The Surface Laptop Go 3 is Microsoft’s new affordable Surface laptop, with upgraded hardware and long battery life making it a compelling option for budget laptop buyers in 2023. But for anyone considering an upgrade to a Surface device at around that $800 price, the Surface Pro 7+ still presents an attractive purchase, and it can flip into a tablet when you need it.
That brings to mind the age-old question, of whether newer is automatically better. In this case, it might not be. Let’s take a look at the Surface Laptop Go 3 versus Surface Pro 7+, to find out.
Availability and pricing
The Surface Pro 7+ was initially released in 2021 as a business-focused refresh of the original Pro 7 at a base price of $800. It featured various next-generation CPUs, better battery life, and the option of more memory. However, higher-end configurations were much more expensive, costing over $2,000 for the very top model. Today it’s almost impossible to find, especially in the base configuration — though some Business models are still available through the Microsoft store. Availability is unlikely to improve.
The Surface Laptop Go 3 was announced at Microsoft’s September 2023 event and is available for preorder now. It will officially ship out to customers and go on sale, on October 3. Its base model has an Intel Core i5-1235U, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD for $800. You can upgrade to 16GB of RAM for $1,000.
Specs
| Surface Laptop Go 3 | Surface Pro 7+ | |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-1235U | Intel Core i3-1115G4, Core i5-1135G7, Core i7-1165G7 |
| RAM | 8GB, 16GB | 8GB, 16GB, 32GB |
| Graphics | Intel Iris Xe | Intel UHD, Intel Iris Xe |
| Storage | 256GB SSD | 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB SSD |
| Display | 12.4-inch touchscreen, 1536 x 1024 | 12.3-inch touchscreen, 2736 x 1824 |
| Ports | USB-C, USB-A, headphone jack, Surface Connect | USB-C, USB-A, headphone jack, Surface Connect, MicroSDXC card reader |
| Battery life | 15 hours | 15 hours |
With several years between the release of these two devices, it’s no surprise that their specifications look quite different. The Surface Laptop Go 3 features more modern hardware, with a much more impressive processor, with more cores and better performance in single and multi-threaded workloads. Memory options are similar across both devices, though business buyers have the choice of 32GB with the Pro 7+ if they wish.
The Pro 7+ also holds a big advantage in storage size. While the Surface Laptop Go 3 does have a removable SSD, it is limited to a mere 256GB which is rather small by 2023 standards. You can swap it out or augment it with an external drive, but the Pro 7+ can have as much as a terabyte of storage right out of the box.
Both devices have touchscreen displays, but the Surface Pro 7’s is vastly more detailed with a much higher resolution. It’s also designed to work like a tablet and can be folded flat as part of its 2-in-1 convertibility. The Surface Laptop Go 3 does support touch inputs, but can’t fold out into a dedicated tablet device.
Both laptops have strong battery life, lasting up to 15 hours between charges.
