Surface Go 2 review

 I think it's for familiesthat need a second computer for their kid who is now doing all of their school work at home. I think it's for gadgetheads who just wanna tiny, cool, little computer that's, that's me by the way. But I kinda hate breakinggadgets down demographically. I hate saying if you wanna touch screen and you wanna tabletand if you need Windows, and if you want a small computer, or if you wanna savemoney, plus if you're Virgo or if you're a Scorpio. Look, you get the idea. So well, I fit in the middle of one of those Venn diagramsfor the Surface Go 2 because I love tiny computers and I know how to work with it whenthere're many, many limitations. I don't think that the Go 2 works for the large Venn diagram of people who just wanna use a computer. And I think I can explainwhy, so let's do that. Should we just get into it? We should get into it, let's get into it. (soft music) Now, if you're unfamiliarwith these Surface Go line, it is a tiny, little tabletthat is about the same size as an iPad or iPadAir or 11 inch iPad. It starts at $399, butnobody uses these things without a keyboard and thekeyboard cost about a $100 or you can spend a $130for the Alcantara version. So that's 500 bucks for thebase model with a keyboard, which is about the same price as a basic iPad with a basic keyboard. And this thing is adorable. I love this hardware. Microsoft kept the exact same body size, but they made the bezels on the screen a little bit smaller, theyup the resolution a tad, it's now a 10.5 inch screen with a 1920 by 2080 resolution. 

There's still a kick stand on the back. There's a micro SD card slot,there's a couple of ports, and there's a headphone jack, hooray! Second to maybe the Surface Pro X, this is probably myfavorite Microsoft hardware. Now, the version I got here to review is the fancy pants version with a real Intel Core m3 processor instead of the Pentium Gold processor that comes in the base model. This has eight gigs of RAM, which really is what you want for Windows to not be a suffer fest. It also has a properSSD while the base model has a slower eMMC storage. Oh, also they threw LTE in this thing, which means that all in with keyboard, this model costs 860 buck, which is just a little bit cheaper than the equivalent respectiPad Air with a keyboard. But look, it still a lot of money for such a tiny computer. (soft music) I keep bring up the iPad because it's the same size as this. But also because it'skind of the same idea. You get a tiny, little portable tablet that can do a lot ofthings, but not everything. There's always a compromise when you pay this little money and you use a computer that's this little. You get stopped from doingwhat you wanna do sometimes. Now, with the iPad, you'restopped from doing stuff mainly because either theapps just aren't there or because the operatingsystem just won't let you. Now, with the Surface Go2, that's not a problem. You can install literally anyWindows app that you want. Like here, I installed Photoshop. The full, real Photoshop with every single Photoshop feature andI can just launch it. And well, see, with the Surface Go 2, even my very fancy one here, the thing that stops you isn'tthe OS or the lack of apps. Instead, it has a way lower ceiling for running multiple appsor very powerful apps. Another way of puttingthat is that it's slow, but that's not exactly what I mean. See, when you're just browsing with a few tabs or doing Office app stuff, or some email or watching Netflix and maybe not all that stuff all at once, then it's not a problem. At least on the Core m3version of the Surface Go 2, it handles all of thosetasks one by one just fine. Just don't run Photoshopon this or edit video. I mean, you can, I'm lookingat Photoshop right now, but you really don't want to. But if you keep thisthing with in its limits, it is a super fun machinethat gets the job done. (soft music) But look, I still have a hard time with this little computer. Last year, I felt like that if Microsoft could fix three things withthe original Surface Go, 

I could really buy intothe idea of this device and even start recommending it. The first thing was screen size. And that's fixed basically. I wish it had gotten a little brighter, and I wished the bezels were still even little bit smaller, but it's enough. The second thing is speed. And that's sort of fixedas long as you're willing to spend the extra moneyon the Core m3 version. And the third thing was battery life. Right, so the battery on the Surface Go 2 is 0.7 watt hours bigger than on the original Surface Go, and that has meant point nothing in terms of longer battery life. It wasn't great last year and this year I'm barely gettingthrough a whole work day. I'm talking five or maybesix hours of battery life and I'm not pushing it toget those five or six hours. I think that in ultra portable device should ultra portable batterylife and this just isn't. But say you can livewith that, should you? I keep coming back to that Venn diagram and all the or, if's,and's and who's and stuff. So say you want an inexpensive computer for your kids to use for school. That's kind of what Microsoft is pushing in the commercials for this device. Okay, but for 500 bucks,you can get a Chromebook with really good specs that just flies. Would Chrome OS work for you? Or say your main thing is youwant a really small tablet. Okay, but an iPad ishonestly going to be faster and have better battery life. Would iPad a less work for you? I mean, how badly doyou really need Windows? Okay, say you really need Windows. I totally get that, but then how badly do you need a device that's this size. Because if you spend this 750-ish bucks for the faster Core m3 version of the Surface Go 2 with a keyboard, well, you can get a used or refurbed Surface Pro 6 or 7 that'sgoing to be way faster and have a bigger screen for basically the same amount of moneyand just a little bit more. So this thing is great but you need to ask yourself why you need this instead of a faster Chromebook and iPad that works better as a tablet, a Surface Pro or even aninexpensive Windows laptop from Dell or Lenovo or whoever. If you have good answers for why you don't want any of those things, then hey, welcome to the center of the Venn diagram with me. We're gonna make t-shirts and stuff. If you want a small tablet and it has to run Windows, then lucky for you, the Surface Go 2 does those two things fairly well. It is a nice, tiny tablet. But I think it only makes sense for a tiny number of people. I also think it's gadget heads who just wanna tiny, cool, what am I doing?