Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review: Vastly improved and still flawed
Our Verdict
The Microsoft Surface Duo 2 offers improve performance and cameras than the original. But foldable devices like Samsung's Milky way Z Fold 3 offer a better full-screen feel than this dual-screen device.
For
- Big boosts to processor and cameras from the first Surface Duo
- Optimized apps take advantage of both screens
- Elegant pattern
- Thin body
Against
- More expensive than showtime Surface Duo
- Full-screen experience marred by dissever display panels
- Camera bump juts out from phone
- Prominent bezels
Tom's Guide Verdict
The Microsoft Surface Duo 2 offers amend operation and cameras than the original. Only foldable devices like Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3 offering a better total-screen experience than this dual-screen device.
Pros
- +
Large boosts to processor and cameras from the first Surface Duo
- +
Optimized apps have advantage of both screens
- +
Elegant pattern
- +
Thin torso
Cons
- -
More expensive than kickoff Surface Duo
- -
Full-screen experience marred by separate display panels
- -
Photographic camera crash-land juts out from phone
- -
Prominent bezels
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 specs
Starting cost: $one,499
Screen size: Dual 5.iii-inch AMOLED (1344x1892) with 8.3-inch full-screen mode (2688x1892)
Refresh rate: 90Hz adaptive
CPU: Snapdragon 888
RAM: 8GB
Storage: 128GB | 256 GB | 512GB
Rear camera: 12MP wide (f/1.7); 16MP ultrawide (f/two.2); 12MP telephoto (f/2.4)with 2x optical zoom
Front camera: 12MP (f/2.0)
Battery size: 4449 mAh
Size: 5.vii ten 3.6 x 0.43 inches (airtight): 5.seven ten 7.3 x 0.21 inches (open)
Weight: 10 ounces
The Microsoft Surface Duo 2 looks to right some of the original dual-screen device's wrongs by modernizing some of the phone'due south specs. Gone is the aging processor, replaced by a current Snapdragon 888. There'south 5G connectivity, too, and multiple cameras this time around instead of a single lens that pulled double duty for both selfies and sweeping vistas.
These changes at least get the Surface Duo 2 in the same ballpark equally other flagships, though some of Microsoft's design decisions keep it from competing with the best foldable phones from Samsung. There's also the lingering debate over who actually needs a telephone with expandable screens and whether Microsoft's arroyo is the mode to get. This Microsoft Surface Duo two review looks at how this latest phone tackles those questions.
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Microsoft Surface Duo ii review: Price and release engagement
The Microsoft Surface Duo ii goes on sale Oct. 21, with a starting cost of $i,499 for the 128GB model. Upgrading to 256GB of storage costs you an additional $100, and at that place's a $1,799 512GB version that's listed as out-of-stock at Microsoft equally of this writing.
To put the Surface Duo 2'south price in context, information technology'south $300 cheaper than the starting price of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3, only $500 more than Samsung'southward other flip telephone, the Milky way Z Flip three. The Flip was the commencement foldable phone to cost less than $1,000, and the Surface'due south price proves that dual- and flexible-screen devices remain a premium item.
We haven't heard which telephone carriers will be offer the Surface Duo 2, simply we'll update this review with that information as it becomes bachelor. The phone is bachelor unlocked through both Amazon and Best Buy.
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review: Design
Whatever misgivings people had about the specs on the original Surface Duo, at that place were few complaints about the build quality on that phone. So information technology's skillful to see that Microsoft isn't trying to reinvent the wheel (if wheels can unfold to reveal dual screens).
Like its predecessor, the Surface Duo features 2 glass panels that come up together on a pair of very sturdy hinges located at the top and bottom of the phone. Because the edges of the Surface Duo 2 are then shine, opening the phone takes a little practise — I had my best success placing my thumbs on both side of the Duo and pulling apart — but once it's open, those hinges proceed the screen in identify. They're also flexible enough to go along the Surface Duo 2 open in different positions, including a tented view for watching videos and with the panels open up a total 360 degrees so that they're lined upwards flat confronting each other.
I tested the Obsidian version of the Surface Duo 2 and that black surface really picks upwardly fingerprints, and then keep a cloth handy. Yous tin likewise become the Surface Duo 2 in Glacier.
The front of the telephone features a Microsoft logo. Because that's a simple square, I'll occasionally forget which side is up and try to open the Surface Duo from the incorrect side. The back is smooth, too, relieve for a rather prominent camera crash-land.
If the Surface Duo 2 has a design flaw, information technology may well exist that bump which sticks out farther than most phones. When I endeavor to slip the Surface Duo 2 into the pocket of my jeans, that camera bump usually gets caught, requiring me to practice a little bit of wiggling to get everything to fit.
And then over again, the Surface Duo 2 isn't the sort of telephone one hands slips into 1's pants pocket. At 5.7 x 3.6 ten 0.43 inches when airtight, this device is meant to live in a glaze pocket or a handbag.
Open the Surface Duo ii up and the width expands to 7.three inches while the phone itself is a mere 0.21 inches thin. If you lot've got the specs of the original Surface Duo handy, you'll notice that's a little thicker than before. In that location's no official explanation why, only the original phone was to thin to support NFC coils for tap-to-pay support, and this new version now offers that.
Microsoft came upwardly with a nifty trivial pull a fast one on for the hinge area when the Surface Duo ii is closed. That's where Microsoft has put a glance bar that lights up when y'all've got incoming calls and text messages. My complaint here — the glance bar doesn't remain lit and then if you weren't looking at your phone, you'll miss the notification. The glance bar also lights up as you lot charge the telephone to show y'all what pct of accuse the Surface Duo has.
Unlocking the phone is equally easy as using the fingerprint reader embedded in the ability push on the correct side of the phone (the same panel that contains the photographic camera array). I found the fingerprint reader to be fairly authentic and far plenty removed from the book rocker to avoid accidental touches.
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review: How information technology compares to Galaxy Z Fold 3
It's incommunicable to talk about the Surface Duo 2 without comparing it to Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold three, currently the all-time foldable phone bachelor. The 2 phones accept unlike approaches — the Milky way Z Fold 3 opens up to reveal a continuous seven.6-inch brandish while the Surface Duo 2 brings together to split up panels for an 8.three-inch work area. Only both these devices are offering the same value suggestion — go a tablet-sized screen in a device that'southward meaty enough to carry around.
Considering the Surface Duo 2 offers more screen when opened, it'southward much wider than the Galaxy Z Fold 3. But Samsung'southward phone is taller and thicker, even when information technology'southward opened.
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review: Display
As I've mentioned, the Surface Duo 2 is a dual screen phone and so that 8.iii-inch workspace is really two dissever 5.8-inch AMOLED panels each offering 1344 ten 1892 resolution. When the telephone's open, that resolution is additional to 2688 x 1892.
Both panels off 90Hz refresh rates, and while that's non the 120Hz variable refresh rate that the Galaxy Z Fold 3 boasts, it still means pretty smooth scrolling.
The twin displays on the Surface Duo 2 are fairly bright, hitting 672 nits on a lite meter. That outshines the 424-nit result from the Galaxy Z Fold 3'southward interior display, though information technology's not as bright as phones similar the Galaxy S21 Ultra (821 nits) and the iPhone xiii Pro Max (1.038 nits when Adaptive Brightness is enabled).
Colors felt a little muted when I watched the Dune trailer on YouTube until I cranked upward the brightness. That's when the sands of Arakis took on more gilded hue. Likewise, the Nightmare Before Christmas on Disney Plus benefitted from maxing out the display then that the creatures of Halloween Town weren't obscured by shadows.
Information technology was watching those videos that actually cemented my master gripe with the Surface Duo 2. You lot're really non watching videos on an 8.3-inch display. Rather, your best viewing experience comes when you lookout a video on either one of the v.8-inch panels, and that's not as expansive as you might retrieve, specially given the rather thick bezels surrounding the viewable surface area of the brandish.
Oh, yous can drag an app to the heart of the Surface Duo 2 and aggrandize it into a total-screen mode that stretches across both panels. But there'due south a gap between the two screens, and while Microsoft says it's non as prominent as it was on the original Duo, that nevertheless means a long strip running through the middle of Jack Skellington's face that wouldn't be there on a more conventional brandish.
Some apps, like YouTube, are optimized for the Surface Duo's 2 screens, though this ways that the video appears on one panel while thumbnails of other videos appear on the other. Your best best for watch videos is to swivel the two screens into a tent mode and sentry your program on i of the screens. Even then, the unconventional aspect ratio of the Surface Duo displays can lead to some odd stretching and cropping. A soccer friction match I streamed on Paramount Plus, for instance, had its edges trimmed off when viewed in full-screen manner.
Microsoft Surface Duo ii review: Dual-screen experience
If the Surface Duo 2 isn't ideal for watching videos or gaming — and information technology'due south non unless those apps have been optimized for a dual-screen device — then what is Microsoft's smartphone good for? The reply is the same as it was for the original Surface Duo — multitasking.
The all-time use case for the Surface Duo is to run 2 apps next on each of the phone's panels. That way, yous can keep a annotation-taking app open while researching topics in a mobile browser, or you tin can accept a chat app while referencing a document from Microsoft'due south Part suite of apps.
As earlier, the Surface Duo 2 supports app pairs, in which you lot can tie together two apps to launch at the same time when tapped. My Surface Duo review unit featured a pre-assembled pair of Microsoft OneNote and the Border browser, but I was able to easily set up i of my ain with Gmail and Chrome, just by pressing and holding ane of the app icons and then selecting Group to option its pair.
App pairs should make it easy to jump into whatever work y'all need to perform on the Surface Duo 2, though the feature remains a flake glitchy. When I was using the phone for awhile and went to launch an app pair, sometimes the app tied to the left panel of the telephone wouldn't appear, while the right panel did. The missing app would prove upwards in the recently used apps tray, but not on the display itself. Quitting apps or restarting the phone would accost the problem, but it seems similar a pretty annoying glitch.
You lot can access apps in full-screen mode by grabbing the bottom bar that yous usually use to leave an app and dragging information technology over to the center of the two screens. (If yous want to switch which panel an app appears on, merely keep dragging until the app shows up over there.) If the app hasn't been optimized, it will aggrandize to fill up both screens, which gives you a bigger work surface area, albeit one with that aforementioned gap running downwards the center where the 2 panels meet. I'll have the visible crease on the Galaxy Z Fold 3 over that, thank you very much.
Fortunately, in that location are optimized apps for the Surface Duo 2 that take advantage of both panels simultaneously. In Teams — yes, Microsoft's video chat app has a prominent role on this telephone — you can see a video of your fellow coming together participants on 1 screen and the presentation on the other. Editing photos from the Camera app puts the controls on a unlike screen from the image then that yous can clearly see the changes as they're being made.
Third-party apps have been optimized, also, and Microsoft includes a few bundled onto the Surface Duo 2. TikTok is present, with i screen showing videos in full screen mode while the other offers previews. Gameloft'southward optimized several games similar Asphalt nine, which puts the controls on the lesser panel when you're property the Surface Duo in portrait orientation. The experience is OK, through having the controls so removed from the game display takes a little getting used to.
If at that place'south an issue here, it'south that in that location's no way of knowing which apps are optimized for the Surface Duo 2's screens and which ones aren't, brusque of dragging them to the middle of the device and finding out which ones open in both panels and which merely expand to fill up the entire viii.3-inch workspace.
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review: Cameras
Your days of getting past with but a alone 11MP camera for all your photos every bit you had to on the Surface Duo are over. The Surface Duo 2 turns to a more conventional triple lens setup, with a 12MP wide photographic camera serving as the master lens. To that, add a 16MP ultrawide angle shooter and a 12MP telephoto lens supporting a 2x zoom. Those aren't world-chirapsia specs, only they at least allow the Surface Duo 2 to compete on more than level footing with the best camera phones.
In addition to the hardware changes, you get a dedicate night mode along with low-light and HDR multi-frame photo capture. In other words, Microsoft has put together a far more capable camera phone — at to the lowest degree on newspaper.
The results in the real world look pretty good, as well. While this shot of a fountain and the mosaic backside information technology is a little nighttime in the Surface Duo ii's rendering, it's a much better handling than what the Milky way Z Fold iii produced, as Samsung's foldable phone over-exposed the scene. Other colors, like those ferns in the foreground are excessively brightened; the Surface Duo 2's shot tackles those plants with more realistic tones.
Switching to the ultrawide angle lens on both phones to bring in more of the background, this time it's the Galaxy Z Fold 3 that makes the scene look a lilliputian nighttime than it was. Every bit a issue, the Surface Duo 2 makes those gray, brown and silverish tiles look a lot more than distinct and the shimmer in the blue tiles backside the sunflowers is more credible.
You can't really meet it in this side-by-side comparing but the Galaxy Z Fold captured more than of the surrounding scene — those lamps are almost completely contained in the Samsung film, while the Surface Duo 2 cuts them out. That's considering Samsung'due south phone offers a wider field of view on that particular camera — 123 degrees vs. 110 degrees on the Surface Duo 2.
To test out the Surface Duo's zoom lens, I stood beyond the room and zoomed in at 2x on a bookshelf to see if the titles came through conspicuously. They really didn't — there'south some noticeable distortion i you focus in on the volume titles, and the entire prototype is pretty dark. Things look much brighter in the Galaxy Z Fold 3'south shot, and text is well-baked and legible.
Indoors, we see how the phones approach the remnants of a pizza my daughter and her friend tore into. (The wine canteen in the groundwork is mine, concerned onlookers.) The Surface Duo 2 produced more natural looking colors, but at the expensive of a rather dull looking image. In contrast the Galaxy Z Fold 3 cranked up the warmth — nigh excessively so — only the pizza looks a picayune more appetizing in the latter shot.
The Surface Duo 2'south promised improvements in low-light photography don't really show up in this instance. Perhaps the orange lights illuminating the Halloween decorations on our porch overwhelmed the Surface Duo, but everything is bathed in that light. The Galaxy Z Fold 3'south shot is more balanced, and although in that location'south an orange tints from the lights, the skeletons and skulls don't look like they're coated in Tang.
Turning to portrait mode, the Surface Duo 2 does a apparent job with this picture of my daughter. The groundwork blur is certainly stylish, though it did take hold of some of her shoulder on the correct. Only the picture is well lit even though we took it in a shadow. The Galaxy Z Fold 3 produced a much darker photo that washed out features like the freckles on my daughter'due south face.
Every bit for the Surface Duo two's 12MP forepart camera, it didn't touch the beam of sunlight hitting my confront every bit I snapped a selfie. The event is an interestingly lit shot that makes my face look a lot ruddier than it actually is. The colors on the Samsung photo are more balanced, even if you have the same problem with overly aggressive confront-smoothing that we saw in portrait mode. (Note that this comparing uses the under-display camera on the Galaxy Z Fold 3, which typically takes more than disappointing shots in our experience.)
Taken altogether, the photos produced by the Surface ii Duo are fairly decent — nothing that will challenge the best camera phones, simply certainly better than what the original Surface Duo produced with its only camera.
Microsoft Surface Duo ii review: Performance
When the original Surface Duo arrived, it featured a Snapdragon 855 organisation-on-fleck at a time when other leading phones had already moved on to the Snapdragon 865. That meant a gap in performance between those phones and the Surface Duo — not an easy thing to swallow when you've paid four-figures for a phone.
The Surface Duo 2 does non echo that mistake. Microsoft has turned to the same Snapdragon 888 chipset establish in the elevation Android devices, including the Galaxy Z Fold 3. Microsoft augments that silicon with 8GB of RAM.
In terms of benchmarks, that translates to operation that'due south close to what yous'd expect from phones with similar specs. On Geekbench 5, the Surface Duo ii posted single- and multicore scores of i,008 and 3,384, respectively. That'due south a little behind the ane,107 and 3,418 results nosotros got with the Galaxy Z Fold 3, but it's not the sort of functioning gap you're likely to find. The aforementioned can't be said of the iPhone xiii Pro Max and its A15 Bionic chip, which blows abroad the competition with respective GeekBench scores of i,720 and 4,549.
The Surface Duo fared improve in graphics testing, where information technology produced nearly 34 frames per 2nd on the 3DMark Wild Life test. The Milky way Z Fold three came in at 33 fps.
Apps run smoothly on the Surface Duo 2 and graphics wait sharp enough in demanding games like Asphalt 9 and PUBG Mobile. I did find a slight lag when launch apps not stored in retention — particularly with app pairs when the start app would launch on the right screen and there would be a brief pause before the 2d app launched on the opposite panel.
Using a top-of-the-line chipset does more than than only improve the Surface Duo ii'southward performance relative to other Android devices. The Snapdragon 888 ways there'due south 5G connectivity in this model, something the original Surface Duo lacked. Microsoft's spec sheet lists support for both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G, and so if you lot've got 5G coverage in your area, you should be able to connect to the faster networking standard.
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review: Battery life and charging
To handle those ii screens and the ability demands of 5G, Microsoft outfitted the Surface Duo 2 with a 4,449 mAh battery, quite the leap up from the 3,577 mAh power pack in the original Surface Duo. That didn't translate to much of an improvement in battery life when we put the Surface Duo 2 through our battery test, in which we take the phone surf the web continuously at 150 nits until it runs out of power.
Nosotros first tested the Surface Duo 2 with just one of its screen active — the 9 hour and 47 minute event is only about average for a smartphone. Making both screens agile reduced the phone'southward battery life to vii hours and 38 minutes. That drib of merely over 2 hours is consequent with how the original Surface Duo performed when we tested that telephone.
Anecdotally, the Surface Duo ii packs enough power to get through most days, though particularly intensive rounds of testing caused the bombardment level to drib noticeably.
While the Surface Duo ii supports 23W charging speeds, Microsoft doesn't include a charger with the device — merely a USB-C cable. I happened to accept a 21W charger lying around, and that boosted the Surface Duo 2'due south battery from 76% to 82% afterward 15 minutes. That may not seem like much, but it can exist useful for topping off the telephone'due south battery in a pinch.
Microsoft Surface Duo two review: Software and special features
The Surface Duo 2 runs on Android eleven — a significant determination by Microsoft, since it gives Surface Duo users admission to the vast assortment of Android apps though the Play Store. Merely Android 12 is now out, and Microsoft is not-committal virtually when that update will come to its dual-screen device, saying just that it will piece of work with Google on the outcome.
Yous tin can use Microsoft's $129 Surface Slim Pen 2 with the new Surface Duo for drawing in OneNote, diagramming things on the whiteboard in Teams and other sketching and notation-taking tasks. I didn't find the pen to be an essential add-on for the phone, only if you practise get it, you lot'll also desire to pick up a $65 Surface Duo ii Pen Cover, which attaches to your telephone.
With the Pen Embrace, the Slim Pen ii can magnetically adhere to your phone while besides charging so that your stylus will always be at the set. Whether that's worth another $195 on top of the Surface Duo two'southward cost tag is some other question altogether.
Microsoft Surface Duo ii review: Verdict
To Microsoft's credit, the Surface Duo two addresses many of the complaints we had about the visitor's original dual-screen phone. The specs are more than in line with the premium toll, the cameras are much improved, and dual-screen multitasking is a definite productivity booster.
Merely the reason people turn to bigger phones is for the expanded tablet-like work area. Because the Surface Duo 2 uses 2 separate displays, it really doesn't offer that feel; rather, it'south only 2 5.8-inch screens that are woking in tandem most of the fourth dimension.
For people who desire to run apps side by side that will be plenty to make the Surface Duo two an intriguing pick. But if you're looking to lose yourself in the expansive flow of an uninterrupted screen, the Surface Duo just doesn't provide that — not with the approach Microsoft has taken.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/microsoft-surface-duo-2
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