Microsoft Surface Go has a teeny-tiny battery, teardown reveals
The Surface Go has gone on sale in the US, and that means that the intrepid folks at iFixit have already taken it apart to see what makes it tick, ahead of its August 23 UK release date.
The most intriguing thing? The Surface Go has a tiny battery – not only smaller than other members of the Surface family but also considerably smaller than the iPad 2018.
Split across two cells, the Surface Go has a battery capacity of 26.1Wh, iFixit discovered. Similar teardowns from iFixit have found the 2018 iPad with a 32.9Wh capacity, and the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 to pack a 45Wh cell. That doesn’t suggest great things in terms of stamina.
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To make matters worse, these batteries are tricky to remove, as they’re glued in place. In fact, like most tablets, the Surface Go is a pain to fix yourself in general terms, and iFixit gives the tablet an overall repairability score of 1/10.
Yeah, you’ll be sending it back to Microsoft if anything goes wrong.
Part of the reason for this is the way it’s been designed to fit into such a neat, tidy package. The Pentium Gold processor, for example, is cooled by a copper shield and thermal paste, without the need for heatpipes.
The Wi-Fi antennas are neatly hidden away too, which is an important change, as they were susceptible to damage when the display was removed on previous Surface generations.
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The Surface Go is available to order from Microsoft now, starting at £379 for the version with 64GB storage and 4GB RAM. A 128GB/8GB version is also available for £509.
If that feels a bit on the pricey side, students, parents and teachers may be eligible for a discounted rate of £360.05/£483.55.
Update: our Microsoft Surface Go review is now live.
Does the tiny battery on the Microsoft Surface Go put your off a preorder? Let us know with a message on Twitter to @TrustedReviews.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
