I've been using Mac Book Air laptops for
roughly the last decade
give or take without pause I tested out
the Microsoft Surface go a significantly
less expensive laptop solution against
my MacBook Air the results were kind of
a mess
the majority of stuff that I do on my
macbook air is writing and or using the
internet I occasionally do some kind of
heavier lifting but nothing super
processor intensive most of what I'm
doing is kind of power internet using my
first impressions of the surface go are
that it looks and feels very similar to
previous surface products the keyboard
is maybe the most impressive Hardware
feature of it in every other way is a
relatively budget looking version of a
standard Microsoft Surface tablet device
there's a kind of kickstand device on
the back that you can position it feels
extremely strange to have a kind of like
kickstand on your legs because it's not
very adjustable to different heights one
thing that's really excellent about the
surface go is that it has a microSD slot
that you can expand the memory with and
that's super meaningful it's perfectly
capable of you know power internet
browsing the kind of lighter lifting
that I'm usually doing it's a lot less
capable when that starts to get on the
heavier end of things if you get over 10
or 15 tabs open in Chrome if you've got
Spotify running at the same time maybe
you pull up a YouTube video things start
to chug
browsing is a little slow you
occasionally encounter the kind of thing
where you go to load something or open a
new tab and it just hitches I've gotten
used to it I think is maybe the best way
to put it I expect certain limitations I
kind of cater my use around that I'm for
instance significantly less likely now
to use like Spotify for instance while
also running a bunch of tabs because I
know that it's gonna result in a overall
muddier experience so I'll close things
more carefully
basically kind of treat it like I would
a tablet where you're only running one
or two things at a time because it
really can't do much
more than that it feels like you might
want to watch Hulu on it or do some
light web browsing maybe shop on Amazon
or something like that but that's the
kind of thing that I would also maybe do
would like on an iPad I still have
plenty of criticisms for the newest
version of the MacBook Air I think it
costs too much money
I think it's underpowered for what it is
but it doesn't feel underpowered it
feels powerful and capable and rarely do
I feel like I am overworking it and a
lot of times if I'm trying to juggle say
Photoshop and a bunch of chrome tabs
that can even make my macbook feel the
pressure a little bit and on the surface
go i was simply just trying to mitigate
around that stuff the MacBook Air is an
overpriced laptop that's something I had
to come to terms with personally when I
bought one is it worth three times the
price of the surface go but probably not
but to me and how I use laptops and to
what I'm used to the MacBook Air is
absolutely worth the money I paid even
though I know I'm getting ripped off the
surface go significantly less expensive
get $500 a very low priced laptop or
laptop
esque device that said in terms of
functionality in terms of usefulness
it's severely lacking and so what you
save in price hundreds of dollars you're
gonna have to weigh that against how
much frustration you're willing to put
up with in daily use so if you were
looking for a device that could play
Minecraft and do some light internet
browsing maybe be used for for shopping
or watching the occasional Netflix video
this device is certainly capable of all
that it might not be capable of all that
at the same time I think the surface go
is most definitely more of a tablet than
anything else
Microsoft has put in a special thing
called S mode that essentially locks you
into the Windows Store and any
applications from it it's sort of the
way that Apple devices work on an iPad
for instance you can only download games
and applications from Apple's App Store
in S mode on Windows 10 you're only able
to download approved apps that are kind
of meant to be used with the surface go
through the Windows Store and the only
way to turn this off on the surface go
is to
load an application through the Windows
Store that then enables you to turn off
that specific mode thus freeing your
computer to be a computer it's certainly
an inexpensive option for students who
might need a laptop for a handful of
Microsoft's office tasks like Word or
Excel or PowerPoint in addition to you
know doing other stuff like Research
Projects the surface go is just simply
not great at multitasking it it's not
really built for for multitasking in the
same way as an inexpensive perfectly
capable tablet like laptop like device
for the home it's probably fine
I would suggest a few other things
before it like say an iPad if you only
had 500 dollars to spend on a computer
and the surface go is right in front of
you you could do a lot worse but you
could also do a lot better