The Dual Screen Smartphone Microsoft Surface Duo Launched: Price, Specifications And More

Microsoft has finally launched the dual-screen Microsoft Surface Duo smartphone. Having unveiled the concept device last year followed by months of speculations Microsoft has finally revealed the folding smartphone. The device runs on Android OS with Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 under the hood. The device has a 360-degree hinge to connect the two displays.

Also Read: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold2 With Dual Foldable Infinity-O Display Launched

Microsoft Surface Duo Specifications and Features

The Microsoft Surface Duo features two 5.6-inch AMOLED (1,800×1,350 pixels) displays. The aspect ratio of the individual displays is 4:3. But when the device is opened and the two displays put together, you get an 8.1-inch PixelSense Fusion AMOLED display with 2,700 x 1,800 pixels resolution. The aspect ratio of this display is 3:2. The screen has a Corning Gorilla Glass protection.

The foldable smartphone is powered by an Octa-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Processor coupled with 6GB of RAM and 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage. The Processor is specially optimized for enhancing the dual-screen experience.

Special features in the device which separates it from the rest are the Microsoft’s in-house Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) along with Windows Virtual Desktop for a full Windows 10 experience. For enterprise customers, Microsoft is offering support for bringing your own device (BYOD) scenarios.

Using Microsoft Surface Duo users can use both the screens to display and work on the same app as well as use both the screen separately for unparalleled multitasking. Microsoft has already optimized its popular apps such as Office and OneDrive Android apps to facilitate multitasking on the two displays.

Third parties like Amazon and its Kindle app are also in finishing stages of optimizing their apps in this form factor for enhanced ease of use. All Android apps will work on the Surface Duo but the OS for the phone comes with its own predictive algorithms that learn from the user’s preferences and actions over time to predict how the user likes to use the apps and perform it as a default.

The camera on the phone is a single 11-megapixel camera sensor with an aperture of f/2.0 at the front. It can be used for video calling and 4K 60FPS video with EIS.

The Microsoft Surface Duo has a 360-degree hinge which can be exploited by the user for many different use cases. The phone also comes with support for Microsoft’s Surface pens. The stylus can be used for drawing, writing, and other functionalities.

The device comes with Nano-SIM and e-SIM support. Other connectivity options include WiFi-5 802.11ac, Bluetooth 5.0, 4G LTE, and GPS. The phone also has a fingerprint reader for security.

The phone runs on a 3,577mAh battery with an 18W Fast Charging support. The battery has been claimed to provide 15.5 hours of local video playback and up to 27 hours of talk time by Microsoft.

Despite the two screens, the phone is very slim and measures 9.6mm when folded. When opened, the device measures 145.2mm (H) x 186.9mm (W) x 4.8mm (T) while upon closing it measures 145.2mm (H) x 93.3mm (W) x 9.9mm (T at the hinge). The phone weighs 250 grams.

Microsoft Surface Duo Pricing and Availability

The Microsoft Surface Duo has been priced at starting $1,399 (approx Rs. 1,04,600). The phone can be bought in the US from September 10 according to the Blog Post from Microsoft. The phone comes in a Glacier color option.

There is no information yet from the company regarding the Global launch and pricing of the phone yet.