In July Microsoft launched its most affordable and smallest Surface product yet, the Surface Go, for a starting price of $399. At that time, the company had said that the device is aimed to empower price-sensitive customers who are looking for a tablet-cum-laptop that strikes a balance between performance, form and function. That device had a limitation and relied on WiFi to let its users work online. Striking that limitation off, Microsoft has now announced a new Surface Go variant with LTE support that will let people work online wherever they want.
There are three variants of the device: Surface Pro with LTE Advanced (8GB RAM, 128GB storage) which is priced at $679, Surface Pro with LTE Advanced for Business (8GB/128GB) which will be available for $729 and Surface Pro with LTE Advanced for Business (8GB/256GB) that will cost buyers $829. (Minimum-spec device has 4GB RAM and 64GB storage and is priced at $399) These products are now available for preorder today and the shipments will start on November 20 in the US, Canada and 21 other markets. There is no word on when these laptops will make their way to India.
“Based on customer feedback, we created Surface for Business, products tailored specifically for commercial and education customers. On Surface Pro 6 for Business and Surface Laptop 2 for Business, we have designed our products and services to include: a higher-performing, faster 8th Gen Intel Core processor on the i5 configuration; advanced security with Windows 10 Pro; premium support at no additional cost; and readiness for Microsoft 365,” Microsoft said in a blog post.
Surface Go offers a calibrated 3:2 ratio high-resolution 10-inch PixelSense Display that supports the Surface Pen with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, low pen parallax, low latency and precision for accurate note taking and drawing. In portrait mode, the screen is designed to render the page to the scale of most school textbooks and in landscape mode, it can render pages side by side similar to the one in a paperback book for intuitive writing. The 2-in-1 device is powered by the 7th Generation Intel Pentium Gold Processor 4415Y, and offers up to nine hours of battery.
The built-in kickstand extends to 165 degrees and a Windows Hello camera allows for a quick and secure sign-in using face recognition. Surface Go has ports for Surface Connect for charging and docking, a USB-C 3.1 for data, video and charging, a headphone jack, and a MicroSD card reader for storage expansion. The company has custom-made Surface Go Signature Type Cover with high precision tuning and Windows Precision Trackpad that supports five-point multi-finger gestures.
“Surface Go with LTE Advanced for Business is the latest in our expanding portfolio of enterprise-grade and optimized Surface devices. This comprehensive family of devices has contributed to the growth in the Surface business, bringing Surface from introducing the 2-in-1 category just six years ago to joining the top five global companies in US PC market share (according to Gartner),” the company added.