Microsoft Unveils Surface Laptop Go, a 12.4-Inch Notebook for $549

From PC Mag: If you thought the Surface Laptop was nice, but a little expensive, good news: Microsoft is introducing a new, albeit smaller, version that chops the starting price by nearly half.

Today, the company introduced the Surface Laptop Go, which will start at $549.99. In addition, Microsoft is refreshing the higher-end models of its Surface Pro X tablet with a new custom processor that, according to the company, should enable even longer battery life. Both products go on sale Oct. 13.

“With Surface Laptop Go, we are bringing the features most loved by our Surface Laptop customers to a smaller, more affordable design,” the company said in today’s announcement.

Indeed, the $549.99 price is a pretty significant discount from the Surface Laptop 3, which starts at $999.99. However, to bring down the price, the company made the Laptop Go model a 12.4-inch laptop, while the standard model can be bought with a larger 13.5-inch or 15-inch display. (Note: This clamshell-design machine is not to be confused with Microsoft's Surface Go and Surface Go 2, which are scaled-down versions of the company's Surface Pro detachable-screen tablets.)

In an unusual stroke for a modern laptop, the Laptop Go's display has a native resolution of 1,536 by 1,024 pixels. That works out to 148 pixels per inch, and the resolution is a step down from the 1,920-by-1,080-pixel (aka 1080p) panels that have become more or less standard in mainstream laptops with 13-inch and larger screens. On the plus side, the display can function as a touchscreen. The keyboard also remains full-size, and each key has vertical travel of 1.3 millimeters, according to Microsoft's specs.

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