A couple of months ago, when I mentioned that my beloved Google Pixel 3a smartphones were nearing the end of their three-year support cycle, I indicated that I’d be transitioning both of my cellular accounts (AT&T for personal use, Verizon for work) to Pixel 4a (5G) smartphone successors. While that remains the long-term plan, at least for Verizon, my AT&T path has already taken at least a temporary diversion to something I’d mentioned a month earlier (and also alluded to two months ago), a first-generation (“OG,” for original generation, to the Reddit crowd) Microsoft Surface Duo:

Mine’s a 256GB carrier-unlocked open box unit, in like-new condition, that I’d bought from BuyDig on Christmas Eve (happy holidays to me!) for $420. While that might seem like a chunk of change at first glance, keep in mind that the original MSRP for this particular model in September 2020 (first shipment date, with preorders beginning one month earlier; it had actually been publicly previewed nearly a year earlier) was $1499, with the 128GB variant $100 cheaper at $1399. Brand new units direct from Microsoft are now selling for $699 (128GB) and $749 (256GB), presumably to clear out inventory in favor of the Surface Duo 2 successor:

Here’s how they stack up spec-wise, both against each other, my current Pixel 3a, the Pixel 4, and the Pixel 4a 5G:

5.96 x 2.76 x 0.32 in (151.3 x 70.1 x 8.2 mm)

5.79 x 2.71 x 0.32 in (147.1 x 68.8 x 8.2 mm)

6.06 x 2.91 x 0.32 in (153.9 x 74.0 x 8.2 mm)

7.36 x 5.72 x 0.19 in (186.9 x 145.2 x 4.8 mm) (unfolded), 3.67 x 5.72 x 0.399 in (93.3 x 145.2 x 9.9 mm) (folded)

7.26 x 5.72 x 0.22 in (184.5 x 145.2 x 5.5 mm) (unfolded), 3.63 x 5.72 x 0.43 in (92.1 x 145.2 x 11 mm) (folded)

Dual 5.6” OLED, 1800 x 1350 pixels (401 PPI), combined: 8.1” OLED; 2700 x 1800 pixels

Dual 5.8” OLED, 1892 x 1344 pixels (401 PPI), combined: 8.3” OLED; 2688 x 1,892 pixels

Let me be clear upfront: no matter the added and enhanced capabilities that the Surface Duo’s dual-screen approach affords, IMHO it wasn’t worth the original $1499 price tag. I’d even go so far to say that the same goes for its successor, no matter the 2nd-generation improvements (more advanced CPU, more system memory, 5G cellular support, enhanced camera, NFC support, Glance Bar, 90 Hz display refresh rate, expanded Slim Pen support, etc.).

But at just over $400, I figured it was worth the investment to see if there was reality behind the “foldable” hype. And surprisingly, the discounted Surface Duo became my “daily driver.”

The Surface Duo has something of a convoluted history. Originally, it was intended to be the launch hardware for Microsoft’s Project Andromeda, a dual-screen-centric operating system successor to the ill-fated Windows Mobile O/S. When Microsoft decided to shelve Windows Mobile in favor of an embrace of Google’s mobile operating system, the Surface Duo team redirected its attention to then-latest Android 10. One problem: Android didn’t yet (or still, for that matter, except for recent betas) have any cognizance of dual-screen, dual-foreground-app or similar configurations, an omission that’s been equally challenging for Samsung (the other notable current “foldable” Android smartphone supplier). To date, both companies have instead had to develop their own Android add-ons. Read any of the launch reviews of the Surface Duo and you’ll therefore encounter no shortage of praise for the hardware, albeit coupled with withering criticism of the software.

My decision to purchase a Surface Duo of my own was driven in part by price but also by timing: per prior public comment, Microsoft was poised to release a significant Android 11-based system software upgrade, after having paused its public update releases the past few months while it internally pivoted away from further Android 10 development. That Android 11 upgrade ended up being a few weeks late, which gave me a chance to first try out what early adopters had been dealing with (still benefitting from around a year’s worth of updates since launch, mind you). The benefits of a dual-screen device became quickly apparent; here are just two of the many improved scenarios I encountered:

But they were balanced against oft-frustrating hiccups. Sometimes, for example, one or both displays refused to power on—or to remain powered on—until I closed and reopened the hinge (and sometimes it took multiple tries). And rotating the handset either horizontally or vertically, if it produced the desired display rotation-and-switching behavior at all, often occurred only after unacceptably long latency. In attempting to discern whether I was encountering bugs, CPU/graphics/etc. performance limitations, a dearth of system memory, or a combination of these, I first dove into the memory usage screen available after enabling Developer Options:

Enabling this has consistently inferred no memory “starvation,” no matter that the Surface Duo 2 has further bumped up the allocation to 8 GBytes. I’ve therefore concluded that what I’d experienced was a combination of software bugs and inefficiencies, compounded by a no-longer-leading edge processor; while the first-generation Surface Duo uses the same SoC as the Pixel 4, keep in mind that in the former case it’s not only driving a slightly higher-res display, it’s driving two of them, each potentially corresponding to a unique foreground application.

I say “potentially” because there’s also the option to have one application span both displays. My results here have been mixed, due in part to a current lack of dual-screen optimized applications and to continued use of an operating system that’s equally non-dual-screen tailored. Take the Amazon Kindle app, for example. If I hold the opened phone in landscape orientation, I get two simultaneous pages displayed, one per screen, like a book. Rotate the phone in portrait orientation, conversely, and I end up with a few lines’ worth of missing text in the ”gutter” where the hinge is located, because Android treats both displays as one big one.

That all said, there have been notable improvements since I started using the Surface Duo, both with the late January Android 11 upgrade (thereby explaining my earlier “what I’d experienced” past-tense wording):

And (particularly) with the follow-on late February update:

At this point, the Surface Duo is essentially bug-free for me, albeit still a bit more sluggish than I’d prefer. And I’m hopeful that Microsoft will going-forward fulfill its earlier “three years of support” promise by bringing now-beta Android 12L (which Google is ironically rolling out in parallel with the Android 13 beta for standard devices) to the platform (some folks have already unofficially done so via hacks, in fact, along with Windows 11!), thereby standardizing Microsoft and Samsung’s currently proprietary dual-screen workarounds, in the process eliminating “gutter” issues, expanding the available suite of “launcher,” camera and other apps, etc.

A few other observations in closing:

What are your thoughts about foldable phones generally and/or the Surface Duo specifically, both in an absolute sense and depending on how they’re priced? Let me know in the comments!

—Brian Dipert is Editor-in-Chief of the Edge AI and Vision Alliance, and a Senior Analyst at BDTI and Editor-in-Chief of InsideDSP, the company’s online newsletter.

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