Microsoft Surface Go 2 – Review 2020

The second iteration of Microsoft’s tablet PC for the masses is vastly improved and one of the best midrange Windows tablets we’ve tested in years. The Surface Go 2 (starts at $399.99; $729.99 as tested) is a worthy competitor to both conventional laptops and the Apple iPad in ways that its 2018 predecessor is not. Key improvements include better battery life, a slightly bigger display that results in a sleeker look, and more computing performance. While it’s certainly not cheap, the Surface Go 2 is more capable than an iPad and more versatile than a traditional laptop. It easily earns our Editors’ Choice for best midrange Windows tablet. 

What’s New in the Surface Go 2?

Microsoft has been making Windows tablets for many years under the Surface brand. The Surface Go 2 follows the same basic design principles of many of the preceding Surface models, including the latest, the Surface Pro 7. It’s a rectangular tablet that measures 0.33 by 9.7 by 6.9 inches (HWD) and weighs 1.2 pounds. The entire front of the device is a 10.5-inch touch screen, and the ports, the power button, and a volume rocker are scattered around the edges. While you can hold the Surface Go 2 in two hands with ease, a nifty integrated kickstand at the back pops out for propping up the tablet on a flat surface. 

With a slightly larger display than the first-generation Surface Go but nearly identical overall dimensions, the Surface Go 2 has smaller borders around the screen. These reduced bezels make the Go 2 look sleeker and more modern than the Surface Go. A larger display was one of the three most-requested improvements to the original Surface Go, Microsoft says.

The other two wishes were longer battery life and more computing performance. The first go-around of the Surface Go packed a pokey Intel Pentium Gold processor that delivered middling speed in our tests, and its battery life rang up significantly shorter than that of most ultraportable laptops. 

To help address the performance issues, the Surface Go 2 offers the option for an Intel Core m3 processor, a step up from a Pentium Gold CPU that continues to power the base model. The Core m3 doesn’t turn the Surface Go 2 into a computing powerhouse, by any means, but it adds enough oomph to make performing basic functions like watching videos or browsing the web more enjoyable. In addition to the Core m3, our review unit also includes an upgraded 128GB SSD, an LTE modem, and 8GB of memory.

These upgrades come at a considerable expense, pushing the price of our review unit to $729.99. That’s $170 more than an LTE-equipped Apple iPad with 128GB of storage. It’s also nearly double the price of the Pentium-powered Surface Go 2 base model, which is equipped with a measly 64GB of eMMC storage and 4GB of RAM, and lacks LTE connectivity.

So there’s no question that the Surface Go 2 isn’t a tip-top value for money. To get it in a configuration like our review unit—one that truly unlocks its potential as a versatile tablet PC—is downright expensive. 

The Value’s in Its Versatility

If you can stomach the price, though, the Surface Go 2 is potentially the only computer you’ll need—if your computing needs are light. It’s a thoughtfully designed and solidly constructed device, but it actually owes much of its versatility to improvements in the Windows operating system that make it equally adept as a tablet PC or plugged in to a keyboard, a mouse, and an external monitor. People who spend all day working at a desktop PC and then kick back on the couch with an iPad at night could easily stand to replace both devices with a Surface Go 2 plus the right accessories and peripherals. 

I did exactly that for several days, using the Surface Go 2 to replace both my work PC and my iPad. The experiment had its ups and downs (more of the former), with the physical advantages over an iPad and a laptop being the most immediately apparent.

For one thing, since the iPad lacks a built-in kickstand, the only way you can prop it up if you get tired of holding it is by buying a case that includes a stand. The Surface Go 2’s integrated kickstand is not only versatile—I found it works just as well propped up on my thighs as on a side table or desk—but it also adds only negligible weight and bulk. The kickstand-less iPad weighs 1.07 pounds and is 0.29 inch thick. 

The Surface Go 2’s advantages over a laptop will also be significant for many users who typically plug their laptops into external displays and peripherals. Not only does the Surface Go 2 take up far less room on a desk than a laptop does, but it also includes a full-HD front-facing camera. This 5-megapixel, 1080p shooter is a vast improvement over most laptop webcams, which typically employ low-quality cameras with 720p resolution that result in grainy video quality even when the room is brightly lit. The camera advantage is even more significant now, with video calls becoming an essential feature to stay connected while working from home. 

In addition to the front-facing camera, which includes IR sensors for face-recognition Windows Hello logins, the Go 2 also has a rear-mounted 8-megapixel autofocus camera that also shoots 1080p video. 

Audio quality from the 2-watt stereo speakers rivals that of many laptops, with room-filling sound that can ensure even the most soft-spoken colleague on a conference call is understandable. 

The Usual Surface Quibble: Accessories Not Included

The Surface Go 2 has little in the way of input/output ports, so to use it as replacement for a laptop, you’ll need to splurge on an expansion dock. Solutions include third-party accessories, like the $349 Kensington SD600 Surface Go Docking Station. Microsoft also offers several of its own, from a simple USB-C expansion hub to the $259 Microsoft Surface Dock 2, which connects to the Surface Go 2’s proprietary Surface Connect port. Other than this port, which is also used to connect the tablet’s power adapter, there’s also a single USB Type-C port, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader.

You’ll also need something to protect the Surface Go 2 while you’re carrying it around. Among the Microsoft options are the $69 Microsoft Surface Go Sleeve and the $129 Surface Go Type Cover. The Type Cover includes a keyboard and touchpad, with a soft synthetic “Alcantara” fabric keyboard deck to protect the Surface Go 2’s display where it makes contact. It attaches via magnets to the bottom edge of the tablet. I especially appreciate that opening the Type Cover automatically wakes up the Surface Go 2 and activates the Windows Hello face-recognition camera to automatically log you in. (The original Surface Go doesn’t have this auto-wake feature.)

Overall, I find the Surface Go-size Type Cover to be impractical for sustained work, however. The touchpad is cramped and tracks poorly, and the keys aren’t full-size, which makes for an uncomfortable typing experience. You could make do with the Type Cover in a pinch while traveling, but an external Bluetooth keyboard and mouse would be a much better option while using the Surface Go 2 on your desk at home. It’s best to think of the Surface Go 2 as a tablet that can be used with a keyboard if needed, rather than as a bonafide member of the 2-in-1 detachable laptop category designed to always have a keyboard at hand. 

Note: Microsoft says the Surface Go 2 is compatible with existing peripherals designed for the original Surface Go, including the Type Covers for that model.

Denser Pixels: The Surface Go 2’s Bigger Panel

While the Surface Go 2’s 10.5-inch screen is only a half-inch larger than its predecessor’s screen, measured diagonally, it includes more pixels for a slightly higher native resolution: 1,920 by 1,280 pixels, which translates into a density of 220 pixels per inch (ppi). This is significantly less than the iPad’s 264ppi, and it’s one area where the iPad is unequivocally superior.

Microsoft claims that the naked eye doesn’t notice visible pixels at resolutions of around 220ppi or greater, and that increasing the density would increase the screen’s power consumption and reduce battery life. But I definitely noticed that text appears more grainy on Surface Go 2 than it does on the iPad, and the iPad manages to include a higher-resolution screen while also offering excellent battery life.

The iPad also has a leg up on the Surface Go 2 in terms of available color options. You can order Surface Type Covers and Surface Sleeves in multiple different colors, including Platinum, Black, Poppy Red, and Ice Blue, but the tablet itself is available only in a silver magnesium finish. The iPad offers Silver, Space Gray, and Rose Gold color options. 

The Surface Go 2’s optional LTE modem is a Qualcomm Snapdragon X16, capable of gigabit speeds. It will accept either a physical SIM card from your carrier or a virtual eSIM. You can even sign up for pay-as-you-go cellular service with an eSIM from the Microsoft Store app, although its carrier options are currently limited to two smaller virtual network operators. 

The tablet’s other wireless connectivity options include support for the latest Wi-Fi flavor, Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), as well as Bluetooth 5.0. 

The Surface Go 2 comes with 90 days of free technical phone support and 12 months of support and in-person technical assistance at Microsoft Stores, although all stores worldwide at this writing are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Testing the Surface Go 2: Core M Packs Adequate Performance

Apps take a bit longer to install on the Surface Go 2 than they do on most laptops with more powerful Core i5 or Core i7 processors, including Microsoft’s own Surface Laptop 3. To install many third-party apps, you have to switch out of Windows 10 S Mode, which is enabled by default on the Surface Go 2. 

Overall, however, I found the tablet’s everyday computing experience to be enjoyable and free of sluggishness. It’s a marked improvement from the Pentium-powered original Surface Go, which can be frustratingly slow at times. And because the Surface Go 2 lacks a cooling fan, it is free of the annoying fan noise that plagues nearly every laptop when its processor is under a heavy load. The only laggy behavior I noticed during several days of testing the Surface Go 2 happened while switching between two already-running apps. (See how we test laptops.)

The experience could be significantly more sluggish if you opt for the Pentium Gold processor, which is still available on the base-model Surface Go 2, and expect to multitask much. The Pentium Gold chip in the base-model Go 2, the 4425Y, is a newer-generation (“Amber Lake-Y”) CPU than the one in the original Go (a 7th Generation Pentium Gold 4415Y). But we find that even the original Pentium-powered Surface Go runs fine for web browsing, word processing, and light multitasking. 

Here’s a quick comparison of the spec differences between the original Surface Go we tested and the Surface Go 2, as well as Microsoft’s more-expensive Surface Pro 7 and two more conventional laptops in the $700 price range: the Dell Inspiron 13 5000 and the Lenovo Yoga C740.

On all of our benchmark tests, the Surface Go 2 performed more or less as expected. On the PCMark 10 benchmark, which measures performance on word processing, web browsing, and other similar tasks, it’s significantly faster than the Surface Go. It’s also significantly slower than the Surface Pro 7, the Inspiron, and the Yoga C740…

Crucially, the Surface Go 2 was right on with the rest of the pack in the PCMark 8 Storage test. The upticked versions of the Surface Go and Surface Go 2 we tested had Microsoft’s 128GB “true” SSD, as opposed to their respective base models’ 64GB of storage, which is based on slower eMMC flash memory. 

The Surface Go 2’s results on our Handbrake video encoding test, our Cinebench 3D rendering test, and our Adobe Photoshop image editing benchmark paralleled what we saw on PCMark 10. If you need to perform these types of CPU-intensive tasks with any frequency, the Surface Go 2 is the wrong tool for the job.

It’s also no dynamo for intense 3D gaming, as the results of the 3DMark and Unigine Superposition benchmarks show. The Surface Go 2 uses the Core chip’s integrated Intel UHD Graphics 615 to handle video output, a step down from the Iris Plus graphics in the Surface Pro 7. 

That said, no thin tablet like this is really meant for games more sophisticated than Plants vs. Zombies.

The Surface Go 2’s battery life, however, is excellent for a compact tablet. On days when I used it for casual web browsing on the couch, I put it down for the night with at least 30 percent of the charge remaining. On our video battery rundown test, it lasted for more than 13 hours…

That’s a much improved result versus the original Surface Go, and longer than both the Inspiron 13 5000 and the Surface Pro 7. It is especially impressive considering that the battery resides wholly behind the screen, unlike in a rotating 2-in-1 like the Lenovo Yoga or a clamshell laptop, in which the battery has more space to spread out underneath the keyboard in the lower part of the chassis. 

Tops Among Compact Windows Tablets

The Surface Go 2 is an eminently satisfying tablet. It’s not as powerful as a comparably priced conventional laptop, but it’s far more versatile. In several key areas, it also has a leg up on its chief competitor, the Apple iPad. Not only is the Windows operating system more capable than iOS is for a wider range of productivity and creative applications, but the Surface Go 2’s built-in kickstand is incredibly useful. The iPad needs a case with a stand to rise to the occasion in the same way. 

The competition from the iPad is fierce, though. Not only does the iPad have a higher-quality screen, but it’s also cheaper. An iPad equipped comparably to our $730 Surface Go 2 review unit is just $560, savings that is especially helpful since both tablets reach their full potential only when paired with expensive cases and accessories. 

While the Surface Go 2 may not be unequivocally better than the iPad, it trounces the limited selection of midrange Windows-powered tablets, and it is a better choice than the more-expensive Surface Pro 7 for most casual users. (The Surface Pro 7, though, is what you want if you plan to do extended typing on your tablet’s accessory keyboard, or if you need the greater CPU pep from a Core i3, i5, or i7 CPU.) Microsoft appears to have succeeded in its quest to make the Surface Go 2 an essential tool for a new era of working and learning from home.

Microsoft Surface Go 2 Specs

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