Microsoft Surface Duo
This first iteration is a curiosity rather than a must-buy, despite the classy and innovative design
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PRICE 128GB, £1,124 (£1,349 inc VAT) from microsoft.com/uk
This isn’t déjà vu. We have indeed already reviewed the Surface Duo ( see issue 315, p42), with Jon Honeyball buying a US version on launch. It’s finally arrived in the UK, so with five months of software updates it’s time to see if Microsoft has ironed out the creases to justify a £1,349 launch price that made all of us at
PC Pro wince in unison.
What hasn’t changed is the hardware, which remains gorgeous: two slim servings of glass and screen connected by a beautifully engineered hinge. This is one of those rare times when I wish PC Pro had sound effects, as when you close the Duo there’s a life-affirming thunk that’s reminiscent of a luxury car door.
It’s a slender 9.9mm thick when closed, but thrust the Duo into a jeans pocket and you notice how much wider it is than a normal phone. This also means making calls feels odd, placing such a wide object against your ear, but its speaker is great and your voice will come through clearly – although with some echo, according to my test subjects.
So, is it worth all the fuss to enable the Duo’s key ability: to display two screens at the same time? Microsoft is keen to emphasise how much more productive this will make you. For example, you could put the Duo on a table and fold it like a laptop, with the top half acting as a screen and the bottom half as a keyboard. It works, but only if you use the Microsoft SwiftKey keyboard in Swype style.
Or perhaps you’re doing some research and want a web browser open on the left screen and OneNote on the other. Or be watching live sport on a top screen with your Twitter feeds below. This ease of switching between top/bottom and left/right is one of the Duo’s most compelling features, and in general Microsoft has done a good job of making navigation intuitive.
However, there are still signs that this isn’t the finished deal. For example, sometimes the keyboard doesn’t appear when you expect it to, or it does but doesn’t fill the full width of the screen.
Another issue: how the Duo works when the two screens combine to form what Microsoft describes as an “8.1in tablet”. This not only exposes the width of the hinge mechanism, with a 6mm gap between the screen edges, but also Microsoft’s odd decision to pretend the gap doesn’t exist. So, if you’re watching a YouTube video with a button in the middle of the screen then it doesn’t show the button. I found this so irritating when watching sport, with much crucial action not shown, that I gave up.
That’s a shame, because the AMOLED screens are tuned to the DCI-P3 colour space and that means punchy, rich colours that are perfect for displaying films. I measured a peak brightness of over 500cd/m2, and you’ll rarely struggle to see what’s onscreen.
“You could put the Surface Duo on a table and fold it like a laptop, with the top half acting as a screen and the bottom half as a keyboard”
Another sign that you’re buying a first-generation device, aimed at early adopters who are willing to put up with imperfections, is that it doesn’t have the snap-to-attention speed I associate with a phone using a Snapdragon 855 processor. This may be a two-year old chip but it remains fast, as do the accompanying Adreno 640 graphics. Perhaps it’s the effort of driving two separate screens, perhaps the perceived slowness of the screens’ 60Hz refresh rate when we’ve become used to phones such as the Oppo Find X3 Pro ( see opposite) with 90Hz and 120Hz displays. Either way, this doesn’t have the speed of a flagship device.
Similarly, the 11MP camera is laughable by comparison with rivals, while it’s stuck on 802.11ac Wi-Fi and 4G. Battery life proved fair at 17hrs 49mins in our video-rundown test, but that’s with a single screen; when I used both, it dropped to 12hrs 46mins. You’ll be charging the Duo each night.
Then we come to this phone’s £1,349 price. That’s for 128GB of storage (there’s no microSD slot) – if you want 256GB, you’ll pay £1,449. No doubt Microsoft took a sideways glance at the £1,799 that Samsung demands for the 256GB Galaxy Fold2 5G – which it hasn’t been brave enough to send in for review – but that machine is faster, includes a true foldable screen and has far superior cameras.
What sweeteners does Microsoft offer? Surface Headphones? Microsoft 365 thrown in? Nope: all you get is an extra three months on its standard £80 annual fee for Microsoft 365 Family. Be still my beating heart.
It’s almost as if Microsoft wants to put people off buying this first-gen Duo, and despite its innovations I can’t recommend it at such a crippling cost. Wait for version two, and hope that Microsoft both solves the OS teething problems and offers a more realistic price.