The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 doesn’t change much about the successful formula of the previous model. The exterior remains the same, the interior receives a small upgrade.

A year after the introduction of the Surface Laptop Go 2, it is already the turn of the successor to the cheapest laptop in the Microsoft Surface series. As you can read in our review of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2, we were full of praise for the device. The biggest disadvantages were the battery life, few ports and a screen resolution that was too low.

With the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3, we can immediately confirm that two of the three things remain unchanged. The exterior remains the same, including the port selection and screen. The 12.4-inch touchscreen only has a resolution of 1,536 x 1,024 pixels, which we found to be a bit too small on the previous model.

There are almost four ports on the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3: 1x USB-C (USB 3.2), 1x USB-A (USB 3.1), jack port and the Surface Connector. Rather bad, regardless of whether it is a budget device in the Surface series or not.

Small upgrade

The most important innovation is inside. The energy-guzzling 11th generation Intel chips are being replaced by the much more efficient 12th generation (Intel Core i5-1235U). Here, too, Microsoft is not using the latest Intel generation, but that’s not so bad in this case, because the jump between the 12th and 13th generations is rather limited in terms of performance and energy efficiency.

Along with the CPU, you can choose between 8GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage. There’s room for a somewhat disappointing 720p webcam at the top of the screen.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 will be available from October 3rd and starts at 899 euros for the basic model with 8 GB of RAM. If you want 16 GB of RAM, you suddenly have to pay 1,149 euros, a significant surcharge for a significant increase in storage. The above prices include VAT.