Surface Duo Reaction

 

On Wednesday, August 12th, 2020; Microsoft announced the pricing and shipping date of the elusive Surface Duo. The Surface Duo is one of the most unique Surface Products ever made and one of the only dedicated dual-screen devices on the market. Let's get into it. 

 

 

I know I got the party late, but I'm here and I just really wanted to delay this article because I wanted to see if anybody...anybody got their hands on the Duo. I wanted to see it and "feel" it for myself, but I just cannot do that so watching others do that will have to suffice. Thankfully Panos Panay came through with a 30-minute video that showed us the various postures and gestures used to operate the Duo. This device lives or dies by the experience so let's start with that.

 

 

Surface Duo was originally a Windows device that would run a custom version of Windows Core OS. Of course, we know how Windows Phone eventually crashed and burned to throw that plan out of the window. To save the device Microsoft made a knee-jerk switch to Android, because Microsoft didn't develop the OS, they had to work closely with Google to make their own custom version of Android that runs on the Duo.  

The Video Above explain most of everything so I'm going to focus on the most key features. The "Span" gesture allows you to "Span" an app Across both screens to create scenarios such as that of Outlook. The Outlook scenario is where you have a list of emails on one side and the email on the other screen. Another example is the kindle example, the kindle example turns the Duo into a real book which has Page 1 on Screen 1 and Page 2 on Page 2. They even introduced shortcuts for apps that are called "app groups" for apps that go together such as Spotify and OneNote.  

 
 

Tapping on the group at once opens the two apps side-by-side, links also automatically open on the second screen. Panos also showed that links to other Apps also open on the second screen automatically. Having a second screen is extremely convenient and having links open on the other screen enhance the experience. I'm surprised that software got that good that quickly, I also wanted to quickly mention that Microsoft has promised 3 years of platform updates, so this Duo is in it for the long run. I will be sure to do a reaction and deep dive to reviews when reviewers can go deeper into the software.  

 
 

 
 

Let's get into the hardware, the hardware of the Duo is unique because unlike the clip-on case from the likes of LG every part of the Duo is made for the dual-screen form-factor. The Duo itself is quite thin, not as thin as a regular phone but thinner than a Galaxy Fold, think of your phone with a wallet case. Microsoft had to use the thinnest displays they could find to try to make the Phone as thin as possible and I think they succeeded but the cost is reflected in the price. When looking at specs it has an older Snapdragon 855 under the hood, with all the delays it was too late for Microsoft to change silicon, so they stuck with the 855. The 855 is fine for every task so I would not worry about performance for the Duo, but I would worry a bit about battery life.  

 

It has a 3,577 mAh battery which for phones is an ok battery size; it's bigger than the iPhone 11 Pro battery size but smaller than the Pro Maxx. The difference between those phones and the Duo is that those phones have 1 screen, the Duo has 2, this difference impacts battery life, so we'll have to wait and see. Do not expect the cameras to be the best either, with a single 11-Megapixel that pulls double duty as selfie and main camera, that means that selfies should be great while main shots might be underwhelming. Again, we must wait and see. One may look at all this and ridicule at the value proposition, but I don't and will not. It's clear to me that the Duo is not a mainstream device, this is for a select few people that love Microsoft and want to live on the edge of the form-factor world. Danny down the street isn't going to buy this, grandma will not buy this, once we accept those circumstances the Surface Duo can be viewed in a fairer more positive light.