New Surface Laptop Go Announced

Seemingly out of nowhere, Microsoft has announced the release of a new member of the Surface family, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go.

Building on the success of the Surface Go, the Surface Laptop Go is a mid-range laptop styled after its bigger brother the Surface Laptop 3.

While the Laptop Go might be priced to be Microsoft’s budget Surface laptop, the design quality still reflects the rest of the Surface range.

The new device features a 12.4″ PixelSense™ 1536 x 1024 (148 ppi) display and interactive touchscreen, 13 hours of battery life, a fingerprint sensor, an Intel i5 processor as standard on all models, and 720p HD camera and Studio Mics for those Microsoft Teams classes.

The Laptop Go comes in three colours, which Microsoft calls Ice Blue, Sandstone, and Platinum, but could also be called “meh,” “bleh”, and “huh”.

Microsoft Surface Laptop Go Pricing

The Laptop Go comes in three flavours, but the only real differentiator between the models is the RAM and the storage, which step up in the familiar 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB.

The Laptop Go starts at £549, which is £150 more expensive than the standard Surface Go, but for that extra price, you get a larger screen, a faster processor, and more connectivity options.

Surface Laptop Go and Surface Go Comparison

Despite both having the “Go” branding, the Surface Go 2 and Surface Laptop Go are very different beasts. There’s the obvious difference of one being primarily a tablet and the other a laptop, but there’s also a big difference in the internals as well.

Surprisingly, despite having the Go branding, the Laptop Go screen is significantly larger than the Surface Go’ and isn’t that much smaller than the Surface Laptop 3’s 13.5″ screen.

Feature	Surface Laptop Go	Surface Go 2
Screen Size	12.4″	10.5″
Resolution	1536 x 1024	1920 x 1280
USB-C Port	Yes	Yes
USB-A Port	No	No
3.5mm Headphone Port	Yes	Yes
Surface Connector Port	Yes	Yes
MicroSD Card Reader	No	Yes
Base Model Price	£549	£399

Surface Laptop Go Touch Sign-in

The 128GB and 256GB models feature a Fingerprint Power Button, which allows fingerprint sign-in through Windows Hello. This is the equivalent to Apple’s Touch ID, which Microsoft brands Touch Sign-in, and can be used to sign in to the device as well as supported apps and services.

There’s also an instant-on feature, which allows you to get right back to where you were working, just by touching the Touch Sign-in button.

This is the first time we’ve seen a fingerprint scanner on a Surface. It will be interesting to see if this feature makes it way to other models, which might provide greater security for student accounts rather than imposing the standard, and inconveninent, multi-factor authentication options.

Connectivity

The Surface Laptop Go has both a USB-A and a USB-C port alongside the standard Surface Dock connector. Missing, however, is the Surface Go’s MicroSD card reader and support for the Surface Dial.

Microsoft Laptop Go Release Date

The Surface Laptop Go will be released on 27th of October.

It’s the Surface we need

For those looking for a more cost-effective Surface in a laptop form factor, the Surface Laptop Go is a welcome entry in the Surface family. It has a larger screen, a faster processor, even in the base model, and feels like much less of a compromise if you don’t need the flexibility of a tablet. It will be interesting to see if the Surface Laptops takes off in schools as quickly as the Surface Go.