The Microsoft Surface Duo is a smartphone I have not tested yet – but based on what I know, it has already worried me. It’s something like the new growth of folding phones in that it can fold and flip, and it runs Android 10 just like the Galaxy Fold. It also demands a sky-high price like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Galaxy Z Flip.
But while phones are pushing the boundaries of what a display can do, and charging prices to match, you won’t get that with the Surface Duo. Instead, you get a device with dual-screened with giant edges that has a version of Android covered with a heavy coating of Windows. That’s fine – many Android phones have personalized skins – but the Duo is first a Surface device and an Android one second, that’s for sure.
Compared to a same-priced flagship device like the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, the Surface Duo is already not stacked. If it’s a surface, why does it not have the latest processor? If it’s a phone, why not use it with one hand? Let’s take a closer look at the issues I’ve already seen in specs, design, and capabilities.
MicrosoftThe Surface Duo may fold, but it’s not a foldable one.
Surface Duo specs: Falling short
The problems start with the specs, and compare them to the Galaxy Note 20 Ultra. Even on paper, Surface Duo does not look so good:
Surface Duo
Dimensions (filled in): 145.2 x 93.3 x 9.9 mm
Screen: Dual 5.6-inch PixelSense Fusion AMOLED, 1800×1350, 401 PPI
Processor: Snapdragon 855
FRAME: 6GB
Storage: 128GB / 256GB
Camera: 11MP, f / 2.0
Battery: 3577mAh
Galaxy Note 20 Ultra
Dimensions: 166.9 x 76.0 x 8.8 mm
Screen: 6.9-inch WQHD, 3200×1440, 120Hz, 496ppi
Processor: Snapdragon 865
FRAME: 12GB LPDDR5
Storage: 128GB / 512GB
Front camera: 40MP, f / 2.2
Behind the camera: 12MP ultra wide, f / 2.2 + 108MP wide, f / 1.8, OIS, + 48MP telephoto, f / 3.5
Battery: 5,000mAh
The Note 20 Ultra is not only much better than the Surface Duo, it’s also $ 100 cheaper. Plus, you get 5G, NFC, Wi-Fi 6, and wireless charging, none of which is available on the Surface Duo. And if you want to use the Surface Slim Pen to take notes, it will cost you an extra $ 145. That is a terribly high bar for entry into a world that is nowhere in the vicinity.
MicrosoftThe Surface Duo can run apps side-by-side, but many Android phones can do that.
Surface Duo design: Feel bad
The design of the Surface Duo is really nice. It has an impressively thin glass-and-metal construction that resembles a sturdy notebook, and a 360-degree hinge that looks extremely sturdy.
That’s good, because you’ll be opening it up a lot. With no outside screen, every time you want to use your Duo to check a notification or the email that just arrived, you will need to remove and unlock it from your bag or wallet, like the old phones feature.
That design might work for a clamshell laptop like the Surface Laptop 3, but it’s inconvenient for a device that needs to double as your phone, especially one that costs $ 1400. While Samsung has improved on the original Galaxy Fold with a larger outer screen on the Galaxy Z Fold 2, Microsoft’s Duo makes no such attempt to be versatile. Android has solved the problem of unlocking phones and lighting screens with always-on displays, but the Surface Duo ignores that. There’s not even a small display on the front like the Galaxy Z Flip.
MicrosoftIf you want to carry the Surface Duo in your pocket, you will need a large one.
Do not forget the camera. Apart from the not yet unknown image quality, you will need to fully open your Surface Duo to start shooting. That is a multi-step and multi-second process that gets in the way of a quick shot. Where every other phone maker has device keyboard shortcuts to access the camera, Microsoft has made it harder to use the thing that most people reach for their phone to do.
Even the biometrics fall short. While Microsoft demonstrates the Duo’s enterprise-level security features, including a ‘custom unyanized Extensible Firmware interface’, it has no biometric camera. The actual locking and verification of the device is left to a fingerprint reader on the side of the device instead of the Windows Hello face recognition system, which is more secure than a fingerprint and could tap into Android’s BiometricPrompt API like the Pixel 4 does. There is enough space in the edge for it.
Surface Duo capabilities: Android fear
The Surface Duo’s experience will likely be colored by its hybrid Windows Android experience. Microsoft has rolled out the new dual-screen device to work with the company’s ecosystem of apps and services. As a PC setting with multiple monitors, the monitors are meant to work together or separately. As Panos told Panay de Verge, “There’s an algorithm in there that is very clever and tries to be predictive. If you sit on one screen and you call up a link, the other screen will fill.”
That does not sound anything other than LG’s Dual-Screen Case for the Velvet, however, a phone that costs half as much as the Duo and 5G have. In fact, none of what the Surface Duo does is all that novel. Picture-in-picture, drag-and-drop, side-by-side apps are all available on other Android phones, such as the Microsoft Launcher and Office apps.
There is also no guarantee that the Android experience will be a premium. Sure, Microsoft’s apps will all be optimized for the dual-screen experience, as will a few others, such as the Kindle reader. But what about the thousands of other Android apps we use?
As we have seen on Chromebooks or even Android tablets, Google Play apps are packaged in an environment that is not specifically suited to them less than ideal. Benefits for multitasking may not be there for most apps. Not one of Microsoft’s product shots shows an Android app, which is already running. Very well get developers to support one device amidst a sea of less demanding competitors. And while it’s great that Microsoft guarantees three – year updates for the Surface Duo just like the Pixel and Galaxy phones, these are basically table tasks for a $ 1400 phone. Do you imagine that surface users were only guaranteed three years of Windows security updates?
MicrosoftThere’s more than enough edge on the Surface Duo for a better biometric camera.
Not enough tablet, not enough phone
Microsoft does not position the Duo as a competitor to other top-android Android phones – on its site, Android is mentioned only twice – but at $ 1,399 it should be more than a portable tube for Office apps. Once the novelty disappears, the Duo will be measured on the strength of its capabilities, and there are many that it cannot do.
MicrosoftThe Surface Duo has a nice build and a nice hinge, but that may not be enough.
Whether it’s being classified as a phone, a mini-tablet, or anything else entirely to usher in ‘the next wave of mobile productivity’, Duo feels like a step backwards for both the Surface line of products and Android smartphones . Where folded phones attempt to merge two devices, smartphones and tablets, the Surface Duo does not really add anything to the foldable conversation. With a litany of challenges seemingly driven by design, Microsoft will have a hard time convincing people that the Surface Duo is a useful addition to their workflows for Android and Surface.
Update 12:40 pm: News added that Microsoft guarantees three-year Android updates.
