Five Reasons It's Finally Time to Take Home a Microsoft Surface

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18-Month Financing on Surface Devices $499 and Up | Best Buy | Sponsored
18-Month Financing on Surface Devices $499 and Up | Best Buy | Sponsored
Image: Microsoft

18-Month Financing on Surface Devices $499 and Up | Best Buy | Sponsored

Microsoft’s Surface line is known for its innovative hardware designs and reliable performance. With the release of the Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2, customers can look forward to more power, longer-lasting batteries, and an even more reliable product. These PCs are two sides to the same equation, and the Surface Book 3 or Surface Go 2 can be the device to consolidate your digital life around.

The advantages of these versatile devices are practically self-evident, but the Go 2 and Book 3 can do so much their capabilities bear examination. If you’ve been on the fence about the Surface line, perhaps the reasons for owning one listed below will finally have you taking one home.

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Phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, we’re all continually moving from one device to the other. What if you could fold the functions of all those products into one? Previously, tablets weren’t powerful enough to truly replace laptops, and laptops were too unwieldy to outweigh the convenience of a tablet.

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The Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3 are fully-featured Windows PCs, so you can access all the programs you need with no compromise. Attach either product to a keyboard, and you get the utility of a laptop. When you’re ready to chill out, ditch the keyboard and use them in tablet mode. You still get all the power of Windows with the convenience and form factor of a tablet.

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If you’re looking to really dial down the number of devices in your life, the mid-high tier models of the Surface Book 3 come equipped with 16 or 32 GB of LPDDR4X RAM, a discrete NVIDIA GeForce 1660 Ti Max-Q GPU, and Intel’s latest 10th generation i7-1065G7 CPU. This is more than enough power to replace a mid-range desktop PC and allows art and video production professionals to be less tethered.

One of the Surface Book 3 and Surface Go 2's biggest strengths is the Windows operating system. It’s easy to take Windows for granted when you’re using a regular laptop or desktop. However, it’s easy to get frustrated when you’re trying to do intricate work on a phone or tablet. Some devices, the iPad line, in particular, have put more focus on multitasking and features that have traditionally been missing on mobile OSes, but neither Android nor iOS/iPad OS can come close to a full-fledged desktop OS when it comes to productivity.

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Especially for artists, the Book 3 and Go 2 offer a unique opportunity for creating outside a traditional office or home studio setting. Both devices support HD resolution, and users can utilize a stylus on the touchscreen for drawing or higher pointer precision when in tablet mode. The best part is that you don’t have to deal with any compromises when it comes to programs. You can use the full version of Adobe’s suite, Microsoft Office, or any other Windows program anywhere you want in either laptop or tablet mode.

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Portability is great, but sometimes you need to sit down and rock out with two 4K monitors. Fortunately, the Surface Book 3 and Go 2 are more than capable of working with multiple external monitors when paired with the Surface Dock 2.

If expandability is a major concern for you, Microsoft has you covered. The Surface Dock 2 has six USB ports, including two USB Type-C ports on the front of the device for easy access. The 199W power supply puts out enough juice to charge multiple Surfaces at once, phones, and whatever else you can throw at it. Additionally, the dock provides a Gigabit Ethernet port to give you a stable, wired connection.

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Unlike competing brands, the Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3 have models available at every price point. This means you can find a device that perfectly meets your needs without overpaying for power or features you won’t need.

The Surface Go 2 is an entry-level device that starts at $400 for the base model and tops out at $730 for the top of the line edition. The Surface Book 3 is geared more towards power users and ultrabook enthusiasts. It starts at $1,600 and runs up to $3,400 for the high-end consumer-tier model.

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If you’re a casual user who just wants to do basic word processing, web browsing, and other non-computing intensive activities, the base model of the Surface Go 2 is great. If you’re looking for a device that allows for light design work and gaming, the high-end Surface Go 2 gives you an upgraded CPU, iGPU, more RAM, and more storage.

Professionals will likely want to start at the lower-end models of the Surface Book 3. The Core i5-1035G7 and Iris Plus integrated graphics on the cheapest configuration is powerful enough to allow for web design and illustration. However, if you want to work with ultra hi-res images and video, bumping up to a model with an integrated GPU and more RAM is essential.

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As social distancing has become a fact of life, people are using digital means to keep connected. Whether you’re teleconferencing via Zoom, checking social media, or logging into Slack, you need a device that can do it all. The digital world is faster than ever, and it can be incredibly stressful to have everything fragmented over multiple devices.

With the Surface line, you have the power of Windows to ensure you never have to worry about compatibility. You’ll also have the hardware to let you do what you need to get the job done. Increase productivity and spend more time doing the things you want to do with one of these versatile devices.