A sequel that’s better than the original

What a difference a year makes.

When Microsoft first unleashed its not-a-smartphone, not-a-tablet Surface Duo into the wild in the fall of 2020, the world was in the midst of a very dark time. The on-the-go productivity habits which normally saw business types commuting to and from the office with a variety of devices, working long days, taking power lunches, and Slacking from the gym and airport boarding gate had pivoted sharply to a new work-from-home normal.

The Duo as Microsoft had intended it — a multitasking mobile workstation — was an alien in this brave new world.

That’s not to say all of the Duo’s problems were situational. As with many daring tech experiments, it definitely had its fair share of software hiccups. Those issues were largely due to the novelty of the software powering its two separate but connected displays. Oh, and there was also the added one-two sucker punch of its underwhelming camera and incredibly high price tag.

Fast forward one year later, and the Redmond-based company is back with another stab at its dual-screen Android foldable, aptly named the Surface Duo 2. And this time around, the working world may just be open enough to embrace this bold, prosumer device.

With a starting price of $1,499, however, it’s not only firmly in bank-breaking territory, it’s also $100 more expensive than its predecessor was at launch.

So is the Duo 2 a case of lessons learned? Let’s find out.

The same but different

At a glance, you’d be hard-pressed to tell much of a difference between the original Duo and the new Duo 2. (Well, that is so long as you don’t look at the considerable camera module on back.) That signature Moleskine-like notebook design with its Gorilla Glass-coating, prominent hinge, and silvery Microsoft logo on front is still present here.

The power button — which now doubles as the fingerprint sensor — and volume rocker live on the right edge of the device, much like before. The USB-C port also occupies the same space at the base of the right screen, while the SIM tray has been relocated to just below the left-hand screen.

To be clear, it’s a good thing Microsoft mostly left the design language intact: The Duo 2 exudes luxury and seriousness. It practically screams “executive realness” when you lay your eyes on it. Which is why, in addition to 128GB and 256GB options, Microsoft has added a larger 512GB storage configuration, and bumped the RAM up to 8GB for all models.

It’s also why Microsoft is only offering the Duo 2 in two inoffensive, professionally appropriate colorways: The standard Glacier white and a new Obsidian black option.

Looks can be deceiving, however, as there are plenty of internal and external changes here to celebrate.

Two screens are better than one.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

For starters, there’s a Snapdragon 888 powering the device and bringing along both sub-6Ghz and mmWave 5G to the Duo 2. For reference, that’s the same processor you’d find in other leading flagship smartphones like the Galaxy S21 series, Galaxy Z Flip 3, and the OnePlus 9.

The dual AMOLED displays have gotten a bump in size and smoothness, going from 5.6 inches on the OG model to 5.8 inches on the Duo 2, with a corresponding increase in resolution to 1344×1892. As a result, when you unfold the Duo 2, you’ll now be greeted by an 8.3-inch display. Those unfolded displays, by the way, are also slightly thicker at 5.5 millimeters.

The Duo 2’s displays aren’t the only thing that’s chunked up — the device itself has packed on some weight thanks to a considerably beefy 4,449mAh battery. At 284 grams, it’s not excessively heavy in the hand, but if you’ve had any experience with the first Duo, you’ll for sure notice the new heft here.

The camera is good. I repeat: The camera is good.

But perhaps the most striking design departure from the original Duo model is the new and quite obtrusive triple-lens camera module on back. Yes, you read that right: Three lenses! Microsoft certainly took criticism of the OG Duo’s underwhelming single-lens camera to heart and responded by beefing up the Duo 2’s imaging prowess.

I’ve never been so happy to see such a chunky phone camera.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

So, here’s what you get:

Rear

• 12MP wide-angle lens with f/1.7 aperture

• 12MP telephoto lens with f/2.4 aperture and 2x optical zoom

• 16MP ultra-wide-angle lens with f/2.2 aperture and 110-degree field of view

Front

Some other key things to note about that new camera module: You can shoot up to 4k60 video, compose Portrait mode shots with adjustable depth, and even take low-light shots with a new night mode.

She’s got the look.
Credit: joseph volpe / mashable

Truth be told, if you remember the camera on that first Duo, then you know there was only room for improvement here. And improve Microsoft did! The Duo 2’s camera app has even been redesigned to take advantage of its dual-screen nature. Now you can easily preview shots on the adjacent screen as you take them which, it turns out, is a real crowd-pleaser.

Literally. I brought the Duo 2 with me to document my friend’s participation in the 2021 NYC Hot Sauce Expo’s cocktail competition and more than one nosy onlooker commented on how neat the feature was.

This is what winners look like.

Credit: joseph volpe / mashable

Try it, you might like it.

Credit: joseph volpe / mashable

So does this new triple-lens array mean the Duo 2 now has all the photo wizardry of a Pixel or an iPhone? In a word: No. But you can at least now comfortably take shots for the ‘Gram without anyone throwing some side-eye your way. In fact, you may even get some compliments because the photos are pretty good.

It was a very good day…

Credit: joseph volpe / mashable

… for 2x zoom.

Credit: joseph volpe / mashable

Some shots appeared more washed out than I would have preferred and portrait mode, in particular, seemed to be hit or miss with its background blur. Apart from that, however, I didn’t really find much to not like. Night mode was suitably impressive, although in very dark situations it did produce shots that looked more like a Matisse painting than a photograph.

More like a Matisse.
Credit: Joseph volpe / mashable

Now you see it, now you don’t

So, that’s one egregious pain point of the original Duo that Microsoft has effectively remedied with the Duo 2. But what about its other pesky Achilles’ heel? You know what I’m talking about — the lack of an exterior notification panel.

Well… Microsoft came up with a solution for that. And it’s a clever one, too, although I’m not entirely sure it’s a win.

It’s called the Glance bar and it lives in between the hinge when the Duo 2 is folded. Essentially, this is just a “peek view” of one of the curved interior screens which can display missed calls, text messages, battery charging level, and volume level.

Blink and you’ll miss it.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

If you’re wondering whether the Glance bar plays nicely with third-party apps like Gmail, Twitter, Instagram, and Slack, the answer is, sadly, no. At least, it’s a no for right now. Microsoft did note that third-party app compatibility is on its roadmap for future Duo 2 updates, so keep those fingers crossed.

For now, it’s unfortunately not all that useful — at least it wasn’t for me.

To even view those fleeting notifications (which time out after a few seconds), you first have to position the Duo 2 so that the hinge is facing you, which is not an intuitive way to rest the device on a surface. The Glance bar’s also at a weird angle, making it hard to read the number of calls and texts. And if you’re not paying attention when those notifications come in, you’ll need to resort to picking the Duo 2 up and pressing the power button to trigger the Glance bar. At that point, you may as well just open the darned thing up.

An always-on display of some sort would definitely help the Glance bar here. That said, I still believe Microsoft should just turn its logo on front into the notification window. But that’s just me.

Smooth sailing

When I tested the Duo last year, it was immediately apparent that the device’s Android software was a bit rough around the edges. Multitasking would occasionally cause one of two onscreen apps to freeze up, swapping postures sometimes had the effect of marring video playback quality, and a troublesome visual distortion would appear from time to time which only disappeared when I’d power off the display.

With the Duo 2, I’m happy to report that all of the bugginess that accompanied Microsoft’s first foray into the dual-screen Android world is gone. In fact, throughout my testing, I only ever encountered one minor issue where my screen froze while using the camera and I had to reboot. That’s it. Otherwise, this thing hums along at a 90Hz refresh rate thanks to that Snapdragon 888 inside. You’ll notice a very slight hesitation when you’re navigating the device’s many postures as well as app orientations, but it’s nothing that’ll have you complaining and chucking the Duo 2 at the wall in disgust.

I’ll take this over FaceID or an in-display fingerprint sensor.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

One of my biggest gripes from last time around was the placement of the fingerprint sensor in a recessed groove just below the Duo’s power button. This had the unintended effect of becoming my pinky finger’s favored resting place while in Compose mode; it also had the unintended effect of causing said pinky to accidentally trigger the power button and shut off the display. Mercifully, that’s no longer an issue as the sensor’s been moved to the power button. I’ve never had any issue unlocking the Duo 2 — it’s fast and responsive — and I kind of wish I had this fingerprint sensor on my other phones.

All-day juice and then some

The great thing about most modern-day, high-end mobile devices is that we’ve finally gotten to a point where all-day battery life isn’t just some marketing nonsense and is, in fact, the truth.

It keeps going and going…
Credit: molly flores / mashable

That’s exactly what you’re getting with the Surface Duo 2. I used this thing pretty heavily while assisting my friend throughout the day at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo. I took nonstop photos and videos, regularly browsed Twitter and Chrome, navigated to the venue using Google Maps, and sent a bunch of emails and messages. By the end of the day, the Duo 2 was down to 26 percent from a full charge. Not bad.

Assume the position(s)

The Surface Duo 2’s entire raison d’être is that it can be folded into a variety of what Microsoft calls “postures.” There are five of these postures in total — Book, Compose, Single Screen, Tent, and Peek — and each has its own specific use case, though some definitely prove way more useful than others.

Compose

By far, my favorite of these postures is Compose mode which orients the Duo 2 much like a laptop. It’s perfectly suited for endlessly scrolling through an app like Twitter (which just so happens to be my personal tech addiction).

Just open the Duo 2 up, flip it on its side, and enjoy that fullscreen scrolling experience. You can even type on the lower screen in this mode to compose tweets, DMs, or emails.

The best way to bang out a tweet.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

There’s one other pretty fantastic thing that you can do in Compose mode and that’s gaming.

This being a Microsoft device, there was bound to be some synergy with the Xbox brand and that comes in the form of the Xbox Games Pass app. Thanks to the 5G modem in the Duo 2, you can enjoy streaming games from the cloud on the top screen while using touch-based controls on the lower screen.

Is this a perfect replacement for portable console gaming? No, you’ll want to hold onto your Switch. But, I’m not mad about it, either! I played Streets of Rage 4 and Nier Automata on the Duo 2, and managed just fine. Whether you’re commuting or bored at Grandma’s or even just waiting at the boarding gate, the Duo 2 and Game Pass will definitely help to pass the time.

Book

Book mode is what you’ll likely use the most, though. And it’s pretty self-explanatory. This is where you get to really flex your multitasking muscle by dedicating one screen to one app, like Twitter and Pocket, or Authenticator and any app with 2FA enabled. If you’ve got an app combo you really dig, you can even create an app pair shortcut to auto launch them from the homescreen.

This mode also happens to offer up my favorite typing experience as the keyboard is split across the two screens. I won’t lie — typing in book mode gives me strong BlackBerry-keyboard vibes because I can actually message on a mobile device without typos. I miss that.

Tent

Look how far we’ve come.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

As was the case last year, Tent mode is essentially the same, trusty eat-chips-in-bed-with-the-Duo-2-propped-up-on-my-belly-or-pillow-while-watching-Netflix mode.

It’s made expressly for those lazy mornings and moments just before bed when you want to take in some Squid Game (or, in my case, The Great British Baking Show) before drifting off to sleep. No complaints there. Oh, and sure, maybe you’ll also want to plop this on your tray table while in flight.

Single Screen

Ah, one-handed mode which, erm, actually turns out to be something you need two hands to use.

Seriously, don’t bother. The single screen is just too wide to be useful without two hands. You’d really only use this posture to make calls and, let’s be real, it’s not like anyone ever really puts a phone up to their head to talk anymore anyway.

Besides, if you’re trying to use the Duo 2 like a candybar phone then you should probably not buy the Duo 2 and just get a candybar phone.

Next!

Peek

I honestly had forgotten this was even a thing. And now that I’m remembering it, I actively hate it.

Essentially, its function is to show you the time and whatever pending notifications you have when you open the Duo 2 just so. However, I almost always open the Duo 2 too far to trigger peek mode which effectively renders the posture moot.

Microsoft, may I suggest you do away with this one entirely for the eventual Duo 3?

“We’ll make it better the second time around”

(Yes, I really did just reference the theme song to that old TGIF mainstay Step by Step to close out this review, but that’s because it’s true.)

Microsoft took a risk a year ago. It bucked the bendable screen trend and made a device — an Android device, ffs — with two connected screens and a 360-degree hinge in the hopes that our digital ADHD (in combination with our workaholism) would find favor with it and its many use cases. The Duo wasn’t necessarily a fail but more so a fumble.

That’s not the case with the Duo 2. This thing is fancy. It’s an app multitasker’s dream. It’s got enough battery to power you through your power-brokering day. It’s got all the Google and Microsoft apps you likely subsist on already for work and play. And it’s got a pretty good camera. Minus that Glance bar (and some questionable postures), what’s not to love?

A multitasker’s dream device.
Credit: molly flores / mashable

OK, the price.

Look, $1,499 is a steep barrier to entry. And just like last time, it’s a lot to ask. But here’s the thing: This is a mobile workstation — it’s not a mobile phone. I fully get that now. I wrote part of this review on the Duo 2 while commuting to Mashable’s office and I was pleasantly surprised by the experience.

If you want an iPhone, go get an iPhone — but don’t whine to me about pricing because those things are crazy expensive, too. It’s oK if this isn’t for you. It’s likely not a good fit for a lot of people.

For the people that the Duo 2 does appeal to (and I’m looking at you Type A personalities), the cost and form factor make a lot of sense. So if you’re an ambitious professional who’s in the market for this kind of multi-use device, then I’m pretty sure the price tag won’t make you flinch.