Microsoft Surface Duo 2 assessment: Duo-over or strike two?

Folding telephones will be the future, however proper now, they’re nonetheless of their infancy. And on this bizarre time interval the place corporations are nonetheless making an attempt to determine one of the simplest ways for a folding cellphone to work, there are two camps: Samsung and others that fold an enormous display all the way down to a smaller, pocketable measurement, and Microsoft, which joins two screens with a hinge to create a digital book-like gadget.

Microsoft’s first try at this, 2020’s Surface Duo, was not excellent. It had a head-turning design and loads of cool issue, however the unique Duo was, to place it bluntly, a sizzling mess. It lacked fashionable smartphone issues like a correct digital camera, 5G, wi-fi charging, NFC, and an up-to-date processor. Even worse, the software program was buggy and irritating to make use of, with frequent crashes, poor contact response, and restricted compatibility in third-party apps for its distinctive dual-screen options.

For this 12 months’s try, the $1,499.99-and-up Surface Duo 2, Microsoft seems to have righted most of the unique’s wrongs. It has an up-to-date processor, refined design, larger battery, 5G help, NFC help, newer software program, and an precise, honest-to-goodness correct digital camera.

But when you get previous all of these spec-sheet corrections, the Duo 2 nonetheless suffers from most of the identical points that plagued the primary mannequin. This continues to be very a lot a piece in progress, one which I can’t suggest anybody shopping for till Microsoft figures it out.

The benefit of the Duo 2 is that it nonetheless has the unique’s wow issue. This is only a flat-out cool-looking gadget and is nearly positive to show heads when utilized in public. The normal design stays the identical: it’s successfully two, full-size, super-thin smartphones joined by a 360-degree hinge. The two halves are barely thicker than final 12 months’s mannequin, however they’re nonetheless remarkably skinny, and their added thickness makes the entire thing really feel extra substantial. It additionally gives room for a bigger battery, which doesn’t have bother reliably lasting me a day. Also, this 12 months you may get it in white or black. My assessment unit is black, however I’m keen on the white mannequin, which hides the fingerprints that acquire on the glass a lot better.

The hinge may be very good — it’s easy but agency, so it will probably maintain its place nevertheless you need it, and it makes it simple to modify from utilizing two screens to only a single display. The sides of the screens that meet the hinge have a curve, making it potential to see them by means of the hinge when the Duo 2 is closed. Microsoft is making the most of that house to show restricted notifications (missed calls, messages, battery degree, and quantity degree, however no third-party apps), but it surely’s nonetheless not as handy as a display on the surface of the cellphone can be. I’ve additionally pinched my fingers within the hinge when opening the cellphone quite a few instances because of the curve — I’m not damage, simply embarrassed.

The screens are barely bigger now — 5.8-inches every, successfully an 8.3-inch display when mixed — and so they have a 90Hz refresh price for smoother interactions and scrolling. They are nonetheless OLED panels, which give punchy colours and deep blacks, and I didn’t have any points viewing the screens outdoor in brilliant mild. Their barely bigger measurement doesn’t really make the footprint of the Duo 2 any bigger than the primary Duo — the ugly bezels above and beneath the screens at the moment are barely smaller.

Yet the Duo 2’s distinctive two-screen design makes it so much wider than regular smartphones. It’s tougher to suit right into a pocket, and it’s too huge to comfortably attain throughout the display together with your thumb. The Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 3 has a further display on the surface of the cellphone, and whereas that display could also be just a little small for consolation, it’s a a lot simpler gadget to make use of in a single hand for fast duties and suits in my pants pockets simpler when it’s closed.

The Duo 2 is simply actually exhausting to make use of rapidly or with one hand — that’s the primary takeaway right here. It’s not the type of cellphone you may whip out of your pocket to pay for one thing or snap a pic; all the things is rather more belabored. Using the NFC chip to purchase a snack with Google Pay requires opening the cellphone, unlocking it, folding the left display again, after which tapping the cellphone on the reader. It’s not precisely fluid, however hey, final 12 months’s mannequin didn’t even have an NFC chip, so child steps it’s.

Microsoft made another small however apparent tweaks to the exterior {hardware}. The fingerprint scanner is now built-in into the ability button and the USB-C charging port is centered on the correct half of the cellphone, which is likely to be simpler to make use of with sure charging docks. Sadly, the Duo 2 nonetheless doesn’t help wi-fi charging, which is an unlucky omission at this worth. It additionally doesn’t have any type of water or mud resistance score, one thing that Samsung has been in a position so as to add to its folding telephones this 12 months. You’ll wish to watch out — that’s quite a lot of cellphone that may’t get moist.

Last 12 months’s Duo had a awful, single speaker; the Duo 2 now has a louder, clearer dual-speaker system. It makes watching video extra gratifying and it’s simpler to listen to speaker cellphone or video calls, however the audio system should not practically as good as those on Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 3.

The Duo 2 works with Microsoft’s numerous Surface Pens (bought individually), together with the brand new Surface Pen Slim 2, for pen enter. It doesn’t help the Pen 2’s haptics, such as you get with the brand new Surface Pro 8 or Surface Laptop Studio, however the writing expertise with the brand new pen is a lot better than it was with the older fashions. The firm can also be promoting a case that covers the entrance of the Duo 2 and allows you to retailer and cost the Slim Pen or Slim Pen 2 by means of a magnetic attachment. The magnet is robust — the pen isn’t going to only fall off — however you do must watch out when sliding the cellphone right into a pocket to not dislodge it.

Unsurprisingly, pen enter works greatest with Microsoft’s personal OneNote and Sticky Notes apps. In different apps like Evernote, palm rejection and inking will not be pretty much as good.

The final huge new {hardware} function is the brand new triple-camera system on the again of the correct display. It’s comprised of a 12-megapixel, f/1.7 huge angle; 16-megapixel, f/2.2 ultrawide; and a 12-megapixel, f/2.4 2x telephoto digital camera. There are night time and portrait modes and you may shoot 4K video as much as 60fps.

The digital camera housing stands out from the again of the cellphone, like many different cellphone cameras do, which will get in the way in which if you attempt to fold again the left facet and use simply the correct display. So Microsoft cleverly angled the housing so the left display sits flush towards it. It doesn’t fold as flat as the primary Duo on this place, however this can be a high-quality compromise.

Microsoft can also be utilizing the 2 screens to its benefit within the digital camera app to indicate you captured pictures on the left and your framing on the correct. It’s simple to rapidly see a full-size picture proper after you’re taking it.

But past that, there aren’t many optimistic issues to say about this digital camera. For starters, due to the Duo’s design, you may’t take pics with out opening the cellphone totally, and it’s very awkward to attempt to do it one-handed. The digital camera additionally hunts for focus so much, is sluggish to seize pictures, and is usually simply not very nice to make use of.

Image high quality is a low level, too. Pictures are over-sharpened and flat, low-light pictures have plenty of watercolor noise discount and little element. While it’s definitely an improve to the whole lack of a correct digital camera system within the first Duo, the Duo 2’s digital camera is hardly aggressive with telephones at its worth level and even a whole bunch of {dollars} much less. Google’s $500 Pixel 5A runs laps round this digital camera for a 3rd of the value.

Despite these frustrations with the {hardware}, there are completely some cool issues you are able to do with the Duo 2’s distinctive kind issue. The two screens make it far simpler to run two apps on the identical time in comparison with split-screen modes on different telephones or iPads. You actually simply open one app on one display and the second on the opposite and increase, you’re in multitasking bliss. I used to be capable of name in to a Zoom assembly on one display and observe alongside in a Google Doc on the opposite display with out lacking a beat or feeling like I ought to have taken the decision from my laptop computer. I can simply see my calendar once I’m responding to an electronic mail asking for a gathering, or I can mainline two social media feeds on the identical time when doomscrolling by means of one simply isn’t sufficient.

Those are all issues you are able to do on different telephones or tablets, however the Duo 2 makes it a lot simpler to multitask in that vogue.

There are limits to what you are able to do. Neither Microsoft’s personal Edge browser nor Chrome will let you open two web sites facet by facet, so if you wish to examine two websites, you need to use two browsers.

You can “span” a single app throughout the 2 screens, however the apps that work greatest in that mode are primarily made by Microsoft, like Outlook, OneNote, and the Office suite. Most Android apps will simply stretch themselves throughout the screens in an ugly approach, with a large hole within the center the place the hinge is. Video is especially unhealthy when spanned throughout the 2 screens — you’ll wish to follow turning the cellphone on its facet and simply watching one thing on one of many screens in panorama. You can simply tent the cellphone to prop it up on a desk or desk — no further kickstand wanted.

Microsoft well labored with Amazon and Google to help the Kindle and Play Books apps on the twin screens, so if you span them you get one web page on every display, a digital facsimile of a ebook. A brand new function within the Duo 2’s software program (which Microsoft says will finally be coming to the unique Duo) is the power to set an app to auto span each time you open it — so at any time when I open the Kindle app, it routinely takes over each screens. It’s maybe my favourite factor to do with a Duo and is extra gratifying to make use of than an precise Kindle.

The unique Duo launched with Android 10 and had numerous bugs. Many months later, it has acquired quite a few updates, but it surely’s nonetheless on Android 10 and nonetheless has most of the identical bugs. (Microsoft says it’s going to get Android 11 earlier than the top of this 12 months.) The Duo 2 is launching with Android 11 and the corporate guarantees three years of updates, together with month-to-month bug fixes and safety patches. But it stops wanting committing to a particular variety of Android OS platform updates.

The software program on the Duo 2 is undeniably higher than it was on the unique at launch, and even the place the primary mannequin is immediately after many bug repair updates. It’s quicker, doubtless due to the Duo 2’s newer processor and extra beneficiant quantity of RAM, and it’s extra dependable and predictable. It has extra options, just like the aforementioned auto spanning mode and hinge notifications, plus fundamental high quality of life issues like computerized darkish mode and night time mild modes for the show.

But it’s nonetheless in tough form in quite a lot of methods and feels incomplete. The greatest concern by far is a well-known one to the Duo line: poor contact response. Loads of my faucets on the display simply aren’t registered — I’ve to hit an icon twice to launch an app or ship a message. Typing on the keyboard is especially irritating as a not-small proportion of my faucets are ignored, slowing me down vastly. Even when writing with the pen, the display will miss strokes, making my already unhealthy handwriting look even worse.

Microsoft says it has not seen these points itself, however I spoke to various different reviewers who’ve been testing the Duo 2 and so they all shared my expertise. It’s baffling that such a core expertise on a touch-based gadget isn’t flawless.

There are different options lacking, like faucet to wake when the cellphone is open, or any type of always-on show. Maybe these options don’t all the time make sense on the Duo 2’s kind issue, however they’re simply extra examples of belongings you surrender, like simple one-handed use, with a purpose to have a tool like this.

It’s simple to see the potential within the Surface Duo line. You can dream up every kind of various methods you’d put two screens to make use of, get extra work completed, and dwell sooner or later.

But it doesn’t take lengthy for these goals to return crashing all the way down to actuality. Between the bugs and inherent awkwardness of the shape issue, the Duo 2 is only a troublesome gadget to dwell with each day, very similar to its predecessor. Despite Microsoft addressing most of the omissions of the primary era — a correct digital camera, NFC, twin audio system, 5G, present processor — the Duo 2 nonetheless looks like a secondary gadget, one thing you carry alongside your main cellphone for taking footage, paying for issues, and normal cellphone stuff.

If you do desire a futuristic gadget that straddles the road between cellphone and pill and has pen enter, you’ll be higher off with the Samsung Galaxy Fold 3, which has a greater multimedia expertise; can be utilized simpler in a single hand; and much fewer bugs. Or possibly you simply wait, in spite of everything, this section continues to be very a lot in its infancy.

At $1,500-plus, all the things in regards to the Surface Duo 2 is a tall ask. You might accomplish a lot of the identical with an iPad Mini alongside your cellphone for a 3rd of the value. If the primary Surface Duo felt prefer it was 50 p.c full, the Duo 2 is probably possibly 75 p.c of the way in which there. I can see the potential. But it doesn’t dwell as much as it, sadly.

Photography by Dan Seifert / The Verge