Review: Microsoft Surface Go 3 & Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon laptop offer Windows 11
Windows 11 is rolling out and the Microsoft Surface Go 3 and Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon are among the first to offer it.
Windows 11 is rolling out, and with it new laptops. It’s a fresh beginning for Microsoft devotees. I have been trialling Windows 11 on two devices – the Microsoft Surface Go 3 and an engineering sample of the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon.
Aesthetically Windows 11 is a step up. Gone are large clunky pinned live tile menus. Instead you get a space efficient menu of app thumbnails. If you are hooked on live tiles, you can restore them in Windows 11 by editing the registry or downloading an app, but why bother? Windows 11 offers widgets that display live information better. They are a click away on the home screen.
I find the more compact Windows 11 interface lifts the user experience, and it’s great on a small tablet like the Surface Go 3 where space is a premium.
App thumbnails are in the middle of the taskbar. Hit the Windows icon and you get the new compact menu. Next, search opens to a window, it’s no longer at the bottom left. The next thumbnail lets you move between multiple desktops. That’s followed by widgets and then chat with Microsoft Teams.
There are big differences with what Windows 11 offers under the hood, especially security with Windows 11 CPU’s requiring an embedded Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chip, and support for secure boot. For me, it’s good riddance to the tiles that originated with the less than popular Windows 8 for starters.
Microsoft Surface Go 3
The Go 3 is the smallest and least expensive of Surface devices. It starts at $629 for the tablet, but if you use it as a productivity device, you’ll need a type cover keyboard, and that’s an extra $199.95. So effectively you pay $828.95.
You get a tablet with an Intel Pentium 6500Y processor with Wi-Fi, 4GM of memory and a 64GB eMMC storage. Pay an extra $220 and you get 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD.
A Surface Pen is $139.95.
The Go 3 has a 10.5-inch 1920x1280 display with 220 pixels per inch. It’s adequate but 220 ppi isn’t spectacular. Nevertheless menus display crisply, and the screen is responsive to touch.
The screen’s 3:2 squarish shape suits scanning down web pages and content creation tasks such as word processing and spreadsheet work. That’s when compared to shallower screens designed for watching movies.
The Go 3 operates smoothly provided you don’t have too much running in the background. Operation is aided by the running of Windows 11 in S mode – any installed programs must be obtained through the Microsoft Store. Microsoft says this stops users installing programs that potentially could chew up memory and system resources.
You can exit S mode and run full blooded Windows 11 with no extra cost, but after leaving S mode you can’t go back.
The type cover keyboard is significantly smaller than my desktop PC keyboard and I have been experiencing some mishits. It could be that my muscle memory is yet to adjust to this size but I scrunch my fingers together when typing.
The Go 3 offers a surprising array of connections – a USB-C port, 3.5mm headphones jack, and a MicroSDXC card reader. There are connections for powering the type cover and plugging in the bespoke Microsoft power adaptor.
The unit has 5MP and 8MP front and back facing cameras which again is average, but this may not matter to you on a tablet device. The front camera is useful as the tablet offers Windows Hello face authentication and this works well.
I must admit to a pet dislike – the kick stand. Surface tablets with their keyboards attached are supported by the kick stand that pulls out at the bottom back.
The Go 3’s smaller size makes it conducive for using on your lap, but balancing the kick stand at the back on your lap is awkward. The tablet also wobbles on your lap as you type. It’s bouncy. You might need to get a solid third-party keyboard. Buying a Surface Go laptop instead is another option.
The benefit is portability. The Go 3 takes up relatively little space at just 245 x 175mm. It fits easily into a brief space or bag, and could be used comfortably on an aircraft tray table. You can use Windows wherever you go. From $629 – tablet only.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon laptop
Lenovo has released a tempting 14-inch Windows 11 laptop with an AMD Ryzen rather than Intel processor. Weighing from 1.077kg, you can pick up the Slim 7 Carbon and carry it around in one hand for considerable time.
Its strengths are its screen, connectivity and audio.
The 14-inch OLED screen is supported by carbon fibre material at the back and Gorilla glass at front. While it is pliable, it doesn’t feel fragile. You can open the screen to 180 degrees, but not beyond.
The screen is bright, with 2800 x 1800 QHD+ resolution and 243 ppi pixel density. Images display fine details and subtle colour variations. Blacks are deep black and whites very bright, which you expect on an OLED display.
The display has a 90 Hertz refresh rate. This falls short of laptops with a faster 120Hz screen refresh rate favoured by gamers, but the OLED screen is excellent for watching movies. The 16:10 dimensions, 1,000,000 to one contrast ratio, Dolby Audio, Dolby Atmos, HDR and colour calibration add to the enjoyment.
It’s also a capable laptop for office work, with a sturdy metallic keyboard with clearly labelled, decently large keys, except that the keyboard width is reduced due to the forward-facing stereo speakers on each side.
The speaker placement is worth it. Sound quality is very good, with clear treble and firm bass, courtesy of an embedded subwoofer.
Lenovo has thrown in heat pipe cooling, to support intensive use, and a high capacity 61Wh battery. The laptop offers hands-free facial recognition, made possible with a TOF (time of flight) sensor, and there’s a privacy shutter for the front facing camera.
The Yoga has an AMD Ryzen Series 5000 processor. My review unit in particular had a Ryzen 7 5800U with 8 cores and 16 threads and an Nvidia GeForce MX450 graphics card.
There is plenty of connectivity: two USB-C ports at left supporting USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 and an audio jack, and another USB-C 3.2 Gen2 at right. You can add more ports with an adaptor. You can also charge the laptop through one of its USB-Cs.
Lenovo includes an application called Vantage which helps you update drivers, run device diagnostics, discover apps and request support. It says that with Vantage, you don’t have to be a computer scientist to keep your Yoga in tip-top condition.
The one annoyance during my trial was the screen’s imprecise movements when I moved the cursor to a new position while typing, and when using my finger to perform functions such as scrubbing the audio bar to change the volume in YouTube.
That may be due to Lenovo dispatching engineering samples to reviewers rather than a finished product. It also means we can’t reliably report battery life, CPU and GPU performance. That’s a pity. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Carbon is priced from $1699 for the base model.
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