Hell froze. Microsoft created an Android phone. Ie. as if he created. It's like a phone call.
During the presentation of new devices from the Surface line, Microsoft boasted not only new laptops and tablets, but also … what? For now, Microsoft itself does not have a word for it, but you can say that Surface Duo is something like a two-screen Android phone.
It is significant that the store premiere of Surface Duo was planned for the end of 2020. So Microsoft showed not so much the product as the idea.
And even Microsoft has a problem with the Surface Duo idea
I encourage you to watch the promotional spot below, because it perfectly illustrates how much Microsoft has no idea how to position this device.
First, we see a woman working on Surfas Neo. The work is interrupted by a bell, after which the woman reaches into her purse for Surface Duo. And this is where the wave of absurdities begins.
To check who is calling at all, a woman must unfold the device with both hands. Then turn the screen to the other side, dance "makarena" in the moonlight and only then answer the call. Well, I was joking with this "macaroni", but the whole process is not much less frivolous.
Does it just look like trying to reproduce problems that others solved two decades ago?
Already in the 90s cell manufacturers knew that all folding constructions require an additional screen outside. Without it, the device simply does not work as a phone.
OK, Surface Duo is currently in the prototype phase, so it's possible that along the way someone will come up with the idea of adding an external screen. Only for the time being there is no indication. Microsoft has already shown promotional materials illustrating the whole idea of the device. And this idea assumes that I must perform a ritual before stupidly answering a voice call.
Should Surface Duo be treated as a smartphone at all?
This question is damn hard to answer.
On the one hand, Microsoft did not use the words "telephone" or "smartphone" during the conference or any promotional materials.
On the other hand, Microsoft publishes a promotional video in which the first action presented is to answer a voice call. So something for which? -? As we have already established? -? Surface Duo is just right for less.
Surface Duo as a tablet with a ringing function, complementing your smartphone? OK, although I don't know if anyone will need such a device. Surface Duo as a smartphone? No, no, not again.
Microsoft Surface Duo: what is known at all?
It is known that this is a device that has:
- Android and access to the Play Store;
- two 5.6-inch screens that can optionally work as one 8.3-inch panel;
- single camera above the second screen;
- Snapdragon 855 (this may change until the day of market release).
In a word: it's a Galaxy Fold, only without an additional screen on the outside, a truly foldable screen inside, a decent camera system and sense.
I see two possibilities: either Microsoft boasted an idea that will have nothing to do with the final product, or it is working on a device that has no raison d'être. Because in the role of a smartphone I prefer something that allows you to take pictures and conveniently make calls. In the role of a tablet something that does not have a screen divided in half by a black sketch. In the role of a computer something that Android doesn't have.