68 PCWorld NOVEMBER 2020REVIEWS MICROSOFT SURFACE LAPTOP GO
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go
PROS- Competitive price.
- New fingerprint reader works as well as a camera.
CONS - Average performance.
- USB-C hub may be needed for I/O expansion.
BOTTOM LINE
The Surface Laptop Go is Microsoft’s most accessible
Surface yet, a very good budget laptop that can
compete against other midrange models. Even
compromises like its fingerprint reader and a
sub-1080p screen surprisingly work.
$899
shouldn’t turn you off. Walmart’s Motile
M142 (go.pcworld.com/wlm1), at $500,
was also surprisingly good. Acer’s Spin 3
(go.pcworld.com/asp3) offers a third
choice, which you can buy from Costco for
$650. It too, outperforms the Surface
Laptop Go, and for a lower price.
All of our reviews linked above are worth
reading carefully as part of your buying
research. At the premium Microsoft charges,
we’d recommend the $699 8GB
RAM/128GB SSD configuration instead of our
review configuration.
Microsoft touts the Surface Laptop Go as
the “everyday, everywhere” laptop, implying
that you would be better off buying the
Laptop Go than a Chromebook. I still believethat Microsoft has it in them to develop the
“everyday, everywhere, everyone” laptop.
With the Surface Laptop Go, Microsoft is
headed in the right direction.