
Microsoft Surface Duo – Dual-screen Android phone - pookieinc
https://www.theverge.com/2020/8/12/21364633/microsoft-surface-duo-release-date-pricing-features-specs
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tabs_masterrace
Kinda like it. Looks like a Nintendo DS to me :) Could be a productivity power
house in a nice compact form factor. I'm not the guy that checks his phone
every 15 mins. but when I"m on a train for a bit, something like this would be
amazing. My question would be if it houses the stylus somewhere? Wouldn't want
to carry that around separately. Price is pretty steep, but about the same as
an iPhone 11 Pro Max with storage option, still one hell of a luxury purchase,
not sure how reasonable this will be these days. Has to be top build quality
and pretty much flawless though.

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jablan
I like it too, but with that price, I'm definitely not a target group. It's a
nerdy device with a luxury price.

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mcintyre1994
Not sure if The Verge have just screwed up the gif, but this looks painfully
slow here: [https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/wJ90NeII7udsc85i4mlHznodfmQ=...](https://cdn.vox-
cdn.com/thumbor/wJ90NeII7udsc85i4mlHznodfmQ=/1200x0/filters:no_upscale\(\)/cdn.vox-
cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21729328/surfaceduoandroidapps.gif)

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slezyr
Even with so low FPS count and quality it's size is 5MB. People should stop
using GIF for videos.

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michaelcampbell
I love the looks of this phone and I think I could make use of the features,
but I'm not $1400-curious. I guess I'm cheap, but I'll be fine with a Pixel 4a
at $350.

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emodendroket
I have a Pixel 2 XL and until the battery starts failing or they stop updating
the software it's hard to see much reason to upgrade. It used to be really
noticeable every time you got a new phone how much faster it was but I think
that's kind of plateaued if you don't use your phone for anything too exotic.

~~~
Roritharr
I'm on the same phone and if I wouldn't have kids I'd agree, but the dropped
frames on video recording and lack of optical zoom make me eyeing the new
Xiaomi Mi 10 Ultra if they decide to make it available in Europe.

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emodendroket
I don't doubt that Xiaomi makes good stuff, but with the current political
situation I'd be hesitant to buy any Chinese Android phone because I'd be
afraid of them getting cut off from the Google ecosystem like Huawei (who also
made great phones and the only smartwatch I actually liked using) did.

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Roritharr
I'm also considering the Samsung Note 20 Ultra for this very reason, but I
really loathe Samsung Software so I'm hesitant.

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emodendroket
Samsung is all over the place; some stuff they make is great and others I rue
having bought.

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swiley
Another expensive android?

Why don’t they just sell a phone with desktop windows on it? That could
actually compete.

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dennisnedry
Microsoft abandoned their Windows Mobile OS years ago.

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pjc50
Yes, but that wasn't desktop Windows. In fact it inflicted some brand damage
on desktop windows, back in the Win8 era, by moving all the new stuff to
Metro.

(I'm not sure there's ever been a proper decent portable/handheld that ran
Real Windows; there's tiny laptops from the Libretto to the GPD Pockect, which
is a nice machine. Or there were handhelds that ran Windows CE back in the PDA
era. And I've seen very cheap 8" tablets. But a phone-size form factor? Not
quite. I suspect the never completely fixed UI scaling is a problem there.)

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emodendroket
Trying to press controls intended for desktop Windows on that tiny screen
would be an exercise in frustration. Trying using RDP software on your phone
and see how productive it is.

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ta17711771
If I have to make two remote desktop connections lasting ten minutes each per
workday from the beach, which machine am I bringing: my phone/this? Or a full
laptop?

Not as obvious a decision for some.

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emodendroket
OK, so coming back to the original point, are you going to want a hotter, more
power-hungry phone for 10 minutes of non-mobile Excel on it?

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brudgers
The _Microsoft Courier_ concept finally after more than a decade.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-
MdI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmIgNfp-MdI)

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tedk-42
Wow the pricing is ridiculous. It's using last year's flagship CPU and has two
screens with a hinge. Be interesting to see how it sells but I'm not convinced
it's a good buy.

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Feolkin
Man, I'd love to get this but that price is steep. I just hate how small
smartphone displays are in general and how constrained multitasking is. Say
I'm chatting with somebody and I nerd a source for something I'm arguing. I
need to switch from the chat app, browse for a while, copy, switch, paste,
keep typing. And if I need more than one, that's a whole lot of switching back
and forth which is fairly slow and tedious and breaks the context I'm in every
single time. Doesn't just go for chatting. Sometimes I'm writing something and
need a reference. Switching back and forth every couple of seconds is
unbearable. If I can get away with it, I'd rather pull out my tablet, but I
also don't always have it with me.

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pavlov
The physical size is close to the much-loved 1990s PDA, Psion Series 5:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_5)

Of course this device is dual touchscreen, so it doesn’t have the tactile
keyboard that made the Psion so popular with writers on the road.

Still, it’s interesting to see a big tech company make another attempt at the
“pocket laptop” form factor.

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cstross
The spiritual successor to the Psion Series 5 is the Cosmo Communicator:
[https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/cosmo-
communicator](https://www.www3.planetcom.co.uk/cosmo-communicator)

Similar size, but has the classic Psion keyboard (it was designed by the same
guy, Martin Riddiford) and runs Android or Linux. As a phone, it has an
external 2.5" touchscreen.

I've got to say that the software lacks polish -- Planet Computers are a very
small firm -- and while the design is an improvement over their earlier Gemini
PDA, it's not a great phone. I have higher hopes for next year's model, the
Astro Slide, which seems to combine the best of the "pocket laptop" and
touchscreen worlds (assuming they get it to work properly):

[https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-
slide-5g-transforme...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-
slide-5g-transformer/)

... Oh, and it's about half the price of the Surface Duo (which looks vastly
more polished but also rather expensive).

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dennisnedry
Just curious, is a user supposed to put the device up to their ear to make a
phone call? Or is the expectation to use a bluetooth headset?

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millerm
Good questions. I was looking for a "phone side". To make, or receive a call
you have to use two hands to open that thing up and use it? Is anti-ergonomic
a design? How can you see who's calling? Even something as simple as the time
we've all had since the 90's? Missed messages? Voicemail waiting? Any type of
control, or info, requires you to open up the tiny laptop? Or you have to
basically wear a Bluetooth headset at all times? Wow, that would be awful.
Even the flip-phones of yore allowed you to see who was calling without
opening the phone and, opening just required a flick of the thumb. Perhaps
there are some indicators under the front/back of the closed body that we just
don't know about?

I'm not being anti-microsoft, but it looks like someone just brought back the
netbook.

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pjc50
So .. is this the first Microsoft Android phone? Or is it something weird that
happens to run Android apps?

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raihansaputra
Full Android. They have a simulator for public already for the past few
months.

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emodendroket
LG makes one like this already, the G8X.

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lostmsu
Yeah, and the specs are basically identical at $400 less.

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ilmiont
Pathetic. I’ve never once thought “oh I know what this phone needs, a second
screen, that forces me to ‘open’ it and makes one handed use impossible.”

I should add I’ve nothing against Microsoft and used Windows Phone / Windows
10 Mobile until the end of 2018. But dual screen devices are dead in the water
I think.

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Aardwolf
Has anyone ever released a two-sided phone, with a screen on each side (so the
opposite idea of one that closes like this, no hinges)? Bonus points if
they're two independent phones but sharing the same battery, e.g. for company
phone and personal phone

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onion2k
Why would you want a device with two screens where you can only look at one of
them at a time? It'd make _a lot_ more sense to have a single screen and a
switch (maybe in hardware?) to toggle between "screen 1" and "screen 2".

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T-A
A low power e-ink screen on one side for reading e-books and the like, an
ordinary screen on the other for video, games and other things which need low
latency and full color. It's been tried a few times but never really took off:

[https://www.eink.com/mobile-
wearables.html?type=application&...](https://www.eink.com/mobile-
wearables.html?type=application&id=3)

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AnonHP
I love the concept and how things flow between the two screens, but it looks
really weird when held to the ear for a call. I don’t like large screens and
this one just seems too large to be called a “phone”...”phablet” seems a more
appropriate term.

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maxbaines
Much like the new IMac 27" look at those bezels. Compare it to the Surface Pro
X, it looks like its from the 2000's

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bluedino
A single camera seems like a drawback.

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slezyr
Why would you need more than one camera?

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zapzupnz
Multiple sensors behind multiple lenses with different focal ranges being able
to take multiple images simultaneously and then stitch them together is how
the back camera works on most modern high end smart phones. Or using each
camera individually for the best photo.

Bonus points for those that employ ML to optimise the result.

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homero
Looks useful for Office work on the go but the price is steep.

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scarface74
Or you could just get any other Android or iPhone and run Office on it.

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dade_
The Samsung Fold and Huawei Mate X makes this thing an anachronism. It reminds
me of a BlackBerry Playbook vs an iPad. How embarrassing.

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the-dude
No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

[https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/IPod](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/IPod)

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dade_
Underpowered CPU, laggy interface, poor battery life. Fail.

Quote me in a year.

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whalesalad
They’ll sell dozens!

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woofie11
Well, there's a few possibilities:

* They'll sell dozens, and everyone will give up.

* They'll sell dozens, iterate a few times, and I'll have a nice device.

* They'll sell dozens, someone else will iterate, and I'll have a nice device.

I think you're right that it will be the first (Microsoft doesn't have much
stick-to-it-ness), but I'm really hoping for the second or third. I really
want a device like this.

I'm definitely not buying a V1 Microsoft device to become a beta tester for
$1400, though. Microsoft devices don't tend to work well until V2 or V3.

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whalesalad
The only people who will buy this device are folks with disposable income who
want a status symbol.

International exchange students from the UAE and HK come to mind.

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woofie11
To the extent that wearable computers in the nineties, large graphic
calculators, or calculator watches became a status symbol.....

This is big, bulky, ugly, but incredibly practical for people who want to get
stuff done.

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rwc
"Microsoft is also using algorithms to predict how to open apps on different
displays. 'There is an algorithm in there that’s very smart and trying to be
predictive,' explains Panay. “If you’re on one screen and you’re invoking a
link, it will fill the other screen."

That's if/then statements. You invented if/then statements.

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wilhil
It reminds me when I was at a user group at Microsoft for the launch of the
new Windows Phone OS...

... The guy gave a long marketing speech about how "beautiful" it was, how
they did so much user research on what people wanted and spent a fortune
developing and using a brand new font for the interface(s).

Then, someone stuck their hand up and said "Is it true that you don't have
copy/paste features yet?"

Why can't people learn... things may be important, but no one cares about the
technicalities... I don't care if this is algorithm, AI, ML... neural network
processing or some other fancy new term...

... just give the user a setting for what screen something should pop up on
and everyone will be happy!

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emodendroket
The iPhone also didn't have copy and paste for a while. And the trade-off with
more options is they're work to maintain and users are confused by them.

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wilhil
Yep - but, the iPhone came from nowhere, and, "no copy and paste" was put out
by Microsoft to say how bad it was...

Microsoft basically took a backwards step from Windows CE and then did the
same years after it was the norm in other systems.

