Hardware Breakdown Presents: The Surface Laptop Go 2
Image Source: Microsoft
This past Wednesday, Microsoft launched the all-new Surface Laptop Go 2. It is different from the last-gen model because it has a full Windows 11 install and a more potent 11th-Gen Intel Core processor. In addition, it has a slight price bump at $599.
Any laptop with sleek, impeccable design with quality top-grade hardware should be featured in this month's Hardware Breakdown.
The processor and GPU
The pinnacle feature in the Surface Laptop Go 2 is the 11th Gen Intel Core i5-1136G7. The spec numbers are respectable for an ultra-portable laptop, with a total of 4 cores and 8 Threads, 2.4GHz base clock frequency, and 4GHz turbo frequency. In addition, the Go 2 is not using a discrete graphics chip from AMD or Nvidia. Instead, you have Intel's own Iris Graphics.
Image source: Microsoft
Memory and storage
I'm somewhat surprised that Microsoft elected not to implement 16GB RAM, which is now standard for desktop and laptop systems. So instead, you only get up to 8GB LPDDR4x ( for the business edition model, you get 16GB RAM). But LPDDR4x memory is fast, ranging from 3200 MHz to 4400MHz.
You get two options on the storage front, 64GB and 128GB removable SDD.
Image Source: Microsoft
The Display
What comes to question with the Surface Laptop Go 2 is the 12.45-inch display—falling below 1080p resolution at 1526 x 1024 with (148 PPi), atypical for a laptop with the hardware to support higher resolution.
