Surface Go 2 M3 Review

Here is our Surface go 2 m3 cellular review. This 2in1 tablet/laptop is replacing my old 10.5" iPad Pro as I could not justify the cost of an iPad Pro 11 with magic keyboard.
Buy on Amazon: geni.us/nQHWpk0
Link to unboxing: • Surface Go 2 M3 Unboxi...
Timestamps: -
0:00:00 - Intro
0:00:50 - Specifications
0:02:09 - Ports
0:03:34 - Typecover
0:04:38 - Trackpad
0:05:36 - Touchscreen / digitiser
0:06:42 - Screen
0:07:26 - iPad Pro 10.5" comparison
0:10:42 - Windows Hello
0:11:56 - Speakers
0:15:17 - Battery / Power
0:17:12 - Performance
0:20:31 - Gaming - Dota 2
0:23:39 - Conclusions
* If you purchase something from our affiliate links we will get a small commission with no extra cost to you. This makes it possible for us to make more videos. Thank you!

[@Nick67gto3]

Just bought one of these and I love it! I have had a few iPads and Samsung tablets, but this is the perfect on the go device. Its a good balance of performance and portability. Yes its not as fast as an iPad or maybe the latest Samsung S7, but having Windows freedom goes way beyond the performance gains. If you know how to utilize Windows you can make it into a perfect tablet for eReading, document edits, video/game streaming and some light local gaming.

[@simonob007]

Really enjoyed your review, I am looking for a small portable for media consumption and some sofa coding in vscode (to complement my main laptop), I think you answered all my questions with your comprehensive review and particularly appreciated that you didn’t do what most reviewers do which is complain that it doesn’t work for their use case (Adobe suite). Subscribed!

[@MashITTech]

Thank you, appreciate the sub 😀 glad it helped. I think people need to be realistic with this device and that’s the problem, it isn’t going to do 4K video editing! It will be perfect for coding on the go but may be a little cramped (I am running mine at 125% scaling which gives a good mix of screen real estate and text size

[@sudiptodas3896]

Great review.. to the point Very useful

[@TK-dx6qc]

Thank you for looking at everything I wanted to know!

[@MashITTech]

Glad it helped 👍

[@shadowside8433]

This is the best review of the Surface 2 or 3. Totally accurate.

[@hihai_TV]

Very thorough thank you.

[@MashITTech]

Very welcome!

[@ZStormGLD]

Nice review, a tough decision between Surface Pro 7 i5 & Go 2 M3 (as Pro 7 i5 bundle discount, both cost almost the same).. But finally got my Surface Go 2 M3, loving it! Portability is the key, with sufficient power :) Subscribed!

[@MashITTech]

Thanks mate, I appreciate it. It really is amazingly portable, I have had a few pro’s over the years and as much as I love them I find them a bit unwieldy to use as tablet or on the lap, the go is amazing as it is so compact

[@hk6926]

@@MashITTech you guys wouldn’t believe , I ditched SP7 and then xps 17 and got the m3 . For my work and daily life I just love this dang thing . Between great video as usual .

[@korinna9444]

Thanks for the video, i purchased my surface go a week ago and I love it so far, I agree with you, it’s definitely better as a ‘mini laptop’ than a tablet as I find that I rarely take off the keyboard for work. I was previously considering the new iPad Air 4th gen, but when it all adds together; the magic keyboard and Apple Pencil with it, it’s over £900, which is definitely a lot for an iPad, you can buy a decent computer/laptop with that money! So I opted for the surface Go 2 and i think it’s great for office use!

[@MashITTech]

Thank you for your comments, It is good to hear someone else with the same opinion as the ipad has such a strong fan base. I have been using mine solidly since receiving it and cannot believe how snappy it feels after hearing lots of negative comments about it before I bought it.

[@dharkundercity1796]

You definitely need Password-Vault for your Surface Go found here in the Microsoft Store by RS Creations: www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9N639H9BNZ9Q .

[@arintayasmin0214]

If you have samsung flagship smartphone, you can experience all the multimedia app of samsung on windows 10. It feels smooth after windows update their software recently. It actually can connect to other android smartphones, but they only give you 4 features in the display (notification, call, message, and photos/pictures). While with samsung, the connection (through "link to windows" feature on samsung smartphone), microsoft gives you 5 features (all 4 above include "app/aplications"). So, whenever you want to experience apps like instagram, youtube, shopping app, etc, you can just connect your samsung phone with your surface go. You dont really need a tablet if you want experience the multimedia that smartphone/tablet has. I think microsoft has done good job, although it still far from perfect.

[@mhsvz6735]

Excellent, thank you.

[@kevinjeynes8369]

Hi I am thinking of getting this (froom 3 as well) to replace my Tab S6, I use Onenote and Outlook a lot for meetings, tasks and organizing my Scouting life, how does Outlook and Onenote run on it? thanks.

[@MashITTech]

Both run great. I found all office apps worked well, the only area it is lacking would be heavily sustained load or gaming (but you would be silly to buy this device for those uses 😂 )

[@heinrichwurstwatten7553]

I have been using my good old Surface 3 for many years now. It still works, despite Intel Atom and just 2 GB of RAM. But maybe the time has come to consider a Go 2. Your review is fantastic. Looks like everything I love about Surface is still true.

[@MashITTech]

Thank you for the kind words. It is a lovely device and so portable, I chuck it in the bag and forget it’s even there!

[@andrewparker3563]

Hi, just saw your comment after ordering a Surface Go 2 today. I used to use the old Surface 3, it was amazing! I took it all over Africa for work, used it as my daily device, and have missed it ever since it finally gave up (actually it was the keyboard which failed). I really really hope the Surface Go 2 is a successor to it, it was the best device I ever had. Despite the chugging processor, and battery could've been better, I always thought that it was 'right'.

[@danieloneill2884]

Is this good for students who regularly use Microsoft office?

[@MashITTech]

It’s perfect for office. The screen maybe a little cramped for large excel sheets but you can easily make do or plug into an external monitor. Being so small it is amazing for portability and note taking

[@arineems6059]

Does this tablet work with a Logitech Bluetooth keyboard?

[@MashITTech]

It sure would, I have used a mx keys with mine before

[@_-Lea_-]

If the battery gets too weak one day, is it easily replaceable by the end-user?

[@MashITTech]

No it isn’t! You need to remove the screen which is a truly horrible job

[@_-Lea_-]

@@MashITTech Thanks! I think in this case I better search for another "convertible" notebook, where's it's possible to exchange the battery some day.

[@dostonjonboymaxmatov8662]

Good evening. My name is Dostonjon. I am from Uzbekistan. I have a Surface go 2. It is turned off suddenly. Also it doesn't turn on. When I charge it type-C cable. It works very slowly. It stopped working and Shut down. In the last few days, I doesn't turn on. Can you help me? I can not turn on it. Please help me!

[@MashITTech]

Try taking it off power, hold the power button down for a good 30 secs then plug the official charger back in and try and turn it on, let me know if that works

[@dostonjonboymaxmatov8662]

@@MashITTech Thank you for your reply. I don't have an official charger now. I booked it from The Chiness Store. It will come here soon. It will be here before the 25 of January . When I get it, I try your way. If you have another options, Please Tell me.

[@dostonjonboymaxmatov8662]

@@MashITTech Good morning. Thank your your reply. However, it can not help me. It doesn't work. My surface do not turn on. Do you another ways in order to turn it on??

[@msp5138]

Why haven't you called MS support?

[@flougaming9595]

Hey nice Video, is it ok for gta Minecraft and warzone???? Because I am often not at home and I often want to play games. Is it ok for that?

[@MashITTech]

You can tweak minecraft to run ok but warzone would be a slideshow! I wouldnt play warzone on any laptop with integrated gfx, I find it runs ok on nvidia 1650 and above

[@flougaming9595]

@@MashITTech ok and games like thief simulator,gta v an ultimate chicken horse?

[@jonahwilliamsgame]

Is the intel Pentium edition good? Great review!

[@MashITTech]

Thank you 😊 what do you plan on using the device for? The core cpu is much snappier

[@jonahwilliamsgame]

@@MashITTech I would use it for email, KZbin, word, and maybe some light gaming like Minecraft on low graphics.

[@msp5138]

Go to Amazon and Best Buy. Read the reviews from the people who have purchased and use the SG2 on a daily basis. My concern about the Pentium processor is its longitivity...

[@jonahwilliamsgame]

@@msp5138 thank you 😊

[@jaspreettt]

I have this in the business model with a 256gb SSD and it works as an excellent onenote note taker while working on the ThinkPad for studies and work. Brilliant windows tablet. Great review too 🤗

[@MashITTech]

Thank you for the kind words. I wasn't expecting much from it at all but have actually used it a lot more than I was expecting! It makes a brilliant note taking machine and because of its size it fits anywhere and I now using it for writing a lot of our video scripts!

[@dharkundercity1796]

You definitely need Password-Vault for your Surface Go found here in the Microsoft Store by RS Creations: www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9N639H9BNZ9Q .

[@aseltzer144]

I enjoyed your comprehensive review and as a new owner of a Surface Go, I share your enthusiasm. Further, I also have a 2017 iPad Pro and largely agree with your comparison. I don't entirely agree with your assessment of the performance. however. I have the Pentium Gold 128gb version and it handles anything I throw at it within reason. I was able to edit photos and even do some light 1080p editing just to see if it would work at all. I don't expect it to handle 4K video nor do I need it to. If I can edit photos and do some basic 1080p editing then my expectations for the Surface have been exceeded. Note that I have been multitasking on the Surface with no problems. For a specialty user who needs to edit 4K or run highly CPU intensive stuff the Surface Go is not the right tool. For the vast majority of tasks, even some occasional CPU intensive tasks, the Surface Go seems to be quite versatile. While many will compare the Surface and the Ipad, my experience suggests that these are two different devices. If I had to chose one or the other that would depend on whether I valued table functionality over desktop functionality or vice versa. The ipad is the better tablet experience and now supports some very sophisticated apps such as Affinity Photo and LumaFusion. Battery life is a bit better as is sheer CPU performance. The Surface Go's strength , despite having a tablet mode, is as a PC, which is also more cost effective after all accessories are factored in than the ipad. I've generally preferred Apple products in recent years, but I have been so far impressed with the quality and functionality of the Surface Go 2. Its offer a great deal of capability in a portable package.

[@MashITTech]

Thanks for the detailed post. I am glad you are enjoying yours. I certainly wasn’t trying to knock the surface go’s performance but just wanted to give people realistic expectations. Also it might be the software I was using (davinci resolve wasn’t useable but it’s a bit of a hog) what do you use to edit video?

[@aseltzer144]

@@MashITTech I don't really do a lot of video editing but most recently have used iMovie on the iPad which I have found to be reasonably capable for a simple product. On the PC I have used Vegas Movie Studio in the past but I have not loaded this on the Surface. I was only trying to determine if video editing could even be possible so I downloaded a simplistic editor from the Microsoft App Store called Animotica. I didn't spend a lot of time with it, just enough to prove that simple 1080p editing could be accomplished if need be. That said, there is at least one very good demonstration of Adobe Premiere working acceptably well on the first generation Surface Go so I suspect that should work on the Surface Go 2 as well, even better on the M3 model. I agree that choice of software could make a difference in the editing experience. I also agree that for someone who routinely edits video there might be a better choice than the Surface Go 2, but where some have completely dismissed the Surface Go 2 from such use, my preliminary experience says otherwise. I realize that you are trying to set expectations, and your review does a fair job of that, but I am finding that the Surface may be more functional than Geekbench benchmarks alone may suggest.

[@msp5138]

Funny that iPad defenders can only bring video/photo editing as the advantage over SG2. People who do real video and photo editing use a laptop or desktop, not a tablet. Also no rational person is going to pay twice the money just to edit videos/photos on a tablet which is why iPads market share had dropped from 80% to 33% over the past decade. People dont want to pay all that money for limited functionality (hence Apple's attempt to rebrand iPads as laptop replacement).

[@CharcoalProduction]

In Windows 8.1, Microsoft has focused on interacting with the device via touch (a lot of full-screen applications), and in Windows 10, there is no interaction via touch, everything is more stationary / desktop. Sad that they can't find the golden middle ground in Windows 10

[@MashITTech]

I think MS have pretty much just given up at this point

[@chfgn]

Windows 10 tablet mode is absolutely better than Windows 8. Windows 8 had some nicer gestures, but tablet interaction was limited to Windows Store apps and there just weren’t that many. Toss Windows 10 into tablet mode and every Windows application is able to participate. Of course it’s a moot point now with Windows 11 a few days away. It looks like 11 is heavily based on the tablet UI originally designed for the Surface Neo, so there’s reason to hope that they might be bringing back some pleasant gesture-based interaction that we’ve been missing.

[@jazminleong6023]

Is it wifi 6?

[@MashITTech]

Yes it is

[@kazumak.1542]

I didn't know Gordon Ramsey reviewed tech lol

[@MashITTech]

Yes, but I had to tone the swearing down!

[@maitiaru]

My surface go first gen pentium model run 4k youtube video smoothly at 60 fps to an external 4k monitor, and you are saying this m3 model cant do that despite being twice powerful as that first gen. Is this really true or you haven't done your homework before reviewing? tbh, the first gen model can even play 8k youtube videos at its limit though, i know it sounds crazy, as 13 inch macbook pro can't do it.

[@MashITTech]

Sorry, I think you misunderstood me, I was talking about 4K video editing not watching the content. I have been incredibly impressed by its performance especially as I wasn’t expecting it to perform half as well as it is, when docked I forgot I am not using a desktop a lot of time

[@maitiaru]

@@MashITTech oh, ok, my bad then. Anyway, your review is quite informative. Microsoft has improved things a lot from the first gen model. I hope they continue to make further improvements in the next generations, indeed there are huge scope for improvements in almost all departments of hardware and software. They are well known for completely discontinuing devices instead of improving upon them.

[@AugustusMcMillan]

id love this with an i5, low end gpu, 12gb ram 256 fast ssd, keyboard and pen for $1K. id be in love. light AAA gaming and full productivity in a compact design.

[@MashITTech]

I would be happy with a 15w ryzen 5800u!

[@msp5138]

Already has full productivity. I can run my MS Office apps, Zoom, and statistical software (R-Studio and SPSS).

[@JoseRodriguez-ui7wt]

@@msp5138 What config you have? I'm planning to run more or less the same, RStudio, Python and office package

[@stk007sss5]

Yesterday I buy go 2and am disappointment ....very slow to open apps 😢😢

[@Midomad]

M3 version ?

[@papagen00]

iPad v Surface = Tablet v Full PC = Apples v Oranges

[@MashITTech]

I agree, but Apple market the iPad Pro like it’s capable of replacing a computer

[@premierdeal]

A virtual onscreen touchpad is available and resizeable on screen keyboard make using this as a touch only device just fine. I am typing this comment on screen. These make the physical keyboard/touchpad unnecessary and far from a poor experience. Just a heads up for you potential purchasers being spoon fed 'must have a type cover' merchants. Oh and I also have an iPad to compare this experience against!

[@rep3e4]

There are plenty of cheaper keyboards than the magic keyboard !mine cost 40$

[@MashITTech]

What model did you buy and is it any good? I bought the apple folio for my old pro and it is average at best :(

[@jimjackson4256]

Yea the ipad is great for watching youtube but using it as a computer doesn’t work.Your comments on using the ipad as a computer are right on.

[@MashITTech]

Thank you mate. That is the thing with iPads, apple shows them as a pro device but you have to jump through hoops to try and do any real work with them, mine is relegated to side car for my Mac now.

[@rep3e4]

Well it depends on your needs

[@msp5138]

@@rep3e4 no it doesn't which is why you offered no examples...lol

[@LordBattleSmurf]

I have the highest spec original Go and while I love it, it really needs a better CPU/IGPU, I don't think the Go 2 is has improved the performance or battery life enough to be worth buying it if I already have the first Go. I'm hoping Microsoft put out an AMD Pollock APU version or a Gracemont based Intel 10nm++ with Gen 12 graphics in a Go 3 by this time next year. I do like the better screen on the Go 2, that little bit of extra space and smaller bezels makes a difference

[@MashITTech]

I totally agree with you. I would have loved to see a better cpu/gpu combo but given the low spec I have been actually really impressed with the m3. I connected it to my 1440p 27” screen and it performed amazingly in office and general use tasks! I almost forgot I wasn’t using my desktop. Obviously the gpu lets it down massively for any content creation

[@MashITTech]

Thanks for the insight. I didn’t own the original go but I have been so impressed with this go2. The more I use it the more I love it

[@LordBattleSmurf]

@jimv2000 Wow u really think the battery life improved by 3 hours?

[@dharkundercity1796]

You definitely need Password-Vault for your Surface Go found here in the Microsoft Store by RS Creations: www.microsoft.com/store/apps/9N639H9BNZ9Q .

[@msp5138]

Less fact-free opinions and more actual evidence, please. For example, the SG2 m3 model is comparable to the 2020 base model i3 MBA: Geekbench 5 = 873 (MBA = 983) Cinebench R20 = 460 (MBA = 620)

[@MashITTech]

fair enough

[@msp5138]

@@MashITTech Other than that great review! Like you, I'm far more impressed with this device than I thought I wound be and use it more than my SP7...

[@molonlabe9602]

All Apple products are good, but WAY overpriced.

[@potlakrishna161]

if windows allows to run android apps also then no one will buy ipads, samsungs every one will switch and adopt to windows

[@erichogan5291]

The battery life is abhorrent. I don't believe this is an iPad replacement let alone an iPad Pro replacement.

[@MashITTech]

For me it has replaced an iPad Pro 10.5. My battery life has been solid on the go 2 but yes not as good as an iPad. The problem for me with iPads is that I try to get work done on them and always end up frustrated, the surface go 2 works amazingly for me as I Can actually work on it. I think it totally depends on what the person needs from the device as to which is better

[@jexxy1806]

Disagree HARSHLY with you Eric, I've been getting 6-8 hours depending what I'm doing. You have to realize this is a smaller device, means a smaller battery. Why don't you actually explain what your doing instead of just coming on someones video with your verbal Diarhea "BaTTERY Life IS BAD" ... God people like you are annoying

[@erichogan5291]

@@jexxy1806 If a tablet cannot last more than 8 hours playing podcasts with the screen off, then thats a major issue. Windows 10 is probably designed in a way that unlike Android or iOS that it needs more resources to keep on working when the screen is off. If MS doubled the battery life this would not be a concern.

[@jexxy1806]

@@erichogan5291 Don't care. I love my Surface Go 2 and that's all that matters. Must really hurt you to not be able to convince me to see your POV. #sipsTea

[@maitiaru]

@@erichogan5291 You can carry a powerbank along for longer use, in total I think it would still be less bulky than ipad pro with its keyboard cover.