The Surface Pro is real, sort of
NEW YORK: THE SURFACE PHONE has finally arrived, only it’s a dual-screen device dubbed the Surface Duo that Android and it won’t be out until late 2020.
In some ways it’s a smaller take on the Surface Neo, just lacking the keyboard; it’ll still play nice with the Surface Slim Pen though.
With two 5.6in displays connected by a hinge that rotates 360-degrees, it can be folded out into an 8.3in tablet or back on itself to make a sort-of of Surface smartphone.
Naturally, apps can be run in split-screen or full-screen mode, and one screen can also be used as a virtual keyboard or game controller in much the same way as seen with folding Android smartphones.
Though the Surface Duo is running Android at its core, it’s been heavily customised to look similar to Microsoft’s newly-announced Windows 10X OS.
While the device looks pretty slick, Microsoft did note that it’ll need developers to get cracking on making apps for the device. In theory, that shouldn’t be too big a deal as there is no shortage of Android devs and plenty of Microsoft apps already have Android versions.
Details of the actual specs of the Surface Duo are thin on the ground; we suspect they’re subject to change as 2020 wings its way around and the likes of Qualcomm crank out new Snapdragon chips.
We’ll have to check back late 2020 before we can tell if the Surface Duo is a practical device or merely a bit of neat engineering from Microsoft. µ