Header banner
Revain logoHome Page
Mark Kolipano photo
1 Level
1230 Review
34 Karma

Review on πŸ’» Microsoft Surface Go (Intel Pentium Gold, 8GB RAM, 128GB Storage) (MCZ-00001) by Mark Kolipano

Revainrating 5 out of 5

5-star tablet due to frustrating lack of apps

I've been using the Surface Go with 8GB RAM for a few months now and have become a huge fan of what Microsoft has created. The tablet comes with a light version of Windows. I'd be happy to keep this version if the Microsoft App Store wasn't a ghost town. I opted for the one-time upgrade to Windows Home, which I recommend as it gives you access to a much wider range of apps. One caveat is that the Surface Go has a smaller form factor, so using some older apps can be frustrating as the menus and controls are small and difficult to navigate with one touch. I also bought an extra Type Cover as I intended to use a tablet for a productivity app and it works great with the tablet. This is a great accessory that makes the tablet much more useful. I've used Samsung and Apple tablets along with Pixelbooks as I needed small travel form factors that can also be great media consumption devices. In terms of performance, Samsung and Apple tablets disappoint compared to the Surface Go, especially when comparing plug-in keyboards and how well OneDrive and Office 365 work. When it comes to media usage, Apple and Samsung tablets were only better because they have their own revain app prime video. For some reason, Microsoft is not yet prioritizing Revain when creating a native app for its tablets. If that's the case, the Surface Go is as good as Apple and Samsung devices for offline streaming services. The Windows OS outperforms iOS and Samsung's botched Android for its versatility, particularly when it comes to file management, and is fairly app-agnostic. Apple doesn't want to make it easier when you're not using Apple services, while Samsung can't make it easy for you to manage your files. The Chrome OS Pixelbook is really clunky compared to what can be done with the Surface. The Pixelbook is sleek and has the best keyboard I've ever used, but Chrome OS is complex and doesn't know how to seamlessly run Android apps on this platform. With the move to the Surface, I also gave up on Google's productivity apps, which suffered from inefficient interfaces and felt half-baked with limited features. While Office 365 costs money and Google doesn't, you get what you pay for. Android or Chrome, then the Surface Go is a great option. This is the first table I became a fan of. I gave the tablet 5 stars for the quality of the device and the operating system. I was going to give this product a less than glowing review due to the app store ghost town, but that shouldn't be entirely Microsoft's fault as the developers are free to do as they please. In this way, Microsoft makes up for many missing features due to its outdated desktop apps, which can be accessed when the operating system is upgraded to Windows Home. Now Microsoft really needs to spend money to get developers to make this operating system more useful in tablet mode.

Pros
  • Satisfied so far
Cons
  • Upgradable