The eMMC is what's affecting the launch time of apps, not the CPU here. Unless you push it hard. I used the model with 8/128, given that the 128 gb is SSD, not eMMC, the perfoemance is more than OK.
I think there is a big difference between the entry Surface Go and Upgraded Surface Go model. My Surface Go 2 with 8GB ram (huge upgrade), SSD and Core m3 Processor is very usable. The Core m3-7Y30 is as fast as my old Surface Pro 5 with i5-7300U. Perfectly fine for business and viewing the web. I am guessing it is even better with the Surface Go 3 and 4 models. The only problem is the price for the upgrade.
thank you for actually looking at the low-end model! I've been really looking for a device that fits my specific purpose: writing, but make it super easy to carry with me everywhere. my regular laptop is... fine? I guess? but it's heavy and bulky. I've been trying to nail down something that can run libreoffice writer without freaking out, fit in a normal-ish sized crossbody bag, doesn't weigh much and has a taller aspect ratio. and has a keyboard that doesn't make me hate my life. the surface go 3 does a pretty great job hitting all the notes here. chromebook detachables been considered but I hate google drive and having to be connected to the internet defeats the entire purpose (of wanting to plop down to write while touching some grass) everyone ignores this one and the higher end models are outside of my price range, so thanks for really taking a serious look at it. I'm still angry the keyboard isn't included in the box, though. it really should be.
Yes 100% agree with you on the keyboard part. I bought the low end Surface Go 2 it is good. Bought a cheap keyboard cover and it has been good to me. It's annoying to have to charge the keyboard separately (USB micro) but every once in awhile I do want to use the keyword detached so yay.
I got the 8g ram and am super happy with the performance. No lag, programs run smooth and can have multiple tabs open . Outpreform my low end chromebook.
I have a Surface Go - Gold CPU, 4gb - Bought it in 2019. Original version. Still have it and use it almost daily. It's great to have a computer to carry around my house when I'm not on my desktop. I use it for simple tasks. But it actually can do 1080x60 video editing pretty well too on the go! Great for traveling and having downloaded shows and movies on flights or road trips. Charges with USB C as well so when traveling I can take less cords and power supplies (you do need a proper wall adapter plug to charge this, a cell phone charger won't).
Good review dude. I'm glad MS still makes the Surface Go and I really hope people give it a fair look if they want real computing with a tocuhscreen, something nice in quality, and not terribly expensive. I have the original SG and I've been using it as my home computer with a BT keyboard, mouse, and external monitor for almost 3 years now. Long story short, I think a Surface Go can satisfy most people's home computing needs. I feel people over-buy with a lot of tech-imbued things, but for general internet media consumption, drawing, writing, homework, it's worked beautifully. Sometimes apps slow when loading and some sites take a second or two to fully load, but those are worthy tradeoffs to not have to spend a ton on a 2-in-1. It's so cool to me that, what, not even 10 years ago, when people had a "family computer" it was a PC tower or a chunky laptop, but now those tasks and more can be done with MS's "weakest", cheapest 2-in-1 tablet thingy. ...although, it is annoying that TH-cam chugs when loading and then there was this one time Zoom crashed as the SG got hot during a 45 minute call 😅Sorry to ramble, felt like sharing after realizing how much I've come to rely on my SG for 3 entire years. I should start calling it oooooool' reliable LOL
@@patfisher99 Sick find. Imma hafta upgrade at some point for sure cause I really wanna try PCVR and I'm not entirely sure a Surface Go can handle that. 😅
Thank you so much for this review. My girlfriend was looking into this laptop while it was on sale, and she wanted advice on if it would be good for her.
Please stop telling me I can install web apps in Edge, I know that lol. As I said in the video, the issues is with Google products. I have two accounts that I use for different things and swapping accounts within Edge logs me out of tasks on the other account so I use two browsers on my other PCs. You're also missing my point which was that something that isn't an issue on other computers in my house is on this one because of the specs. Using a second profile in Edge also fixes this, shoutout to Sega Boy for that tip.
My Go 2 was nice. I went with the 128gig storage model with 8 gigs of ram. It got to the point though I needed something stronger because it chugged when just trying to draw. My money would have been better spent on a pro 7 base model.
Would this be great for Note taking with the pen? That is all I will mainly be using it for. If you did that, what was your experience with it? Also, is there a pen that doesn't need charging? Thank you and great video!!
Sorry to spam the comments, but I wanted to offer this tip. I use webapps in the same way that you do, only through Edge. I use the "Install the website as an app" feature. You're doing this in Chrome because you have separate Google accounts than the ones you use in your default Edge instance. Solution: Create a second Edge profile. This will allow you to do things like 1) install TH-cam as a webapp more than once. You can call one "TH-cam Shane Craig" and another "TH-cam Personal". This way, you will only need Edge.
I tried this a long while back and all I was doing was trading swapping accounts for swapping profiles. Can you have a web app *always* be one profile regardless of what the browser is doing? If not, this doesn't really help me.
@@scaryifliteral Good luck. I do this at work using 3 profiles in Edge. One for personal, and the others for my two AD accounts. I appify most things. Good luck!
Long comment, sorry in advance: 1. Imagine an Android tablet in this body, with Samsung’s speakers. 2. Give me an ARM version of this with a USB-A port opposite the USB-C and I am so down. 3. Microsoft should just make a custom flavor or ChromeOS with Edge and Android app support. 4. Make sure you use the Dolby app with the Go 3, makes a real difference. 5. New to your channel, really like the content.
I was just thinking that too! Seeing those guitars at the back of the room for some time now.. let's see what he can do?? Lol .. maybe a surprise video one of these days?? Interesting video.. we are pushed for the latest and greatest tech which in most cases is over kill!! You may need to install a Linux distro on it to improve performance.. 😊
The bad CPUs and pre-modern Windows 11 have hampered the Surface Go line. Hopefully the Surface Go 4 comes equipped with the Intel i3-N305 to get the pros of using an x86 CPU while also operating as cool and fanless like a ARM CPU even when out of S-mode alongside a 16GB of RAM variant for at most $800.
Hi Shane - great review. As someone coming from an Intel Atom-based Surface 3 I really just want a cheap Surface that is a refresh of what I've got. This still seems an upgrade in the hardware compared to what I have - so I am wondering what your thoughts are? I mainly use Netflix, TH-cam, Mail and Xbox Gamepass Streaming. Many thanks.
I'm gaming on this thing fairly nicely -- I'm just playing the games that I tested to play fine on it. For example, Skyrim works kinda okayish, but Oblivion is perfect on it. There will always be gazillions of games you can still play from a few years back, and sure, it won't be Animal Crossing, but Stardew Valley is perfect on this thing.
I have a surface go gen 1 with windows 11 loaded on it. on gen 1 you are able to overclock the screen which i did to 90hz. It nice to read reddit and other websites.I also have a chrome os duet. I usually use that one to watch videos and media watching kills my surface battery even faster.I would like to use the surface as my only tablet but that battery life makes that very uncomfortable
My laptop has Pentium Gold 5405U which is a bit less powerful than 6500Y. But the problem with the performance on Surface Go 3 is that it comes with eMMC storage, instead of SSD. Most eMMCs are too slow compared to SSDs
Thanks for the review Shane. Would you recommend the Surface Pro 7 i5 8gb 256 as a second hand purchase in 22(nearly 23🎉 happy new year). Would be used for browsing, note taking, Microsoft Office apps, second casual device tasks.
That's not as bad I thought it would be. Like I have at work desktop with widescreen monitor for CAD, email&web browsing and another 16:9 display pivoted for document reading or teams/file explorer. But if I would have to move around I'd pick Go 3 for on-the-go device as let's face it most use their laptops for email, excel and such quite trivial tasks. I would get the more RAM and maybe the core i3 model. But I think even this would suffice just fine and have insanely good portability. I've always been astound why many workers pick big laptops for their work. I understand it if one is always mobile or if it's the only device, but almost all have their own offices that they work most off the time. I'd like to see Go 4 with ARM option. That would be very interesting.
If only they made a beefier expandable variant, the size, build quality and portability are top notch. It even has an audio i/o jack. My only other gripe is if it only had one full sized USB along with its USB C. I'm not even interested in the latest model now that they eliminated all but one of the ports. No audio jack? Really? That thing was capable of being a digital audio work station.
Reminds me of the surface tablet 2. Microsoft displays are typically very pleasant, even the OG Surface 1 in 720p. Full disclosure, my 1&2 are not at all usable. My current is a Surface Laptop 3. One day I’ll upgrade.
I think the issue with the base model is that it uses EMMC storage. Better to get a 128GB model as they use SSD. I run Fedora 37 Linux on my Surface Go gen 1 and it runs quite well. I also have a SG2 128GB running Windows, and it's OK to use. The cheaper Chromebooks mentioned do not have back-lit keyboards.
I mentioned the eMMC thing in the video, in case you missed it. If you go with the SSD model, you're tacking on another $80 or so. With the keyboard you've spent around $500. You could get a really nice Chromebook for that.
What on screen keyboard do you use in fedora ? I have an old tablet on which i tried running debian 11 32 bit with gnome desktop (its got 32 bit firmware so this was the best distro i could think of) and the default keyboard doesn't pop up in Firefox and other non-gnome apps. I tried using onboard as Explaining Computers suggested on his video on linux x86 tablets but when i try using it i have to pop it manually and it doesn't register the keys because it focuses on the keyboard window. Also the screen rotates the exact opposite way of holding it, probably because the tablet boots in portrait and it's expected to boot in landscape but that doesn't bother me as much since i just disabled it. Windows doesn't even have drivers for touchscreen, sound, bluetooth, (wifi worked after using sdio) while on linux all the hardware works so that's why i really want to run linux on this thing, and I'm also running linux on my main laptop.
@@robertm20 Fedora has been 64-bit only for quite some time. I use the built in OSK. Can't really say how good it is as when I use as a tablet, the OSK is only used for my password and everything else is touch screen gestures.
The bottleneck is not the CPU, but RAM. I have used the same Pentium SG3 but with 8 GB RAM and 128GB NVMe, and it was decent experience. With 4 GB RAM, the CPU is constantly caching RAM in and out of virtual memory and hence it is maxing out. The Pentium in SG3 is at least as powerful as a 5th or 6th Gen i5. Put Linux on it and its a productivity beast.
It seems that after 15 years of tablets we still struggle to do just the basic stuff -browsing, opening documents , watching movies or TH-cam. It’s seems all that hardware development, all that processor and ram speed is meaningless. Basically just e-waste.
Yes, but like I said in the video, I have two Google accounts. I like having my work account signed in by default, but that means to use any other service I have to toggle it. This gets annoying, so I employ a second browser specifically for PWAs to get around this.
@@scaryifliteral I use 10 google accounts with 3 browsers: Edge, Chrome, Firefox. 5 google accounts are for my specialty interests and 5 google accounts for family members which I monitor/troubleshoot.
13:14 You're wrong, the ram is THE problem. Windows (and any modern OS) will never use 100% physical memory. It will compress and/or evict active pages which lowers task manager's metrics. Due to the low ram, Windows has to do many swap operations which is the main reason the CPU is pegged at 100%. Not to mention the lack of "Free" ram prevents windows from retaining memory mapped files in standby. This means none of the frequently accessed files are cached in ram which slows app loads. What's worse is there's barely any cache for writes which causes stutters and freezes thanks to the abysmally slow emmc drive. For a better understanding of how memory works in Windows watch "Mysteries of Memory Management Revealed,with Mark Russinovich"
I feel like I explained and thoroughly demonstrated what I was saying in the video better than I could rehash it here. I would advise people to just watch the video and determine for themselves if I know how ram works or not given what I show in the video.
Newer Windows uses as much memory as possible, it keeps a lot of things in memory just in case you need it again. Only if you run out of memory does it start to clean up the memory. So the Windows memory usage can be a bit deceiving
True, all OS's do insane caching which is good thing, but 4gigs these days is very little. I'd say it might be passable if it would have insanely fast ssd, but even then I'd prefer 8gigs.
I doubt it’s the cpu causing the bottleneck, it’s the ram and slow eMMC storage. Correct me if I’m wrong but when ram runs out, the system will use the storage as a sort of ram, and this in turn will spike cpu usage having to call slow memory. My laptop has a way worse cpu than this pentium (yes really(12 years old)), but it’s fine for general use since it’s paired with sufficient ram and a fast ssd. If I had let’s say 4gb of ram and a slow hdd, I’d guess my laptop would be pretty unusable. 4gb is just really not cutting it these days, unless running a lightweight linux distro or something like tiny11. And eMMC storage is only slightly better than a HDD.
Surface Go product get no love for cases :( I wish they had magnetic cases like the iPads. I have the Go 3 with the 6500Y with 8GB ram it works great for media consumption and some productivity stuff when away from office computer.
I have the pricy M3 GO 2, and I consider that to be unusable. My wife has a GO 1 with Pentium Gold and she can't even run Windows 11. Don't buy a GO. Just get a Samsung tablet or iPad with a keyboard.
have the same (M3 Go2) and I can run Illustrator or InDesign on it, or open 30 tabs in Chrome, use Word, Excel, open big images, etc. Perhaps you should dig a bit deeper or fine tune. A Samsung tablet or iPad is something completely different, can't compare with a real computer on Windows.
@labalia30 Agreed, they are different. However, running Illustrator and 30 Chrome tabs on a device that scores 386/817 on Geekbench is a fantasy. Not to mention its well outside the use case for this device. These are iPhone 7 scores... that's how bad it is.
@@segaboy9894 mine scores around 600/1300 on Geekbench 5. I can use Word, OneDrive, have 30+ Chrome tabs and 10 Edge tabs simultaneously without any problem. All of this with a full Windows system, pen support and a touchscreen. Much more useful in any real work situation than an iPhone or iPad or Android Tablet. And if necessary, it will run Adobe apps, even if of course a Surface Pro or Surface Laptop (or Studio) will be much more powerful. The only drawback I see for this device on its best configuration is the battery life which is a bit problematic. A Go4 on ARM could solve this problem but at the expense of compatibility.
@@scaryifliteral Watched whole video, did hear your second reference to PWAs but it did not register as a reason to use Chrome vs Edge for PWAs. Please provide timestamp and I will listen AGAIN. Thanks.
@@scaryifliteral got it on a second watch. You use the web apps for your second Google acct. Yeah, it's not going to run 2 browsers well. Great if you don't have that use case.
you can play old retro games just fine.insted of trying to show what it cant do why dont you show what it can do. i play doom1 doom2 ridge racer ,sonic,all sega games etc this little surface go is a beast when you give it what it can handle. Handles office 365 fine ,plus you didn't talk about the connectivity.
I've got a Go3 and it's ok if you just want to run a single app at a time. At half the price of a decent iPad then I guess you get what you pay for. I'd love for MS to cram the surface pro into that form factor.
Decent iPad? The base model 9th-gen iPad runs circles around the GO, is incredibly fast. We have bought 2 GOs in my household and they just don't stack up to anything...
@Michael Corcoran That's not the point. I'm not an Apple guy, but one thing is for sure - they don't ship any products that offer a bad experience. Someone who will actually use all that flexibility you've mentioned isn't going to buy a device that can't even run two apps at the same time.
Il problema di questi notebook Windows sono le emmc. Vale per tutti HP Asus Acer Microsoft. È inspiegabile il motivo del loro uso da parte delle aziende.
Totally agree with this guy I don't believe its the RAM I must be doing something wrong then because this device is the worse item I have ever purchased seriously I have the mid 8gb gold CPU its dreadful absolutely I wasn't expecting a MacBook pro but this is slower than slow it over heats the battery well what can I say 11 hours quoted what are Microsoft smoking 11 minutes more like it will loose near 20% in 11 minutes the thing drains and sucks battery like me guzzling a cold latte on a hot summers day. I'm probably getting old but the 150% screen scaling is far too small !! I find this unusable I'm thinking of giving it to my 11 year old daughter to watch you tube thats all its good for .
Dual core Intel is pure crap, my old Chuwi HI8 is probably faster than gold cpu, lol it's quad core, and run latest win 10 update on it, but has 2gb ram only lol still runs fine. Microsoft needs to rip out Intel crap and start shove in ARM SOC asap whether people want it or not. X86 is antiquated. Need to move on people come out of stone age, to ARM age, like Most Servers, which are already ARM, why 1, save power, 3, more performance for less power. Wake up people stuck on x86 and learn something new.
@@michaelcorcoran8768 Need to push it out on all devices, laptops etc, this will force develepors to start making software. If you dillidally with x86 and ARM get no where.
yes duel core and quad core is a world of difference. i have a mac mini with a duel core i7 and a macbook 2015 with a quad core. both sdd both same ram. the macbook is snappy while the duel core may struggle and even get hot. the mac mini duel core i have seen those things get 100% just running a andriod studio.
This was a great review but I use mine as an emulator, I get my Nintendo ds games on here and I can play pokemon and other games where ever I am, so it's good for emulation.
Of course this thing sucks at multitasking. Can it run TH-cam on its own? Web browsers aren't meant to be run simultaneously. The Surface Go is probably as close as Microsoft wants to get to a Chromebook, which I'm on at this very moment. This Chromebook is wonderful compared to a Surface Go but it doesn't run Windows. Oh look. You're loading up a game on Steam. Almost all video games today are bloated and meant to run on current hardware, whether it's a phone or PC. The Surface Go isn't mid-range. It's low-end. Why did you make this? Why am I watching this? You seem a little out of touch with the kind of people who might be concerned about performance on the Surface Go, because they are definitely not the type that expect it to run games off Steam well. 16:24 Actually, that game is in 3D and uses very complex graphics compared to what's actually needed for gameplay. Of course, it isn't Tomb Raider, but that game certainly wasn't made to be as simple as reasonably possible. Those 3D graphics are for looks. The same game on the SNES wouldn't have had 3D graphics at all because of how stupidly it would gobble up system resources. If you want to see another example of a game, a mobile game, that uses 3D-like graphics and takes up stupid system resources, check out Hunt Royale. Or Archero. Or Mr Autofire. Or most games by VOODOO such as Mob Control. Or Casual Azur Games. You picked an Indie game, which was likely not nearly as optimized as a game from a bigger studio. Microsoft (and I'm not a fan of Microsoft or their products) made the Surface Go to appease people who want something that works without spending as much money. People with lower standards and needs based on those lower standards. I wish all computers today were snappy and I could get the cheapest one and still run everything well. It's a lot more complicated than that. For example, Microsoft and Windows seem to want their users to use the Edge browser and do everything they can to force it on their users. They don't deserve to exist for that very fact and the same goes for the people who put up with that. It's a mistake to tolerate badly behaved people and the companies whose existence depends on them.
Read right up until the sarcasm in the second paragraph made my eyes roll so far into the back of my head I went blind. Had to resort to speech to text to reply.
The eMMC is what's affecting the launch time of apps, not the CPU here. Unless you push it hard. I used the model with 8/128, given that the 128 gb is SSD, not eMMC, the perfoemance is more than OK.
It's certainly not helping.
I think there is a big difference between the entry Surface Go and Upgraded Surface Go model.
My Surface Go 2 with 8GB ram (huge upgrade), SSD and Core m3 Processor is very usable. The Core m3-7Y30 is as fast as my old Surface Pro 5 with i5-7300U. Perfectly fine for business and viewing the web. I am guessing it is even better with the Surface Go 3 and 4 models. The only problem is the price for the upgrade.
thank you for actually looking at the low-end model! I've been really looking for a device that fits my specific purpose: writing, but make it super easy to carry with me everywhere. my regular laptop is... fine? I guess? but it's heavy and bulky. I've been trying to nail down something that can run libreoffice writer without freaking out, fit in a normal-ish sized crossbody bag, doesn't weigh much and has a taller aspect ratio. and has a keyboard that doesn't make me hate my life. the surface go 3 does a pretty great job hitting all the notes here. chromebook detachables been considered but I hate google drive and having to be connected to the internet defeats the entire purpose (of wanting to plop down to write while touching some grass)
everyone ignores this one and the higher end models are outside of my price range, so thanks for really taking a serious look at it. I'm still angry the keyboard isn't included in the box, though. it really should be.
Yes 100% agree with you on the keyboard part. I bought the low end Surface Go 2 it is good. Bought a cheap keyboard cover and it has been good to me.
It's annoying to have to charge the keyboard separately (USB micro) but every once in awhile I do want to use the keyword detached so yay.
I got the 8g ram and am super happy with the performance. No lag, programs run smooth and can have multiple tabs open . Outpreform my low end chromebook.
same for my go 2 m3
I have a Surface Go - Gold CPU, 4gb - Bought it in 2019. Original version. Still have it and use it almost daily. It's great to have a computer to carry around my house when I'm not on my desktop. I use it for simple tasks. But it actually can do 1080x60 video editing pretty well too on the go! Great for traveling and having downloaded shows and movies on flights or road trips. Charges with USB C as well so when traveling I can take less cords and power supplies (you do need a proper wall adapter plug to charge this, a cell phone charger won't).
Good review dude. I'm glad MS still makes the Surface Go and I really hope people give it a fair look if they want real computing with a tocuhscreen, something nice in quality, and not terribly expensive.
I have the original SG and I've been using it as my home computer with a BT keyboard, mouse, and external monitor for almost 3 years now. Long story short, I think a Surface Go can satisfy most people's home computing needs. I feel people over-buy with a lot of tech-imbued things, but for general internet media consumption, drawing, writing, homework, it's worked beautifully. Sometimes apps slow when loading and some sites take a second or two to fully load, but those are worthy tradeoffs to not have to spend a ton on a 2-in-1.
It's so cool to me that, what, not even 10 years ago, when people had a "family computer" it was a PC tower or a chunky laptop, but now those tasks and more can be done with MS's "weakest", cheapest 2-in-1 tablet thingy.
...although, it is annoying that TH-cam chugs when loading and then there was this one time Zoom crashed as the SG got hot during a 45 minute call 😅Sorry to ramble, felt like sharing after realizing how much I've come to rely on my SG for 3 entire years. I should start calling it oooooool' reliable LOL
@@patfisher99 Sick find. Imma hafta upgrade at some point for sure cause I really wanna try PCVR and I'm not entirely sure a Surface Go can handle that. 😅
3:2 displays are underrated for sure
Thank you so much for this review. My girlfriend was looking into this laptop while it was on sale, and she wanted advice on if it would be good for her.
Please stop telling me I can install web apps in Edge, I know that lol. As I said in the video, the issues is with Google products. I have two accounts that I use for different things and swapping accounts within Edge logs me out of tasks on the other account so I use two browsers on my other PCs. You're also missing my point which was that something that isn't an issue on other computers in my house is on this one because of the specs.
Using a second profile in Edge also fixes this, shoutout to Sega Boy for that tip.
My Go 2 was nice. I went with the 128gig storage model with 8 gigs of ram. It got to the point though I needed something stronger because it chugged when just trying to draw. My money would have been better spent on a pro 7 base model.
My SP7 i5 is soooo much faster
@@scaryifliteral I can imagine that it is 😅
Would this be great for Note taking with the pen? That is all I will mainly be using it for. If you did that, what was your experience with it? Also, is there a pen that doesn't need charging? Thank you and great video!!
I can not tell what makes this new compared to a Surface Go 2.
Sorry to spam the comments, but I wanted to offer this tip. I use webapps in the same way that you do, only through Edge. I use the "Install the website as an app" feature. You're doing this in Chrome because you have separate Google accounts than the ones you use in your default Edge instance. Solution: Create a second Edge profile. This will allow you to do things like 1) install TH-cam as a webapp more than once. You can call one "TH-cam Shane Craig" and another "TH-cam Personal".
This way, you will only need Edge.
I tried this a long while back and all I was doing was trading swapping accounts for swapping profiles. Can you have a web app *always* be one profile regardless of what the browser is doing? If not, this doesn't really help me.
@@scaryifliteral you can. In Edge, the web app will always launch using the profile it was created from.
Unless I'm just dumb, this wasn't how it worked for me when I tried it. Granted that was a long time ago, maybe that has changed. I'll check it out!
@@scaryifliteral Good luck. I do this at work using 3 profiles in Edge. One for personal, and the others for my two AD accounts. I appify most things. Good luck!
Long comment, sorry in advance:
1. Imagine an Android tablet in this body, with Samsung’s speakers.
2. Give me an ARM version of this with a USB-A port opposite the USB-C and I am so down.
3. Microsoft should just make a custom flavor or ChromeOS with Edge and Android app support.
4. Make sure you use the Dolby app with the Go 3, makes a real difference.
5. New to your channel, really like the content.
hey u really got superb skills in indtroducing something ! big talent
I was just thinking that too! Seeing those guitars at the back of the room for some time now.. let's see what he can do?? Lol .. maybe a surprise video one of these days?? Interesting video.. we are pushed for the latest and greatest tech which in most cases is over kill!! You may need to install a Linux distro on it to improve performance.. 😊
The bad CPUs and pre-modern Windows 11 have hampered the Surface Go line.
Hopefully the Surface Go 4 comes equipped with the Intel i3-N305 to get the pros of using an x86 CPU while also operating as cool and fanless like a ARM CPU even when out of S-mode alongside a 16GB of RAM variant for at most $800.
what's the modern widows 11?
Hi Shane - great review. As someone coming from an Intel Atom-based Surface 3 I really just want a cheap Surface that is a refresh of what I've got. This still seems an upgrade in the hardware compared to what I have - so I am wondering what your thoughts are? I mainly use Netflix, TH-cam, Mail and Xbox Gamepass Streaming. Many thanks.
my go 2 with 8GB is a massive upgrade over my surface 3 with 4, not even close
I want to hear you play guitar
I'm gaming on this thing fairly nicely -- I'm just playing the games that I tested to play fine on it. For example, Skyrim works kinda okayish, but Oblivion is perfect on it. There will always be gazillions of games you can still play from a few years back, and sure, it won't be Animal Crossing, but Stardew Valley is perfect on this thing.
I have a surface go gen 1 with windows 11 loaded on it. on gen 1 you are able to overclock the screen which i did to 90hz. It nice to read reddit and other websites.I also have a chrome os duet. I usually use that one to watch videos and media watching kills my surface battery even faster.I would like to use the surface as my only tablet but that battery life makes that very uncomfortable
did you use the windows insider windows 11?
@@seagle_p7 yup
My laptop has Pentium Gold 5405U which is a bit less powerful than 6500Y. But the problem with the performance on Surface Go 3 is that it comes with eMMC storage, instead of SSD. Most eMMCs are too slow compared to SSDs
Right, I pointed this out in the video. Would be nice to be able to swap it out.
Thanks for the review Shane. Would you recommend the Surface Pro 7 i5 8gb 256 as a second hand purchase in 22(nearly 23🎉 happy new year). Would be used for browsing, note taking, Microsoft Office apps, second casual device tasks.
Still using my SP7 i5 regularly. Solid device still! Got even better with 11 imo!
@@scaryifliteral brill thanks 👍🏻 happy new year to you and all at home
That's not as bad I thought it would be. Like I have at work desktop with widescreen monitor for CAD, email&web browsing and another 16:9 display pivoted for document reading or teams/file explorer. But if I would have to move around I'd pick Go 3 for on-the-go device as let's face it most use their laptops for email, excel and such quite trivial tasks. I would get the more RAM and maybe the core i3 model. But I think even this would suffice just fine and have insanely good portability. I've always been astound why many workers pick big laptops for their work. I understand it if one is always mobile or if it's the only device, but almost all have their own offices that they work most off the time.
I'd like to see Go 4 with ARM option. That would be very interesting.
If only they made a beefier expandable variant, the size, build quality and portability are top notch. It even has an audio i/o jack. My only other gripe is if it only had one full sized USB along with its USB C. I'm not even interested in the latest model now that they eliminated all but one of the ports. No audio jack? Really? That thing was capable of being a digital audio work station.
Maybe I'll get dinkum and try it on my surface go 2 core M3 model 👍
Reminds me of the surface tablet 2. Microsoft displays are typically very pleasant, even the OG Surface 1 in 720p. Full disclosure, my 1&2 are not at all usable. My current is a Surface Laptop 3. One day I’ll upgrade.
would you prefer the surface go 3 or the surface pro x?
Hey Shane, where is this tablet made - is it made in China ?
I think the issue with the base model is that it uses EMMC storage. Better to get a 128GB model as they use SSD. I run Fedora 37 Linux on my Surface Go gen 1 and it runs quite well. I also have a SG2 128GB running Windows, and it's OK to use.
The cheaper Chromebooks mentioned do not have back-lit keyboards.
I mentioned the eMMC thing in the video, in case you missed it. If you go with the SSD model, you're tacking on another $80 or so. With the keyboard you've spent around $500. You could get a really nice Chromebook for that.
What on screen keyboard do you use in fedora ? I have an old tablet on which i tried running debian 11 32 bit with gnome desktop (its got 32 bit firmware so this was the best distro i could think of) and the default keyboard doesn't pop up in Firefox and other non-gnome apps. I tried using onboard as Explaining Computers suggested on his video on linux x86 tablets but when i try using it i have to pop it manually and it doesn't register the keys because it focuses on the keyboard window. Also the screen rotates the exact opposite way of holding it, probably because the tablet boots in portrait and it's expected to boot in landscape but that doesn't bother me as much since i just disabled it. Windows doesn't even have drivers for touchscreen, sound, bluetooth, (wifi worked after using sdio) while on linux all the hardware works so that's why i really want to run linux on this thing, and I'm also running linux on my main laptop.
@@scaryifliteral You can also get good open box base models of a surface pro for that price.
@@robertm20 Fedora has been 64-bit only for quite some time. I use the built in OSK. Can't really say how good it is as when I use as a tablet, the OSK is only used for my password and everything else is touch screen gestures.
The bottleneck is not the CPU, but RAM. I have used the same Pentium SG3 but with 8 GB RAM and 128GB NVMe, and it was decent experience. With 4 GB RAM, the CPU is constantly caching RAM in and out of virtual memory and hence it is maxing out. The Pentium in SG3 is at least as powerful as a 5th or 6th Gen i5. Put Linux on it and its a productivity beast.
Don't discount the NVME storage too. That's going to make a big difference as well.
It seems that after 15 years of tablets we still struggle to do just the basic stuff -browsing, opening documents , watching movies or TH-cam. It’s seems all that hardware development, all that processor and ram speed is meaningless. Basically just e-waste.
Edge supports Web Apps, so you could use Edge for your browser and your apps. I actually use TH-cam and Gmail that way.
Yes, but like I said in the video, I have two Google accounts. I like having my work account signed in by default, but that means to use any other service I have to toggle it. This gets annoying, so I employ a second browser specifically for PWAs to get around this.
@@scaryifliteral with a memory constraint of 4 GB, that might be something you just need to do.
@@scaryifliteral I use 10 google accounts with 3 browsers: Edge, Chrome, Firefox. 5 google accounts are for my specialty interests and 5 google accounts for family members which I monitor/troubleshoot.
13:14 You're wrong, the ram is THE problem. Windows (and any modern OS) will never use 100% physical memory. It will compress and/or evict active pages which lowers task manager's metrics. Due to the low ram, Windows has to do many swap operations which is the main reason the CPU is pegged at 100%. Not to mention the lack of "Free" ram prevents windows from retaining memory mapped files in standby. This means none of the frequently accessed files are cached in ram which slows app loads. What's worse is there's barely any cache for writes which causes stutters and freezes thanks to the abysmally slow emmc drive.
For a better understanding of how memory works in Windows watch "Mysteries of Memory Management Revealed,with Mark Russinovich"
I feel like I explained and thoroughly demonstrated what I was saying in the video better than I could rehash it here. I would advise people to just watch the video and determine for themselves if I know how ram works or not given what I show in the video.
Newer Windows uses as much memory as possible, it keeps a lot of things in memory just in case you need it again. Only if you run out of memory does it start to clean up the memory. So the Windows memory usage can be a bit deceiving
Yep. True of many OSs now. You want it to use the RAM.
True, all OS's do insane caching which is good thing, but 4gigs these days is very little. I'd say it might be passable if it would have insanely fast ssd, but even then I'd prefer 8gigs.
thx for the updated review , i wanted to buy to travel.. for small laptop quick email. or movies skype should be okay ...
^^
Could you please install chrome is flex in it? I’m just wondering how it wil run🤞🤞
Can stream HDR in internal display?
I doubt it’s the cpu causing the bottleneck, it’s the ram and slow eMMC storage. Correct me if I’m wrong but when ram runs out, the system will use the storage as a sort of ram, and this in turn will spike cpu usage having to call slow memory.
My laptop has a way worse cpu than this pentium (yes really(12 years old)), but it’s fine for general use since it’s paired with sufficient ram and a fast ssd. If I had let’s say 4gb of ram and a slow hdd, I’d guess my laptop would be pretty unusable. 4gb is just really not cutting it these days, unless running a lightweight linux distro or something like tiny11. And eMMC storage is only slightly better than a HDD.
Surface Go product get no love for cases :(
I wish they had magnetic cases like the iPads.
I have the Go 3 with the 6500Y with 8GB ram it works great for media consumption and some productivity stuff when away from office computer.
I have the pricy M3 GO 2, and I consider that to be unusable. My wife has a GO 1 with Pentium Gold and she can't even run Windows 11. Don't buy a GO. Just get a Samsung tablet or iPad with a keyboard.
have the same (M3 Go2) and I can run Illustrator or InDesign on it, or open 30 tabs in Chrome, use Word, Excel, open big images, etc. Perhaps you should dig a bit deeper or fine tune. A Samsung tablet or iPad is something completely different, can't compare with a real computer on Windows.
@labalia30 Agreed, they are different. However, running Illustrator and 30 Chrome tabs on a device that scores 386/817 on Geekbench is a fantasy. Not to mention its well outside the use case for this device. These are iPhone 7 scores... that's how bad it is.
@@segaboy9894 mine scores around 600/1300 on Geekbench 5. I can use Word, OneDrive, have 30+ Chrome tabs and 10 Edge tabs simultaneously without any problem. All of this with a full Windows system, pen support and a touchscreen. Much more useful in any real work situation than an iPhone or iPad or Android Tablet. And if necessary, it will run Adobe apps, even if of course a Surface Pro or Surface Laptop (or Studio) will be much more powerful.
The only drawback I see for this device on its best configuration is the battery life which is a bit problematic. A Go4 on ARM could solve this problem but at the expense of compatibility.
honestly ms should just give you the keyboard at this point.
they charge way too much for it separately they could easily just give you one.
Thankfully there are third party options like inatek's keyboard and Renaisser pens.
I'm hungry for a new Surface Go, wtf is SG4?
Its the heat throttling your performance and dropping cpu clock speeds
Base clock is 1.1ghz and I showed it hitting well over 2ghz fairly consistently.
With an I3 and 4GB of memory this thing sounds like a very expensive Chromebook except its running Windows.
Just install the web apps in edge. That's what I do on my go 2.
I use Edge web apps on Surface Go 2 with 8 Gb RAM.
I explained why I wasn't doing that for certain PWAs in the video
@@scaryifliteral Watched whole video, did hear your second reference to PWAs but it did not register as a reason to use Chrome vs Edge for PWAs. Please provide timestamp and I will listen AGAIN. Thanks.
@@scaryifliteral got it on a second watch. You use the web apps for your second Google acct. Yeah, it's not going to run 2 browsers well. Great if you don't have that use case.
you can play old retro games just fine.insted of trying to show what it cant do why dont you show what it can do.
i play doom1 doom2 ridge racer ,sonic,all sega games etc this little surface go is a beast when you give it what it can handle. Handles office 365 fine ,plus you didn't talk about the connectivity.
The things you were talking about are true of 99% of all computers. It goes without saying.
I've got a Go3 and it's ok if you just want to run a single app at a time. At half the price of a decent iPad then I guess you get what you pay for. I'd love for MS to cram the surface pro into that form factor.
Decent iPad? The base model 9th-gen iPad runs circles around the GO, is incredibly fast. We have bought 2 GOs in my household and they just don't stack up to anything...
@Michael Corcoran That's not the point. I'm not an Apple guy, but one thing is for sure - they don't ship any products that offer a bad experience. Someone who will actually use all that flexibility you've mentioned isn't going to buy a device that can't even run two apps at the same time.
Il problema di questi notebook Windows sono le emmc. Vale per tutti HP Asus Acer Microsoft. È inspiegabile il motivo del loro uso da parte delle aziende.
For the algorithm. ✊
I apologize for my rude comments to that spammer I hope I did not offend you
I'm pretty hard to offend lol. It got caught in one of my filters though.
Windows users: 8GB of RAM on Mac is such a ripoff
Microsoft: here is 4gb of ram
Now tell us all the price gap between the two devices and what a Surface with 8GB RAM cost
Totally agree with this guy I don't believe its the RAM I must be doing something wrong then because this device is the worse item I have ever purchased seriously I have the mid 8gb gold CPU its dreadful absolutely I wasn't expecting a MacBook pro but this is slower than slow it over heats the battery well what can I say 11 hours quoted what are Microsoft smoking 11 minutes more like it will loose near 20% in 11 minutes the thing drains and sucks battery like me guzzling a cold latte on a hot summers day.
I'm probably getting old but the 150% screen scaling is far too small !! I find this unusable I'm thinking of giving it to my 11 year old daughter to watch you tube thats all its good for .
Even other brands like acer starts selling their cheapest with 8gb and microsoft creator of OS itself still sells 4gb lol config
Why your name same as my ex bf name
Is it compatible with slim pen 2? I’ve seen conflicting info online. It obviously can’t charge it
yes it is
intel is killing microsoft products ... microsoft should find apple m1 or m2 chip alternative fast
They're working with Qualcomm
Dual core Intel is pure crap, my old Chuwi HI8 is probably faster than gold cpu, lol it's quad core, and run latest win 10 update on it, but has 2gb ram only lol still runs fine.
Microsoft needs to rip out Intel crap and start shove in ARM SOC asap whether people want it or not. X86 is antiquated. Need to move on people come out of stone age, to ARM age, like Most Servers, which are already ARM, why 1, save power, 3, more performance for less power.
Wake up people stuck on x86 and learn something new.
@@michaelcorcoran8768 Need to push it out on all devices, laptops etc, this will force develepors to start making software. If you dillidally with x86 and ARM get no where.
@@Technocrat. Apple pulled support for older versions ages ago. I am Windows fan/user, not iPadOS nor MacOS.
yes duel core and quad core is a world of difference. i have a mac mini with a duel core i7 and a macbook 2015 with a quad core. both sdd both same ram. the macbook is snappy while the duel core may struggle and even get hot. the mac mini duel core i have seen those things get 100% just running a andriod studio.
This was a great review but I use mine as an emulator, I get my Nintendo ds games on here and I can play pokemon and other games where ever I am, so it's good for emulation.
The go1 4gb can run Switch games if you're brave enough :)
Slapped some velcro on the back and controllers to game on the go lol
Hi
0:22
Never - ever try to run Windows 10/11 on less than 8GB of RAM - NEVER
Or what? Is this some sort of witches curse?
@@scaryifliteral The curse of typing a sentence and seeing it appear on screen 5 seconds later.
Of course this thing sucks at multitasking. Can it run TH-cam on its own? Web browsers aren't meant to be run simultaneously. The Surface Go is probably as close as Microsoft wants to get to a Chromebook, which I'm on at this very moment. This Chromebook is wonderful compared to a Surface Go but it doesn't run Windows.
Oh look. You're loading up a game on Steam. Almost all video games today are bloated and meant to run on current hardware, whether it's a phone or PC. The Surface Go isn't mid-range. It's low-end.
Why did you make this? Why am I watching this? You seem a little out of touch with the kind of people who might be concerned about performance on the Surface Go, because they are definitely not the type that expect it to run games off Steam well.
16:24 Actually, that game is in 3D and uses very complex graphics compared to what's actually needed for gameplay. Of course, it isn't Tomb Raider, but that game certainly wasn't made to be as simple as reasonably possible. Those 3D graphics are for looks. The same game on the SNES wouldn't have had 3D graphics at all because of how stupidly it would gobble up system resources. If you want to see another example of a game, a mobile game, that uses 3D-like graphics and takes up stupid system resources, check out Hunt Royale. Or Archero. Or Mr Autofire. Or most games by VOODOO such as Mob Control. Or Casual Azur Games. You picked an Indie game, which was likely not nearly as optimized as a game from a bigger studio.
Microsoft (and I'm not a fan of Microsoft or their products) made the Surface Go to appease people who want something that works without spending as much money. People with lower standards and needs based on those lower standards.
I wish all computers today were snappy and I could get the cheapest one and still run everything well. It's a lot more complicated than that. For example, Microsoft and Windows seem to want their users to use the Edge browser and do everything they can to force it on their users. They don't deserve to exist for that very fact and the same goes for the people who put up with that. It's a mistake to tolerate badly behaved people and the companies whose existence depends on them.
Read right up until the sarcasm in the second paragraph made my eyes roll so far into the back of my head I went blind. Had to resort to speech to text to reply.