A couple of weeks ago, we learned that Microsoft may be getting ready to unveil new Surface Go 2 and Surface Book 3 devices during a Spring Surface event. It’s not clear yet if the ongoing coronavirus outbreak could change the company’s plans, but specs for the Surface Go 2 may have been leaked over the weekend.
Twitter user @_rogame has shared on Friday Time Spy benchmark results for two unknown Microsoft devices that could be the successor to the Surface Go (via Tom’s Hardware). One device comes with a dual-core Intel Core m3 processor clocked at 1.1 Ghz (with a 3.4Ghz clock speed in boost mode), and the other model comes with a dual-core Intel Pentium Gold processor clocked at 1.7 GHz. Both models come with the same integrated Intel UHD 615 and GPU 8GB of RAM, and the leaker noted in a separate tweet that the two configurations also used the same SSD found in the Surface Pro 7 and Surface Pro X.
Last year Surface Go used Intel® Pentium® Gold Processor 4415Y.
Both models use same SSDs from Surface Pro 7 & Pro X
Time Spy
m3-8100Y model
– CPU score : 1380 (127%)
– Graphics score : 303 (104%)4425Y model
– CPU score : 1089 (100%)
– Graphics score : 292 (100%)— _rogame (@_rogame) March 20, 2020
It’s probably better to take these leaked specs with a grain of salt, but if true, it would be interesting to see that Microsoft is sticking with low-cost Intel processors instead of shifting to ARM processors as the company did with the Surface Pro X. The latter uses a custom-designed SQ1 processor based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8cx ARM chip, but Qualcomm has since released cheaper SoCs designed for the ground up for Windows 10 on ARM PC with the new Snapdragon 8c and 7c chips.
The first-gen Surface Go was the most affordable Surface device ever, but its low-powered Pentium Gold processor and slow eMMC storage on the base model were holding it back. However, Surface Go proved to be a popular addition to the Surface line, with AdDuplex ranking it in January as the third most-used Surface device behind the Surface Pro 4 and Surface Pro 5. Microsoft is also rumored to announce a successor to the Surface Book 2 this Spring, and we’re looking forward to seeing what the new 2-in-1 device will have under the hood.
