Yesterday Microsoft launched their new affordable budget range surface device. If you are wondering whether or not to buy this one or wondering whether this device is a perfect rival for iPad Pro; well, that’s what we are going to see in this post.

Hardware

Microsoft entered the hardware industry by introducing the surface devices in 2012. With premium price tags, they are making hardware just like Apple. But the build quality is not up to the mark for the pricing. I’ve never used a Surface Hub, so am not commenting on that. Surface Pro after few months of usage, the quality diminishes, especially the hinge, it is not stiff as it were before. Talking about the quality for pricing, after the infamous butterfly mechanism keyboard in Macbooks and low internal specs, now I can’t say Apple is giving you a proper device for the premium price tag.

Keeping the Apple aside let’s talk about Microsoft here. Microsoft has really learned a lot after the Surface 3 model, am eager to test the new hinge. Other noticeable improvements are the bigger trackpad and the USB-C ports. Am sorry if you are expecting Thunderbolt support.

There are two variants actually, one is the basic $399 version with 4GB RAM and $549 with 8GB RAM. The problem with the basic version is it supports slower 64GB eMMC storage, while the higher version support 128GB SSD storage.

Just Skip The Basic Version (If you are serious)

Affordable devices from premium manufacturers are just for the headline sake. As told before the base version only supports eMMC storage which feels way too slow when compared to the other 2018 devices. In day to day usage, you will feel the lag when you boot the device, opening apps and file sharing. Heavy multitaskers won’t be satisfied with the 4GB RAM, especially if you are planning to use it as both a portable laptop and tablet. When you add accessory price, the base model price may go up to $699. The whole list of accessory price is given below.

GPU Is The Strong Point Of Surface GO

The Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y is a dual-core seventh-generation processor. As Surface Go is a fanless device, many factors like power efficiency, thermal problems and performance have to be taken care. Pentium Gold processor is the best solution for the Surface Go at this price range. As of now, only the Wi-Fi version is released and the LTE version to be released later this year.

HD615 GPU is the strongest point of the Surface GO. Dave Lee has shared the complete GPU benchmark score of all the Surface devices. From the technical side, I accept most of the point he shares, you can check his video here.

Still Not Better Than iPad Pro

What makes the smart devices really smart is their application. By celebrating its 10th birthday, the App store has 1.3 million apps designed and optimized for the iPads. From the WWDC 2018, Apple clearly mentioned that they don’t have any idea of merging the iOS and the macOS. Windows, on the other hand, they already took the one OS for all devices concept. If you need a pure tablet experience and useful professional applications, then the iPad is the only option.

Apple march Event 2018 purely states that the new 2018 iPad is for the students and they also showed lots of useful applications. Surface Go is still not clear about its target audience. As of now, this devices is best for the professional who are expecting a proper secondary device to manage their work on the go. If you already have your production machine like a Windows PC or a laptop, Surface Go will be a nice addition to your workflow. That’s it for this post, share if you liked it and subscribe to the blog if you love it. See Ya!!