As the year is coming to an end, there are innumerable products being released on the regular this time among them is the new Surface Go laptop with an interesting design specification all on a budget.

Majority of budget laptops don’t usually look very good if you think about it. Aside the design compromise, they are usually bulky and have some lesser features, not-so-good performances and the likes but you know that to being the sacrifice if you’re not paying a premium price.

Microsoft has been trying to position itself well in the hardware design front for a while now. We spoke earlier about how nice the Surface Duo look and the entire “Surface” lineup have this flat and sleek design aesthetics which kind of set them apart from the rest in the pack the same as the Surface Book 2 which is obviously good looking in every ways possible.

The new Surface Laptop Go’s price tag starts at about US$549 and sports a 12.4-inch touchscreen display and comes with some new tech such as the 10th-gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU with an 8GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage for the boosted version while the base model has half of that (4GB of RAM and 65GB of storage).

While the design is good to look at, the device has a nice looking keyboard layout which I’m expecting to be really great when used in real life. Microsoft explained that the PC has a “large precision trackpad and full-size keyboard with 1.3mm key travel.” which sounds pretty decent for a mid-tier mini laptop.

Though small, it has both USB-A and USB-C ports which still comes from Microsoft’s proprietary Surface connector as well as the Windows Hello fingerprint reader (for the high-end model only).

While it still come with some pretty decent specifications, you might be wrong to expect too much from the computer this time around. For example, there is a 720P webcam on the device which obviously isn’t pretty decent anywhere no matter the pricing. Computers just don’t have good webcam and we all know that.

Surface Laptop Go specs

• 10th-gen Intel Core i5-1035G1 CPU
• 12.4-inch, 1,536×1,024-pixel resolution touchscreen
• 4GB/8GB RAM
• 64GB eMMC/128GB SSD/256GB SSD
• Wi-Fi 6: 802.11ax  
• Windows 10 Home in S mode 

The Surface Laptop Go is pretty important and useful during this time of lockdown when most schools are remote and the size is one of the interesting perks of the computer but consumers can opt for the much premium and expensive Surface Book which is more of a laptop-tablet 2-in-1 device sporting all the high-end specifications you can expect.

You can preorder the Surface Laptop Go now and the device will be available in three color options namely: Ice Blue, Sandstone and Platinum from October 13th.

If the Surface Laptop Go had arrived before the mostly remote school year started, I could see it being a sought-after back-to-school item. As it is, it may end up being a popular holiday choice instead.