MICROSOFT SURFACE DUO
Exclusive review of th he intrepid twin-screen phone
PRICE 128GB, $1,399 (US only) from microsoft.com
Folding tablets – or are they expanding smartphones? – are a 2020 phenomena. Some manufacturers achieve the near miracle of bending the screen itself; others are looking at the seemingly easier task of connecting two screens with a hinge.
The Surface Duo is an example of the latter approach, trading off the complexity of bending an OLED panel for an intriguing design that actively promotes dual-screen operation.
The intrigue doesn’t stop with the hinge and screen. This is a Microsoft device running a Microsoft-badged version of Android 10. The mere concept of which is enough to make your head spin.
But here it is, and applause all round because this is the pragmatic solution to a perennial problem: Microsoft gains a gigantic app base, customers understand what they’re using, and Microsoft can help steer the design of two-screen support on Android.
Its efforts are already visible here, with Microsoft adding its own tweaks and user interface controls with the aim of making life easier for us humble users. This, as we shall see, is both a blessing and a curse.
In case you’re already reaching for your credit card, the Duo isn’t for sale in Europe. It’s US-only. I managed to buy this one using the help of a friend in Seattle to handle the order and shipping. It isn’t clear when, or even if, the Duo will come to Europe. Rumours suggest that Microsoft views this as a “v1” device, with work underway on next-generation devices; it might be that this Duo never appears for sale on these shores. But that doesn’t diminish its interest or relevance.
Two in the hand
Should you ever lay eyes on this device in the flesh, the first thought that may strike you is how well built it is. The hinge design is a masterstroke, with a fluid and easy action with just the right amount of friction. The screens are essentially “inside only” for most operations: you open the Duo like a book. If the device is closed, there’s no visible screen. However, you can bend the screens back on themselves to create a normal smartphone-style screen, with the second screen paused on the rear. This is how you operate the device up against your head if you want to make a phone call in the “normal” way. However, I strongly suggest you don’t bother and switch to a handsfree Bluetooth connection as this isn’t a phone to be held to your head.
The only time this orientation makes sense is to take a photo. There’s a single front-facing camera above the right-hand screen, and when you fold the screens back you can point the camera towards the object and view the image on the screen facing you. Which is all lovely, except that the camera performance is so weak compared to rival
top-end phones as to be laughable.
After a couple of weeks, I was starting to question if Microsoft had made the right decision in having a full 360° hinge: I would be quite happy if the hinge was only 180°.
One decision
Microsoft definitely got right is to heavily invest in the screens, which are both excellent examples of their type. A peak brightness of
624cd/m2 is about as good as it gets and they’re tuned to the DCI-P3 colo ur space, where they cover around 91%. Colour accuracy is good rather than great, with an average Delta E of 3.34. Considering how thin this device is when unfolded, I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality – but headphones over Bluetooth will be essential for serious listening.
Another curious innovation is the rubber stick-on “bumper” you can attach round the outer edges. While this spoils the smooth lines, it’s a wise move because the bumper both protects the device and makes it easier to handle. There’s little else to look at on the outside: a USB-C port for charging, the normal power and volume up/down buttons, and finally a fingerprint reader. This proved reliable and quick in operation.
Double down
But all this serves as an hors d’oeuvre to the main course: what’s the Duo actually like to use? Before tucking in, we need to acknowledge that the Duo is a solution to a set of problems that few others have acknowledged. We all like our big smartphones, but even large single-screen devices make it hard to work on two things at once – consider a mundane task such as looking up a restaurant address and then entering the address into Waze. It’s easier on a tablet, especially one that supports split-screen mode, but one thing you’ll notice about an iPad is that after you fold it in two it doesn’t work so well.
As such, it’s the two-screen, two-task operation mode where the Duo excels. All the Microsoft apps have been updated for the Duo – to genuinely useful effect. For example, Outlook in split screen is almost like the desktop experience: the inbox sits on one side, the message view on the other. This allows me to plough through a full inbox at a considerably faster speed than I can manage on Outlook on an iPhone.
I particularly like having Outlook open on one side with Word or Excel on the other, allowing me to make notes from an email. I even found it productive to simply stretch a larger Excel spreadsheet across both screens.
The usefulness isn’t restricted to apps that have been redesigned for twin-screen use. I found it just as handy when reading a PDF instruction document, as I could then send instructions over a messenger app. Or a messenger app and a map. You get the gist. It has truly surprised me how often this works well and how different it is when performing such tasks on my iPhone 11 Pro Max: there, I move to a laptop or large tablet when performing such tasks. With the Duo, this isn’t necessary.
Joining the party
Some third parties are getting into the act too, with Kindle on two screens a very lovely arrangement. The screens are a high enough resolution to be easily read, the page turn operation is a delight and I find having two pages open at once useful.
The challenge for Microsoft – and Google – is that apps must be optimised to make best use of the twin screen. The “hole in the middle” can be an issue for an app that isn’t aware of the hinge, and it’s possible to lose a village on a map if it falls down the gap. However, Microsoft is pushing its gestures and twin-screen support back into the Android stack, and Google has committed to working with these tools to enable better developer support.
The gestures themselves aren’t particularly obvious at first use. Whilst this might seem like a criticism, the same comment can be made about Samsung’s splitscreen capabilities or those of the iPad Pro: each does things its own way and there’s a learning curve. Once I discovered how the gestures worked, I had no issues. It’s possible to switch the UI away from gesture control to the more standard Android buttons, but I’m convinced this would be a backwards step.
A final use for the second screen is to act as a keyboard for the first, simply by rotating the device 90˚. This works effectively and it’s an option I’ve used on a number of occasions to great effect. I was far less enamoured when I tried to use the Surface Pen with this device: it’s supported, but the screen size doesn’t lend itself well to stylus operation, especially compared to a larger tablet.
“One decision Microsoft definitely got right is to heavily invest in the screens, which are both excellent examples of their type”
No flagship
Given the robust pricing, it’s not unreasonable to expect that the Duo should do everything, and do it to a world-class level.
There’s fierce competition in the four-figure phone market, and it’s imperative to get real value from such a device.
A glance at the spec sheet puts the Duo at a significant disadvantage compared with devices such as the folding phones from
Samsung and Huawei, or more conventional devices such as the iPhone 12 ( see p58).
It would be easy to write off the product – to argue that it’s too little, too late, or that it’s a curiosity that doesn’t have a future. The CPU is more than adequate – the graphs on the previous page reveal it to be fast, yet behind rivals – but was released last year. The Wi-Fi is 802.11ac, rather than Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax). It supports
4G, not 5G. There’s neither NFC nor Qi charging. Most of this is down to the Surface Duo’s tortuous development journey, with the move to Android only taking place a year ago, after the Windows development effort failed.
The other negative is battery life, with a 3,770mAh battery lower than rival flagships. It only lasted for 12hrs 5mins in the PC Pro video-rundown test, but note that was with the video running on one screen and a blank screen on the other. You’ll still get through a working day – I found that it lasted for ten hours of active use across a day– but you’ll be reaching for the USB-C cable every night.
From a tickbox comparison perspective, then, the Duo starts from a position of weakness, but I think this would entirely miss the point. The question is whether you’ll truly miss any of the features not found in the Duo, and if that is likely to change in the next two to three years (the likely active life of this phone). So let’s go through them, one by one.
Wi-Fi 6 is a nice-to-have but surely not a must-have. What will you be doing on this device that requires such a high-bandwidth connection? 5G is a similar story, especially as we’re stuck with sub-6GHz rather than mmWave in Europe. I admit that wireless charging would be useful, but surely you can live with a cable for a little longer? Some might argue that the biggest missing feature is NFC, and with it wireless payments, but then we come to the elephant on the wrist: the smartwatch.
The reality is that smartwatches are now becoming good enough to be your primary device. I certainly do more during the day with my Apple Watch Series 5 than I do with my iPhone. I’m not saying that the iPhone is now irrelevant, but my focus of attention is moving to my watch.
Given that move, it could be argued that it’s time to re-evaluate the role of the smartphone in our daily lives. If notifications, health, messaging, mapping directions and so forth have successfully moved to the watch – and in the case of Apple Watch, they have – the smartphone can be considered a more specific and focused device, rather than the go-to do-everything device of the past decade.
Change in mindset
One significant operational change is the sheer delight of closing the screens. Like finishing a book, it allows me to move my focus and attention away from the device. An external facing screen simply entices you to keep looking, to spot the message and information updates that flow into our devices. Curating these through my watch avoids the socially awkward interference of picking up my phone.
However, this highlights Microsoft’s underlying problem: it has the vision, but it doesn’t have all of the components. The combination of an Apple Watch and Surface Duo would be superb, if you could cope with losing the high-quality cameras. But such a combination simply doesn’t work today, and I doubt it’s in Apple’s interest to make it happen with Android devices, either. Nor is there any sign of a leadingedge Android smartwatch from Microsoft – or anyone else. My inelegant solution? I like the
“With the Surface Duo, Microsoft has been brave enough to ask the questions that others are not daring to consider”
Duo sufficiently that I carry it with me, alongside my iPhone.
I’m really looking forward to Microsoft providing updates such as Android 11 – it ships with Android 10 and has committed to three years of support with monthly updates – as well as to seeing how the developer community embraces twin-screen operation. If they don’t, a current standard app works just fine running on one screen, and might work well stretched across both.
For this, I have to applaud Microsoft in its efforts. If you treat it as a weird smartphone then it will make absolutely no sense and, by any logical criteria, will fail compared to a leading modern smartphone from Apple, Samsung or a competitor. But if you get inside the mindset of what Microsoft is trying to accomplish here, there’s much to learn. With the Duo, the company has been brave enough to ask the questions that others are not daring to consider. And to those who say “you would get all this with a tablet”, that may be, but we come back to the key point: it wouldn’t fit into your pocket.
Time to buy?
I ordered the Surface Duo simply to be able to have “Android by Microsoft”, to satisfy that inner, extremely childish urge to scream “I told you so!” at the Steve Ballmer-era Microsoft management. I wasn’t expecting it to make me sit back and reconsider the smartphone as a device, its relationship to the evolving world of smartwatches, and to ask all those questions about operational use, social pleasantries and our reliance on this technology.
If these things give you pause for thought, the Surface Duo is absolutely right for you. If you would like to do more on a pocket-friendly device than a smartphone can deliver, the Duo is worth purchasing – although I’d still wait for an updated version in the hope of a better camera. I just hope that Microsoft has the determination to push forward with this concept and doesn’t abandon it as a mistake.
SPECIFICATIONS
Eight-core 2.84GHz/2.42GHz/1.8GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 6GB RAM Adreno 640 graphics unfolded, 2 x 5.6in AMOLED screens, 1,350 x 1,800 resolution (8.1in 1,800 x 2,700 screen when unfolded) 128GB/256GB storage nano-SIM and eSIM
11-megapixel camera 802.11ac Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5 USB-C connector 3,577mAh battery Android 10 folded, 93 x 9.9 x 145mm (WDH) unfolded, 187 x 4.8 x 187mm (WDH) 250g 1yr warranty