The Surface Laptop Go is a premium laptop at a lower price than you’d expect but it isn’t the best budget laptop you can buy

Beautiful design; Excellent display; Fingerprint reader and Windows Hello webcam

Cheapest model only has 64GB storage and 4GB of RAM

Although it's missing some nifty features from the pricier Surface Laptop 3, the Surface Laptop Go is what many people are looking for right now: a well-designed, lightweight laptop with adequate performance that won't break the bank.

Inexpensive; Light weight; Comfortable keyboard and touch pad; Multiple color options; Attractive styling and excellent build quality; USB Type-A port

Less-than-1080p display; No face recognition camera or keyboard backlighting; Internal storage tops out at 256GB; Middling audio quality

With the Surface Laptop Go, Microsoft has tried to make an affordable laptop for the masses – or at least for students. While performance and battery life are underwhelming, the laptop is well built and designed, and will serve you well for day-to-day computing.

Well-built and lightweight; Impressive 12.4-inch; 3:2 aspect ratio display; Copes with most tasks comfortably

Average battery life; Average specs on the cheapest configuration; Average performance

Although there are some quirks - such as a whistly fan, a low numbers of ports, and limited storage in the entry-level model - otherwise the balance of features and performance make for a compelling affordable laptop.

Great design that looks and feels beyond the asking price; Comfortable typing and trackpad experience; Proper processor means it's capable outside of Windows 10 S

Fan can be loud and whistly when power is plugged in; No keyboard backlighting; Limited RAM/storage on entry model; Middling battery life; Less-than-Full-HD screen

The Surface Laptop Go is a fantastic device at a super-affordable price. It offers decent performance and comfortable keyboard that's ideal for students, office workers and social media addicts alike.

Incredible value; Small and classy design; Excellent performance; Comfortable keyboard

Low-resolution display; No keyboard backlight; No fingerprint scanner on base configuration

Diluting down the Surface formula was always going to require a few compromises. The Laptop Go is a well-built and lightweight machine that truly looks the part, but is let down by a few key omissions and cut-backs. Budget alternatives offer more storage and higher resolution screens than the £549 base model, while a Dell XPS 13 would give us serious pause for thought before pulling the trigger on the £899 version tested here. The middle-ground model seems like the best value, but even then there's no shortage of keenly-priced alternatives. Still, if you don't mind paying a premium for good design, even when on a mid-range budget, the Go's styling is tough to beat.

Light and well-built; Vibrant 3:2 aspect touchscreen; Full-size keyboard and expansive touchpad;

Internals merely average for the money; No backlit keyboard; Battery life only average;

Although there are some quirks - such as a whistly fan, a low numbers of ports, and limited storage in the entry-level model - otherwise the balance of features and performance make for a compelling affordable laptop.

Great design that looks and feels beyond the asking price; Comfortable typing and trackpad experience; Proper processor means it's capable outside of Windows 10 S;

Fan can be loud and whistly when power is plugged in; No keyboard backlighting; Limited RAM/storage on entry model; Middling battery life; Less-than-Full-HD screen;

I like the screen, Touch ID and how smooth it runs.

Microsoft’s Surface lineup, long a showcase for the most advanced hardware design ideas in the Windows ecosystem, now welcomes a $549.99 laptop for the rest of us. With streamlined component configurations and the omission of some of the more futuristic Surface Laptop 3 features, the new Surface Laptop Go will appeal to price-sensitive buyers who need a sensible workhorse laptop for light computing tasks. The $699 configuration reviewed here is the best one for most people. It takes the laptop out of the “cheap” range and isn't quite as impressive on raw performance as similarly priced competitors with AMD Ryzen processors, but it’s still a fine value for what it offers. A Sturdy, Svelte Surface First, a word about the Surface Laptop Go name, and where this laptop fits into the grand, confusing scheme of Microsoft's Surface line. The Surface Laptop Go is a new flavor of Surface. It's not to be confused with the Surface Go (Microsoft's budget-minded detachable 2-in-1, now on the S...

Although it's missing some nifty features from the pricier Surface Laptop 3, the Surface Laptop Go is what many people are looking for right now: a well-designed, lightweight laptop with adequate performance that won't break the bank.

Inexpensive; Light weight; Comfortable keyboard and touch pad; Multiple color options; Attractive styling and excellent build quality; USB Type-A port

Less-than-1080p display; No face recognition camera or keyboard backlighting; Internal storage tops out at 256GB; Middling audio quality

The Surface Go is not without its issues, but slap on a keyboard and it’s a genuine gamechanger