There are a bunch of features that are Pro-only. Deferring updates, Hyper-V, remote desktop server, group policy, bitlocker, device guard, WDAG, etc. Certainly not everybody but I think a decent number of businesses are going to want at least one of those.
I would argue bitlocker is essential on ANY mobile device.
Any IT dept with its head on straight requires Windows Pro for any device management, domain or otherwise. Hosted exchange / Office365 offer device management and policy options only available to Pro versions of Windows.
Granted a lot of these users will go to the Surface Pro but the Surface Go does fill a niche for a cheap portable to business users, especially in terms of LTE, weight and price.
Surface Go is already encrypted with Bitlocker out of the box, which is the same as most new Windows 10 devices such as this. It's a requirement of Modern Standby devices.
Except with todays solid storage, Bitlocker is useless as it automatically tags it as a trusted device, when latest reports say most solid storage encryption is either non-fucntional or easy to break. Anyway, the go is so under powered, who in their right mind would want one ?
I was considering one of these, as windows gives me access to my games (CIV V is windows only, FTL can only be played on iOS or windows, no android version). While the $679 price smarts a bit, it seems like a great deal compared to $750 ipads (limited to iOS) and the $650 tab S4 (limited to android).
I only wish it had better battery life. 9 hours only seems doable, according to reviews, by playing media from local storage. Any kind of game or regular office work renders a ~6 hour battery life. Making it slightly thicker, with a bigger battery and a full size USB A port, would be awesome (and while I'm dreaming, a more powerful GPU. The fact these chips have the same GPU capability as my 6 year old thinkpad is just sad).
Will still seriously consider the LTE Go though, as the alternatives typically use much weaker hardware or are limited to mobile operating systems.
Battery life of the Go is definitely a weakness, I'm only averaging about 5 hrs with slightly higher brightness. But I don't think increasing thickness is the way to go, it's already a bit chunky compared to the iPad and Android tablets. I've actually found myself holding it with the kickstand out and just that bit of extra thinness makes it easier to hold.
Not that a larger capacity battery isn't possible. It only has a 26.1Wh battery, less capacity than an iPad that has a 32.4Wh one. The latest LG gram 13 and Samsung Notebook 9 13" both have higher capacity batteries compared to their predecessors without increasing weight (71Wh and 75Wh respectively up from around 55-60Wh). Seems like a 35Wh battery wouldn't be impossible for a feature iteration of a Go, nearly 35% more.
Add increased power efficiency with a newer generation processor as shown from 8th gen Intel chips and it would get the Go to a respectable level of battery life.
How is standby time? I heard it wasn't so hot either and just a couple days off charger would leave it drained... Ideally the Go would be the perfect replacement for my aging Android tablet (since that market just about died), being more capable and versatile overall... But just like with the original (vanilla) Surface there's just a couple small things that keep me from biting as currently priced.
Hopefully they don't go a bunch of years without updating it again... I really want something like the Surface Go much more than a Chromebook or some of the other more limited mobile OS options, but for the price I could just about buy a low end ultrabook as well, hrm.
This being a windows device, it has 2 to 3 standby modes and several options to tinker with. If you want great standby battery time and decently fast resume you can use hibernation (which saves RAM on the solid state media), if you want faster resume at the cost of battery life (RAM has to be kept active along with some other things) use standby. You can then configure standby wifi connections etc. which will drain the battery faster or slower.
I myself have a Win10 8" tablet (Asus Note8 MT80A) and it is a pretty good media consumption deivce. The Win store has a decent number of good apps now and even popular non store apps are touch aware now. It is much improved compared to Win 8. Some settings are stil a pain and some apps (mostly productive) are horrible on a smaller screen without a mouse or stylus.
Just tested standby time today, it's 1% an hour in sleep. I left it in sleep while I was at work and it drained 8% in 8.5 hrs. By default it would've hibernated after a few hours but I've turned that off except when it reaches critical 3% battery.
I too hope they update the Go yearly, get that battery life and performance up. But Microsoft is really limited by Intel, perhaps pressure from Qualcomm's Windows on Arm or if AMD's Zen2 has a ULV APU part will allow them to use a Core m3 part.
Really for the higher SKUs, especially these LTE models with such a large price premium, they could offer the m3.
You need to consider your options. There are pros and cons to each. iPad Pro is far more powerful especially in the GPU department. All iOS games can be played well in tablet mode, obviously. Some iOS games support external MFi controllers. Most windows games still need a keyboard and mouse, in my experience anyway. Do you want a gaming tablet or a gaming PC? I think the Surface Go is neither.
This is a very compelling device, it's just a shame that it's priced into oblivion. Granted, Norwegian prices are noticeably worse than US prices. Usually OEMs and distributors eat some margin or at least keep US price parity due to our 25% VAT (as in: prices when converted to USD are usually </=25% higher than US retail prices), but instead, MS demands NOK 4499 for the base 4/64 Surface Go, which translates to $530 or $423 with VAT subtracted. And that's before adding the required keyboard cover and pen, both of which have similarly hiked-up prices. So for what's essentially a modern-day netbook (albeit one that would be very useful, unlike netbooks of old), I'd be paying something like $800 - with 4GB of RAM and a tiny SSD, both of which IMO need an upgrade to be useful, lifting the base cost of the device to $700, and the total close to $1000. That's simply not acceptable. Even with the discount I get from working at a university, it's still far too expensive.
Crazy that Microsoft is even attempting to sell tablet computers at this point. I was at a couple of retailers over the weekend including an office supply store and the local Best Buy. What used to be a filled-to-the-brim tablet section of each store was now a desolate wasteland where one might not be surprised to encounter a wayward tumbleweed. The office supply store (Staples) was the worst of the two. There was a 7" Kindle Fire and one iPad on display plus five other empty spaces on the shelves. No one buys tablets anymore. The laptop section looked healthy, but it's safe to say that tablets are following fast on the heels of netbooks as a fading fad.
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stanleyipkiss - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
That extra $50 for Windows 10 Pro kinda smarts.Flunk - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
You don't need Pro unless you need to put the device on a domain. Very few businesses would care about an additional $50.notashill - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
There are a bunch of features that are Pro-only. Deferring updates, Hyper-V, remote desktop server, group policy, bitlocker, device guard, WDAG, etc. Certainly not everybody but I think a decent number of businesses are going to want at least one of those.Reflex - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
Yes, those are all useful features, but not on a Surface Go.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
What makes these features inherently less useful on a surface go VS a surface pro?Samus - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
I would argue bitlocker is essential on ANY mobile device.Any IT dept with its head on straight requires Windows Pro for any device management, domain or otherwise. Hosted exchange / Office365 offer device management and policy options only available to Pro versions of Windows.
Granted a lot of these users will go to the Surface Pro but the Surface Go does fill a niche for a cheap portable to business users, especially in terms of LTE, weight and price.
Brett Howse - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
Surface Go is already encrypted with Bitlocker out of the box, which is the same as most new Windows 10 devices such as this. It's a requirement of Modern Standby devices.Samus - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
How is it managed without windows Pro?Wolfclaw - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Except with todays solid storage, Bitlocker is useless as it automatically tags it as a trusted device, when latest reports say most solid storage encryption is either non-fucntional or easy to break.Anyway, the go is so under powered, who in their right mind would want one ?
Valantar - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Yep, Bitlocker is not limited to Pro. There are some Bitlocker features that are limited to pro, but not Bitlocker in general.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
I was considering one of these, as windows gives me access to my games (CIV V is windows only, FTL can only be played on iOS or windows, no android version). While the $679 price smarts a bit, it seems like a great deal compared to $750 ipads (limited to iOS) and the $650 tab S4 (limited to android).I only wish it had better battery life. 9 hours only seems doable, according to reviews, by playing media from local storage. Any kind of game or regular office work renders a ~6 hour battery life. Making it slightly thicker, with a bigger battery and a full size USB A port, would be awesome (and while I'm dreaming, a more powerful GPU. The fact these chips have the same GPU capability as my 6 year old thinkpad is just sad).
Will still seriously consider the LTE Go though, as the alternatives typically use much weaker hardware or are limited to mobile operating systems.
lazybum131 - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
Battery life of the Go is definitely a weakness, I'm only averaging about 5 hrs with slightly higher brightness. But I don't think increasing thickness is the way to go, it's already a bit chunky compared to the iPad and Android tablets. I've actually found myself holding it with the kickstand out and just that bit of extra thinness makes it easier to hold.Not that a larger capacity battery isn't possible. It only has a 26.1Wh battery, less capacity than an iPad that has a 32.4Wh one. The latest LG gram 13 and Samsung Notebook 9 13" both have higher capacity batteries compared to their predecessors without increasing weight (71Wh and 75Wh respectively up from around 55-60Wh). Seems like a 35Wh battery wouldn't be impossible for a feature iteration of a Go, nearly 35% more.
Add increased power efficiency with a newer generation processor as shown from 8th gen Intel chips and it would get the Go to a respectable level of battery life.
Impulses - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
How is standby time? I heard it wasn't so hot either and just a couple days off charger would leave it drained... Ideally the Go would be the perfect replacement for my aging Android tablet (since that market just about died), being more capable and versatile overall... But just like with the original (vanilla) Surface there's just a couple small things that keep me from biting as currently priced.Hopefully they don't go a bunch of years without updating it again... I really want something like the Surface Go much more than a Chromebook or some of the other more limited mobile OS options, but for the price I could just about buy a low end ultrabook as well, hrm.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
This being a windows device, it has 2 to 3 standby modes and several options to tinker with. If you want great standby battery time and decently fast resume you can use hibernation (which saves RAM on the solid state media), if you want faster resume at the cost of battery life (RAM has to be kept active along with some other things) use standby. You can then configure standby wifi connections etc. which will drain the battery faster or slower.I myself have a Win10 8" tablet (Asus Note8 MT80A) and it is a pretty good media consumption deivce. The Win store has a decent number of good apps now and even popular non store apps are touch aware now. It is much improved compared to Win 8. Some settings are stil a pain and some apps (mostly productive) are horrible on a smaller screen without a mouse or stylus.
lazybum131 - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Just tested standby time today, it's 1% an hour in sleep. I left it in sleep while I was at work and it drained 8% in 8.5 hrs. By default it would've hibernated after a few hours but I've turned that off except when it reaches critical 3% battery.I too hope they update the Go yearly, get that battery life and performance up. But Microsoft is really limited by Intel, perhaps pressure from Qualcomm's Windows on Arm or if AMD's Zen2 has a ULV APU part will allow them to use a Core m3 part.
Really for the higher SKUs, especially these LTE models with such a large price premium, they could offer the m3.
darwiniandude - Monday, November 12, 2018 - link
You need to consider your options. There are pros and cons to each. iPad Pro is far more powerful especially in the GPU department. All iOS games can be played well in tablet mode, obviously. Some iOS games support external MFi controllers. Most windows games still need a keyboard and mouse, in my experience anyway. Do you want a gaming tablet or a gaming PC? I think the Surface Go is neither.tamalero - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Any info on the new surface books?digiguy - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Given the SB2 has already quad core CPU and USB C I don't except any update until at least one more year...Valantar - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
This is a very compelling device, it's just a shame that it's priced into oblivion. Granted, Norwegian prices are noticeably worse than US prices. Usually OEMs and distributors eat some margin or at least keep US price parity due to our 25% VAT (as in: prices when converted to USD are usually </=25% higher than US retail prices), but instead, MS demands NOK 4499 for the base 4/64 Surface Go, which translates to $530 or $423 with VAT subtracted. And that's before adding the required keyboard cover and pen, both of which have similarly hiked-up prices. So for what's essentially a modern-day netbook (albeit one that would be very useful, unlike netbooks of old), I'd be paying something like $800 - with 4GB of RAM and a tiny SSD, both of which IMO need an upgrade to be useful, lifting the base cost of the device to $700, and the total close to $1000. That's simply not acceptable. Even with the discount I get from working at a university, it's still far too expensive.peevee - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
"which translates to $530 or $423 with VAT subtracted"$423 is not that different from $399.
PeachNCream - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Crazy that Microsoft is even attempting to sell tablet computers at this point. I was at a couple of retailers over the weekend including an office supply store and the local Best Buy. What used to be a filled-to-the-brim tablet section of each store was now a desolate wasteland where one might not be surprised to encounter a wayward tumbleweed. The office supply store (Staples) was the worst of the two. There was a 7" Kindle Fire and one iPad on display plus five other empty spaces on the shelves. No one buys tablets anymore. The laptop section looked healthy, but it's safe to say that tablets are following fast on the heels of netbooks as a fading fad.peevee - Tuesday, November 13, 2018 - link
Remember 11" netbooks for $300? It is that, only overpriced and with smaller screen.