Microsoft’s first dual-screen phone, the Surface Duo, released in 2020 to overwhelming negative reviews, because as great as the hardware design was, the device was so buggy it was almost unusable, not to mention it shipped with a very outdated processor. Last month Microsoft released a sequel device, the aptly titled Surface Duo 2, and it brought a lot of promise.
Not only had Microsoft updated the processor to an up-to-date Snapdragon 888, common sense suggests Microsoft, a two trillion dollar company known for making software, must have surely fixed the software bugs after having a year of feedback on the first device.
I’ve been testing the Duo 2 for nearly a month, and sadly not all the bugs have been fixed. But the hardware design and craftsmanship remains as top notch as the first device. When the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 works as intended, it is a game-changing device that I adore.
The idea of a dual-screen phone is not new. ZTE first attempted a dual-screen smartphone in 2017, and two years later, LG made a second screen accessory that can be attached to its phones. In all of these cases, I really liked the idea of being able to run two apps at the same time (one on each screen), but lamented the clunky, problematic hardware. Both ZTE and LG’s devices were thick—about the size of two normal smartphones stacked together.
Microsoft fixed that from the very first go. The original Microsoft Duo was impossibly thin, measuring just 4.8mm in thickness, which means even when folded up, it was still just a hair thicker than a modern smartphone. The Duo 2, because it packs a larger battery, is a bit thicker, but it’s still just 11mm when folded, and 5.5mm when opened up.
The hinge is still perfect: it can rotate almost 360-degrees. It doesn’t take a lot of strength to pry the device open, but the hinge is also firm enough to stay halfway folded in place in any angle.
Each screen measures 5.8-inches diagonally, with a boxy aspect ratio wider than modern smartphones. And because the gap between the two screens is so narrow, the two screens can sort of combine together to form a larger tablet-like screen, measuring 8.1-inches. I say sort of because there is ultimately still a noticeable gap, so watching a video stretched across both screens is not ideal. But running a webpage or word document is mostly fine. I enjoy reading a single article across two screens.
The Duo 2 is powered by a Snapdragon 888 with 12GB of RAM, so performance is mostly fine, but the software is not run as smoothly as typical single screen phones. The Duo 2 doesn’t always recognize when I’m trying to switch orientations, requiring exaggerated hand movements. Apps also sometimes crash.
This is perhaps understandable, because a two screen phone is still a relatively rarity and Android aren’t exactly optimized for this. But these are also bugs that have been here since the first Duo, and Microsoft has had a full year to fine-tune software.
Still, when the software works, the Duo 2 works like a charm. I really enjoy holding the device sideways and use the bottom screen to display an entire keyboard. It sort of reminds me of an old-school hand-held PDA.
The Duo 2 has a triple camera array on its back—the usual wide, ultra-wide, and 2x telephoto zoom setup—but photos captured by it are just average, with poor dynamic range and slow shutter. Microsoft just doesn’t have the experience to build a strong mobile camera, which are increasingly reliant on software algorithms more than hardware.
There is a selfie camera, which due to the device’s form factor comes in very handy, because the Duo 2 can sit like a laptop on a table, this means the selfie camera can be used like a webcam for hands-free video calls. I’ve also taken video calls while browsing through Instagram on the other screen. Battery life on Duo 2 is great, thanks to the relatively large 4,449 mAh battery that can power the device all day.
Ultimately, the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 stands out because it’s a different type of smartphone. It can do things, say, an iPhone just cannot do (example: I can calculate my expenses on an Excel sheet on one screen while having a calculator open on the other screen).
But the device is really expensive, at $1,500. Samsung’s superior folding phone, the Z Fold 3, is only a couple hundred dollars more, and if you’re paying $1,500 for a two screen phone, you might as well pay a bit more for an actual folding phone.
And then there are the bugs, which, considering Microsoft’s vast resources and the price of the device, is frustrating to deal with. Microsoft has promised regular software updates, so we will see if the bugs can be fixed. Still, I’m glad such a device exist, because I multitask often on my phone, and this phone is one of the very best at it.
