Microsoft Surface Go?

Here I am with more computer questions. :p

I need a second laptop/portable computer for my kid to use. It needs to be able to run Ace at least. The kids saw this advertised and loved the drawing tablet capabilities of it.

I'm just wondering what those of you more knowledgeable think of it and the brand. With all the accessories, it's more than I wanted to spend. But I do like that it can be potentially used as a drawing tablet. My girls draw all the time and I'd love for them to be able to practice digital art more.

I just don't want to invest in it if it's not a good buy.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/surface-go/8v9dp4lnknsz?activetab=pivot:overviewtab

The Microsoft Surface devices are usually decent products overall, extremely expensive because of their premium parts but they can vant good balance between portability, versatility and power. This particular Go version is a smaller and much more affordable alternative than the PRO version, and of course it has lower specs.

The problem of these devices is that they're totally "unrepairable" and be aware of this last bit of information.
I'm saying this because usually after two years the batteries of such devices always show signs of failing, and it's extremely hard to replace them if not dangerous (for the device of course).

Here's the Surface Go teardown: https://it.ifixit.com/Smontaggio/Microsoft+Surface+Go+Teardown/111895
It has a score of 1 out of 10 for repairability, so if you buy it be sure to extend the warranty for over 2 years (if the dear Microsoft gives the option) because that's when batteries start to swell, fail or lose capacity.
And what will you do with a tablet that you can't bring around with you? Nothing. So please let Microsoft deal with it.

Despite this hiccup, I think it's a decent device overall, and it should be able to run ACE for sure, probably even MV.
The Intel HD 615 is a gpu not aimed for gaming, although it might be able to run 2D games and stuff like that.

I made fun of the 4GB model of this Surface Go recently, mainly because I believe it's unacceptable in 2018 to have such a puny amount of ram for a Windows 10 device (even if it's Windows 10 S), it feels crippled overall and you can hardly do anything with it.

4GB of ram ALWAYS lags in 2018.

As drawing tablets the Surface devices should be decent, don't expect a professional digital tablet though, but the Surface Pen has 4096 sensivity levels so it's good for pretty much anything.

If you buy it, I recommend the 8GB model, not only because 8GB of ram is the standard nowdays and shouldn't give you any problems, but this model can also vant a fast SSD which is vastly superior to the eMMC of the 4GB model.

I believe the more expensive model will age better.

For the purposes of running VXAce and drawing this would be completely sufficient. I wouldn't say it's far more useful than that though. The cpu's a dual-core hyperthreaded one, so it has 4x1.6 GHz of performance. It is absolutely usable, but will 100% kill the laptop during the times when windows decide to update. It's sufficient to play VXAce games with it, but MV games are out of the question. I've used a quad-core 1.6 GHz laptop, so I know this first hand.

Also, between these two I would choose the 8 GB RAM version. 4 GB RAM is becoming insufficient and even though windows 10 has resource management done pretty well, with 8 GB RAM you're safer from random crashes (on my laptop I've had occasional crashes of browser when my RAM filled up - that's because windows 10, when ram gets full, tries to expand it with hdd...and when it cannot do even that, it will crash the most memory hungry apps to free up RAM).

So to sum up, it's not a bad choice for a non-power user. You can do basic stuff and the drawing capabilities are sure to be useful for drawers. However, it's better to use only as a secondary device if you have an option for a better one (it's a tablet anyway, so this makes sense).

@Dalph I'm not sure about your country, but in my country warranty service doesn't carry the battery, since the battery itself has warranty of 6 months regardless of the warranty of the entire device.

@Poryg
Depends about the brand.
I have 1 year of warranty on my Dell for the battery, that I can extend to 3 but it's optional.

Source:
https://www.dell.com/support/articl...ery-warranty-support?lang=en#Battery_Warranty

I never used Microsoft's hardware apart from the Lumia line. But from what I've heard they are solid machines (for the most part). The base unit of Go does lack the Surface Pen (so you'll need to pay extra for it). The system should handle VX Ace well enough, as long as it doesn't use complex graphics and/or do something complex. I suggest getting the 8GB model as well. Trying to develop anything on a system with 4GB of RAM is unnerving at times (although in my case, I use Visual Studio as well). Aside from memory, it's pretty solid for the things you want.

@Dalph Thank you for your input, as always! I was hoping you'd chime in but didn't want to personally bug you again. :p I especially appreciate the input on repairability. Is there something comparable that you might recommend? I'm only specifically looking at this one as it could also double as a drawing tablet for the kids.

@Poryg & @AceOfAces_Mod I completely get that, and if budget weren't an issue, I'd absolutely not question getting the 8gb. But even the 4gb, with all the accessories, is getting to be more than I had wanted to spend.

In short, I need a budget laptop that, at minimum, can run Ace. I entertained the idea of the Surface Pro as it could double as a drawing tablet for the kids. I will take any alternative recommendations.

In the worst case you can grab some second-hand convertible. They should be cheaper. Or you can wait for Black Friday :p :)

@mlogan
If you want something like the Surface Go (a tablet laptop 2in1 thing and potential digital tablet with pen too) and you're on a budget then I'm afraid there's not much choice, that's why Microsoft made it in first place.
If Microsoft gives the option to extend the warranty for over 2 years (like Dell does) then I say you can buy the Surface Go, I watched a lot of videos about it in action and it's a decent machine. Even the crippled model might be enough for kids but the ram at 4GB might cause annoying stuttering.

There's actually a lot of cheap ultrabooks and 2in1 devices made by semi-unknown chinese brands too, but I personally don't recommend them as the customer support is usally nonexistent and the quality of the materials very questionable.

I don't think there's much for less than $500 (that's what I consider budget) made by reliable brands.

If you're willing to give up the digital tablet option and you just want a decent laptop that costs $500 or less then there's a looooooot of choices.

EDIT: I just saw that part of your post, so I assume your budget is less than $300 right? If yes then I believe you should aim for something refurbished.

@Dalph Well, I can do $500 or more, I was just trying to avoid it, lol. It's been a while since I shopped for low-end budget computers so I wasn't sure what the true price range was. But in the long run, I'd rather pay a bit more for quality and customer support, than go with something that will be unusable after a year or so. But, it's for kids to use, and they can be hard on machines so I don't want to go crazy with the budget.

I do have a friend in IT who sometimes has used laptops to sell, I might see if he has anything. Thanks always for your insight!

If you want good customer support both Lenovo and Acer are the best in the sector.
Be sure to find something with at least 8GB of ram though or else the poor kids might find it annoying to use (and MV might stutter too with it), lol.

Good luck!

MV doesn't stutter even with 4 gigs of RAM. It works perfectly fine. MV games will stutter though, but not due to 4 gigs of RAM, but due to low single core power (1.6 GHz is very low and for mv games a dual-core 3 GHz cpu is better than a quad-core 1.6GHz cpu exactly due to single core performance). VXAce games will work pretty fine unless the person would play a game with 50 events on it or so. I still recommend the 8 gigs though.

Another option, is to pick up a refurbished laptop from Toshiba or Lenovo. They do warranty the refurbished machines, and, unlike tablets, there is less guesswork for a host of "will it work" tasks. Refurbs tend to cost less, and my kids used a refurbished Toshiba laptop into college. The trick to refurbished laptops is to only buy them directly from the company, and to make sure you find a model with an nVidia or AMD graphics core.

Now with all that said, I've heard great things about the Surface Tablets; I've just not had any experience with them.

For pricing, take a look at ebay. I was able to get a new Wacom tablet for my son for about $100 off the RRP. You might be lucky enough to find someone who has access to your tablet at wholesale prices and can undercut MS a little bit.

This, so much this. BUT, I'd stay away from Toshiba. When I was running a small computer repair shop, Toshiba was among the brands that broke down easier, followed by the "disposable" HPs you find at Wal-Mart. Though if you get an extended warranty, it won't matter much, and will give you peace of mind.

I love my Surface Pro and use it to run and make RPG Maker games on the go. It's a great device and great tool. i5 is fine for RPG Maker, i7 is required for more "stronger" programming engines (like Unity if you're doing 3D).

So, whats the verdict? Will the surface go run rpg maker mv well? I want to make my own games on this portable pc

I can't run RPG Maker MV on a Surface Laptop 2017 (4GB Ram Version m3 chip). So a Surface Go won't run RMMV either, I think. Maybe the i5 version can do it but this is of course very expensive.

when did we go SO WRONG in software development that we need 4 GB to run an operating system?!?!?!
what!?!??!

@gstv87 Actually, only two GB RAM to run system. The rest is still usable :p
Still, I recommend linux on slower devices, because 53% RAM usage in idle state vs. 3% RAM usage in idle state is a really noticeable difference.

2GB setup.
28,6% with Chrome, reading this thread. 16% idle.
dual core processor, not even flinching.

16% of 2 GB! with another 2 as page file, which I rarely use!
WHO in their right mind would take an operating system that takes more than 500MB to run!??!