Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 12.4" 12.4in Touchscreen Platinum 2021

At 1.11kg, the Surface Laptop Go is one of the lightest laptops we've ever tested, landing in the 97th percentile for compactness. The renewed units are a killer value, often arriving with a battery at 100% health, but you're stuck with a low-res screen and a tiny 128GB SSD that are both in the bottom 9% of our database. It's a cloud-first ultraportable that's brilliant for travel and basic work, but a non-starter for anyone who needs local storage or a sharp display.

The quad-core i5-1035G1 is the star of the show here, and it's well above average for this class of machine. In our benchmarks, it's a strong performer for everyday productivity. You can expect smooth multitasking with a dozen browser tabs, Slack, and Spotify running. But don't push it. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics land in the 46th percentile, which is solidly middle-of-the-pack. It's fine for streaming video, but light gaming will spin the fans up noticeably, a common gripe among owners.

The 8GB of LPDDR4 RAM is the real ceiling. It's in the bottom 14% of all laptops we track, and you'll feel it if you're a tab hoarder or try to run anything beyond basic photo editing. The 128GB SSD is also painfully small, ranking in the 9th percentile. You'll be leaning hard on OneDrive or an external drive from day one. For a student or a secondary travel machine, this is manageable. For anyone else, it's a constant negotiation with your storage space.

Stacked against the competition, the Surface Laptop Go is a one-trick pony, but it's a very good trick. The Apple MacBook Pro MWP72LL/A will demolish it on screen quality and performance, but it's also heavier and far more expensive. The HP OmniBook X Flip 14-fk0033dx and Lenovo Yoga 7 83JR0001US both offer convertible form factors and better displays, but they can't touch the Surface's 1.11kg weight. The ASUS Zenbook UX3407QA-X1P512 is a more well-rounded ultrabook with a better screen and more RAM, but you'll pay for it. The Surface Laptop Go's only real superpower is its portability. If that's your absolute top priority, it's a standout. If you care about screen quality or storage at all, look at the Lenovo or ASUS.

Value is where this renewed Surface Laptop Go gets interesting. With a price spread of $138 across vendors, you can snag one for as low as $250, which is a steal for a premium-built ultraportable with a touchscreen. At that price, the 128GB SSD and low-res screen are easier to swallow. But at the top end of $388, you're flirting with territory where you can find new laptops with better screens and more storage. If you're buying, hunt for the lower end of that range. The fact that many refurb units come with a battery at full health sweetens the deal considerably.

The Surface Laptop Go lands in the 97th percentile for compactness, and at 1.11kg, it's one of the lightest laptops we've ever tracked. That's the headline here. It's a genuinely ultra-portable machine that feels premium in hand, with a solid aluminum lid and a keyboard deck that doesn't flex. The 12.4-inch touchscreen is a nice bonus at this size, though the 1536x1024 resolution is a real letdown, sitting in the bottom 9% of our database. You'll notice the lack of sharpness next to basically any modern phone screen.

Under the hood, the 10th Gen Core i5-1035G1 is a capable chip for the basics. It's in the 71st percentile for CPU performance, which means it handles Office, web browsing, and video calls without breaking a sweat. The real bottlenecks are the 8GB of RAM and the 128GB SSD, both in the 14th and 9th percentiles respectively. This is a machine built for cloud-first, lightweight work. And since this is a renewed unit, the value story gets interesting. Prices range from $250 to $388, and multiple owners report receiving units with 100% battery health, which is a nice surprise in the refurb world.

Skip this if you do any work that involves local file storage or if you're picky about screen quality. The 128GB SSD and 1536x1024 display are both in the bottom 9th percentile of our database, and that's a brutal combo for anyone who edits photos, keeps a large media library, or just appreciates a sharp screen. The 8GB of RAM, also in the bottom 14th percentile, will be a headache for heavy multitaskers. If you're a gamer, this is a hard pass. The gaming score of 5.3 out of 100 tells you everything you need to know.

The Surface Laptop Go is a beautifully built, featherweight laptop that's perfect as a secondary machine for travel or a primary machine for a student living in the cloud. The renewed units, especially at the lower end of the $250-$388 price range, offer a genuinely premium experience for budget money. Just know what you're signing up for: a low-res screen, cramped storage, and RAM that will feel tight in a couple of years. If you can live within those guardrails, it's a charming little workhorse. If you can't, spend a bit more on something with a sharper display and more breathing room.