The real thumb in your eye is the $40 Surface Duo 2 charger. If you’d like to ink on the Surface Duo 2, you can buy the Surface Slim Pen 2 ($129.99) and the Surface Duo 2 Pen Cover (price not disclosed yet) which will grip and charge the Slim Pen 2. It appears that most third-party cases are going the same route, with the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 Riveter case ($89.95) from Otterbox adopting the same approach. Microsoft also sells a Surface Do 2 bumper ($39.99), which we didn’t test, which surrounds the Duo 2’s edge and provides some basic protection. If you buy into the Microsoft ecosystem, you’ll be saving most storage-chewing photos and videos to the OneDrive cloud anyway, which means that anything above the base model is superfluous. Two other versions are available: a 256GB SSD model ($1,599.99) and the top-of-the-line Surface Duo 2 with 512GB of storage, for $1,799.99. The Surface Duo 2 costs an astounding $1,499.99, minimum, for the base model with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage. Mark Hachman / IDG Surface Duo 2 configurations and pricing A main 12Mp sensor is joined by 16Mp ultrawide and 12Mp telephoto lenses, mirroring what you’ll find on many modern smartphones.Camera bumps aren’t that unusual with modern smartphones, and Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 joins the club. Microsoft has emphatically put that right here, with a new triple camera system. New wide, ultrawide and telephoto rear camerasįor some reason, the original Surface Duo didn’t have any rear cameras.This tweaked version is specifically designed for foldables and devices with larger displays, so it could be another big step for the Duo 2’s software. Rather than the regular Android 12, the Duo 2 (and original Duo) is expected to get Android 12L soon. But you’ll know that already if you’re considering buying one, and the other issues are no longer dealbreakers. This is a direct consequence of the design and unlikely to be fixed in any software updates. When browsing social media or gaming, it’s best just to stick to one. Opting for the latter means some keys will be obscured, a problem which affects most apps that are extended across both screens. A 3.5mm headphone jack would have been nice, but it’s far from a priority these days. Using the latter feels awkward as a result, and you’ll probably miss out on time-sensitive shots.Įlsewhere, ports are kept to a minimum – there’s a single USB-C port, plus space for one SIM card and no expandable storage. You can fold away one of the displays and use it as a single-screen device, you’ll have no access to the rear cameras. The design of the device also makes it difficult to use as a regular smartphone at times. Storing the Duo 2 in your pocket is still possible, just less comfortable than a candybar phone. You could argue that you’re getting two screens for that, but it’s undoubtedly less portable. As well as being much wider and around twice as thick as regular smartphones, it also weighs in at a hefty 284g – that’s up from 250g on the original Duo. However, even when closed, the Surface Duo 2 is still a bulky device. Unlike the original, it’s also available in Obsidian Black. It tends to pick up fingerprint smudges, but that’s less of an issue elsewhere on the glass exterior – especially if you opt for the Glacier White model. The Duo 2’s bezels are noticeably smaller than the original, making it feel more premium and futuristic than before. It’s easy to understand how Microsoft has managed to increase the display size without significant changes to the total footprint of the device. I’ll talk about the quality of these screens in more detail in the next section. That provides a total screen real estate of 8.3in, making it comparable to a small tablet. Near-identical dimensions mask the fact that Microsoft has managed to increase the screen sizes here.īoth panels are now 5.8in, up from 5.6in on the original. It has the same basic form factor as its predecessor, consisting of two displays attached via a strong hinge. Of course, the design of the Duo 2 hasn’t changed since launch. Two 5.8in displays, total screen area 8.3in.But is that enough to make the Duo 2 worth buying in 2022? Following my original review, I spent another week with the device to find out.
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