The combination of Microsoft apps and Microsoft Launcher have made using the Duo a pleasure 99% of the time. Microsoft still has to iron out some issues with dual-screens and Android, which supposedly will improve with the arrival of Android 11 (hopefully arriving later this year). The only issue I have is that occasionally you can't be fully certain that the phone will behave the way you think it will when you switch between screens, change postures, rotate, or move apps around. I can say the Duo has been mostly great on the software front, with good performance and only a handful of noticeable bugs (only a few more than my Note 20 Ultra, at least). Since then, Microsoft has been fairly regularly about releasing patches and firmware updates, which have seemingly improved things considerably.Īs someone who didn't witness the Duo first-hand when it launched, I can't comment on exactly how far things have come. Launch-era Duo was plagued with a myriad of flaws, issues, and software-related bugs that detracted from the experience, and stability and consistency were real issues for early adapters. Surface Duo currently runs Android 10 with a very gentle coating of Microsoft layered on top and Microsoft Launcher as the default home screen. Surface Duo Nine Months Editorial (Image credit: Windows Central | Zachary Boddy) For me, at least, the Duo is a solid one-day phone that didn't have me constantly reaching for a charger. To my genuine surprise, I never worried about running out of juice, even with hours-long solitaire sessions, social media usage, and gaming. The Surface Duo can't be considered an endurance champion by any stretch of the imagination, but a relatively smaller battery combined with two high-resolution screens meant I fully expected the Duo to struggle to last a full day. Even without being a modern powerhouse flagship under the hood, the Duo still holds on to its title as "multitasking king."īattery life joined performance by soundly destroying my expectations. I do lament the lack of a high refresh rate or eye-scorching max brightness coming from my Samsung Galaxy Note 20 Ultra, but the Duo kept up enough that I didn't mind.Īnother pleasant surprise was how the Duo's "outdated" spec sheet (don't worry, I'm not here to throw a bunch of numbers at you), featuring an aging two-year-old processor and a middling amount of RAM for multitasking compared to modern smartphones, managed to more than keep up with everything I threw at the Duo, including regularly running two apps at a time and quickly switching between different apps. I found that colors are plenty vivid and contrast is great, and I never thought the Duo's screens weren't "sharp" enough with their suitably high resolution. While perhaps not as fancy as the top panels from Samsung and flagship devices from other companies, the screens are more than good enough for how I was using the Duo. Despite its unorthodox shape and size, and its slightly hefty weight, the Duo is also surprisingly easy to handle and even hold in one hand (although you'll practically need to use your other hand actually to use it). The Duo is still comfortable and immensely satisfying to open and close, from the incredible hinge to the gentle "clack" when you snap it shut. I was immediately struck by the alluring elegance of the Surface Duo's hardware.Īfter weeks of using the Duo as much as I can, some things haven't changed. Source: Zachary Boddy | Windows Central (Image credit: Source: Zachary Boddy | Windows Central)
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