Surface Duo - does it matter ?

 It's been a long 9 months since I've decided to write and post anything.   

While I'm still a Windows Insider - Windows 10 is pretty boring at this point without much to really report on.  

The catalyst for me to jump back on was the announcement / release of the Surface Duo device.  Part of the double announcement back in Oct of 2019 along with the Neo - of dual screen small form factor devices.

I have to applaud MS for the effort here.  Of all the attempts at dual screen devices from Samsung, Huawei, Motorola and others - the approach MS has taken makes the most sense to me using hinges vs flexible screens.  

It's an elegant looking device and the testing I performed using the emulator platform does show some promise from a general use perspective.

At the same time however a few things stick out.  First is the price @ $1,399 for the 128GB model and $1,499 for the 256GB.  That's pretty pricey - I think $1K might have been a better target and I can see that price maybe becoming a reality by the holiday season or early 2021.

Second is the choice on CPU / Battery.  The CPU is basically a year old Qualcomm 855 model and the battery is small @ 3,577 mAh.  My two year old+ Pixel 2 XL uses a Qualcomm 835 and 3,520 mAh battery.  So can you really power two screens most of the day on 3,577 - I don't think so.  I think MS expects you to spend a lot of time with the device closed.

Similarly capabilities like WiFi-5 & LTE-4 are a little aged and there is NO NFC support - again my Pixel 2 XL is on par with this and does support NFC.  

So while the Duo is an Android 10 OS based device obviously MS included some 14 MS apps like Office, Teams, OneDrive, Note, etc along with the traditional compliment of Google Apps and then some 3rd party stuff like Spotify, HBO Max, etc due to the AT&T initial offering.  

So now to the question posed in the title - Does it matter ?  To me - while this is certainly trailblazing in some aspects - the question becomes - would I buy it.  And unfortunately the answer is No.   Even as a business device - I don't see enough value to warrant the $1400 - $1500 price tag.  

In a way the Surface Duo reminds me of the HP Elite X3 that MS/HP tried at the end of the Windows Mobile era.  A stunning device that maybe influences other OEMs - but a very limited market product.   I would be very surprised if 1M Duos are sold by end of 2020.

I'll also be interested to see how quickly MS supports Android 11 as that release is just around the corner.

For me personally - I'm more interested in the Neo device - but that's still a ways off if it shows up at all.  

I went another route - and recently purchased the Pixel 4a for $349 as a replacement for a 2 yr old+ Nokia 6.1.  I'm a big believer is the mid-range phone device.  The Nokia was great and the only reason for the upgrade is that it won't be supported under Android 11.  

And even though I bought the 4G version of the 4a - it will be fine for the use cases I use it for.   Sure a completely different approach staying with the traditional phone form factor than a foldable - but I believe I would actually get a lot more use out of it.  

Applause and a Good Luck salute to MS for putting this device out there - but I am very skeptical that it will be successful.  Maybe I'll be proved wrong... 

Cheers


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