Microsoft's 10-inch, $399 Surface Go tablet is a departure from the company's Surface tradition, which put forth expensive, ambitious designs to break trail for the rest of the PC industry.

Look, $550 is a lot of money... unless you're talking computers. Any computer you buy for that little is firmly a "budget" PC, as far as the people making them are concerned. They're not impressive, or especially fast, or pretty. They're purely functional-the Ford Fiesta of computers.

It's tiny; gorgeous; and more productive than an iPad or other cheap PC

The CPU is still pretty underwhelming

Microsoft's history in the budget tablet space is a bit checkered. Remember Surface RT That was a flop. And other smaller Surfaces just never felt right. But the Surface Go ($349 to start, $549 as tested, before accessories) feels just right.

Attractive with strong build quality; Bright; vivid display; Affordable starting price

Short battery life; Doesn't come with keyboard

Conceptually, taking the favorite Surface Pro 2-in-1 PC and shrinking it down to a 10-inch model seems desirable, but with lowering the price and performance of the components there are questions. Is it usable in the lap How good is the performance Can you type well on it Does it even make sense

Comparatively fast performance; Outstanding build quality and hardware; All day battery life; Excellent display and inking experience

Windows 10 is still not a great tablet OS; 10-inch PC experience has obvious tradeoffs; No Thunderbolt 3

The Surface Go is an interesting gadget. It's a better work device than the iPad Pro but can't beat it as pure tablet experience.

Well built hardware; gorgeous display; flexible hybrid use

It's not exactly powerful; Type Cover is a still a costly extra; USB-C port lacks Thunderbolt 3; battery life leaves much to be desired; thick bezels date the design

Let's face it, the lack of decent Android tablets on the market is an indictment on Google for how they have dropped the ball when it comes to the Android tablet ecosystem. As such this lack of tablets (the Pixel Slate is $700US and not available here) has many of us looking elsewhere to replace...

The Surface Go sits in a somewhat interesting segment of the market. The base model has a price that's low enough to be considered a value proposition, but like all value devices, there's compromise to get there.

Microsoft made its foray into the "personal computer" market back in 2012 with the launch of the original Surface - notwithstanding the tabletop computer with the same name that the company showcased at CES 2008.

We've not seen the Surface Go in the flesh yet but it's certainly an attractive device in terms of price and portability. However, it has drawbacks including the lack of full-size USB and the limitations of Windows 10 S. Whether you need to spend a significant amount more on the Pro comes down to what you need the Surface to do. If you need to do anything beyond basic tasks then it's likely you will need to. Bear in mind that neither comes with the Type Cover keyboard or other accessories.