After a long period of leaks and speculation, the Microsoft Surface Duo has finally launched… kind of. It’s up for preorder at $1399 and it will be delivered from September 10th. It was unveiled on October 1st and was always speculated for a holiday season 2020 debut. Over the pandemic came the news that it could have been moved earlier, as far as release goes.
Microsoft Surface Duo is not your typical foldable, as it’s more of a dual screen phone, with a large hinge between. With the news of the September debut we also got a full specs list, which is not exactly surprising. The CPU stays last gen, there’s still a singular 11 MP camera and a pretty modest battery capacity. The weight is actually decent, at 250 grams, seeing how the ROG Phone II is 240 grams.
Here’s the full specs list:
- Display: 2x AMOLED, 5.6 inch, 1800 x 1350 pixel, 4:3 aspect
- CPU: Snapdragon 855
- RAM + Storage: 6 GB RAM + 128/256 GB UFS 3.0
- Camera: 11 MP, f/2.0, 7x digital zoom, 4K@60fps video, EIS
- Battery: 3577 mAh, 18W charging
- Connectivity: nano-SIM + eSIM, 4G, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, USB-C 3.1
- Size open: 145.2 x 186.9 x 4.8 mm
- Size closed: 145.2 x 93.3 x 9.9 mm
There are two OLED screens on board, each with a 5.6 inch diagonal and Full HD+ resolution. The battery on board is expected to offer up to 15.5 hours of video playback or 27 hours of talk time. Surface Duo integrates its camera on the inside above the right side screen. It has a rotating 360 degree hinge and the screens offer support for the Microsoft Surface Pen. We also get Android 10 with a custom Microsoft UI. Office and OneDrive are also here. Sadly, there’s no 5G, NFC, microSD card slot, IP rating and stereo speakers.
I don’t get the selling point here or the appeal of such a product. Sounds like DOA to me.
