Microsoft’s Surface Go 2 (starting at $399) with Windows 10 is another assault on Apple’s iPad, which still ships with a mobile OS. If you don’t want to spend a ton of money on an iPad Pro and you’re looking for a productive experience, Surface Go 2 with Windows 10 is your best bet.
Many weren’t convinced when Microsoft released the first-gen Surface Go, given its large bezels, questionable performance and battery life. Surface Go 2 has fixed all of these problems that may have changed your buying decision last time. It has smaller bezels, much faster performance, and LTE support.
The Surface Go 2 uses Intel Core m3-8100Y CPU and the base clock speed is 1.1GHz, which is lower than the original product, but it offers a maximum Turbo frequency of up to 3.4GHz. There are also minor tweaks in other areas of the processor and you can expect better performance this time.
Microsoft claims that Surface Go 2 with Intel Core m3 CPU is up to 64% faster. The early benchmark has confirmed that Surface Go 2 Core m3 definitely brings a boost in performance and it would be noticeable in day-to-day activities of Windows 10.
According to Geekbench 4, Surface Go 2 with Core m3 model hit 3989 in the single-core and 6773 in multi-core tests. This is significantly better than the first-generation Surface Go with Intel Pentium 4415Y CPU, which scored only 2020 in single-core and 4004
in multi-core.
Geeekbench 4 is a benchmarking tool that measures overall performance, and on this test, Surface Go 2 has performed much better than the first-generation. In other tests including Geekbench 5 and PCMark 10, Surface Go 2 scores are better than the first-gen Surface Go.
The step-up in the performance of Surface Go 2 is mostly due to the Core m3 CPU. The Core 4415Y is fixed at a maximum clock speed of only 1.6 GHz, but the Core m3 can use Intel’s turbo boost to reach a clock speed of 3.4GHz.
The Core m3 in Surface Go 2 makes a big difference in both benchmarking and real-life use cases.
For comparison, Surface Pro X with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx has 3417 scores in the single-core test and 10966 in the multi-core test.
Other configurations of Surface Go 2 include 4GB and 8GB of RAM with storage in the form of a 64GB eMMC or a 128GB SSD. For your connectivity needs, there’s Wi-Fi 6 module and it comes with 802.11ax for blazing-fast speeds if you have a compatible router.
Microsoft’s Surface Go 2 with Intel Core m3, 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD storage starts at $629.99. If you’re interested, you can pre-order it from Microsoft Store.
