Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2

Consider it a successful compromise computer. Microsoft has refreshed its in-between portable, the Laptop Go, which occupies the middle ground between its small Surface Go 3 tablet and the conventional Surface Laptop 4. The Surface Laptop Go 2 (starts at A$1,099) is a modest update to the original, replacing the processor with a faster Intel 11th Generation chip and tweaking a few components. Offering features like a 3:2-aspect-ratio display (rarely found on budget laptops), this Microsoft mini is more stylish and better made than many of its affordable rivals.

---

A Portable Design in a Fresh Coat of Paint

Microsoft has populated just about every potential price and size point in the Surface line. The original Surface Laptop Go, as its name implied, combined the DNA of the petite Surface Go detachable and the traditional Surface Laptop. Smaller than the latter, this portability-first laptop targets everyday productivity users on the, well, go.

The first thing you notice about our review unit (though it's less visible in our photos than in person) is the lovely new sage green color. A pale shade of green, it's very pleasing to the eye, stands out from the crowd, and adds some style to a machine you'll be seen carrying out and about. One of four color options (the others are ice blue, sandstone, and platinum), it's quite Apple-like in style, as the Surface devices have always represented Windows alternatives to the MacBook and iPad concepts.

Physically, the Surface Laptop Go 2 measures 0.62 by 11 by 8.1 inches and weighs 2.48 pounds, just as slim and portable as the original. The same premium aluminum is used on the lid, promoting the MacBook feel, though as an economy notebook the system isn't all metal—the base mixes aluminum and polycarbonate composite resin with glass fiber, 30% of which is post-consumer recycled material.

The bottom portion does feel more like plastic than metal, but it doesn't feel cheap or flimsy. Between its size and materials, the Surface Laptop Go 2 delivers a near-premium experience despite its low price point.

The display, somewhat disappointingly, is also unchanged. I say that because the 12.4-inch PixelSense screen's resolution falls short of full HD at 1,536 by 1,024 pixels. From the pixel count I figured it would be close enough to mimic full HD or 1080p, but just as my colleague Tom Brant did when reviewing the first Surface Laptop Go, I found some text appeared blurry or grainy compared to the higher resolutions to which most laptop users are accustomed.

The screen offers touch support and is fairly bright at its maximum setting, so it's not a total loss. On average, its color and quality are okay, but as I'm writing this I have to say the text in Google Docs doesn't look super-sharp.

Another disappointment is the lack of a backlit keyboard. I realize this is a budget laptop, but even many low-priced Windows notebooks and Chromebooks offer backlighting these days. I did some work in a dim room and instantly missed the option for key illumination. Otherwise, the Surface Laptop Go 2 is quite enjoyable to use: The keycaps are maybe a touch small, depending on your fingertip size, but the keyboard has satisfying travel. And the touchpad is relatively roomy, and pans and clicks smoothly.

---

Fingerprints, Cameras, and Connectivity

A fingerprint reader comes integrated into the power button, allowing easy sign-ins with Windows Hello. The webcam lacks IR face recognition, so fingerprints are the only way to use Windows Hello, but that's acceptable at this price. The camera itself has been improved for today's video-call culture; Microsoft improved the sensor and added dual-field microphones to upgrade the conferencing experience. Unfortunately, the webcam hasn't been promoted to 1080p resolution; it's still a 720p device.

The webcam's video quality is decent, but its low resolution shows, and it doesn't handle low light especially well. In fairness, many much more expensive laptops are still stuck with cheap 720p cameras, but a sharper webcam would have been nice.

As far as connectivity, you'll find one USB 3.2 Type-A port, one USB Type-C port, and a headphone jack. The laptop is charged via the proprietary Surface Connector on its right flank. This, too, is the same loadout as the previous model. The lack of an HDMI port for plugging in an external monitor is a letdown.

One change to this model is the inclusion of replaceable parts. Like the use of recycled materials, this is partially a sustainability endeavor, letting users at least partially rejuvenate an aging system. A more serviceable mass-production laptop is always a plus for consumers and office users alike.

Which parts are replaceable? The solid-state drive is again swappable (Microsoft provides a guide to SSD replacement), but it's now joined by the "C-Cover," which includes the keyboard and touchpad; the "AB-Cover," which is the display; the battery; and the Surflink internal connector cable.

One other addition: The Surface Laptop Go 2 is the first secured-core Intel PC in Microsoft's lineup with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) 2.0 support. That may appeal to enterprise shoppers, and Microsoft has issued a blog post outlining the advantages to IT departments.

---

Surface Laptop Go 2: Configuration Options

Despite the admittedly somewhat minor revisions, new processor, and generally rising PC costs, Microsoft has kept the Surface Laptop Go 2's starting price pretty close to that of the original. The base model has risen $50 to $599.99, which trends out of the extreme-value range but is still well under four figures. Let's dive into what the different configurations entail.

The base unit is pretty modest, pairing a quad-core Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU with an inadequate 4GB of memory and 128GB solid-state drive. It's only offered in the platinum color. Spending another $100 gets you the middle model, which hikes memory to 8GB and lets you choose the other colors. Finally, another $100 step up (to $799.99) doubles the SSD storage to 256GB. This is the model reviewed here.

No, you can't buy a Surface Laptop Go 2 with a faster Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, or a 512GB or 1TB drive. If you're looking for something more robust, Microsoft steers you to the 13.5-inch or 15-inch Surface Laptop 4.

---

Testing the Surface Laptop Go 2: Smooth Sailing (Among Budget Laptops)

We put our Surface Laptop Go 2 to the test with our standard benchmark suite, comparing its results to those of the following systems:

This is mainly a group of other budget machines, some of them a bit less expensive than the Surface Laptop Go 2. Lenovo's IdeaPad Flex 5i 14 convertible is equivalent in price to today's Microsoft laptop; the IdeaPad 3 14 costs less; and the Surface Go 3 detachable occupies a tier below its stablemate in power and price. Meanwhile, the Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 13 is a more expensive laptop but in some aspects similar to the Surface to show what a few hundred dollars more can get you.

Productivity Tests

The main benchmark of UL's PCMark 10 simulates a variety of real-world productivity and content-creation workflows to measure overall performance for office-centric tasks such as word processing, spreadsheeting, web browsing, and videoconferencing. We also run PCMark 10's Full System Drive test to assess the load time and throughput of a laptop's storage.

Three more benchmarks focus on the CPU, using all available cores and threads, to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench R23 uses that company's Cinema 4D engine to render a complex scene, while Primate Labs' Geekbench 5.4 Pro simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. Finally, we use the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution (lower times are better).

Our final productivity test is workstation maker Puget Systems' PugetBench for Photoshop, which uses the Creative Cloud version 22 of Adobe's famous image editor to rate a PC's performance for content creation and multimedia applications. It's an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

It's worth keeping in mind that in this quintet only the Surface Go 3 is at a real CPU disadvantage. Two rivals have the same processor as the Surface Laptop Go 2, and the IdeaPad 3's chip is an AMD equivalent. Overall, the Surface Laptop Go 2 came off well, more or less landing in the middle of the pack but close enough to the lead. It's more than capable for everyday operations; it costs more than some rivals with the same CPU, but has arguably superior build quality.

Graphics and Gaming Tests

We test Windows PCs' graphics with two DirectX 12 gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark: Night Raid (more modest, suitable for laptops with integrated graphics) and Time Spy (more demanding, suitable for gaming rigs with discrete GPUs). Two more tests from GFXBench 5.0, run offscreen to allow for different display resolutions, wring out OpenGL operations.

All of these systems rely on their processors' integrated graphics rather than a discrete GPU as you'd find in a gaming laptop, so there's a hard upper limit to their results. The Surface Laptop Go 2 managed to separate itself from all but the Samsung, but none of these PCs pretends to be suited for demanding games or professional graphics applications. Stick to streaming media and casual or strategy games with any of them.

Battery and Display Tests

We test laptops' battery life by playing a locally stored 720p video file (the open-source Blender short Tears of Steel) with display brightness at 50% and audio volume at 100% until the system quits. We make sure the battery is fully charged before the test, with Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting turned off.

The Surface Laptop Go 2 isn't a battery record-setter, but it avoids the budget-laptop pitfall of too-brief battery life. The Galaxy Book Pro's unplugged runtime topped the chart, but that's part of what you get for its higher price. You should be able to get through a day of classes or commuting without worrying about where the nearest AC outlet is. The display proved middling in terms of color coverage, but was one of the brightest at its peak setting.

---

A Modest Improvement for 2022

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2 is a moderate improvement on its predecessor, though significant changes are few. The quicker processor is the main step forward, joined by minor improvements to the webcam and a more sustainable design with some replaceable parts.

Otherwise, it's the same nice budget notebook we saw the first time around, which isn't a bad thing. The build is more premium than many in this tier, and the starting price is attractive (even our bumped-up configuration is reasonable). There are a few shortcomings, but that's true for any laptop at this price. If it's a good match for your budget and you like its extra bit of style, the Surface Laptop Go 2 could be one of your best budget buys.