Should you be looking at the Surface Go 4?

It was not that long ago I posted an article on Giving Kudos to the Surface Go 3 here on Linkedin. However now its time to shape up to the fact there is a new kid on the block, and really is it worth looking at the new Surface Go 4 from Microsoft.

I have always been a fan of the small foot print Surface devices and indeed still have a Surface Go 1 device, which my son now uses as a note taking device in Uni. What always impressed me with Surface Go is the Surface engineering the was the foundation of the Pro line found its way into a more budget line device.

Lots of high quality in a small package

Things like the kick stand, fully frictionless, they could have decided to go back to a 3 position kick stand on the baby version, but no, the full Pro kick stand was incorporated.

The quality of the screen, I still do not believe there is a device on the market at a comparable price that can get near the quality of the screen on the Surface Go.

Audio, both speakers and microphones, placed in the bezel of the device allow for great quality meetings, however more importantly allow for dictation and services like Read Aloud and Immersive Reader making Go a truly inclusive and accessible device.

The included sensors, such as Accelerometer, Magnetometer, and Gyroscope, allowing hands on physical data generated from the machine. Also don't forget the NFC chip allowing the device to read NFC data and tags while on the go!

Surface Go also launched as a 4/64 model for education, but those days have now gone, which means Surface Go 4 starts as a 8/128 and also available a 8/256.

So should upgrade or invest in Surface Go 4

Well in honesty there was not a massive hike in performance between the Go 2 & Go 3 and when a new model lands typically the previous model goes on discount (allowing the channel to clear room in the warehouse). Customers would often go for a discounted 2 than the 3.

Though physically the Surface Go 3 and Surface Go 4 are identical, the Go 4 has had the biggest changes under the hood, this included the Intel N200 (in replacement of the 10th Gen Core I3), 8gb of LPDDR5 ram and also a move to UFS storage (instead of EMMC, or SSD). The combination of these change means that Surface Go 4 is a noticeably different device to its predecessors in performance.

I am not a big believer in benchmarking systems, its more how it feels to use in the job I want to use it kind of person, but the Geekbench 5 comparison of the Core I3 and the N200 shows a performance increase

When you add the LPDDR5 ram into the equation which has almost 4x transfer rate of LPDDR3 (8533 Mbps compared with 2133 Mbps) then you can processing and retrieving information is a different ball game on the Go 4.

The UFS solid state storage provides faster transfer rates than the SSD drive (and especially the EMMC storage) used in older models and also consumes less power, giving longer battery life as well.

So if a customer asked me should they buy the latest Surface Go 4, I would truly recommend it as a step change from the previous versions. Remember this device weighs around 554g (1.2lbs) so is now ideal choice for schools looking at 1-2-1 but do not want the expense of the Surface Pro range

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