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‘Tis the season for new smartphones, and we are seeing a lot of new flippy boi’s. After the Z Flip 2 5G and Z Fold 2 5G, Motorola decided it was time to push an iterative update to the RAZR. But both Samsung and Motorola already had some experience, which left some room for a newcomer to help put a stamp on the foldable smartphone market. Enter Microsoft. Announced last year, the Microsoft Surface Duo has finally made its way to the hands of reviewers, and will be coming to everyone in the next few days. While we don’t have the device in our hands just yet, we’ve rounded up some of the best reviews of the device to give you an idea of what to expect!
The Verge
- Rating: 6/10
- Thoughts: Microsoft has gotten knocked out of the pocketable device games at least four times before — from WinCE to PocketPC to Windows Mobile to Windows Phone, this company is intimately familiar with failure. But in the Duo, I can see Microsoft learning from all those mistakes, and I’m glad to see the company back in the fight again. I hope that this first Surface Duo isn’t its last round.
Wired
- Rating: 4/10
- Thoughts: Two screens are the future. The hinge is very sturdy, and the whole package feels wonderfully slim. The screens get plenty bright outdoors. Good battery life. Stuttery performance. Typing is hard. The camera is bad. No exterior screen means you can’t even tell the time without opening it. Not a lot of apps are optimized for two screens.
Windows Central
- Rating: 3/5
- Thoughts: Microsoft’s Surface Duo delivers a unique dual-screen experience with Android that holds up (at least conceptually). With ground-breaking hardware design and the right apps, it’s game-changing. But some early jankiness with the OS, performance issues, and the lack of modern hardware holds it back.
Engadget
- Rating: 71/100
- Thoughts: The Surface Duo is decent as a phone, quite bad as a tablet, and somewhat functional as everything in between. That is, when the software works as promised. But bugs and app incompatibility plague this $1,399 device, which will need monthly updates from Microsoft to fix its numerous issues.
Android Central
- Rating: 3/5
- Thoughts: The Surface Duo is an ambitious, flawed first-generation product that showcases what’s possible with new form factors without fully realizing them.
MKBHD
Android Authority
- Rating: 2.5/5
- Thoughts: Microsoft’s Surface Duo tries to take the road less traveled for foldable devices, but its buggy software and niche use cases mean it’s not yet ready for the mainstream.
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