Although it runs Windows 11 and can be used with an optional keyboard, the Microsoft Surface Go 3 is a tablet designed to compete with Chromebooks and the Apple iPad, not traditional laptops. A compelling starting price of $399.99, coupled with the refined styling and high-quality construction we’ve come to expect from the Surface product family, make this the best inexpensive Windows-powered 2-in-1 tablet you can buy. But with few improvements over its predecessor and computing performance that remains lackluster, the Surface Go 3 is also a slightly disappointing third-generation revision to Microsoft’s most affordable tablet, given the advances we’re seeing on other platforms. Plus, our Core i3-based tester comes in at $629.99, and that’s without Microsoft’s compatible keyboard accessory, which adds at least another Benjamin.
The Design: It’s Mostly a Go 2
The Surface Go 3 follows a familiar design formula. It’s a rectangular touch-screen tablet with an integrated kickstand. Weighing just 1.2 pounds and measuring 0.33 by 9.7 by 6.9 inches (HWD), it’s equally at home in your hands or propped up on a table. That distinguishes it from most other 2-in-1 convertible laptops, which typically weigh at least twice as much and have permanently-attached keyboards that make them less natural to use as true tablets.
Like the more expensive Microsoft Surface Pro 8 tablet, the Surface Go 3’s functionality skyrockets when you magnetically attach the optional Surface Type Cover, which adds a keyboard and touchpad to transform the tablet into something that can pass for a laptop. While it’s true that Chromebook tablets and the iPad can also be attached to external keyboards, the Surface Go 3’s advantage is that it runs a full version of Windows 11, not the internet- and app-centric iPadOS or Chrome OS.
This unique combination is what makes the Surface Pro 8 (and other premium tablets like it) such a compelling do-it-all device. But the Surface Go 3’s uninspired computing experience robs it of some of the advantages of the more expensive Pro 8 flagship. A CPU bump from an Intel Core m3 in the top-end Surface Go 2 to an Intel Core i3 in the uppermost Surface Go 3 configuration doesn’t help the Go 3 perform meaningfully better than its predecessor, let alone match the power of the Apple A14 silicon in the iPad Air. We’re reviewing the premium Go 3 here, which also comes with 8GB of memory and a 128GB SSD. The $399.99 base model uses an Intel Pentium processor with just 4GB of memory and a 64GB SSD—stay clear of that even-more-underpowered configuration if you can.
We’ll look more in-depth at performance below, but suffice it to say that the Surface Go 3 isn’t for anyone who needs to run complex apps like Adobe Photoshop, and its day-to-day computing experience is a bit laggy compared not only with Windows laptops, but also with better-equipped Chromebooks and iPads. While it’s true that many Chromebooks and iPads come with just 4GB of RAM, iPadOS and Chrome OS have limited multitasking capabilities or other memory-hungry requirements.
The Display: Brighter Than Your Average Budget Panel
Besides more-pedestrian computing components than flagship tablets and laptops offer, the Go 3 also has a smaller, lower-resolution screen. The 10.5-inch display has a resolution of 1,920 by 1,280 pixels in a 3:2 aspect ratio, which is the equivalent of a full HD resolution. It’s fine for watching movies, but if you’re editing documents or scrolling through web pages, you’ll definitely notice some fuzzy text that is absent on the higher-resolution screens of the Pro 8 and the iPad Air.
Still, the Surface Go 3’s screen is not only adequate for watching videos and participating in Zoom calls, it’s actually ideally suited for those types of tasks. The screen is brighter and offers more accurate colors than equivalent laptop screens in this price range. In our testing, the Go 3 managed to display the entire sRGB color gamut, and 77% of the P3 color gamut. Further helping image quality is the surprisingly bright backlight, which registered a maximum 424 nits of brightness on our display tests. (More about those later.)
While rich color and bright backlights can also describe the iPad Air’s screen, you typically can’t find those traits on clamshell laptops or 2-in-1 convertibles in the Surface Go 3’s price range. Lenovo’s IdeaPad Flex 5i 14, for instance, peaks at just 257 nits of brightness and can display only 64% of the sRGB color space. There are a few more display features the Go 3 misses out on, such as the 120Hz refresh rate and narrower screen bezels of the Surface Pro 8, but overall this is an excellent tablet viewing experience for the money.
Above the screen, housed in one of the long bezels surrounding the Go 3’s display, you’ll find an above-average webcam. This 5-megapixel, 1080p shooter is an improvement over most laptop webcams, which typically employ low-quality sensors with 720p resolution that result in grainy video quality even when the room is brightly lit. In addition to the front-facing camera, which includes IR sensors for face-recognition Windows Hello logins, the Go 3 has a rear-mounted 8-megapixel autofocus camera that also shoots 1080p video.
Audio quality is excellent too, for a tablet. In my testing listening to a few audio tracks and participating in a Zoom call, I discovered the Go 3’s stereo speakers rival the audio quality of many larger laptops. Room-filling sound ensures that even the most soft-spoken student in the class is understandable.
Key(board) Considerations: Plan to Shell Out for Accessories
Available in a single platinum shade, with a magnesium finish, the Go 3 looks identical to its Go 2 predecessor, which is a good thing. It’s too bad more colors aren’t offered, but overall this tablet looks sleek and modern whether the integrated kickstand is extended or not.
If you do want to add a splash of color to your Go 3, you’ve got some options when it comes to the keyboard cover, which Microsoft calls the Type Cover and charges as much as $129.99 for. Options include Ice Blue, Poppy Red, Platinum, or Black. All except the last option use the Surface’s signature Alcantara fabric for a pleasingly soft-touch feel when your palms are resting below the keys. (The colorful models are $129.99, while the Black Type Cover is $99.99.)
While the Type Cover is well-engineered and offers a passable typing and clicking experience, it doesn’t compare to the superior comfort of a full-size keyboard that 2-in-1 convertible laptops like the IdeaPad Flex 5i offer. As a Windows device, the Surface Go 3 presents many opportunities where you’ll need a touchpad and keyboard for maximum flexibility, from entering spreadsheet data to resizing application Windows. It would be nice if Microsoft offered the Type Cover standard with the Surface Go 3, but that part of our wish list has gone unanswered through many different Surface devices and generations over the years.
On the other hand, if you’re on the strictest of budgets and have no room left over to spend money on a keyboard cover, that’s OK. It is possible to perform basic tasks on the Go 3 without the keyboard or touchpad. In fact, I spent all of my time testing the Go 3 without using the Ice Blue Type Cover that Microsoft sent along with our review unit, just to see if I could rely entirely on the touch screen. I certainly wouldn’t use the Go 3 in tablet mode as my main PC, but especially for watching videos and even dragging files between folders, a keyboard and touchpad aren’t necessary.
In addition to shelling out for the Type Cover, you may also need to spend money on special adapters and cables for your accessories, since the Surface Go 3 offers just a single USB-C port and a headphone jack. You can opt for a Microsoft dongle or adapter to plug into the proprietary Surface Connect port (which is also where you plug in the Go 3’s AC adapter), or use a cheaper third-party USB dongle. At least there’s a microSD card reader for easy storage expansion (hidden beneath the kickstand for additional protection) and a headphone port for wired audio connections, both of which other tablets increasingly lack. The Surface Go 3’s standard wireless-connectivity slate comprises Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.0. Previous Surface Go generations have offered optional LTE versions, and Microsoft plans to offer an LTE-equipped version of the Go 3 later this year.
While the Surface Go 3 is compatible with digital stylii, it offers neither an integrated holder nor full support for the latest Surface stylus, the Surface Slim Pen 2. So if you’re an aspiring digital artist, we recommend stepping up to the Surface Pro 8 (which offers both of these features) instead.
Testing the Surface Go 3: Core Snore
At $629.99, the fully kitted-out version of the Go 3 reviewed here—and mind you, that is just for the tablet, without the Type Cover keyboard—lands just above the $600 mark that we usually consider to be the upper limit for budget laptops. In this range, you’ll find 2-in-1 convertibles like the IdeaPad Flex 5i, as well as premium Chrome OS tablets like the HP Chromebook x2 (newly updated for 2021) and the entry-level configuration of the Editors’ Choice-winning Apple iPad Air.
Somewhat discouragingly, these and other similarly priced devices are likely to offer a smoother experience than the Go 3 does on everything but the simplest tasks. I found there to be occasional lag and sluggishness while installing apps, as well as when opening and closing menus. And sluggishness occurs with more frequency when switching between two apps that are already running. It’s a similar experience to what we found when testing the Go 2 last year, except that the lag behavior is less excusable now considering the Go 3 has an upgraded CPU and runs Windows 11.
That said, one of the apps I tried to install and use is Adobe Photoshop, notoriously demanding on a PC’s resources. The Surface Go 3 is certainly not the tablet for hardcore Photoshop users. And there are positive aspects of the Go 3’s computing experience when compared with laptop alternatives. Most important, the Go 3 doesn’t need a cooling fan, so it’s similarly silent to the iPad under heavy computing loads, situations when a larger laptop might sound like a miniature vacuum cleaner. (See more about how we test laptops.)
As for benchmark testing, it’s unsurprising that the Go 3 doesn’t acquit itself well within this comparison group, both because of the lackluster everyday computing experience it offers and because you just won’t find that many competitors with similar prices and specs for a fair comparison. I’ll compare the Go 3’s performance on our benchmark tests with the iPad Air, the IdeaPad Flex 5i, the Surface Pro 8, and another premium Windows tablet (from Lenovo), the ThinkPad X12 Detachable. The specs of that competitive set are below…
We shouldn’t expect the Surface Go 3 to outperform any of these other devices, all of which either cost more or (in the case of the IdeaPad) are significantly larger laptops. Indeed, the Go 3 finishes dead last on the all-important PCMark 10 and Geekbench tests, which are comprehensive benchmarks designed to reflect everyday tasks like videoconferencing, word processing, and browsing the web. (The iPad is absent from many of these tests since some are Windows-only trials, not supported by iPadOS.)
The Go 3 also finishes last in this lot on more-demanding content-creation workflows like transcoding a 4K video using Handbrake or rendering a 3D image in Maxon’s Cinebench app. The tablet couldn’t even complete our Adobe Photoshop image-editing trial, although its failure here could have more to do with a software glitch, since it otherwise meets the minimum system requirements.
Finally, the Go 3’s integrated graphics processor, the Intel UHD Graphics 615, is far from prepared to handle demanding 3D games, as evidenced by the results on our 3DMark and GFXBench gaming simulations. To be fair, none of the other systems represented here could moonlight as a gaming laptop, either.
On the other hand, the Surface Go 3’s battery life is excellent. The tablet lasted for 11 hours and 34 minutes on our video rundown test, which involves playing a locally stored 720p video file at 50% screen brightness with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth turned off. The result slightly exceeds Microsoft’s rating of 11 hours of typical battery life usage.
If You Need Win 11 on a Budget…
As refreshing as it is to see a lower-priced Windows tablet, the Surface Go 3 nevertheless feels like an update with little improvement over its older kin. Unless you need Windows, or especially want to try the new OS in tablet format for a budget price, you’ll probably be better off with an iPad, or a detachable Chromebook tablet.
If you do need Windows, it’s probably because you want to go beyond the limitations that iPadOS or Chrome OS impose on multitasking and app compatibility. But with scarcely enough power to enjoy a robust computing experience, the Surface Go 3 isn’t necessarily the best detachable tablet for the job. The Surface Pro 8 isn’t cheap (starting at $1,099.99), but with its more-powerful components and larger screen, it’s a better choice for classic Windows tasks, unless you’re on the strictest of budgets.