The Microsoft Corp. Surface Duo smartphone is displayed during a product event in New York, U.S., on ... [+]
After the collapse of Windows Phone, which spawned some impressive but flawed devices, you’d be forgiven for thinking Microsoft has no real route - or reason - back into selling smartphones. The Surface Duo changes that.
Microsoft says the Duo isn’t a phone, despite very clearly being a phone. We can dismiss the “new category” classification as marketing guff, but the dual screened nature of the device does make it somewhat unique. LG, of course, has launched a similar two-display phone - but one of the displays is an optional add-on purchase rather than a core part of the experience.
What Microsoft appears to be offering is a phone that’s based entirely around two displays that oscillate between acting as one-single screen and two separate ones depending on your current task.
This is what makes the Duo exciting. The promise of what it can do and the questions around whether or not it can actually, practically, pull it off.
The promise is providing the bigger screen experience, with all of the benefits of dual-display functionality, in a smaller device that isn’t compromised by a somewhat awkward foldable screen/hinge (like the Galaxy Fold). Also the promise of new apps that are specifically designed for this split-screen phone that aide creativity and productivity in a genuinely useful way, rather than pretending to. Microsoft successfully tweaking Android to have a hint, a soupçon, of Windows’ desktop dexterity would be a huge, huge win too.
There’s a sort of no-nonsense air to the Duo. It’s a foldable phone without the flexible display. It’s offering a shortcut to the functionality that the Fold, Razr and others offer without the snazzy screen- and honestly, I’m OK with that. That attitude should be carried throughout the device. Forget the gimmicks and focus on the essentials - if there’s a cost saving from not using flexible screens, pass it on to the consumer. Two displays? Make the battery abnormally large and turn it into a battery life powerhouse. That sort of thing. The Duo can be the no-nonsense, affordable, productivity focused answer to the more glamorous and expensive foldable phones.
There are unanswered questions that pierce this fantasy, though. Will developers actually build apps for this specific device, and will existing apps work on a dual-screen display? Will a customised version of Android work nicely or be a glitchy, buggy, UX nightmare? Can you ever have anything remotely close to the dexterity of desktop on mobile?
Somehow, Microsoft has managed to land itself back into a situation where its next flagship phone will be defined by the apps that may or may not exist, and may or may not work. We’ve been here before.
Either scenario promises to rock the boat. If it doesn’t work out, Microsoft has another expensive app-driven mobile disaster on its hands, but if it does - then the company will have reshaped the market and added something genuinely innovative to the increasing pile of smartphones. Microsoft-will close off 2020 with something exciting, however the Duo turns out.
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