Microsoft Working On A Lightweight, Budget-Friendly Surface Laptop

Microsoft's top-of-the-line Surface hardware products and devices are known for their great design, high specs, good performance, and of course, their expensive price tags. This could soon change as the company is believed to be working on a new Surface device designed for the budget-conscious consumer.

Redmond tech giant Microsoft saw great success with the Surface Go, its budget-friendly Surface tablet that sold for prices starting at $399. Now, sources speaking to Windows Central said the tech giant wants to capitalize on the Surface Go's success and is currently working on an affordable laptop as well.

Per the sources, the device codenamed “Sparti” is a midrange clamshell PC that will be priced between $500 to $600 when it hits the market. The device will be a “Surface Laptop Go” sort of thing, Windows Central said, having a small footprint compared to the pricier Surface Laptop.

Sparti will be powered by a 10th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, which is backed by 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, at least for the base model. It has a 12.5-inch display and will run on Windows 10 in S mode.

The specs and pricing indicate that Sparti will be designed for students, especially in today's remote study and work setup. It is meant to fill in the gap between the lower-priced Surface Go and more expensive Surface Pro and will be priced to compete with Google's Pixelbook Go.

According to sources who saw device prototypes, Sparti is lightweight and small, meaning it is easy to carry and take anywhere for school or work. It also “looks and feels like a typical Surface product,” which means it boasts of the same build quality as the other devices with the Surface branding.

Meeting needs

Not much is known about the new device at the moment, save for the details Windows Central leaked. If the information is correct, however, it appears that Microsoft is bent on keeping chief product officer Panos Panay's promise to “focus on meeting customers where they are now.”

“As the world and people’s routines are changing, it is important that we focus on meeting our customers where they are now and helping them get to where they want to be in the future,” he wrote in a blog post in May.

Indeed, a cheaper but premium quality Surface Laptop will be very helpful to people nowadays amid the COVID-19 pandemic.