Microsoft Surface Go 10" Silver (Magnesium)

The Surface Go is a tiny, ultra-light Windows tablet that's perfect for travel and basic tasks. Its Pentium CPU is one of the slowest we've ever tested, so don't push it hard. For $298 refurbished, it's a decent secondary device, but factor in the cost of the sold-separately keyboard.

Let's be real: the Pentium Gold 4415Y is not a speed demon. It lands in the 1st percentile for CPU performance in our database, which means it's one of the slowest laptop chips we've tracked. You can browse the web, stream video, and run Office apps without too much pain, but don't even think about heavy multitasking or photo editing. The integrated Intel HD 615 graphics are surprisingly ranked in the 96th percentile for this category, but that's more a reflection of how weak the competition is in ultra-budget 2-in-1s than any real gaming muscle. The 8GB of RAM helps keep things from grinding to a halt, but the 128GB SSD is tiny and sits in the 9th percentile, so you'll be leaning on cloud storage.

Stacked against a Lenovo Yoga Book 9i or an ASUS Zenbook, the Surface Go looks like a toy. Those machines have modern processors, more RAM, and bigger, better screens. But they also cost three to four times as much. The Surface Go's real competition is an iPad with a keyboard case or a cheap Chromebook. Against an iPad, the Go wins on software flexibility with full Windows. Against a Chromebook, it loses on raw performance and often on battery life. It's a niche pick for people who need Windows in the smallest possible package.

At $298 refurbished, the Surface Go is a cheap ticket into the Surface ecosystem. But that price is a bit of a mirage since you'll almost certainly want the $100+ keyboard to make it useful as a laptop. If you need a featherweight Windows tablet for note-taking, travel, or a kid's first computer, the value is solid. If you need a primary machine for work or school, this isn't it, and you'd be better off saving up for something with a real processor.

The Surface Go is basically a tablet that thinks it's a laptop, and for the right person, that's perfect. It weighs just over a pound, has a sharp little 10-inch touchscreen, and runs full Windows 10 Pro. You can scribble on it, prop it up with the built-in kickstand, or snap on a keyboard and get some light work done. Just know that the keyboard and pen cost extra, and the processor inside is seriously entry-level.

Skip this if you need a primary computer for multitasking, coding, or any kind of media editing. The Pentium Gold chip will frustrate you daily. Also skip it if you need a lot of local storage or multiple ports without a dongle hanging off the side. This is a companion device, not a main machine.

The Surface Go is a specialized tool. Buy it if you need the absolute lightest Windows machine for travel, light note-taking, or as a secondary device. It's a great little tablet that can pinch-hit as a laptop in a pinch. Just don't expect it to replace your daily driver.