There have been a lot of rumors and speculation around what processor Microsoft would use in the second iteration of its Surface Go tablet. The main reason is because frankly, the Pentium Gold option that the company used in the first-gen model wasn"t very good.
Some have speculated that Microsoft would go for Qualcomm"s new Snapdragon 7c or 8c in the Surface Go 2, either of which would provide cellular connectivity at a lower price point, and more. AMD also announced new Athlon processors at CES, which are promised to offer performance improvements over Intel"s Pentium Gold lineup.
But as it turns out, the Surface Go 2 is going to be more of the same. A new benchmark spotted by Tom"s Hardware shows that the base model should arrive with a Pentium Gold 4425Y, another dual-core CPU. It"s based on the Amber Lake architecture, rather than the previous generation"s Kaby Lake. In fact, the CPU model number jumping from 4415Y to 4425Y should tell you how modest of an improvement it is. A generational leap would change the first digit from "4" to "5".
A second benchmark shows the device using a Core m3-8100Y, also a dual-core Amber Lake processor. This is a more expensive part though, and it should have a decent performance improvement over the Pentium Gold CPU. Expect to see it in a higher end SKU.
Launched a year ago, the Pentium Gold 4425Y is the latest Y-series Pentium Gold processor on the market. The Core m3-8100Y has been refreshed with Ice Lake Y and Comet Lake Y though, so it"s likely that Microsoft is just sticking with Amber Lake across the board here.
We were expecting Microsoft to announce the Surface Go 2 some time this month, but it"s possible that the announcement has been delayed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus.