This week brought us the availability of the Microsoft Surface Duo at $1400 and things aren’t looking great for Microsoft. The Redmond giant’s latest device was met with some criticism from the first reviewers. They’re complaining about bugs, lag and other trouble detailed below.
For the sake of context, the device was unveiled on October 1st 2019 and it seemed DOA back then. That’s because it was announced as Holiday 2020 release. It’s also not a foldable, but rather a dual screen device, much like a Nintendo DS, with a large hinge and Android with a Microsoft launcher. It has a last gen Qualcomm CPU, the Snapdragon 855 and 6 GB of RAM. It does provide two 5.6 inch screens, for a sum total of 8.1 inches of AMOLED usable space.
The problem is that it only has a 3577 mAh battery and also has a singular 11 MP camera, which seems tailored for selfies and involves rotating the device around confusingly trying to get the proper angle to take pics. There’s no redeeming qualities here and to top it all, it lacks the following: NFC, wireless charging, 5G, microSD, audio jack. And even then there would be some buyers, thanks to the software experience and versatility when using Microsoft apps and services.
However, reviewers of the Surface Duo are reporting the following problems:
- status bar icons move
- the keyboard may pop up randomly
- navigation gestures are sometimes ignored
- there are slow downs
- the wallpaper may disappear at times
- none of the screens turns on sometimes when the device is opened
- ocassionally apps stay in Portrait mode even when you rotate the screen
Of course, those are all fixable with a software update, but it’s not a good look for Microsoft’s first Surface phone. And it’s a far cry from the Surface Phone concepts we had back in the days of the Microsoft/Nokia marriage.
