When I'm away from home, I hate carrying my laptop. There's not enough room to use it in coach seating on an airplane and it weighs more than I care to haul around during a press junket. Typically, I pack my 9.7" iPad Pro, instead. It's great for editing photos with, but as a text generation and editing machine, has its flaws as well: Any keyboard case I use with it proves too damn small for me to reliably type on and that it won't work with a mouse or trackpad really slows my workflow down. I've been looking for something that can stradle both worlds–the portability of a lightweight tablet with the ease of use that a mouse can bring to the party–for some time now. My main work machine is a Mac, but I use Windows 10 on a regular basis, as well.
As such, I've got my fingers crossed that Microsoft's Surface Go will be the low-cost, juuuuuust good enough work machine that I've been looking for.
From The Verge:
It has a 3:2 aspect ratio display (1800 x 1200 pixel resolution), the signature built-in kickstand with unlimited positions, a front-facing camera with facial recognition login, and Microsoft's proprietary Surface Connector port for charging and connecting to a desktop dock. Microsoft has added a USB-C 3.1 port, capable of charging the tablet or outputting video and data to external devices. It has also rounded the corners a bit compared to the latest Surface Pro, but overall, it's the same familiar magnesium design Surface users have come to expect.
With a Pentium Gold 4415Y processor, the choice of either 4 or 8GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage or a 128GB SSD, what I want it for, spec-wise, it's just about perfect. That it's USB C powered is a win as well, as I can charge my headphones, phone and the Go… on the go, with a single cable. That it only weighs 1.5 pounds sounds good to me as well.
My only real beef is that it runs Windows S, which restricts app use to what you can download from the Microsoft Store. Given my dependence on apps like IA Writer, Scrivener and Adobe Lightroom, the latter of which would, admittedly, run pretty pokey on this thing, it could be a deal breaker if upgrading to Windows 10 is out of the cards.
I'm currently working to get my hands on one. If I manage it, I'll tell you what I think.
Image via Microsoft
