Having a Second Go - Microsoft Surface Go 2 after Five Months

I’ll be honest with you guys. When I originally purchased the Microsoft Surface Go 2 back in early December 2020, I did so partially out of emotional reasons rather than to just fulfil a need for a lightweight mobile “writer’s notebook” and blogging machine. I’d been Surface-curious for quite some time and to be frank, I wanted to get my hands on something that was a) not Apple and yet b) not company-provided and as such locked down by company security rules. As such, I decided early on that a second look at the device would be in order. Now that I’m approaching the end of my fifth month with the Surface Go 2, I think it’s time to start writing down my thoughts. Granted, this still won’t be a complete appraisal of everything the Surface has to offer, simply due to the fact that I’m based in Ireland, and we’ve been in a non-stop lockdown since December 26th, with no sign of any lifting on the horizon. At the same time, the weather has mostly been simply atrocious, meaning there really hasn’t been any more chances for me to test the device “on the road” beyond the few trips to the city centre I made back in December for my first review. Things have changed recently, with the weather improving, making trips into the Regional Park possible again and allowing me to use the Go 2 there, both for writing and as an “image tank” for my drone, but I’m still not using the device as much as I would like.

The Surface Go 2 was never really designed as a powerhouse. I made this point in my original review back in December, and several months on from that, nothing has really changed in that regard. Opening YouTube takes quite a bit of time, while Lightroom is barely usable. Still, I don’t really notice that, even after nearly four months of constant use. Microsoft’s Office Suite is remarkably quick and responsive on the device, and even most websites work more than fast enough for everyday use. I can definitely see the Surface Go 2 work as the “daily driver” for someone who only has rather limited needs, while still being a nice companion device for someone who has a powerful machine at home, but prefers something light and mobile, for example at college or work, if you’re among those who can still go there.

That being said, there are some weird issues that I find popping up every now and then. The first is connected to Windows Hello. For whatever reason, I’ve never been able to get consistent facial recognition unlocks with the device. Sometimes, you barely have enough time to even look at the lock screen and you’re locked in, while on other occasions, you may be framed perfectly in apparently ideal lighting conditions and yet Windows Hello still can’t log you in. It’s not a permanent issue, which makes the whole thing even more infuriating. Thankfully, you can still log in via your PIN or other means, so you’re not locked out if Windows Hello decides to say goodbye, it’s just a minor annoyance. In that same vein, the keyboard can be a little infuriating sometimes as well, as the Type Cover will occasionally lose connection to the Surface, leaving you scratching your head as to why the onscreen keyboard suddenly popped up. This is thankfully a very rare occurrence and to be honest, happens about as often as my Logitech keyboard fails to connect to my MacBook. What’s more, it is nowhere near enough of an issue to outweigh the fact that the Microsoft Type Cover is one of the best keyboards I’ve ever worked with. There’s a reason so many of my recent blog posts start their life with me typing away at the kitchen table!

Staying with the hardware for a little while longer, I need to address the speakers, simply because I forgot to mention them in my previous video. Mind you, they’re nothing to write home about by any stretch of the imagination. They’re both front-facing, meaning you won’t have to deal with asymmetric sound like with some of the base-model iPads however, while they can put out a decent level of volume, they are quite lacking in the bass department, even compared to other tablet speakers. They did cause me to do a double take when first using the Surface Go 2 in tablet mode however, as the cut-outs in the front display for the speaker had me thinking I’d somehow cracked the display until I figured out what was going on.

Finally, there’s the USB-C port. Yes, it is theoretically possible to charge the Surface Go 2 through that particular port. I’ve tried it myself using a 10,000 mAh power bank, and while it is glacially slow in my experience, it will certainly do in a pinch. However, don’t watch YouTube or other streaming video sides while doing so, the battery drain will be too strong for the power bank to counteract. I actually ended up draining the battery even while supposedly charging from the power bank while watching a YouTube video. Strangely enough, the same issue did not occur when watching Netflix, so it could just be that Google was simply sloppy when building the current YouTube website. Wouldn’t be the first time that YouTube has caused issues, eh? 

With the hardware out of the way, let’s talk about the software, starting of course with Windows 10 in S Mode. I have to say, even four months in, S Mode really isn’t much of an issue for me. While my usage profile may be significantly different from other users, I have found that the restrictions don’t really impede my workflow with the device, to the point that I’ve forgotten they actually exist. Now granted, the system does stutter sometimes, but all in all, a lot of the online reviews make the device seem a lot worse than it actually is. Granted, it is certainly not a gaming computer, and when it does reach its limitations, it can be quite frustrating, but this happens far less frequently than I’d expected. Even Adobe Lightroom, which I’d called basically unusable in my original review back in December, has turned out to be quite a bit more useful than it seemed back then, as it makes quite a useful “image tank” when out and about with a camera or, as mentioned above, a drone. This may also have something to do with the fact that I’ve since moved to a locally stored image library, stored on a 400GB card in the microSD card slot at the back of the device. 

So, having had nearly five months with the Surface Go 2 so far, would I go for it again? Definitely. It is a good device and despite some perplexing design decisions by Microsoft, it is designed for a specific niche and serves that niche very well. It’s not a device for everyone, it certainly is no iPad killer, but if all you need is a low-powered device for writing, taking notes, handling your day-to-day emails and so on, then the Surface Go 2 is very much worth a look.