Late last year in October, Microsoft had announced the Surface Duo, the company’s first ever Android device and first-party smartphone (if you can call it that) release in years. What makes the Surface Duo special is its symmetric dual-screen nature and 360° hinge mechanism that allows the device to fold itself shut like a book – to fully opening itself up with two opposing displays. Today Microsoft is finally making the Surface Duo available for pre-order – although availability will be limited to the US.

Microsoft Surface Duo
  Surface Duo
SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 
1x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A76) @ 2.84GHz
3x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A76) @ 2.42GHz
4x Kryo 485 (Cortex-A55) @ 1.80GHz

Adreno 640 @ 585MHz
DRAM 6GB LPDDR4X
Display Dual 5.6" solid OLED with 360° hinge
1800 x 1350 (4:3)

Unfolded 8.1" effective diagonal at 2700x1800 (3:2)
Size Height 145.2 mm
Width 93.3 mm (closed) - 186.9 mm (open)
Depth 9.9mm (closed) - 4.8 mm (open)
Weight 250 grams
Battery Capacity 3577mAh total (dual cells)
Wireless Charging -
Rear Cameras
Main 11MP 1.0 µm
f/2.0
Telephoto -
Wide -
Extra -
Front Camera -
Storage 128 / 256 GB UFS 3.0
I/O USB-C
Wireless (local) 802.11ac Wave 2 Wi-Fi
Bluetooth 5.0 LE + NFC
Cellular (Category 12/5)
DL = 1200Mbps
5x20MHz CA, 256-QAM

UL = 150Mbps
2x20MHz CA, 64-QAM
Other Features It folds
Dual-SIM 1x nanoSIM + eSIM
Launch Price $1399

Starting off with the uninteresting stuff – the internal hardware of the Surface Duo isn’t all that exciting as it features a last generation Snapdragon 855 SoC. Given the device’s early announcement last year it seems Microsoft took a long time to bring the device to market. We’re seeing a standard amount of DRAM and storage space with 6GB and either 128GB or 256GB options. All in all there’s nothing too special about the internals here and are in line with 2019 flagships.

The device’s key characteristic is naturally its symmetrical folding design with two 5.6” 1800 x 1350 resolution OLED screens. Although we call this a folding device, this doesn’t actually apply to the displays as they’re two distinct units covered with solid glass.

Further unique to the design is the hinge mechanism which is symmetrical as well – it allows for a full 360° tilt of the two sides, meaning you can have the device either fully shut, or you can have it fully opened with both screen facing outwards.

Microsoft opted for relatively unusual form-factors here as the screens are each 4:3 – and when opened up it gives you a sort of effective 8.1” diagonal 3:2 surface to work with.

The dimensions of the device come at 145.2mm height in portrait mode, and one side is 93.3mm wide, which opens up till 186.9mm. Each half is extremely thin at only 4.8mm meaning that even when folded it remains a relatively reasonable 9.9mm in thickness.

The device’s 360° folding nature means that the internal screen surface can face completely outwards, and Microsoft took advantage of this for their camera design, of which the Surface Duo only has a single unit. The 11MP 1µm pixel f/2.0 standard wide-angle unit is relatively conservative in specifications, but that’s the compromise that had to be made to fit into a 4.8mm thick chassis and not having the possibility to employ a camera bump.

Microsoft positions the Surface Duo as a productivity device, and its first-party applications such as the Microsoft 365 suite will be optimised for the experience. This seemingly will be the deciding factor as to how the Surface Duo will be received, as it represents quite a niche device market.

The Surface Duo is available for pre-order now at a very high price of $1399, with availability only in the US and compatibility with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, with availability starting September 10th.

The device’s high price and relatively lacklustre specifications will likely result in limited adoption amongst users- and the device in general feels more like an experiment than a product that’s aimed at commercial success.

Related Reading:

Comments Locked

71 Comments

View All Comments

  • TheinsanegamerN - Wednesday, August 12, 2020 - link

    I'm sorry, $1400 for a last gen processor and a device with two large screens and only 3500MaH of battery between them?

    Neat form factor, shame about, well, all the bones underneath the pretty skin. And MicroSoft's terrible support history with ARM windows devices, windows phone 7, 8, 10, and the ARM surface devices like the surface 1 and 2.
  • brucethemoose - Wednesday, August 12, 2020 - link

    Maybe it was massively delayed?

    This really looks like a product that should've dropped last summer, not this one.
  • jrs77 - Wednesday, August 12, 2020 - link

    Biggest problem of this device for me is not the pricetag but the OS.
  • Makaveli - Wednesday, August 12, 2020 - link

    What other OS options do they have?
  • jrs77 - Thursday, August 13, 2020 - link

    I personally was actually quite happy with my Windows Phone, so I would've like to see them go from there.
  • eastcoast_pete - Wednesday, August 12, 2020 - link

    Great concept at a crazy price point. I really like the form factor. So, I hope some of the usual suspects (Xiaomi comes to mind) are inspired by it and come out with a similar product, maybe with a more modern SoC, all at half the price.
  • Vitor - Wednesday, August 12, 2020 - link

    Bulky, outdated soc, small battery for its size and 1399? dafuq Microsoft, that will be a massive failure.
  • Vitor - Wednesday, August 12, 2020 - link

    Seriously, this product actually triggered some anxiety. I cant believe they will release a product with so many glaring flaws for that price.
  • edzieba - Wednesday, August 12, 2020 - link

    Courier lives!
  • damianrobertjones - Tuesday, August 18, 2020 - link

    Courier lived, once upon a time: Toshiba W100.

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now