Star letter
It’s 5am and I’m sitting in my lounge re-reading Jon Honeyball’s review of the Microsoft Surface Duo ( see issue 315, p42). I’m typing this email on my Nokia Android phone, while my Surface Duo is back in its box, waiting for me to return it via my local Covid-compliant courier.
I was the last to leave the Windows Phone world for Android. I hated Android. However, four years and a fairly steep learning curve for a 50-year-old IT pro later, I’m now a convert. Why? In short, because I can group a load of apps by purpose into a single folder – “Office”, “Shopping”, “Media” and so forth – on my homescreen or apps screen.
How is that relevant to the Surface Duo? Well, Microsoft has decided this feature isn’t needed and so have removed it from the Android OS. It presents an OS more akin to the Android of old, rather than version 10. Even Apple has realised that people like this feature. Not Microsoft, though.
This device cost over £1,300, for which I could instead buy the latest iPhone or Android handset. Such a large investment in Microsoft tech was a big leap of faith. I can only congratulate Microsoft on getting one thing right: its 60-day no-quibble returns policy. Neil Cole
Editor-in-chief Tim Danton replies:
That’s an interesting point, and I hope/expect Microsoft to update that feature in the future. Now that the Surface Duo has been released in the UK, I took a fresh look at the device ( see p71) and it’s safe to say that I’m not convinced that all the positives of having dual screens are outweighed by the negatives.