RIP the Surface Laptop Go: Microsoft drops support for its budget laptop

Microsoft has officially ended software support for the Surface Laptop Go, its affordable alternative to its expensive Surface family of products, and this means there will be no more official firmware or driver updates released.

The Surface Laptop Go was launched in October 2020. It had a starting price of $550, making it one of the most affordable laptops in Microsoft’s Surface range. It had a sleek, premium design and was well built, much like other costlier Surface models.

It did, however, draw criticism for its limited RAM and storage, lack of features, performance limitations, and base model limitations. Though it came with a mid-range 10th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, the base model had only 4GB of RAM and 64 GB of eMMC storage, which these days is particularly low for a Windows laptop, and meant that customers needing to do more intensive tasks had to skip it.

Then there was the issue of the display’s resolution. At only 1536 x 1024 it was lower than many other laptops in its price range, which offered full HD displays. It lacked keyboard backlighting, too, not only in its base model but in the higher-tier models, too.  However, the main point of contention for critics was the base model’s RAM and eMMC storage. It is well known that eMMC storage is slower than SSD, and 4GB of RAM just isn’t enough to run Windows 10 (or Windows 11) smoothly. So, customers looking for better performance had to pay more for a higher end model.

Overall, it was a device that would only really benefit students and casual users looking to do basic light tasks like streaming, browsing the web or very basic office tasks - and now it might not even be able to do that.

Letting customers down

The Surface Laptop Go has only received four years of software support from Microsoft, and it was replaced by the second-gen Surface Laptop Go 2 in June 2022, bringing notable upgrades, including an 11th-gen Intel Core i5 processor. The third-gen model, the Surface Laptop Go 3, was released October 2023 with a 12th-gen Intel Core i5 processor. Both models introduced several improvements to storage and power, while keeping the series’ focus on affordability and portability.

Still, anyone who bought the original Surface Laptop Go might feel a bit short-changed by support being dropped so soon. No matter how low the asking price of a laptop is, you should expect it to last a decent amount of time before you have to upgrade.

That being said, the end of support means that while the entry-level laptop won’t get any more official software and firmware updates, it doesn’t mean the device will stop working. You can still install the new Windows 11 update 24H2, and the original Surface Laptop will still receive critical security updates. That might be little comfort, however, for people who paid for the Surface Laptop Go in the hope that Microsoft would continue to release improvements and bug fixes for a long time, despite its budget price.

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