Microsoft has today announced the long-rumored 12.5-inch Surface Laptop Go in the US. As the name suggests, it’s a budget-friendly laptop that’s targeted at students and runs Windows 10 in S mode.
Surface Laptop Go: Specs
Starting off with the design, the Surface Laptop Go looks like a mini Surface Laptop 3. It has an aluminum lid and a polycarbonate keyboard deck. The laptop sports a 12.45-inch PixelSense LCD display with 1536 x 1024-pixel resolution and a 3:2 aspect ratio. There are minimal bezels all-around, except for the bigger bottom chin.
Under the hood, Microsoft has used Intel’s 10th-gen quad-core i5-1035G1 Ice Lake processor that offers a base clock frequency of 1.2GHz and boost clock of 3.6GHz. It is coupled with integrated Iris Plus graphics.
The laptop comes in two RAM and three storage variants. The base model offers 4GB of RAM along with 64GB of storage. Meanwhile, the 8GB RAM variant comes in 128GB and 256GB storage options. While the 64GB storage variant uses eMMC, you will find SSD type-storage on the 8GB RAM models.
In terms of connectivity, the laptop supports the latest Wi-Fi 6 protocol, coupled with Bluetooth 5.0. Microsoft has swapped out Windows Hello facial recognition in favor of a convenient fingerprint reader into the power button to round up the security options. The company has equipped a 5MP front camera in the laptop, which maxes out at 720p. The 720p camera should do a decent job for all your video conferencing needs in the current situation, where most of us are working from home.
The Surface Laptop Go includes a decent-sized touchpad and a full-size keyboard with a modest 1.3mm key travel. You get up to 13 hours of battery life with this laptop but can quickly juice it up, thanks to its 65W fast charging capabilities. You will also find a 1x USB Type-C, 1x USB-A, a 3.5mm audio jack, and 1x Surface Connect to round up the ports selection.
Price and Availability
The Surface Laptop Go will be available in three color variants namely Platinum, Ice Blue, and Sandstone. Microsoft has priced the Surface Laptop Go at $549 for the 4GB/64GB variant, while the 8GB/128GB model will retail at $699. You will have to shell out $899 for the top-end 8GB/256GB model. You can pre-order these products right now.
All of these Surface Laptop Go models will be available starting from 13th October in select countries, including the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.
Microsoft has confirmed that it will bring the Surface Laptop Go to India but next year, on 30th March. This means you will have to wait six months to see this budget laptop land in India, which is just disappointing.
