustrating as some of them are, the fact that the Laptop Go 2 is a cute, lightweight, competent laptop that&#8217;s a pleasure to use.  Microsoft gets most of the important things right here, and there&#8217;s no laptop in this price range that doesn&#8217;t come with some kind of trade-off.<\/p>\n<p>Especially if you can find it on sale\u2014and the old Laptop Go was discounted regularly by Microsoft, Best Buy, and others that sold it\u2014the Laptop Go 2 is a no-fuss budget laptop that&#8217;s worth considering if you can live with its flaws .<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad_wrapper\" aria-label=\"In Content advertisement\">\n    <span class=\"ad_notice\">Advertisement <\/span>    <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<h2>Thoughtful design, minimalist features<\/h2>\n<figure class=\"image shortcode-img full-width\" style=\"width:980px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"The Surface Laptop Go 2 doesn't have a backlit keyboard, though its power button-mounted fingerprint reader is a nice touch.\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0262-980x653.jpeg?resize=980%2C653&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"980\" height=\"653\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">enlarge <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> The Surface Laptop Go 2 doesn&#8217;t have a backlit keyboard, though its power button-mounted fingerprint reader is a nice touch.<\/div>\n<p>Andrew Cunningham<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<table class=\"specifications right\" width=\"300\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<th colspan=\"2\">Specs at a glance: Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>screen<\/th>\n<td>12.4-inch 1536\u00d71024 touchscreen (148 PPI)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>OS<\/th>\n<td>Windows 11 Home<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>CPU<\/th>\n<td>4-core\/8-thread Intel Core i5-1135G7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>RAM<\/th>\n<td>4GB or 8GB LPDDR4x<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>GPU<\/th>\n<td>Intel Iris Xe graphics (80 EUs)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Storage<\/th>\n<td>128GB or 256GB NVMe SSD<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>battery<\/th>\n<td>41WHr<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>networking<\/th>\n<td>Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Ports<\/th>\n<td>USB-A, USB Type-C, Surface Connect, 3.5mm headphone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>To you<\/th>\n<td>10.95\u00d78.12\u00d70.62 inches (278.2\u00d7206.2\u00d715.7 mm)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>weight<\/th>\n<td>2.48lbs (1.12kg)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Warranty<\/th>\n<td>1-year<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Price as reviewed<\/th>\n<td>$799.99<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<th>Other perks<\/th>\n<td>720p webcam, power button-mounted fingerprint reader in 8GB models<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Externally, the Surface Laptop Go 2 is indistinguishable from the original.  Microsoft hasn&#8217;t changed the keyboard, trackpad, screen, or chassis at all, opting merely to replace the internals.  The only external difference is the addition of a color called &#8220;Sage,&#8221; a vaguely green-tinted silver finish that complements the returning pink-tinted Sandstone, blue-tinted Ice Blue, and non-tinted Platinum options.  It weighs less than 2.5 pounds, and it&#8217;s super easy to pick up and carry around, whether you&#8217;re slinging it in a bag to travel or just moving between rooms in your home.<\/p>\n<p>If you&#8217;re not familiar with the original Laptop Go, here&#8217;s a brief recap: The laptop has a lightweight aluminum lid and palm rest, combined with a plastic bottom cover.  The combination is lightweight and reasonably sturdy-feeling, even though the thin aluminum feels a bit more pliable than what you get with a MacBook, a Dell XPS, or Microsoft&#8217;s own higher-end Surface and Surface Laptop devices.  The trackpad is on the small side, but it&#8217;s accurate and responsive.  And while the keyboard lacks a backlight, its key spacing and travel both feel pleasant, and its power button-mounted fingerprint sensor is a welcome addition.<\/p>\n<p>The laptop&#8217;s biggest point of departure from other laptops in this price range is a 12.5-inch 1536\u00d71024 screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio, making it narrower but much taller than the 16:9 or 16:10 screens in most ultrabooks.  The screen&#8217;s 376-nit peak brightness, 1.159:1 contrast ratio, and color gamut coverage (94 percent of the sRGB gamut, just 68.5 percent of the DCI-P3 gamut) are all just fine for the price.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad_wrapper\" aria-label=\"In Content advertisement\">\n    <span class=\"ad_notice\">Advertisement <\/span>    <\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<figure class=\"image shortcode-img full-width\" style=\"width:980px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"Screen brightness comparisons.  The Laptop Go 2 is on the lower end of things, but it's also a lot cheaper than most of the hardware here.\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/Surface-Laptop-Go-2.008-980x735.png?resize=980%2C735&#038;ssl=1\" width=\"980\" height=\"735\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\">enlarge <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> Screen brightness comparisons.  The Laptop Go 2 is on the lower end of things, but it&#8217;s also a lot cheaper than most of the hardware here.<\/div>\n<p>Andrew Cunningham<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But the display isn&#8217;t as dense as a more typical 13.3-inch 1080p or 1920\u00d71200 screen (about 149 PPI, down from the mid-to-high 160s), which makes text look a bit jaggy by comparison, especially at smaller sizes and lighter weights.  But the screen&#8217;s size and aspect ratio are great for a laptop this small and light.  If you happen to be replacing an older 11.6-inch 16:9 netbook-y budget laptop with the Laptop Go 2, the difference is night and day.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gallery shortcode-gallery gallery-wide\">\n<ul>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0253-150x150.jpeg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0253.jpeg\" data-responsive=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0253-980x653.jpeg 1080, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0253-1440x960.jpeg 2560\" data-sub-html=\"#caption-1866165\">\n<figure style=\"height:653px;\"><figcaption id=\"caption-1866165\">\n                  <span class=\"icon caption-arrow icon-drop-indicator\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                      Almost all of the Surface Laptop Go 2&#8217;s ports are on the left side: one USB-A, one USB-C (which can charge the laptop but isn&#8217;t the primary charging port), and a headphone jack.                     <\/p>\n<p>\n                      <span class=\"icon icon-camera\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                              Andrew Cunningham                                          <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<li data-thumb=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0251-150x150.jpeg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0251.jpeg\" data-responsive=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0251-980x653.jpeg 1080, https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0251-1440x960.jpeg 2560\" data-sub-html=\"#caption-1866164\">\n<figure style=\"height:653px;\"><figcaption id=\"caption-1866164\">\n                  <span class=\"icon caption-arrow icon-drop-indicator\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                      The only port on the other side is the proprietary Surface Connect port.                    <\/p>\n<p>\n                      <span class=\"icon icon-camera\"\/><\/p>\n<p>                                              Andrew Cunningham                                          <\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<p>It&#8217;s harder to like the Laptop Go 2&#8217;s port selection, though it shares this shortcoming with the bigger Surface Laptop.  You get a single USB-A port, a single USB-C port, a headphone jack, and the proprietary Surface Connect port\u2014and that&#8217;s it.  It&#8217;s nice to be able to charge the laptop without blocking either USB port, and it&#8217;s handy to be able to charge via the USB-C port if you need or prefer to.  It&#8217;s just a bare-minimum selection of ports, and we&#8217;d trade Surface Connect for another USB-C port any day.<\/p>\n<p>And while it doesn&#8217;t really make a difference in the day-to-day use of the device, there&#8217;s something to be said for getting some of the fringe benefits of Surface ownership in a less-expensive laptop.  There are a lot of Windows devices out there that can&#8217;t pull down UEFI firmware updates or other hardware\/firmware-level security features seamlessly through Windows Update, and most budget devices are lucky to get many of these kinds of updates at all.  To its credit, Microsoft keeps budget-focused devices like the Surface Go or Surface Laptop Go updated regularly.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>enlarge \/ Microsoft&#8217;s Surface Laptop Go 2. Andrew Cunningham Anyone who buys a Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 should go into it fully aware of the laptop&#8217;s shortcomings. The first and most important is that the base model, the one that gives it its attractive $600 starting price, comes with only 4GB of non-upgradeable RAM &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/review-microsofts-surface-laptop-go-2-has-a-lot-of-problems-but-i-like-it-anyway\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Review: Microsoft&#8217;s Surface Laptop Go 2 has a lot of problems, but I like it anyway<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/IMG_0249-760x380.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}