The dual-screen hinge design of the MicroSt. Surface Duo is already winning me over

Product reviews are fantastic in 2020, and no device is more amazing than the one I’ve seen this year Micro .ft Surface Duo. Returning to the MicroSFT phone takes the form of a dual screen, hinged, foldable Android device that looks like two small iPads tied together. Its two 5.6-inch OLED screens make up a display.1 inch display, which MicroSoft says has been around for years. When closed it is 9.9 mm thick, when open.8 mm open, it weighs 8.8 ounces (250 g) and for initial configuration it costs 8,399, which includes 128GB of storage. Microsoft has started preorders and will be shipping from September 10th. International prices are not yet available, but $ 1,399 converts to about £ 1,070 or AU $ 1,960.

read more: MicroSF’s Surface Duo Unbox Boxing: Here comes the dual-screen phone

I’ve been skeptical about dual-screen devices, and I’m not sure how I feel about the Surface Duo. Wannabe version of Samsung Probably even more expensive Galaxy Z Fold 2? (Here’s how the Surface Duo compares to the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Motorola Razr.) Fantastic small dual-screen screen Micros .ft Surface Tablet? Something more?

In front of me is a gadget inside a little white box that looks like a small book. The Microsoft Windows logo is embedded at the top. I open it, bend it a few times. I feel like I have a small moleskin notebook made of glass and metal. Inside? No display. Circuitry only through glass. This is not a working version Micro .ft Surface Duo Unveiling today. This is a special look-through prototype that was sent to me in advance so I could see the circuits and feel how the mood works.

I haven’t had a chance to use an actual working device yet. Instead, I got this specially made, see-through prototype. Kind of ridiculous. And yet, even holding it, I’m already falling in love with the feel of the thing. 

This feeling isn’t new.

I’ve been wrong on dual-screen devices before

Back in 2004, I remember opening up an absurd two-screen device that I felt was sure to fail. It had a stylus. It promised twice the viewing area for whole new experiences. I thought it was insane. It was the Nintendo DS, and I soon realized it was a lot more amazing than I expected.

I think about that Nintendo DS whenever I see a product with dual screens or folding screens. But I think about it the most when holding a nonworking shell of the Surface Duo for the first time. I’ve seen the Galaxy Fold, and the Moto Razr, and all the other dual-screen laptops and tablets that seem to be sprouting up like weeds. The Duo seems a lot more like a Nintendo DS or some sort of magic Moleskine. It’s tiny. But not that tiny. It depends on whether you’re perceiving it as a tablet, a phone or a funky digital book.

Microsoft promised to reinvent the idea of dual-screen computing with the Surface Duo and Neo a year ago. The Surface Neo, which will boast two 9-inch screens, has been delayed until 2021. But the Duo is arriving in a few weeks, sooner than expected, maybe right alongside Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold update, in the middle of a pandemic year where everyone’s budget has collapsed and their need for gadgets has become a lot more practical.

The Duo is a phone, but Microsoft clearly doesn’t want to call it a phone. Maybe what Panos Panay, head of Microsoft’s devices business, told me and CNET editor Ian Sherr last week will turn out to be true. Maybe it really is a new device category. 

Skeptical? Heck yes

I told my kids I was going to review a dual-screened, phone-slash-tablet thing from Microsoft. My oldest son looked at the folding nonworking device and said, “That’s weird.” But my youngest son was totally into it. “Whoa, does that mean you can play two games at the same time?”

My oldest son says his younger brother is an optimist while he’s more of a realist. It’s also interesting to hear how two kids who never saw a dual-screen thing besides the Nintendo 3DS react to the idea in the first place. 

Microsoft’s goal, here, is clearly to make the whole idea make sense from a multitasking perspective, helping to solve problems on phones that are already overburdened. I’ll say this much: Being stuck at home on infinite Zooms while trying to work has made me more aware of the need for multidisplays than ever before.

Here’s what Microsoft’s proposition could mean for transforming the foldable device space — a space that clearly hasn’t taken hold yet, but which Google, Microsoft and a lot of other companies are trying to compete in, using physical folding devices and even wearable virtual ones. Will an extra screen solve Microsoft’s phone problems, or will it evolve phones into something many people might not even need? Or is Microsoft’s work on functioning, practical dual-screen apps the sort of necessary work these devices needed in the first place?

2 screens: Are they better than 1?

“As it turns out, it might feel familiar, because there’s this thing, it’s called Windows,” Panay says about using the two-screened Duo. “The idea where I can now formally put two windows next to each other.” That’s what the Duo experience should be, according to Panay: familiar, not strange. Or that’s the hope.

Of course, the Surface Duo is running Google’s Android software, not Windows. 

I listen to this over a Microsoft Teams interview done remotely, where I also get a tour of a showroom inside Microsoft’s Building 87 — the same building where the Microsoft HoloLens was developed, and which I visited in person a year ago.

Microsoft’s Duo team operates from research that says two screens are more productive than one, so Microsoft treats the dual screens like a portable pair of monitors. But that’s been the pitch we’ve heard from every other dual-screen phone- and tablet-maker. Microsoft’s angle is aiming to get those screens looking as work-friendly as possible, and make the whole thing feel easy and comfortable to use. The displays are separate rather than folding. That’s to allow for more durable glass and to work with Microsoft Pen without denting the screen, according to Microsoft Technical Fellow Steven Bathiche.

The 4:3 aspect ratio on the two 5.6-inch OLED displays is meant to handle the work-friendly part. The idea is to make web pages and documents look readable without weird reformatting, and compare to the same work being done on a laptop or tablet. 

The two 5.6-inch displays combine for an effective 8.1 inches — I say effective because those two displays are still split by a little seam in the middle. Panay says that size is amazing for web browsing, but the clear seam in the middle means it won’t be ideal for big videos, necessarily. For that reason, viewing big movies isn’t part of Microsoft’s Duo pitch, although looking at videos on one screen while doing something on the other definitely is. 

One thing I find interesting about Duo is that it can stand up easily at a ton of angles: At least, the nonworking model I held in my hands does. It feels like a device I might use to watch something on in one screen and take notes on in another. Again, kind of 3DS-like. But that really depends whether the final product feels useful or awkward.

Apps will work, but not all be dual-screen optimized

Microsoft’s core productivity apps — including Outlook, Word and OneNote — work in dual-display modes and can recognize each other to allow information to be easily thrown between apps. That’s similar to the sort of drag-and-drop ideas that are being worked into the iPad’s dual-app multitasking modes. But other Android apps won’t immediately get that extra level of detail.

Google’s core apps, which include Gmail and Drive, will hopefully be optimized for the Duo soon, but it’s unclear when. A few other third party apps are being courted to make Duo-optimized dual-screen Android versions, most notably Amazon’s Kindle app, which will have two-page reading. “The reading experience is crazy,” Panay boasts. “It’s like picking up a book — you turn a page, it goes from the right to the left, and you just fall into it. You fall in love.”

How many others app-makers will come aboard? That’s the challenge with a new form and an operating system Microsoft didn’t even create. The Duo, running Android 10, is a sort of living concept car for future dual-screen apps and devices.

The dual-screen ideas and the way Microsoft handles them in apps will influence where the Surface Neo goes next year. And it may affect what future devices choose to focus on, too. “When we construct those [dual-screen] APIs for developers, we don’t just want them on the duo, “says Panay.” Even on folding screens when it comes to dual screens, we want that API to come in Android so that developers can build for every dual-screen phone. ”

It is unclear, however, whether Google’s plans for dual-screen devices are in sync with MicroSFT, or if a relatively small group of dual-screening and folding phones will expand exponentially before next year.

“I can’t tell you what Google does,” Panay added, “but I believe that if companies want to choose dual-screen or move on, we’re setting basic standards to expand the app, to the right.” . Way to use both of those screens to expand that screen. ”

5G no, big bezel: sacrifice to go to size

I will also get a clear message from Microsoft that this size, for the Surface Duo, is everything. Getting the Duo in a comfortable and compact form means that some features are left out. Not 5G or Wi-Fi 6, as there is currently no battery performance for the size of the battery, according to 16-year-old Micros.ft’s Pte and surface engineer Pawan Davluri. “The 5G has some basics that have to come to life to fit into the 4.8mm design,” says Davluri. “This kind of technology is not there yet. This is something we are actively working on.”

Similarly, the large bezels at the top and bottom of the Surface Duo display, which are clearly not edge-to-edge like other phones, don’t look ideal either. It’s low screen real estate for size. Davluri admits that fitting both batteries and parts into such a slim design was part of the compromise. Microsoft has focused on bezels and display quality over 5G, mood patterns, device size and battery life. “Bezel optimization and 5G, for example, in the grand scheme, I think there are problems solved,” DeVourie added.

The surface duo looks really thin. The non-knocking device I have kept is thinner than the iPhone 11 Pro, which, when opened, is 0.32 inches (8.1 mm). Closed, it’s thicker, but it doesn’t look as heavy as the fold-up Samsung Galaxy Fold, when closed it is 17.1mm thick. And it doesn’t look like the two phones are glued together. It’s more like a book in its dimensions.

The Duo’s all-glass front and rear look sharp, but the design was chosen to improve the antenna reception. Will this duo be sustainable enough? The device uses Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5, but MicroStack won’t make any claims on the reliability of the Microsoft Drop Test. And the duality of simple, tough-feeling survives, we are told to expect “years” of use, but it is not a definite number that can live. Microsoft has promised us, “The Surface Duo Hinge is designed and tested to work beyond the lifespan of the product.”

It’s better, and it’s even better, because a device like this isn’t cheap. Starting at $ 1,399, it’s not far from other premium phones – and is about 2,000 more affordable than the Galaxy Fold. But that’s a lot of money in a world where you can buy phones and laptops combined for even less.

2 screens, but only 1 camera

The Surface Duo doesn’t think about its camera, which is surprising when everyone else is in the phone Many Them. Inside is a single 11-megapixel camera camera, which can be an external camera camera if flipped around the Duo display. The F2.0 camera has some AI and portrait modes, and can shoot 4K video at 30 and 60fps with HDR and slow-motion video. It has no optical image stabilization or any other step-up zoom and focus features that you get in other phones.

I don’t know what the camera will look like, but Microsoft is clearly taking it down as a key feature on the Surface Duo. And in a world where cameras are more focused than ever before, it feels like a strange time.

A special tool in the toolbox

Micro .ft is not going to be a one-gadget-to-everything approach here. Instead it suggests that this is a device that will suit some, but not necessarily for everyone. The idea of ​​special gadgets is not new: our lives are already flooded with smart speakers, smart ches, modular game consoles and tablets that often slide somewhere between phones and laptops.

Panay was hesitant to call the Duo a new device category, as it really isn’t. It is an Android phone. Or, a tablet. “It’s really a five-year discovery … we just have to believe there’s a new category here.”

Microsoft’s argument is understandable, however, especially as a software developer who lives between devices ranging from iPads to game consoles to VR headsets. I remember holding the surface duo of the first wearable before the smartwatch became a thing, or the first smartphone before the iPhone or the early VR headsets before the UL Cools. Dual screen devices need to nail their identities, still.

I also wonder: With VR and AR headsets and glasses (or TVs and displays that can sync seamlessly with your phone) screens can be everywhere and increasingly virtual, what is the purpose of a dual-screen pocket device?

Steven Bathish, a micro .ft technical fellow who leads the Applied Science Group, has a far-sighted view of where devices like the Surface Duo fit. “Everything is best for something and worst for something,” he told me from a place that feels like his home.

“I see a world where you will have more and more basic specialized tools to help you complete the content,” says Bathich. “But they’re going to connect through software and the cloud, so they feel like they’re working together.”

For a company that pushes even the most expensive commercial equipment, such as the ના 3,500 microft. HoloLens Mixed Reality Headset, It is unclear which customers will choose the first surface duo. But the idea of ​​testing one-drive apps and creating a road as a car, where other devices will follow, makes perfect sense. I just don’t know if I want to get on the ship.