Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 (12.4-Inch, 2023)

Stylish, lightweight construction ; Decent performance ; Great speakers ; Average battery life

Poor port selection ; Middling display ; Lower horsepower than rivals

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Go 3 is a fall from grace. It offers reasonable performance and power in a sleek chassis but skimps out on its display and ports to offer an experience beaten by many of its competitors. Its higher starting price makes it a...

Decent display brightness ; Small footprint and low weight design ; Surprisingly comfortable, if compact, keyboard

Older-generation processor, dated webcam ; No keyboard backlight, plastic touchpad ; Higher entry cost this time

This is a delightful little laptop for travel use, but a few parts could have done with a slight bump-up to stay competitive. At this price we want a keyboard backlight at the very least. Otherwise the Surface Laptop Go 3 is an accomplished and...

Nice, premium design ; Light and compact ; 3:2 ; Solid audio

Low-resolution screen ; Keyboard isn’t backlit ; Limited to 256GB of storage ; This price is just not it

Look, here’s one I just pulled up for you: the Dell XPS 13 is available for literally $949 with a stunning FHD touchscreen and a more powerful processor and a 512GB SSD. (And if you think Microsoft knows how to build a beautiful device, wait until you...

Longer battery life ; More memory and storage in this base model than previous one ; Chassis design remains a winner

Price hike puts it into competition with much tougher class of laptops ; Still a relatively low-resolution display ; Middling performance in our $999.99 test configuration

Microsoft boosted the base price of its Surface Laptop Go 3, but it hasn't improved enough about the machine to justify the hike.

Thin, light, stunning design ; Solid keyboard and trackpad ; Great speakers

Expensive for its performance ; Outdated 12th Gen CPU ; Mediocre battery life ; Sub 1080p display ; No backlit keyboard

Microsoft's Surface Laptop Go 3 retains the stunning design and thin, light build of its predecessor, but it also maintains its weak performance, mediocre battery life, and low-resolution display. Style over substance isn't a winning formula when...

high-quality casing ;good keyboard ;decent screen with low color deviations ;fast WLAN ;sufficient performance for everyday things

no maintenance options ;no keyboard illumination ;high frequency fan ;Processor remains below its performance potential ;only one year warranty

In principle, we can confirm the conclusion from our review of the

Attractive design ; Quiet (but not always silent) ; Good key feel

Significantly increased entry price ; Uses last-gen processor ; Basic plastic touchpad

Microsoft hasn’t made big changes to the series in the Surface Laptop Go 3, and it doesn’t have an up-to-date CPU either. But it’s still a sound option for those who want something super-portable and not super-expensive for light jobs.

Great performance ; Nice soft touch keyboard ; Versatile and portable

Low-res display ; Only 720p webcam

The Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 hasn’t improved much at all of the Laptop Go 2. It has the same old sub-standard display resolution and 720p webcam. The battery life is okay but not great, especially for those on the go a lot. The Intel processor...