{"id":40519,"date":"2022-06-07T15:26:17","date_gmt":"2022-06-07T15:26:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/surface-laptop-go-2-hands-on-an-upgrade-thats-worth-the-extra-money\/"},"modified":"2022-06-07T15:26:17","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T15:26:17","slug":"surface-laptop-go-2-hands-on-an-upgrade-thats-worth-the-extra-money","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/surface-laptop-go-2-hands-on-an-upgrade-thats-worth-the-extra-money\/","title":{"rendered":"Surface Laptop Go 2 hands-on: An upgrade that’s worth the extra money"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Surface Laptop Go line holds an interesting position in Microsoft’s notebook lineup. It’s not quite as cheap or portable as the Surface Go 3 and it’s not as powerful or flexible as the Surface Studio. But a recent component refresh has added new life to a very travel-friendly system.<\/p>\n
Starting at $ 600, the Surface Laptop Go 2 costs $ 50 more than the outgoing model. That gets you an 11th-gen Intel Core i5 CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD. Now it might seem strange that Microsoft didn’t opt \u200b\u200bfor a newer 12th-gen chip, but the company says it really wanted to keep the cost of the base model down, and going with a slightly older processor could have factored into that. The big upgrade, though, is Microsoft has finally ditched the 64GB of eMMC storage that came on the original Surface Laptop Go, which on its own is worth a $ 50 price hike.<\/p>\n
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I also wouldn’t be surprised if the choice of an 11th-gen CPU was made due to considerations regarding battery life and thermals. A lot of 12th-gen chips tend to run hot and are somewhat power hungry. For the Surface Laptop Go 2, Microsoft says it was able to increase the notebook’s total runtime slightly by 30 minutes to 13.5 hours on a charge, while also reducing fan noise by up to 10 decibels at max speeds. And in my experience, that noise reduction is rather significant, with the system rarely rising above a whisper unless you’re doing something more intense like gaming or editing a video.<\/p>\n
The new Surface Laptop Go 2 shares a lot of features with the previous model. The design is basically the same, which is fine by me – the clean lines and minimalist aesthetic still look great. There is a new sage green finish that I’m rather partial to. But if that hue doesn’t do it for you, the laptop is still available in platinum, ice blue and sandstone.<\/p>\n