I want to share with you my review of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3, a lightweight laptop that promises to deliver great performance and portability for work and play.
I’ve been using this laptop for a few weeks now, and I’m going to tell you what I like and don’t like about it, as well as how it compares to other similar laptops on the market. Let’s get started!
Design and build quality
The first thing that caught my eye about the Surface Laptop Go 3 was its sleek and elegant design. It has a 12.4-inch touchscreen with thin bezels, a full-size keyboard with a fingerprint power button, and a smooth trackpad. The laptop comes in four colors: Ice Blue, Sage, Sandstone, and Platinum. I chose the Ice Blue one, and I love how it looks and feels.
The laptop is made of aluminum on the lid and keyboard deck, and polycarbonate plastic on the bottom. It’s not as premium as the all-aluminum Surface Laptop 3, but it still feels sturdy and durable. The laptop weighs only 2.49 pounds, which makes it very easy to carry around. It’s also quite thin, at 0.62 inches, so it fits in most bags without any hassle.
The laptop has a decent selection of ports, including a USB-C port, a USB-A port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a Surface Connect port for charging and docking. It doesn’t have an SD card slot or a Thunderbolt 3 port, which might be a deal-breaker for some users who need more connectivity options.
Display and audio
The Surface Laptop Go 3 has a 12.4-inch PixelSense touchscreen with a resolution of 1536 x 1024 pixels. That’s not very high for a modern laptop, and it means you won’t get the full HD experience when watching videos or streaming movies. However, the display is still bright, colorful, and sharp enough for most tasks. The touchscreen is responsive and supports multi-touch gestures.
The display also has an aspect ratio of 3:2, which is different from the more common 16:9 ratio on most laptops. This means you get more vertical space on the screen, which is great for browsing the web, reading documents, or working on spreadsheets. However, it also means you get black bars on the top and bottom when watching videos or playing games.
The laptop has two front-facing speakers that deliver clear and loud sound. They’re not very bass-heavy or immersive, but they’re good enough for casual listening or video calls. The laptop also has a 720p webcam that works well in most lighting conditions. However, it doesn’t have Windows Hello facial recognition, which is a feature that lets you log in with your face instead of typing your password.
Performance and battery life
The Surface Laptop Go 3 is powered by an Intel Core i5-1235U processor, which is a 12th Gen chip that’s soon going to be outdated by the newer 14th Gen processors from Intel. However, the processor is still capable of handling most everyday tasks smoothly and efficiently. You can browse the web, stream videos, edit photos, or work on Office apps without any lag or slowdowns.
The laptop also comes with either 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of SSD storage. The RAM is enough for multitasking and running multiple apps at once, while the SSD storage is fast and reliable. However, there’s no option to upgrade either the RAM or the storage after purchase, so you have to choose wisely when buying the laptop.
The laptop has an integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics card that can handle some light gaming or graphics-intensive tasks. You can play some casual games like Minecraft or Among Us on low to medium settings without any issues. However, don’t expect to run AAA titles like Cyberpunk 2077 or Call of Duty: Warzone on this laptop.
The laptop has an advertised battery life of up to 15 hours on a single charge. That’s impressive for such a thin and light laptop, but it also depends on how you use it. In my experience, I got around 10 hours of mixed usage with moderate brightness and Wi-Fi on. That’s still good enough for a full day of work or school without needing to plug in.
The laptop supports fast charging via the Surface Connect port or the USB-C port. You can get up to 80% charge in just an hour with the included 39W power adapter.
Comparison with other laptops
The Surface Laptop Go 3 is not the only lightweight laptop on the market. There are other options that might suit your needs better depending on your budget and preferences.
One of them is the MacBook Air M2, which is Apple’s latest ultraportable laptop that runs on its own M2 chip instead of an Intel processor. The MacBook Air M2 is more expensive than the Surface Laptop Go 3, starting at $999, but it also offers more power, performance, and battery life. It has a 13.3-inch Retina display with a higher resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, a backlit keyboard with Touch ID, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and a battery life of up to 18 hours. It also runs on macOS, which might be a plus or a minus depending on your preference.
Another option is the Dell XPS 13, which is one of the most popular Windows laptops in the market. The Dell XPS 13 is also more expensive than the Surface Laptop Go 3, starting at $949, but it also offers more features and customization options. It has a 13.4-inch InfinityEdge display with a higher resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels, a backlit keyboard with fingerprint reader, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, and a battery life of up to 14 hours. It also comes with various processor, RAM, and storage options to choose from.
FAQs
Here are some frequently asked questions about the Surface Laptop Go 3 that you might find helpful.
- Q: Does the Surface Laptop Go 3 support Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1?
- A: Yes, the Surface Laptop Go 3 supports both Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 for faster and more reliable wireless connectivity.
- Q: Does the Surface Laptop Go 3 support pen input or touch gestures?
- A: The Surface Laptop Go 3 supports touch gestures on its touchscreen, but it doesn’t support pen input. You can’t use a Surface Pen or any other stylus with this laptop.
- Q: Does the Surface Laptop Go 3 have a fan or is it fanless?
- A: The Surface Laptop Go 3 has a fan inside to keep it cool and quiet. The fan is not very loud or noticeable unless you’re doing something very intensive on the laptop.
- Q: Does the Surface Laptop Go 3 come with Windows 11 or Windows 10?
- A: The Surface Laptop Go 3 comes with Windows 10 Home in S mode out of the box, but it’s eligible for a free upgrade to Windows 11 when it becomes available later this year. You can also switch out of S mode to access the full version of Windows 10 Home if you prefer.
Conclusion
The Surface Laptop Go 3 is a lightweight laptop that offers great performance and portability for work and play. It has a sleek and elegant design, a decent display and audio, and a long battery life. However, it also has some drawbacks, such as a low-resolution screen, no facial recognition, no backlit keyboard, no SD card slot or Thunderbolt port, and an outdated processor.
If you’re looking for a budget-friendly laptop that can handle most everyday tasks smoothly and efficiently, the Surface Laptop Go 3 might be a good choice for you. However, if you’re looking for more power, features, or customization options, you might want to consider other laptops that offer more value for your money.
I hope you enjoyed this review of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for reading!
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