When Microsoft’s then-Chief Product Officer Panos Panay took to the stage andunveiled the original Surface Duoin October 2019, I was elated.
For the first time since the release of the originalSurface PC hardwarein 2012, it felt like Microsoft was on a creative hardware streak. The company was seemingly hungry to innovate, with a bullish desire to orient the smartphone market in a new direction.
The Surface Duo was a unique product – both then and now – with its dual-screen form factor, its use of Google’s competingAndroidoperating system, and its focus on productivity-driven use cases.
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Despite excellent build quality, an attractive physical design language, and razor-thin dimensions, the Surface Duo started life from a rocky vantage point. The era ofbook-style foldable phoneswas just kicking off, and both consumers and product reviewers eyed Microsoft’s dual-screen vision with skepticism.
Unlike other foldable smartphones, theDuo(and later, itssecond-generation successor) featured a large hinge down the middle of its two screens, and lacked an external cover display altogether. In a world where flexible OLED panels, uninterrupted internal real estate, and external displays were becoming the norm, the Surface Duo increasingly came to be seen as a pariah.
To add fuel to the fire, Microsoft botched the initial Surface Duo roll out from a software standpoint – early builds of the company’s bespoke Android skin were unresponsive, bug-ridden, and entirely unrefined, putting a damper on the product line’s launch.
While these early software woeswould be largely sorted out, it was too little, too late. Try as Microsoft did to spread the word of dual-screen smartphones and their merits, the tech giant ultimately pulled the plug on its Surface Duo line without ever launching athird-generation productonto store shelves.
Surface Duo
Microsoft’s first-generation dual-screen smartphone, which features a foldable design and runs on the Android operating system.
Surface Duo 2
Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 is the company’s second-generation dual-screen smartphone, with larger displays and improved cameras over its predecessor.
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 vs Surface Duo: What’s changed?
Microsoft has a new version of the Duo - so how does it differ from the original?
Microsoft’s decision to ax the Surface Duo line was shortsighted at best
Now, the Surface Duo and its younger sibling, the Duo 2, feature prominently in theMicrosoft Graveyardof killed-off products and services. The tech giant’s dual-screen smartphone ambitions were unceremoniously laid to rest, despite the previously strong-held conviction that two screens are indeed better than one.
“I think we’ve seen what dual-screen use brings, and we’ve tested thousands and thousands of scenarios with thousands of people. We measure so many different things. We measure the brain activity. We measure how people feel. We ask thousands of questions, and we have an incredible user research team, human factors team, from an inclusive design standpoint,said Panay in a Vergecast interviewduring the launch window of the original Duo.
Microsoft may have lost faith in multi-screen mobile setups, but I remain a strong believer in the form factor. Intuitively, the compartmentalization of individual tasks within their own distinct spaces makes all the sense in the world. That’s the reason why I (and many others) prefer dual monitor setups overultra-wide setups– the negative space acts as a demarcation, improving multitasking and reducing cognitive load.
Microsoft may have lost faith in multi-screen mobile setups, but I remain a strong believer in the form factor.
This dual-monitor paradigm of the PC world translates incredibly well over to mobile: individual Android apps are able to ‘do their thing’ irrespective of one another, and without falling into the pitfalls of clunkysplit screen software solutions. The Duo’s center bezelis a feature and not a bug, and it makes for a productivity environment that runs circles around competing foldable phones currently on the market.
If things had played out differently, and Microsoft had doubled down on its dual-screen Duo ambitions, I firmly believe the company would have carved itself a chunk of the foldable phone market in due time. We’ve seen the likes of Google – a fellow software-first tech titan – use its deep pockets to fund massive advertising campaigns, brute-forcing itsPixel hardwareinto the public eye.
Microsoft knows that two screens are better than one, and it needs to develop the confidence to blast its revelation both near and far.
Microsoft has a long and storied history within the mobile computing scene, from Windows CE, to Windows Mobile andWindows Phone, and plenty more along the way. If the company wants to reestablish itself in the notoriously cut-throat handset market, it needs to do so by offering a unique product that stands out from the crowd. The solution is clear: Microsoft knows that two screens are better than one, and it needs to develop the confidence to blast its revelation both near and far.
Microsoft Launches Surface Duo 2 - 2nd gen folding productivity machine
Microsoft has updated its Duo smartphone/table device
