About ten years ago, I bought an MS Surface to travel with. At the time, my son worked at MS and I was able to get a substantial discount. It is now having trouble holding power and I am afraid the battery is coming to the end of its life. My son no longer works there and I really think it is overpriced.
I want a lightweight computer that I can stuff into my backpack. It must be a Windows computer, compatible with all my software. The screen should be at least 10", but not much more. Any suggestions?
Disclaimer: I am a microserf. That said, the Microsoft Store items all are crapware free and IMHO have a pretty good return policy. You’ll need a keyboard too, but these are pretty awesome road warrior devices. Check it out and see if it fits budget and horsepower requirements.
Get a refurb Intel* Mac Air, bootcamp it and install Windows. I’ve got one and it’s a superb travel machine, fits in my skinny backback I haul on flights easily. Super light, great tech. I’m typing on it now from a hotel in Thailand.
* Make sure it’s Intel, not Apple Silicon, or BootCamp won’t work. Which is probably perfect for you - last gen laptops are cheaper laptops.
I’ve had a Surface Go for a couple of years and am quite satisfied with it. It does actually have a physical keyboard (a must for me!) so I’m not sure why you said one is needed.
The base models are a bit skimpy on storage: I’d advise you to go for at least 8GB of DRAM and, especially, 128GB of SSD. I think you’d rapidly find yourself squeezed for disk space with only 64.
I’m typing on my Surface Pro 7. It’s got the i7 4-core 8 processor version, 16GB RAM & a 480GB SSD. Which is my travel computer and my daily use computer.
I bought it used / refurb from Microsoft through Amazon for ~$400.
You’re not going to beat that deal for the horsepower.
Sorry I can’t help w/ specific models, but I bought a Mac Air a couple of years ago and now use it exclusively at home and away. Not sure whether it is windows compatible, but I think I’ve seen small PCs of similar dimensions.
To answer some other questions raised: The web site insists the battery is not replaceable. Which makes me wonder what it means to be refurbished and how long it will last. I travel, visiting three kids, for maybe a month total in any year. When traveling, I use it mostly for email, playing wordle online, reading the Times, reading SDMB, maybe some light editing. Even retired, I get Office 365 from my employer and need space to install it; otherwise nothing very space demanding. And I absolutely require the text editing program I have been using (with many upgrades, e.g. to Windows) since 1984. Its actions are embedded in my muscle memory.
Surface batteries are not replaceable by the end user. Nothing is user-replaceable.
I’ve had several Surfaces over the years starting with the Model 2. Usually the screen dies before anything else; just goes black one day. They seem to have plenty to sell, and they give a rebate if you send the old one in. I tentatively conclude they can replace screens pretty easily. My assumption is they can (and do) replace batteries too.