One of the key features of Surface Go is about getting the job done on the go. It is the most portable Surface PC that packs a ton of capabilities and features as its big brothers. However, one thing that most people don’t really happy about is battery life. The Surface Go definitely won’t last for a typical working day unless you did all our ultimate battery saving tips as mentions in our article.

At SurfaceTip, we have done two tests already for the Surface Go charging topic, the original charger testing, and a basic phone charger testing. However, we didn’t test another potential charging method using USB-C with power delivery yet. Today, we will test, not one but three, different types of USB-C PD chargers to find out how fast they can charge the Microsoft Surface Go compared to our previous tests.

Can you charge the Surface Go with USB-C? In short, yes you can. The USB-C 3.1 Gen 1 port on Microsoft Surface Go does support smart charging along with data transfer and video out capability. It supports USB Power Delivery revision 3.0 which supports 4 different power rules (5v, 9v, 15v, and 20v) with the ability to supply power up to over 45W. With that said, you will need a compatible USB-C with Power Delivery which rated at a higher wattage to fast charge your Surface Go. Fortunately, as we tested, the Surface Go can also be slow charged via standard USB charger as well. So, if you can’t find a USB-C PD charger, don’t panic, you can use any phone’s USB chargers or power bank to continue your work.

How to charge Surface Go with USB-C? It’s really simple to charge your Surface with USB-C. Just like the Surface Connect connector, the USB-C connector itself is reversible, so you don’t have to worry about the wrong side plug-in. Anyway, there 2 ways to charge your Surface Go over USB-C depending on the available charger port: USB-A to USB-C: You can charge your Surface Go with any standard USB charger or portable power bank with a good charging rate (at least 5V/1.5A) by connecting them with the USB-A to USB-C cable.

USB-C to USB-C: If you have a USB-C PD charger, which is highly recommended, and they are using USB-C port, then you can charge your Surface Go by connecting them with the USB-C to USB-C cable.



Surface Go USB-C chargers we’ve tested To find out what type of USB-C PD chargers work best for Microsoft Surface Go, we have tested three different chargers with USB-C PD support. To help you understand more about each charger’s specifications, we have put them together in the table below: USB-C PD Chargers Interface Max Wattage Power Rules Google Pixel 2 charger USB-C to USB-C 18W 5V/3A 9V/2A Anker PowerPort Speed PD 30 USB-C to USB-C 30W 5V/3A 9V/3A 15V/2A 20V/1.5A ZMI Turbo USB-C PD USB-C to USB-C 45W 5V/3A 9V/3A 12V/3A 15V/3A 20V/2.25A For better comparison, below is the specification of the original Surface Go charger and a standard phone charger that we’ve already tested: Common Chargers Interface Max Wattage Power Rules Sony Standard Phone Charger USB-A to USB-C 7.5W 5V/1.5A Surface Go Charger Surface Connect 24W 15V/1.65A Now we have an array of chargers with the power range from 7.5W up until 45W with different type charging interfaces. And now it’s time test it out, read on for the actual charging speed of those chargers.

Surface Go USB-C chargers testing result The following table summarizes the speed, duration, and charging rate of each charger. We have ordered the chargers by maximum charging rate they can offer. Note The following results are measured using a certain condition that is specified in the Experiment Condition section of this article. Battery Level 20%-80%

Rate/Duration 80%-90%

Rate/Duration 90%-99%

Rate/Duration Total (20%-99%)

Rate/Duration Sony Standard Phone Charger

Max 7.5W 4.0W - 3.6W

265 Minutes 3.59 - 3.43W

47 Minutes 3.42W - 2.37W

45 Minutes 4.0W - 2.37W

5 hours 57 Minutes Google Pixel 2 charger

Max 18W 11.2W - 10.2W

90 Minutes 10W - 8W

16 Minutes 7.8W - 2.5W

31 Minutes 11.2W - 2.5W

2 hours 17 Minutes Surface Go Charger

Max 24W 16.6W - 14.5W

60 Minutes 14W - 8.2W

15 Minutes 8W - 2.1W

33 Minutes 16.6W - 2.1W

1 hour 48 Minutes Anker PowerPort Speed PD 30

Max 30W 18.0W - 16.4W

56 Minutes 13W - 9W

13 Minutes 8W - 2.6W

30 Minutes 17.3W - 2.6W

1 hour 39 Minutes ZMI Turbo USB-C PD

Max 45W 26.3W - 14.9W

46 Minutes 13W - 7W

16 Minutes 7W - 2W

37 Minutes 26.3W - 2W

1 hour 39 Minutes

What we’ve learned from the result Now we’ve seen the result. Here are some facts that we can see: Battery below 80%: you can expect to get the peak charging rate of each charger. Battery between 80% – 90%: the charging rate starts to slow down to around 8W. Battery between 90% – 99%: the charging rate drop dramatically down to around 2.5W that takes twice as long as between 80%-90%. Battery between 99% – 100%: Our tested Surface Go took about 25 minutes to fully charge from 99% no matter what chargers we’ve tried.