Microsoft’s Surface Go 3 is the best budget Windows 2-in-1 tablet, but its performance and value are a bit below expectations for a third-generation product that competes against Chromebooks and the Apple iPad.
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Hello and welcome to pc mags one cool Thing holiday spectacular the show where We tell you what to buy during this Holiday season i’m dan costa Editor-in-chief of pcmag.com and he is John burick our executive editor of Hardware and we’ve got a pretty cool Gift for you today it is the surface go 3 not the gopro The surface go 3 and it’s a tablet it’s A laptop it’s a combination tell us a Little bit about it sure um so Microsoft surface line is a little bit Confusing one must say right from the Beginning you mentioned surface go 3. This is not to be confused with the Surface laptop the surface pro or the Surface laptop studio there are a whole Bunch of different surface models and This one is the most portable of the Bunch so let’s pick it up over here and Show it off a bit so basically you have A laptop form factor here that has a Detachable keyboard and runs windows 11. So i’m going to pull the keyboard off of It here like so if you want to take a Quick look at it there it’s covered in This sort of fuzzy fabric and you can Get it in multiple colors and also Without the fuzzy fabric if you like and We’ll get back to the pricing on all This stuff and the tablet itself later But if you’re buying the base unit it’s This here which starts at 399 with a
Pentium processor or a little bit more With a core i3 processor everything else You might want with it is Extra Yeah it comes with accessories we’ll Break down the accessories but it’s a Windows 11 tablet windows 11 just got Released this product just got released As well it’s sort of developed with Windows 11 in mind But it gives you that you know that Tablet experience obviously a touch Screen um touch-based apps You can connect the keyboard as you Pointed out but it also works with the Stylus yes so um microsoft makes a Special stylus that works with their Various Surface devices this one is called the Surface pen it’s a straight sort of pen Form factor With their higher end devices they have Something called the surface slim pen 2 Which is sort of flatter and works a Little bit differently the the thing With that is it’s compatible with those Devices this is compatible with this so You can’t sort of mix and match but Basically this is a stylus with a eraser Key and a couple of click controls on it Thing is it runs 9 99 so you’re Basically buying a windows tablet that You can use as you know so 400 for the Tablet 99 for the stylus 99 for the
Keyboard right well actually the Keyboard this particular keyboard is 129. there’s a 99 black version of it The fuzzy colorful ones are 129. so the Thing to bear in mind with this is it’s A very nice very high quality screen and It has great sort of Stylus compatibility but you need to Factor in the cost of the various Accessories you don’t necessarily need The keyboard but if you want to do Typical productivity work on it you’ll Want to add the keyboard to it so this Is sliding into that space between The ipad chromebooks and then Full-fledged windows 11 laptops right Yeah that’s kind of where this goes i Mean if you’re using it standalone you Could use it sort of comparably to an Ipad a typical ipad these days is i Believe 10.9 inches this is 10.5 so it’s Very much in the same size zone slightly Lower resolution than a ipad will be but Close and really the key distinction Here is if you want to do windows Productivity applications in addition to Be able to sit back and use this to Watch netflix or do other sort of Tablet-y type things yeah Yeah everything that you could expect in Sort of a tablet-like experience plus You get windows 11 productivity and apps In terms of power it’s an underpass it’s Underpowered for a windows pc you’re
Going to be able to run one app at a Time it’s not going to be blazing fast You’re not going to be doing cad work on Here but standard windows microsoft Productivity suite not a problem right Yeah yeah this is basically a one app at A time like you said um single use Single application at a time uh device The thing with it is is there are two Cpu options with it neither one is Really going to get you to the next Level where you’re basically in a tier Where you’ve got a sort of heavy-duty Productivity machine you’ve got a Pentium at the bottom for 3.99 and i Think 100 bucks more for the core i3 Version but both of them are kind of you Know Pretty Lightweight in terms of Productivity work and the beautiful Thing is the reason you get a product Like this it’s 1.2 pounds super portable Carry it anywhere it’s about the Portability more than any more than it Is about the power yeah i mean even when You add the keyboard to still under two Pounds i think the keyboard is about Half a pound so um you’re really you Know going for all out for portability With this and uh it’s the right size Safer hands for say a uh maybe a a grade Schooler you know or someone who doesn’t Want something really you know uh big in
Their hands is that size of an ipad very Cool well obviously we’ve got a full Review up on pcmag.com you can get more Information there you can also find out About the latest pricing because i think This product is also going to get Discounted as we go through the holiday Season If you want more gift advice please Subscribe to this channel and we will Provide it for you
