Athina MallisMicrosoft has unveiled the new Surface Go, which is set to compete with the likes of Apple’s iPad and Google Chromebooks who hold the majority of the education market.
The device is a 10-inch screen and 3:2 display with Microsoft claiming it is the ‘smallest, lightest and most affordable Surface yet’. It weighs 1.15 pound and 8.3mm.
It is powered by the 7th Generation Intel Pentium Gold Processor 4415Y, in a fanless design, offering up to nine hours of battery. It has 4GB of RAM and 64GB of on-board flash storage. There is an option to buy a more expensive version offering 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage.
In March, Apple launched a new iPad aimed at students priced just over $400 adding heat to the education market mostly dominated by Google putting Microsoft in the lurch, until now.
The Surface Go has a custom-built high-resolution PixelSense Display supporting Surface Pen with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity, low pen parallax, low latency, and precision for accurate note taking, drawing and computer-aided design.
When the device is in portrait mode, the screen is designed to render the page to the scale of most school textbooks, and in landscape mode, it can render pages side by side.
The Surface Go Signature Type Cover is custom-made for Surface Go integrating design features that give the user the best typing experience possible, with ergonomic key pitch and key travel. It also has high precision tuning and Windows Precision Trackpad that supports five-point multi-finger gestures, and you can connect the new Surface Mobile Mouse.
It comes with a built-in kickstand with full friction hinge extending to 165 degrees and a Windows Hello camera.
Surface Go has Surface Connect for charging and docking; USB-C 3.1; a headphone jack; and a MicroSD card reader for storage expansion.
The Wi-Fi version will be released first with a LTE version coming later this year.
The Surface Go is available to pre-order now on its site from $399 with it hitting shelves August 2.