Why I choose my Microsoft Surface Go over my Apple Products.

I’m a massive Apple fan, and I do buy into all of their products at launch… and I do waste loads of money upgrading to their latest devices, even though I don’t need them.

But recently I opted to go for a Non-Apple product and I really do love it and here is why…

The Microsoft Surface Go… It was one of those products that appeared everywhere I looked, on YouTube, in magazines and on the adverts on my internet browsing, Microsoft were doing a great job of embedding the idea of purchasing in my brain.

So when it came to the UK launch and I’d watched just about every single product influencer reviewing the tablet on YouTube, I put my pre-order in. I went for the business version as we currently run a Windows server at our office and heavily use Office 365.

With the tablet I also purchased the Surface Pen and the Surface Go Signature Type Cover. All in all, I had spent £700, for a tablet, that runs windows, I did think at the time I had gone a little mad.

Firing it up and running through the set up, was the usual Windows experience, as I’ve put already, I’m not a massive Windows fan but it is necessary for the software we run in our office.

Currently, I use a mixture of iPad Pro and Macbook Pro to do my work, in the office I have the 5k 27" iMac and a Dell XPS hidden away in the server cabinet that I remote desktop into.

I really wanted the iPad Pro to be my travel companion for meetings, working abroad and for all the other jobs but the OS is just to difficult to use, even when using the Microsoft apps.

Firstly, Microsoft Excel on the iPad is only really good for light editing, have you tried to select a number of cells using your finger? It’s bloody hard and not recommended for those who are impatient like me. I just like to get a job done.

Next Microsoft Outlook, the program itself is fantastic. Organising important emails and the not so important, but when it comes to attachments and multiple email screens, it’s really difficult.

So this is where the Microsoft Surface Go comes in, I love the idea of having a tablet, with a keyboard and a proper trackpad/mouse, this is one thing I really miss on the iPad.

The Surface Go for the time being has 2 options, 4gb of Ram with a 64gb eMMC or an 8gb version with a 128gb SSD. Both come with the Intel Pentium Gold processor and HD 615 graphics.

The OS is spritely enough on the 8bg/SSD version that I opted for and this particular model runs the full Windows 10 Professional. I logged into my Office 365 Azure account and had to do little else.

Mapped drives proved a slight pain to work with, so I installed Dropbox to help sort out that issue. The only downside with that was the size of our work dropbox. Luckily, selective sync helped with that problem.

Microsoft Word, Excel, Powerpoint and Outlook were all installed. All I needed to do was log in using my Office 365 credentials and off I went. I didn’t want to load the Surface Go with powerful apps such as Lightroom and Photoshop, but I did add Atom so that I could do some website work on the move.

When it comes to working on the go, the Surface Go doesn’t take up too much room. I can sit in standard class on the train to London and work on a seat with a drop down table without any issues. I connect to my iPhone for internet most of the time, but WiFi is pretty consistent.

Emails on the go isn’t that good if you haven’t used your tablet in a week. Outlook has to download all of the emails, whereas the iPad Pro version seems to be quick and I can pickup where I left off.

Excel is a dream and the trackpad alone makes my job so much easier. Formulas can be edited without an issue and selecting and moving cells is so much easier.

Although the screen size is small, its still extremely workable. I do believe you can add an external monitor to the Surface Go, but I won’t be needing this.

Another excellent feature is the USB-C charging, I use my Macbook and iPad charger to keep the tablet topped up, I haven’t even taken the standard Surface Go charger out of the box as yet.

All in all, its a great device and I am using the Surface Go more and more in my day to day work, I even catch up on emails in the office using the device over my iMac, just because I enjoy the system and the keyboard is a dream.

In the future I will look a little further than Apple’s line up when it comes to replacement equipment, it really has surprised me.

What are your thoughts on the Microsoft Surface Go, what do you use it for and what do you like about it. Comment below and I will answer as many as I can.