2020 Surface Laptop Go V/S Surface Laptop 3

Both, the Surface Laptop Go and Surface Laptop 3 from Microsoft are one of the hottest picks for both students and office goers as their no-nonsense daily drivers. Today let’s compare the brand new Surface Laptop Go and Surface Laptop 3. So, let’s get started.

Design: The Surface Laptop Go looks quite similar to Surface Laptop  3, both deliver almost the same premium hardware design, but Laptop Go makes some changes in some areas to keep the weight down and save costs.

Laptop 3 features an all aluminium build, from top to bottom. Laptop Go too feels premium, but the bottom is actually made out of plastic. It looks nice but it’s still plastic at the end of the day. However, the lid and keyboard deck of Laptop Go are made of aluminium.

The Laptop Go has thinner bezels than Laptop 3 and of all the Surface Laptop lineup which is really nice to see, and it makes Laptop Go feel like a modern machine.

The Surface Laptop Go looks like a smaller version of Laptop 3 and weighs 1.1 kg while Laptop 3 weighs 1.31 kg.

Maybe you feel like it’s no different. But when using both devices, it seems like the Surface Laptop Go is an oversized tablet rather than a laptop.

I’ll definitely go with the Laptop Go as it’s lighter and more compact.

Surface Laptop 3 is available in a range of 4 colours: Cobalt Blue, Matte Black, Sandstone and Platinum and Surface Laptop Go gets three colours: Sandstone,

Traditional Platinum and Ice Blue colour.

I/O Ports: Both of the Surface Laptop are equipped with a ton of connectivity ports that include one USB-C, a USB-A, a 3.5-millimetre headphone jack and Surface Connect.

Laptop 3 supports Surface Dial and Surface Pen but the Laptop Go does not.

Webcam and Audio: Both laptops feature the same 720p HD camera. And

for audio, Microsoft used it’s dual “Omnisonic” speakers that’s located below the keyboard deck of both devices. They are good, reaching a decent volume level without distortion. They don’t have any fancy Dolby Atmos kind of software to optimize the sound and even lack deeper bass, but they sound rich enough to

make us feel good with Dolby Premium Audio.

Display: Laptop Go model features a 12.4 – inch PixelSense screen, it’s equipped with 10 -point multi-touch. It has 1536 by 1024 resolution, and honestly, this is the lowest resolution screen that’s ever been there on any surface devices.

And the reason why Microsoft made a surface laptop with this resolution is that most people are using their laptops from further way than tablet-like Go or Go2.

The surface Laptop 3 has a higher resolution display. It has 2256 by 1504 resolution and 201 PPI of Pixel density. The colour accuracy of this laptop is fantastic. It has excellent colour contrast. So Laptop 3 has a better screen, but as I said earlier, Microsoft is kind of modernizing the design of Laptop Go a bit.

Besides having a better screen, Surface Laptop 3 also has a larger keyboard and trackpad. Let’s find out how good they are.

Keyboard and Trackpad: Both Laptops offers the same typing experience, but if you are working at night, the Surface Laptop Go has no backlit keyboard and it’s hard to see the keys. However, the trackpad is very good on Laptop Go, and we could say that it is one of the best trackpads Microsoft has made yet, even better than Laptop 3. It’s very smooth and satisfies you reassuringly every time you click.

Performance: Surface Laptop Go makes some compromises in this department to keep the price down. Every new model on sale is powered by 10th Gen Intel

Core I5-1035G1 processor. It’s not very powerful, but I think it is good enough for students and everyday use or at office workers.

Laptop 3 runs on quad-core 10th Gen Intel Core i5 and Core i7 chips that are more powerful.

Speaking of the processor inside the chassis, let’s now jump to RAM Laptop Go has only 4 GB and 8 GB RAM variants, while the Surface Laptop 3 starts

with 8 gigs of RAM in the base variant, going all the way to 32GB.

In term of Storage, the Surface Laptop Go starts at 64GB while Laptop 3 starts 128GB and obviously gets a faster SSD.

For graphics performance, the Intel UHD Graphics chip in Laptop Go does not inspire much confidence. It is the weakest integrated GPUs in the Ice Lake lineup, so, don’t expect to do much gaming or video editing on this thing.

If you are a student and you need to run some 3D games like Minecraft it will be able to run those decently. Surface Laptop 3 with Intel Iris Plus is able to do more on gaming. For example, you can play Overwatch on medium graphics settings at 1080p with only occasional dips below 30 frames per second. That means this will be a good machine for Warcraft, Counter-Strike and similarly well-optimized games.

Now let’s get into something different between 2 devices, Surface Laptop Go doesn’t have facial recognition for logging into Windows like Surface Laptop 3, there is a fingerprint sensor on the power button instead.

But this feature is only available on the 699$ version and above, not the entry-level 550 bucks model.

Battery Life: Another important thing when talking about any tech device is the battery. Microsoft claims that Surface Laptop 3 will last as long as 11.5 hours and Laptop Go will last for up to 13 hours.

However, in some battery tests, the Surface Laptop 3 has 8 hours of runtime and Laptop Go drained from 8 to 10 hours. And if you work or study at school for the whole day,  both Laptops will be good enough for you.

Software: Laptop Go runs Windows 10 S mode right out of the box. In this mode, Laptop Go only allows users to download apps available on the Microsoft store.

However, you can easily turn off the S mode and use the standard Windows 10 Home just like in Laptop 3, it’s easy, and it’s not a thing you have to pay for.

If you are a fan of Microsoft ecosystem and concerned about security issues for your device, Windows 10 in S mode on Laptop Go is clearly safer and easier to use.

Verdict: If you are on a tight budget or don’t want to spend much on a laptop because your usage is limited to basic stuff like web browsing, sending emails or something like that, then the Surface Go is the one you can go with. It’s also more compact and offers better battery life than it’s big brother. But if you need something more powerful with a better screen and you don’t mind splurging some extra bucks, then go for the Surface Laptop 3.

So this was all about both, the Surface Go and Surface 3 laptop from Microsoft.