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Microsoft’s Surface Go 2 Is an Ideal Machine for Light Work
While it’s still not for gaming, the Surface Go 2 it can handle coding, Photoshop, and more
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Take an iPad Pro’s convenient form factor, mix in an actual, full-on computer, and you get the Surface Go 2 — for a few hundred dollars less than the price of Apple’s tablet.
The Surface Go 2 ($399.99 and up, depending on specs) is Microsoft’s latest update to the smallest Surface PC in its lineup. It arrives two years after the original debuted. I’ve always had a soft spot for the Surface Go because the size is both adorable and ultra-lightweight, but it still allows me to do actual work with full desktop apps. The new model ups the performance, allowing for light coding and smoother processing overall compared to the previous model.
For the last few weeks, I’ve been using a review unit of the Surface Go 2 with the Intel m3 processor, eight GB of RAM, 128 GB of storage, and most importantly, an LTE modem. Not only did it surprise me how much of a difference the new processor option made to my day-to-day use, but it’s also become my favorite couch computer, dethroning the iPad Pro entirely.
I had a few problems with the last generation of Surface Go, which I purchased myself. It was fairly easy to hit the performance roof by doing a moderately complex task, and it was simply slow to respond sometimes. I appreciated the ability to run Photoshop or my code environment on it, but had learned that it required patience to actually use them. And vain though it may be, I was bothered by the thick screen bezels relative to the streamlined, rounded frame of the iPad Pro’s screen.
With the Surface Go 2’s new m3 processor option and performance improvements, those performance frustrations have disappeared; it’s much…
