After a failed attempt to acquire Nokia and a decision to step back from the smartphone market, Microsoft is back with a revolutionary device, the Microsoft Surface Duo, which hints of its readiness to start a new line of handsets on Google Android OS.
The result is the Surface Duo, a $1,399 dual-screen phablet that weighs 8.8 ounces and features two 5.6-inch screens that come together to form a larger display with a hinged seam down the center.
The design allows it to lay unfolded, flat on a table, and he user can also set it up like a tent, with the two screens facing outward, or hold it open like a book, with the two screens facing inward, and it can also be closed like a clamshell; and when closed, the two screens stack on one another, making the Surface Duo’s thickness 9.9 millimeters — or less than half an inch.
CNET quoted Panos Panay, Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer and Surface Head as saying “We just have to believe there’s a new category of smartphone here.”
The other thing that makes the Surface Duo unusual is that it’s not powered by Microsoft’s Windows software for PCs, or its mobile software that was stopped in 2017; it runs on a modified version of Googles Android OS, which is what almost every smartphone and tablet use, except Apple.
Meanwhile, the Surface Duo does not support 5G yet, and Microsoft explained that it opted to skip 5G as part of a trade-off to save battery life and allow the device to be only 4.8 millimeters thick when open.
“When we designed it, the intent was – how do you make something so thin, beautiful, light and super elegant that when people pick it up they can feel that emotion in the product,” Panay was quoted as saying.
Panay believed believes the Surface Duo has something to contribute to the world, whether it is called a phone or a dual-screen tablet.
The dual screen is able to display two different things at the same time. For instance, users can receive their messages on one side, while watching movies or a live show on the other screen.
The Surface Duo is scheduled to go on sale September 10, 2020, but is available in some selected shop and networks in the states for preorder.
Some Ghanaian mobile device fanatics have told Techgh24 they can’t wait for it to make a debut in Ghana.
