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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom the Tech Chap, and this is the new Surface Laptop Go 2.
00:05Terrible name, pretty good laptop, and actually, I wish I had one of these 10 years ago.
00:11Definitely makes me feel old, but back in 2010 when I started university, most students
00:15rocked up to class with one of these bad boys.
00:18But not me.
00:19I couldn't afford one.
00:20I actually did bring my desktop PC with me for gaming, but in terms of taking notes and
00:25lessons and actually having a laptop with me, I used whatever chunky, old, horrible
00:28Pentium Windows XP thing I could get my hands on.
00:31The thing is though, as awesome as the MacBook Air is, particularly now with the M1 and of
00:36course the new, even more impressive and more expensive M2 that's coming out, the cheapest
00:41Air, even with a student discount, will sell you back £899, the same in dollars.
00:47However, this starts from £529, or £599 in the US, although I think the strongest
00:54competition for this comes from the likes of the ASUS ZenBook 14, or actually the Vivobook
00:5915, which of course is a little bit bigger, but it's similar money with an OLED screen,
01:03faster graphics, more RAM, more storage.
01:05Keep that one in mind as well.
01:08So it feels like we don't get a new Microsoft Surface device that often, but there are actually
01:12quite a few to choose from now.
01:14With the recently launched Studio laptops at the top end, and then you've got the Surface
01:18Laptop 4, which goes up against the likes of the MacBook Air, and then we have this,
01:22the Surface Laptop Go 2.
01:24And honestly, I reckon this is the one, or at least one of the laptops that I'm going
01:27to recommend to my friends when they ask what's the best all-round laptop that doesn't cost
01:32an absolute fortune, which is one of the questions I get asked all the time.
01:35So the first Laptop Go came out in 2020, just as the pandemic was kicking off.
01:40Two years later, it was definitely due a refresh.
01:42And so with the Laptop Go 2, we get the newer 11th Gen Intel processors, with much faster
01:48Intel Iris graphics.
01:50Also the base spec now gets 128 gigs of storage, up from 64.
01:54And it's also the faster PCIe kind, not the rubbish eMMC storage.
01:58They've also improved their webcam, which while not perfect, is probably the best camera
02:02you can get on a laptop at this price point.
02:04What do you think?
02:06As you can see, lighting makes a big difference to the quality and also the noise.
02:10Yeah, look at that.
02:11If you're in a dark room, it gets pretty ropey, but then spin around into the light, not too
02:17bad at all.
02:18You can also see it adjusts a little bit.
02:20I'm a bit overexposed there, but then it sort of adjusts to fix it.
02:24Not too bad.
02:25Not the best in the world, but definitely, I think, above average for a webcam.
02:28But what do you think in terms of the video and also the audio quality?
02:32The keys have 30% more travel, the battery's been boosted by a couple of hours, and most
02:36importantly of all, there's a new color.
02:39You may have to trust me on this, but this is sage.
02:43It is very silvery.
02:44It's just got a little hint of green, which you can see in certain lights.
02:48They're all metal.
02:49There's no fancy Alcantara options here like you get on the Surface laptop.
02:52And design-wise, nothing's really changed.
02:54It's still 1.1 kilograms.
02:56We still get a 12.4-inch screen with that 3 by 2 aspect ratio, so it's a little bit
03:01squarer and less rectangularly, that's definitely not a word.
03:05Still, I think this has a really nice design and it's a little bit tapered as well, so
03:09it gets thinner towards the front.
03:11These are absolutely lovely laptops.
03:12They just feel and look premium.
03:15And I really do think these are perfect for students or just as a nice little home or
03:19office laptop.
03:22I kind of wish the screen would go a little further back, a bit more flexibility there.
03:26The hinge is quite solid.
03:27Not too much screen wobble.
03:28It doesn't flex.
03:29It's very, very well-made, although you can also see here those viewing angles aren't
03:34the best.
03:35Maybe that's a good thing though, so if you take this to your lecture, you're not worried
03:38about the person next to you copying your notes or seeing that actually you're looking
03:41at sports and Netflix and stuff work.
03:44Speaking of the screen though, and this is not even full HD.
03:48It's just a little bit over 720p, although at 12.4 inches, it's not that bad actually.
03:53It's reasonably sharp.
03:55You can't see individual pixels.
03:56It's around 150 ppi, which at a normal distance, it's fine.
04:00And also while the brightness does drop off a little if you're looking off angle, on the
04:03whole, I think this PixelSense screen looks really good.
04:07Microsoft claim 330 nits, but I measured 350, which is pretty decent actually.
04:12It's touchscreen, although we don't get proper pen support, and also we get decent enough
04:16color accuracy.
04:17We're looking at about 98% sRGB.
04:19So I would be happy to watch movies, edit some photos, or write an essay on this all
04:23day.
04:24In fact, I wrote my entire script for this on the Surface Laptop Go 2, and it was a really
04:29nice experience.
04:30I love the keyboard on this.
04:31As I say, it's got a little bit more key travel than before, though you might not really notice
04:35it.
04:36It's really nice to type on.
04:37I do just kind of wish though that we had a backlight.
04:38There is no lighting behind the keys, which isn't the end of the world, but it would be
04:42nice.
04:43I tell a lie, there is one key that gets a backlight, and that is the power button, which
04:46actually doubles as a fingerprint reader.
04:49So how much?
04:50Well, as I say, it starts at £529, $599, and that's for 4GB of RAM, and 128GB storage,
04:59which is double the amount from last time, although this does start at £50 more.
05:02But overall, I think we're getting a better deal on the entry spec.
05:05However, it does start to get a bit pricey.
05:078GB of RAM, 128GB storage, it's an extra £100, and if you want 8GB of RAM and 256GB storage,
05:13it's another £100 again.
05:14So I think actually this mid-range model I've got here with the 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage
05:19is probably the sweet spot.
05:20£629 or $699.
05:22All versions get the same Intel i5-1135G7 processor with the Iris Xe integrated graphics.
05:29And while the new processor gives us a welcome 18-20% boost in performance, the 82% jump
05:36in graphics is definitely the headline.
05:39That is huge, and I could even get away with some light gaming in Rainbow Six Siege.
05:43On top of that, Microsoft claim they've also boosted the battery with this, and we should
05:46be looking at up to 13.5 hours, but I can tell you that's not what you're going to get
05:52in real life.
05:53One hour of YouTube drained 18% of the battery, and actually in my everyday kind of use of
05:57a bit of Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, Google Docs, those sort of normal things, I got between
06:016.5 and 7 hours.
06:03So you might just about get through a full day of school or work at the office with this,
06:08although the good news is that the Microsoft Connector charger is nice and small so you
06:11can carry it with you.
06:12It takes about an hour to charge up to 80%, plus you can also charge it via the USB-C
06:16port if you prefer.
06:18Speaking of which, we get a regular and actually quite slow USB Type-A, plus the USB-C which
06:23supports Display Out if you want to hook up an external monitor, as well as data and charging,
06:28and also a headphone jack and on the other side, the Surface Connect charging port.
06:33So the speakers are surprisingly good for a laptop this size and, well, this price.
06:38Not bad at all.
06:39So should you buy it?
06:40Well, yeah, I really like the Surface Laptop Go 2, as I say, terrible name, but there are
06:45a couple of problems.
06:46As I say, a slightly longer battery life would be nice, that screen resolution really isn't
06:50particularly impressive, nor are those view angles, but they're fine, and it is a lovely
06:55laptop to just use, to type on.
06:57The precision touchpad is really responsive, and of course you've got the touchscreen if
07:00you prefer.
07:01I just kind of wish that we had 8GB of RAM as standard, that would make a big difference,
07:05I don't really want to pay another 100 just for 4 more gigs of RAM, and I think the biggest
07:10problem with this is the competition.
07:12Not from the MacBook Air, but as I say, things like the ZenBook or VivoBook with arguably
07:16better specs and for similar money.
07:19But if you want a good all-round student-slash-home laptop and don't want to pay an absolute fortune
07:24and you want a nice compact size, definitely give the Surface Laptop Go 2 a look.
07:29And actually, if you do fancy checking this out, I'll leave links in the description below,
07:32and if you've got any questions at all, let me know in the comments, and also let me know
07:35if you would go for this or something like the VivoBook instead.
07:39Thank you so much for watching, guys.
07:41If you enjoyed the video and want to see more from me, hopefully you do, then a cheeky little
07:44like and subscribe below would be very much appreciated, and I'll see you next time right
07:48here on the Tech Chat.