My faithful Lenovo Yoga, which served as my main computer for more years than I really remember, finally went to meet its silicon ancestors. Before that, my baby laptop had started giving me problems, so I had bought a Dell to replace it. Through some error in my thinking — it was not pressure from the Best Buy sales rep, I want to be clear, this was all me — I came home with a regular sized Dell laptop instead of something tablet sized. It turned out that was a good mistake because the Lenovo went into a coma about a week later.
That left me with one computer and a fully functional smart phone for the one person in the house who uses automation (me). You’d think that would be a enough. You would be wrong. I didn’t want to carry the Dell around and potentially expose my only device to theft or loss, so last week I bought a Microsoft Surface Go.
I hadn’t made up my mind completely about the Go until I saw one at my friend Greg Varley’s house. It was exactly the size and slimness I wanted, so I got one at Best Buy. It is not a heavy-duty production machine, but it will do what I need. The Go comes with Windows 10 S installed — the S means you can only download apps for it from the Microsoft store. It’s possible to disable that and set it up to enable downloads from other sources, which I asked them to do. I had them install Mircosoft Office 365, which I don’t love but which is convenient, as well, and they did.
Here’s a head-shot of the newest device. Because I’m a dinosaur and track pads bug me, I sprang for two accessories; a bluetooth mouse and a keyboard. (I sprang for a third; a USB port adapter since the go doesn’t have a USB port).
Cute, yeah? I put the half-hour glass next to it because it is so pretty.
This second photo exists for comparison. The book is a trade-paperback about one inch thick.
Slightly larger than a mass market paperback.
I’m not good at specs, but here are some: a Pentium Gold 4415 Processor; 8 GB RAM, and 128GB hard drive. It does have a USB-C port, and I’d probably be really happy if I knew what that was. It’s got bluetooth (so the sleek little bluetooth mouse will work).
It will do just enough with photos to let me resize them and upload them various places, so, yaay. I suspect what’s going to come from this is an increasing, incremental reliance on the Cloud for storage (because of convenience), which is something I’ve been resisting.
The part about only downloading apps from the Microsoft Store sounds like a disadvantage on the surface (pun accidental), but it may actually be an advantage. I’ve had an iPad tablet for more than 4 years and it has never had even the hint of a virus or malware, or any web browser hijinks. No problem whatsoever. It has limited access for bad code to get in: no ability to connect a thumb drive and all apps must be downloaded from the Apple Store. Perhaps the Microsoft Surface is taking a similar approach to restricting avenues of attack. Have fun with your new portable computer!
That is a good reason to maintain the default op-system, but actually, I download very little, so I think I’ll be safe.
So far it is doing exactly what I need it to, so I’m pleased.
What are you up do these days?