July 11, 2018
My use of tablets has almost disappeared. And coincidentally, tablet sales are way down and still dropping. I suppose everyone has their reasons for losing interest in them. Mine was that my business changed and I almost never go to in-person meetings anymore—I used to use Windows tablets to ink my notes in such meetings, and not for much more. But such tablets are still a great way to take a full desktop copy of Outlook with you wherever you go, so I am tempted to start using them again.
Before I moved away from tablets, I was using a Surface 3 for a few years, and liked it. It was Microsoft’s only iPad competitor in terms of size and weight, so when a year ago Microsoft discontinued the Surface 3, I was puzzled, did Microsoft really want to abandon that market?
With a recent announcement, the answer is apparently NO: Microsoft wants to stay in the iPad-size tablet market. Yesterday Microsoft announced the Surface Go, its replacement to the Surface 3. It’s a $399, 10-inch, 1.15 pound touch-screen tablet (which puts it solidly in the small iPad form factor). But it has features much like the higher-end (and heavier) Surface Pro. It’s based on the Intel Pentium Gold processor, so it has much more power than the previous Atom-based Surface 3 tablet.
Here’s a good article about the Surface Go from one of my favorite Microsoft Industry columnists, Mary Jo Foley: https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-takes-aim-at-schools-consumers-and-businesses-with-surface-go-tablets-starting-at-399/
And then a later one from her (Aug 27) after using one for 3 weeks: https://www.zdnet.com/article/review-surface-go-running-windows-10-home-in-s-mode/
And another article comparing the Surface Go to Apple’s iPad: https://www.zdnet.com/article/can-microsofts-surface-go-unseat-apples-ipad/
Some more reviews:
New PC World review just came out: https://www.pcworld.com/article/3293414/microsoft-surface/microsoft-surface-go-review.html
And one from ZDNET: https://www.zdnet.com/article/surface-go-first-look-small-light-and-the-best-cheap-pc-ever/
Michael
