We all have a dream of our perfect gadget, don’t we? It’s smart and accessible like a smartphone, powerful and robust like a laptop, has flawless touch support, endless battery life, and is light enough to hold in one hand. Microsoft’s Surface devices have done more than any other to make that dream reality. Yet they’ve also revealed that building a no-compromise PC isn’t easy. The Surface Go is Microsoft’s most recent attempt at fulfilling that dream, and a follow-up to the Surface 3 from 2015. It’s a 10-inch tablet running a full version of Windows 10 with an Intel Pentium chip at its heart, and it starts at just $400. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but Microsoft has made meaningful improvements. The original Surface wasn’t just the first 2-in-1 device of its kind — it was also Microsoft’s first foray into designing and manufacturing hardware. It’s hard to believe how great the Surface Go looks and feels just six years in. It’s a single piece of unibody aluminum, in many ways reminis...

Remarkably sturdy for its price; Beautiful design and display; Type Cover is impressive; Affordably priced;

Clunky performance; Tablet experience is lacking; Type Cover is a pricey add-on;

Microsoft's Surface Go is the cheapest way to buy into the Surface ecosystem, but sluggish performance keeps it from competing with Apple's iPads.

Excellent build quality; Sharp; bright display; Windows Hello support; Built-in microSD card slot

Sluggish performance; Janky touchscreen for some apps like Chrome; Keyboard and stylus sold separately; Huge; thick bezels around display

The Surface Go successfully shrinks Microsoft's stellar design, but it's not for everyone.

Remarkably sturdy for its price; Beautiful design and display; Type Cover is impressive; Affordably priced

Clunky performance; Tablet experience is lacking; Type Cover is a pricey add-on

While I wouldn't make a Surface Go my primary machine for graphical/video creativity work or demanding tasks-Microsoft acknowledges this is not really its place-it's still a fine choice for a lean, mean travel companion.

Low-cost entry point to the Surface line; Build quality is high; Small, lightweight design; Good potential for education use

Middling speed; Keyboard is cramped and costs extra; Narrow for on-lap use; No full-size USB ports

The small-scale Surface Go from Microsoft recasts the larger Surface Pro two-in-one as a casual computer you can toss in a bag and take anywhere. But, the change in size, price and processing power presents a lot of questions for would-be buyers. To answer the most pressing ones:

The new Microsoft Surface Go is the perfect size for casual coffee-shop computing, but getting the full experience quickly drives up the price.

The Surface Go delivers Microsoft's great Surface design and accessories at a lower price and in a smaller size.

The Pentium processor isn't suited for all tasks; A keyboard cover is a must-have add-on but still sold separately; And you'll probably want to pay extra for more storage and RAM, too; Battery life is lacking for a go-anywhere PC.

The small-scale Surface Go from Microsoft recasts the larger Surface Pro two-in-one as a casual computer you can toss in a bag and take anywhere. But, the change in size, price and processing power presents a lot of questions for would-be buyers.

The Surface Go delivers Microsoft's great Surface design and accessories at a lower price and in a smaller size

The Pentium processor isn't suited for all tasks; A keyboard cover is a must-have add-on but still sold separately; And you'll probably want to pay extra for more storage and RAM, too; Battery life is lacking for a go-anywhere PC

Microsoft's Surface Go is a high-quality compact tablet available at a low price. However, do not be fooled by its price if you intend to use the tablet as a full-fledged laptop. In this case, the additional accessories will quickly add up.

premium quality materials; perfectly made case; very robust chassis; no thermal throttling; bright high-contrast display; very low DeltaE 2000 deviations; high color space coverage; no clouding; microSD card reader; decent battery life; silent

low in internal storage (64 GB; just one USB-C port; PWM; expensive accessories

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

So where does this leave the Surface Go In a unique position, which has its pluses and negatives. On the negative side, you will never get the same range of keenly priced tablet-focused apps as on iOS.

Excellent keyboard; Superb screen; Well-priced

Performance can be slow at times; Battery life isn't as good as iPad Pro

I grabbed a Surface Go a couple of months ago. I needed a tablet to replace my old Surface RT which I really only used as a Kindle to read with. I ended up getting the keyboard and pen for the Surface Go as well and was really impressed. It's more than fast enough to handle web, e-mail and Office.