Who is Surface Duo for?
It is easy to overthink it:
https://www.windowscentral.com/who-surface-duo
Microsoft said it openly at their intro dog and pony show:
Quote:
The answer to who should buy Surface Duo is simple, and I think a lot of our core audience is overanalyzing it. Surface Duo is for Surface enthusiasts and those that rely on Microsoft's services. It is also for people who want a different Android experience that is more focused on productivity and creativity. That is a niche group, but niche isn't a bad thing when it comes to new technology.
This hypothesis is not me riffing or taking a guess. Microsoft's chief product officer Panos Panay has said this multiple times.
In an in-depth interview with Fast Company, Panay says matter of factly that Surface Duo is for "Surface fans who live in the Microsoft app ecosystem." Panay reiterates the position again in the Surface Duo press presentation (embedded above), which I implore you to watch. Towards the beginning, Panay states that Duo is about "challenging conventional thinking … that leads to building new categories," and after the Surface Duo sizzler reel, he remarks, "We built this product for Surface fans, there's no question about it, for people who love Microsoft …." Later Panay gives a meta-analysis that Duo is "the Microsoft you love and the Android you know."
And that's it. Microsoft is not playing 4D chess.
Surface Duo is not here to defeat Samsung or Apple. Surface Duo means to start a new conversation, and it's doing that. Surface Duo is about what mobile computing could be and how it can be better. Surface Duo has a lot of interest and curiosity, even from those with no plans to buy one, which is the whole point of it.
Will that lack of mass purchasing always be the case? Of course not. I've stated in our podcast that Surface Duo is about testing the theory of dual-screen devices. It's a stripped-down, core experience that will go into real people's hands to see what they do with it. Future iterations of Surface Duo will add those features that are glaringly absent in this iteration. Microsoft is also hoping Surface Duo drives other device makers to embrace the concept, too — it's not just for them.
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Anybody remember the ULTRABOOK?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultrabook
They arrived as high-end ultraportable laptops at prices closer to $1000 than $100.
Fast forward five years and the tech required to make those ultralights has moved down market enough to allow dozens of models well under $299.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...6XPBZ1J4&psc=1
(A couple years back, I got the precursor to the above for $169, *new*.)
Similarly, if you hunt around for Surface Pro clones, you can find them all over. The kickstand in particular is all over, in product half the price of the Surca models:
https://www.windowscentral.com/best-...ows-10-tablets
So, as the OP days, if you need a phone, get a phone.
The Duo does't exist for that.
The Duo exists as a (very expensive, even for MS) test for a new category of device (that, actually isn't all that new) to see how big a market exists for a pocketable productivity device with full modern connectivity.
It is a new approach but the category has been around as long as tbere have been PCs. Ms took a strong stab at it 'round the turn of the century in the form of H/PC and H/PC Pro:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_PC
One of the first convertible computers came out of that:
https://www.hpcfactor.com/reviews/ha...m/clio-c-1050/
I had one.
Superb. (At the price I got them: $299 new. Excellent ebook reader.)
Bottom line: don't think of Duo as a phone or tablet but as a pocket computer. Son of H/PC.
The reason the thing is so pricey is twofold:
One, there is a lot of really sophisticated ($$$) tech in the thing. Back to Windows Central:
Quote:
Proprietary everything is expensive. Surface Duo has the world's thinnest touch display that supports inking in a mobile device. The battery, the motherboard, the inking processor, the dual sensors, the antenna design, are all custom made and not mass-produced. That drives up costs. Anyone who studies the Bill of Materials (BOM) for a smartphone knows the display is the most expensive part. That's true here too, especially when you have two, and they have touch, pen support, and a wide color gamut.
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There's also this:
https://www.cnet.com/pictures/inside...t-surface-duo/
The hinges in particular are a tour de force: easy to move on purpose, hard to move by accident.
The second reason for the high price is simpler: those that need it (and they exist, not by the million but certainly by the tens of thousands) *really* need it. They may not know it yet but MS hopes it's love at first touch.
People have been buying Folios and Librettos and their asian kin for literally decades. And they've never been easy to get stateside so the price has always been high.
So no, the thing isn't for the likes of us.
But it has a niche.
And the concept and some of the tech will move down market as soon as asian manufacturers get their hands on one and start copying the form factor for much cheaper versions.
(MS is contributing its dual screen extension of the open version of android.)
The thickness? Up.
Dual batteries, no. One will do.
The fancy hinge? Replaced by an old fashioned friction, maybe geared, laptop-style hinge.
Cellular connectivity? Yes, but also WiFi only and first.
Price? $500 to start with.
Start the timer...
(And yes, a version with dual eink using the MS android extensions is innevitable. That will probably run closer to $700, though.)
Oh, and don't forget Neo with the Dual Screen Windows optimizations.
And not far behind (2022?) an ARM-based Neo.
MS is back to their roots, looking for markets that don't exist just yet. Pushing the tech.
Hopefully they'll stick with their bets longer, this time around. They were right on smartphones, ebooks, tablets, and convertibles. And quit all too soon. (Monkey boy short attention span. Nadella seems more patient.)
We'll know soon enough how it plays out.
I just hope it does well enough to spawn a two-screen Fire and/or Kindle.
Or Onyx.
Something more targetted at reading.