To achieve its more appetizing price point, some obvious concessions were made. The central processing unit, for one, is a low-wattage “ Kaby Lake ” Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y, as opposed to the Surface Pro ‘s scope of Intel Core m3 to Core i7 CPUs. And the base model uses eMMC memory versus a “ true ” SSD. That said, due in region to its high-screen resoluteness, the Surface Go stuffs a bounty appearance into a modestly priced package. Better so far, it ‘s compatible with a bunch of the same kinds of accessories as the full-fat Surface Pro, so you can expect similar functionality from the Surface Go, despite its watered-down internal components .
Built-in kickstand and all, the Surface Go shares many of the Surface Pro ‘s best qualities, though in some ways it differs. To help you break down what ‘s newfangled and what ‘s not from Microsoft ‘s latest tablet, we ‘ve constructed this handy guide pitting the Surface Go against the Surface Pro. From the ports to the pricing to the core components, here is everything you need to know about these two devices before jumping on a purchasing decision between them.
Screen
While the Surface Pro has a higher resolution and pixel concentration ( 2,736 by 1,824 pixels entire and 267 pixels per inch ) than the Surface Go, the Surface Go ‘s PixelSense screen comes close. It ‘s an 1,800-by-1,200-pixel, Gorilla Glass 3-coated display featuring Microsoft ‘s signature ( so far controversial ) 3:2 aspect proportion. In the consequence that you have to use all 10 fingers on the screen at once, there ‘s support for 10-point multi-touch in place, american samoa well. What ‘s more, you can sit the Surface Go improving on a desk or tray mesa the lapp way as you would the Surface Pro, thanks to the familiar built-in kickstand that extends out from the back .
Winner: Surface Pro, on swerve size and solution .
Connectivity
For the beginning time on a Microsoft tablet, the Surface Go leverages a single USB Type-C port. You besides get a microSDXC card reader, a mini DisplayPort end product, and a 3.5mm earphone jack. As is the customs with these slates, the Surface Go uses a proprietary surface Connect port for charging. meanwhile, the costly Surface Pro besides has a microSDXC tease reader, a mini DisplayPort, a earphone jacklight, and a Surface Connect port, but you get life-size USB Type-A rather than USB-C ( distillery, just one ) .
Winner: Tie, but leaning toward the Surface Go from a technical foul accomplishment point of scene, given that it ‘s so much smaller .
Accessories
The Surface Go and Surface Pro contribution one key accessory : the Surface Pen. The ordinary Surface Pen stylus ( $ 99.99 ) comes with neither pill but is compatible with both tablets. so if you own one from an older surface, you can carry it over to a Surface Go. The Surface accessory keyboards, though, are specific to the unlike tablets, which is necessary because of their unlike sizes. The Surface Pro has its own line of keyboards with a built-in touchpad, as does the Surface Go, but the latter ‘s are dub Surface Go Type Covers. A basic-black matchless costs $ 99, while a premium $ 129 version, the Surface Go Signature Type Cover, comes in a choice of three colors .
The Surface Go besides shares compatibility with the fresh Surface Mobile Mouse ( $ 34.99 ), which connects wirelessly over the Bluetooth 4.2 protocol—no dongle required .
Winner: Tie
Cameras
Of all the features the Surface Go could have omitted, the rear-facing television camera seems like a no-brainer. But for it to serve as an aggressive rival to the iPad and other Windows 10 tablets, both the front- and rear-facing cameras had to remain integral. therefore, the Surface Go has a 5-megapixel front-facing cam, along with an 8-megapixel buttocks one. On composition, those are the same camera spectacles as the Surface Pro. We have n’t tested the Surface Go, sol we ‘ll have to declare this one a tie .
Winner: Tie
Core Components and Storage
The latest ( 2017 ) iteration of the Surface Pro comes in eight different flavors, starting with a 2.6GHz, dual-core Intel Core m3/128GB SSD/4GB RAM option ( $ 799 ) and capping out at a 2.5GHz, dual-core Intel Core i7/1TB SSD/16GB RAM model ( $ 2,399 ). The Surface Go is distinctly limited in its configurations. The two Surface Go models share the lapp Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y central processing unit ( a 1.6GHz, dual-core chip ), and the entry-level $ 399 model wields 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC ostentation memory. Spending $ 150 more nets you a version of the Surface Go with double the RAM and memory, at 8GB and 128GB, respectively, with the repositing being a genuine SSD, to boot .
Winner: Surface Pro
Pricing
Seeing as the Surface Pro comes in such a wide variety of configurations, the pricing ranges wide :
- Intel Core m3/128GB SSD/4GB RAM – $799
- Intel Core i5/128GB SSD/8GB RAM – $ 999
- Intel Core i5/256GB SSD/8GB RAM – $ 1,099
- Intel Core i5/256GB SSD/8GB RAM ( LTE ) – $ 1,249
- Intel Core i7/256GB SSD/8GB RAM – $ 1,299
- Intel Core i7/512GB SSD/16GB RAM – $ 1,899
- Intel Core i7/1TB SSD/16GB RAM – $ 2,399
As mentioned in the components section, the Surface Go comes in equitable two variants, both of which cost less than any one of the Surface Pro models :
- Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y/64GB eMMC/4GB RAM – $ 399
- Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y/128GB SSD/8GB RAM – $ 549
The winner is clear in this section, but overall it ‘s up to you to decide what works best for your manipulation case. It ‘s a conflict between the portable and cheap Surface Go, versus the larger and more mighty Surface Pro. If you need more than what ‘s offered by the 6-watt Pentium central processing unit, the Surface Go may not be fast adequate in either of its two renditions. If the Surface Pro is excessively bulky ( or costly ), then the Surface Go is going to be the better bet. Of run, you can find a solid murder of Windows tablets out there, aside from these two options. For the best window tablets, take a look at our overall Windows pill roundup. For the best tablets in general, we ‘ve covered those excessively .
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