Surface Duo 2: Microsoft's two-screen wonder gets another shot at premium phone fame
Phones
Speaker 1: This is a new Microsoft surface duo two, instead of putting a flexible screen in this, as you've seen in like some of the fold devices, the duo has two screens, hence duo this new version of the duo. The duo two makes those screens a little bit bigger. It adds a lot of new camera stuff, especially on the back. And it's a slightly sleeker, more refined version of the first version of the duo that we saw a couple years ago. And we liked, but didn't feel was really practical for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: [00:00:30] Now looking at this new version of the Microsoft surface duo called the as du oh two, it might say to yourself, it looks like the surface du oh one, what's different. You do have to look a little closely. There are however, some pretty big upgrades, but I'll start with the one that everyone cares about first, which is the screen. Now the concept of this device, Microsoft doesn't really call it a phone is that [00:01:00] instead of take a larger display and spreading it out over a screen that curves and folds, uh, like Samsung and some other companies do or making something that just has a big screen and 5g support, like the iPad mini, they have taken it and broken it up into two screens that fit into this little tiny clam shell, almost like an NTEN DS. And it's a cool concept. The first version didn't quite hit it.
Speaker 1: There was a lot of awkwardness with the Android implementation across the two screens and just trying to [00:01:30] get it to do what you wanted it to do a better proof of concept than anything else. This new version does really refine a lot of that stuff. I will say the screens inside are a little bit bigger. It's eight, the 0.3 inches diagonally across both screens individually. Each one is 5.8 inches. And the inside edge of each screen is a little rounded. Now, now that lets them close the gap between the screen. So there's a little less empty space between them. And then when you fold the [00:02:00] system closed and look at it from the side, if you look at just the right angle, you'll be able to see some notifications pop up so you can view them while the device is closed. So you can get a little bar that goes back and forth like this that tells you that there's a call incoming.
Speaker 1: Let's say, if you have your ringer off, uh, you can see the time. Uh, you can see how many missed calls you have. There's not really room from much else, but it's a couple of indicators that you can see with the device closed [00:02:30] inside. It's got the Qualcomm 88, 8 CPU. I mean, that's what you'd expect from a 5g device these days. And this guy supports 5g, both versions, M wave and sub six. So take iPad mini. Now, if you flip the thing over, you may say to yourself, what's this big thing on the back. Why it's a giant camera bump that wasn't there before. That's because in the original surface duo, in order to take a, a front facing picture, you just use a little camera on the inside and to [00:03:00] take a rear facing picture, you would fold one of the sides over, uh, 360 degrees and use the, basically the same camera to, to shoot outward.
Speaker 1: Now there's a natural camera Ray on the back, it's three sensors. You could do, you know, regular telephoto and there's a wide angle and coolest thing about it is how Microsoft has implemented the camera app and the photos app. So you can view both at the same time, so you can hold up the device, take a picture, and then [00:03:30] immediately see a preview of the picture full screen on the screen on the left. Usually you'd have to take your phone, take a picture and then go back and look at it and then go back to the camera and then take another picture. So if you wanna adjust stuff or get a slightly different angle, this is actually really cool. You can also look at all the pictures you've taken on one screen while you, again, you have the camera app open on the other side of the screen, you know, at the very least now when we're only using our cameras on our phones and other devices for so much more, I [00:04:00] attending virtually every meeting we ever go to now having more camera options and better camera hardware, and some of these cool tricks, you know, I think it really counts for a lot.
Speaker 1: Some of the surface duos I saw had a barely perceptible case around them. It kind of fits over the front face of it on one side, and there's a bumper on the, on the other's side. And when you put that case on looks very slim. I didn't even realize where the case until somebody told me, but more importantly, it's got a little spot. So you can take that slim surface pen [00:04:30] and snap it on there, ally. So you can carry the styles around with you because this Def device does feel a little bit like let's say the Samsung galaxy note, which was a big screen, almost fab. It that had a stylist and people really liked having the handheld device and the stylist and being able to use 'em together. So the new surface duo to kind of follows that same idea. You've got this small device, but with a pretty big screen and you can pop it open and pull your stylist off the back and do any of your handwriting or sketching or note taking, uh, just like [00:05:00] you would with a cut up these other fabrics, if you were unconvinced by the original pitch for the surface duo and I'll admit besides being a cool piece of engineering, it was a little bit of a tough pitch.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure these improvements are going to change your mind that said using it just for a little bit and the camera and moving apps around from side to side, it definitely been refined. Uh, it definitely has a bit of a windows 11 feel already, uh, with a bunch of widgets that can go on one screen and you can scroll through, it feels a little [00:05:30] bit like Microsoft's new desktop operating system. So I appreciate that they want these devices to work together. So if you're looking for a Microsoft surface device with an actual folding screen, you're gonna have to keep waiting right now. We are the two screens out.
