News
News Categories

Microsoft unveils the new Surface Laptop Go, available now

By Cookie Monster & Vijay Anand - on 24 Nov 2020, 9:21am

Microsoft unveils the new Surface Laptop Go, available for pre-order now

Note: This article was first published on 1 Oct 2020 and it was updated on 5 Nov 2020 with local pricing and availability details. Also updated is that the keyboard does not have backlighting as was initially reported.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go.

As expected, Microsoft today announced the lightest and most affordable Surface Laptop yet. 

The existing Surface Laptop 3 is a solid workhorse, but it's not exactly as light as some of the super slim and light ultraportable notebooks out there and is a little on the expensive side of things, while the Surface Go 2 is a bit too small and underpowered for serious work. Here is where the new Surface Laptop Go slips in between both models.

The Surface Laptop Go has a sleek, streamlined design that weighs only 1.11kg. It has a 12.45-inch PixelSense Display with a resolution of 1,536 x 1,024 pixels and 3:2 aspect ratio. The screen resolution isn't in the same class as the Surface Laptop 3 but the Surface Laptop go is more for value seekers wanting a reasonably sized screen to work with.

Powered by the 10th-gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 (Ice Lake) quad-core processor, the Surface Laptop Go comes in 4/8GB RAM and 64GB eMMC drive/128GB SSD/256GB SSD configurations. Select models have a fingerprint power button with One Touch sign-in via Windows Hello. 

The Surface Laptop Go is stated to have a battery life of up to 13 hours. It supports fast charging, which can refuel the battery to 80% in just over an hour! It comes with 1 x USB-C port, 1 x USB-A port, a 3.5mm headphone jack and 1 x Surface Connect port.

Other specs include Windows 10 Home operating system in S mode, a large precision glass trackpad, a full-size keyboard with a soft-touch feel and full 1.3mm key travel for a comfortable typing experience (sadly it doesn't have backlighting), Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, Bluetooth 5.0, a 720p HD f/2.0 front-facing camera, dual far-field Studio Mics and Omnisonic Speakers with Dolby Audio Premium. 

Starting from US$549, the Surface Laptop Go is available for pre-order now in select markets online and it will be coming to major retailers from 13 October. Three colour finishes are available: Ice Blue, Platinum and Sandstone.

No news yet of local pricing but it is said to be coming to Singapore sometime in November. We'll be sure to update this space once we get more details.

** Update on 5 Nov 2020, 1030 hours **

Microsoft has just announced that the Surface Laptop Go will be available for pre-order beginning 5th Nov 2020.

It will be available in retail from 24th Nov 2020.

Locally, it will only be available in platinum colour finish and prices will start at S$868. Here are the prices for all the configurations of the Surface Laptop Go.

Which configuration should you get?

The most basic version starts from S$868 and it sounds really affordable. However, with only a measly 4GB of RAM and 64GB eMMC storage, they are bottlenecking what you could possibly achieve with an Ice Lake 10th-gen Intel Core i5 processor.

In our opinion, the lowest configuration you should opt for is the S$1,088 model that comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD storage. 

If you dabble with a lot of applications at the same time, i.e. multi-tasking, and have a lot of tabs open on your browser, you might want to go for 16GB of RAM to really foolproof any kind of work task that might come your way. After all, 8GB of RAM is the bare minimum these days for a decent user experience when you have limited applications in use. However, the 16GB configuration isn't available for consumers to purchase off the shelves and is only available as a commercial variant. The good thing about the commercial edition is that it ships with Windows 10 Pro, access to Microsoft 365 Business programme and your device is enrolled in Microsoft's Advanced Exchange programme, meaning you get a replacement machine immediately should something go wrong with your device. Surface Laptop Go for Business can be obtained from Microsoft over here.

 

Where can you purchase one?

Here are all the authorises resellers where you can purchase the Surface Laptop Go:-

For business deployment needs, these following commercial retailers will have the Surface Laptop Go available:- Insight Technology SolutionsJK TechnologyAsiaPac Distribution; and UIC Asian Computer Services.

Join HWZ's Telegram channel here and catch all the latest tech news!
Our articles may contain affiliate links. If you buy through these links, we may earn a small commission.