Microsoft Surface Duo review: DisplaysĬritics may lament Microsoft’s decision to go with two 5.6-inch AMOLED screens on the Surface Duo rather than one big bendy one, but there are reasons for the approach. The bumper also collects lint like nobody’s business. It’s easy enough to put the case on just be aware that after you do, you won’t want to take it off, unless you’re willing to shell out money for a replacement. I say “apply” because the bumper doesn’t just snap around the edges of the phone it’s a rubbery silicone jacket with peel-away adhesive encircling the inner grooves. However, be sure to take care when applying it. Oh, and one more design oddity: Microsoft is generous enough to include a bumper case in the box with the Surface Duo, which should be industry-standard practice with devices that cost this much. The dual-display design makes the Surface Duo well suited for multitasking or interacting with two apps at once. For how hard Microsoft clearly worked to make the Surface Duo as compact as it is, it’s still unwieldy at times. Thus, you might naturally think to stash it in your back pocket, though I wasn’t comfortable doing that either because of how far the top of the phone stuck out of my jeans. The phone’s exterior is clad in white painted glass with a matte white frame, and all that exists to break that up is the stainless-steel double-barrel hinge and similarly-mirrored Microsoft logo.Īdditionally, given its width (the Surface Duo is seven-tenths of an inch wider than the Galaxy Note 20 when closed) this is not a device that’s natural to carry around in a front pocket. In an age of devices with flexible displays, the Duo has two separate, conventional 5.6-inch Gorilla Glass-shrouded panels with gigantic bezels. The Surface Duo looks dull in pictures, it has to be said. Not only does it have a faster Snapdragon 888 processor, it also packs in a bunch of features the original Surface Duo lacked, like Surface Slim Pen 2 support, and new, more versatile, design. With the Surface Duo 2 starting at $1,499, you want to pick up one of those instead. Of course that will only buy you last year's model. The 256GB model is a slightly more expensive $749. That's over 50% off the original price, and the 128GB model is still available at that discounted price point. It dropped to $1,000 ahead of the phones international release, and dropped down to $699 this past May. That’s because Microsoft is currently focusing on the software of Surface Duo-like devices and the next-gen dual-screen or foldable phone has been delayed.That said, Microsoft has made some hefty price cuts on this phone since the start of the year. We’re not convinced that Surface Duo 3 with the existing design or this ambitious idea would land anytime. Given the recent organization reshuffle and Microsoft’s increased focus on the Android platform, there’s certainly a chance this device could happen. Of course, it’s just a patent and there’s no guarantee it will ever join the Microsoft Surface lineup, but let’s not forget the original Surface Duo initially existed on paper only. At the same time, it will also have fewer problems. The patented Surface Duo 3 could be a durable device with most of the advantages of a foldable phone. In this manner, display devices of the present disclosure can freely rotate through various angles and orientations while also exhibiting substantially uniform and smooth surfaces in various folded and flat orientations to provide a pleasing and high quality appearance and feel to a user,” Microsoft noted in the patent application. “The present examples also provide a consistent transparency and light transmission across the display including the folding portion, along with mechanically robust components. This patented Surface Duo 3 uses a foldable glass with a backplate which uses “backplate slots” that enables folding while avoiding mechanical creases. One perfect example is the Samsung Fold, which has wrinkles and other visual artefacts at the folding portion of the display, and it’s also vulnerable to cracking and other physical damage. While this sounds exciting, we know that devices using a single screen or ultra-thin glass layer with a plastic film have visible mechanical creases.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |