Microsoft’s Surface Duo arrives on September 10 for $ 1,399

Microsoft launches its Surface Duo dual-screen Android phone on September 10, priced at $ 1,399. After months of Microsoft drivers posting the device on Twitter, the company now allows anyone to order the Surface Duo in the US today. Pre-orders will be available at AT&T, Microsoft’s online store, and Best Buy.

While Microsoft unveiled the design of the Surface Duo back in October, the company has kept the specs relatively secret. The device includes two separate 5.6-inch OLED displays (1800 x 1350) with a 4: 3 aspect ratio that connect together to form an 8.1-inch overall workspace (2700 x 1800) with a 3: 2 aspect ratio. Unlike foldables like Samsung’s Galaxy Fold, the Surface Duo uses real Gorilla Glass, and the monitors are designed to work in the same way as multiple monitors on a Windows PC.

One big question about the Surface Duo has been the camera. Microsoft uses an 11-megapixel f / 2.0 camera, which will include automatic low-light modes, HDR multi-frame shots and a ‘super zoom’ up to 7x. Both 4K and 1080p video recording will be supported at 30fps and 60fps, with electronic image stabilization. There is only one camera on the Surface Duo, which can be used both for video calls and as a main camera.

The basic Surface Duo hardware also includes a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, 6GB of RAM, and up to 256GB of storage. LTE is available on T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, but there is no 5G support at all. Microsoft is also sending a bumper cover in the box, designed to protect the Duo.

Microsoft also includes two batteries in the Surface Duo, distributed among both monitors. Overall, there is 3577mAh capacity, which is significantly less than the 4500mAh found on Samsung’s single-screen Note 20 Ultra and even the 4380mAh on the original Galaxy Fold. Despite this, Microsoft promises “full battery life”, which means up to 15.5 hours of local video playback, up to 10 days of standby time and up to 27 hours of talk time. We will have to test the device during our review, but the capacity here leaves a little cause for concern, as the device drives two screens, not one.

“It’s probably one of the sexiest devices we’ve ever built,” said Windows and device manager Panos Panay in a press release ahead of today’s launch. “It does things that single-screen devices can’t do, period.” Panay’s vision for the Surface Duo is to improve productivity along the way, and Microsoft has also done some interesting work on the software side to compliment the hardware.

Each Android app will run on the Duo without modification, thanks to the choice of two separate monitors. “Every app has to run,” says Panay, and it was obviously important to support everything Android from day 1. Developers can also optimize the layouts of their apps to really take advantage of the two monitors and span across them. Microsoft has customized its own apps like the Office suite and OneDrive to span the displays, and third parties like Amazon have also worked on the Kindle app to make it feel like you’re reading a book by scrolling through pages across the two screens flippen.

Microsoft also uses algorithms to predict how apps will open on different displays. “There is something in this algorithm that is very clever and tries to be predictive,” Panay explains. “If you sit on one screen and you call up a link, the other screen will fill.”

The end result is that when you click on a link on one screen in an email app, it will open on the other so you can continue reading the email page-by-page with a web page. Apps like Microsoft Teams and PowerPoint are also optimized so you can watch a video call and the rest of your Teams conversation, or at the same time watch a full slide and the rest of the deck.

Microsoft has worked closely with Google on Android for the Surface Duo. “It was interesting at first,” says Panay, referring to the early days of the partnership. ‘It was a bit of a head tailor. Satya and I have had many conversations. Microsoft had to deal with Android for the pure reason of mobile apps, especially after Windows Phone failed in the market.

“Microsoft needs to shine on every platform,” says Panay. ‘We had a chat with Google … the partnership was crazy fun. I think at first a little to get to know each other, but then we very quickly saw what is right for our customer and what might be possible. I find it great for Google and Android, and I find it great for Microsoft. ”

Microsoft has created APIs for dual-screen apps to work in the Android codebase, and it plans to stream them for other manufacturers and third parties to use. It’s part of a broader push to make dual-screen and foldable devices a reality, and Panay is a big believer in this future. “I believe two screens are coming, I think they are needed.” It will be interesting to see how developers here adapt their Android apps, and it is key to the overall success of dual-screen as well as foldable devices in general.

Price will be a sticking point for Surface Duo, just as it was for the Galaxy Fold and other devices that will attempt to insert one or a future one with dual screens. A lack of 5G and NFC, questions about battery life, and camera quality will all have to be addressed in our Surface Duo review, but Microsoft is clearly at the beginning of a future in which it believes. You will have to pay a price to be a part of that first.

The real question will be how well Surface Duo, and devices like it, improve productivity along the way, and whether two mobile screens are really needed. These devices will eventually require some hardware advancement to really take away the vision. But if customers agree with Microsoft, Samsung and others that two screens are better than one, then we are witnessing the future being built. If not, we see unique attempts to try and recreate mobile devices. At least mobile phones are suddenly getting exciting again. As Panay would say, we are pumped to see where this is all going.