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Microsoft Surface Duo Set to Arrive September 10 For $1,399

There are a lot of jokes on this thread about how dated this is, and how this will come with viruses, and how this will flop etc etc.

I just want to say, I'm a long time Apple fan (owned just about every Apple product since 2001), but the Microsoft Surface team is doing something Apple is NOT. Innovating. Since Steve Jobs died, Apple has released what great innovations? The Apple Watch? Which I'm sure was right out of Steve's playbook. The only thing interesting in the future of Apple is ARM, which has a lot of potential. But the days of Steve Jobs pulling a MacBook Air out of an envelope are long over. Apple is letting Microsoft do all the innovation now.
 
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I mean, this looks just so awkward and strangely outdated that I cannot believe someone right in his mind at Microsoft could have possibly decided it was a good idea to bring something like that to the market. And this price! It's only 2020 now, but I am 99% sure around December 2029, this product will hold a prominent spot on the numerous lists of the biggest technological failures of the decade 😂
 
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The success of this will hinge on its durability. ANY faults will doom it to the dustbin of history. Its value for money is already questionable at that list price.
 
This is a total waste of space. Stupid design, stupid idea.

Does anyone here really want this? Come on.

I have a Galaxy Fold I love - I am not looking for 2009 and two phones stuck together.
 
sammyman said:
There are a lot of jokes on this thread about how dated this is, and how this will come with viruses, and how this will flop etc etc.

I just want to say, I'm a long time Apple fan (owned just about every Apple product since 2001), but the Microsoft Surface team is doing something Apple is NOT. Innovating. Since Steve Jobs died, Apple has released what great innovations? The Apple Watch? Which I'm sure was right out of Steve's playbook. The only thing interesting in the future of Apple is ARM, which has a lot of potential. But the days of Steve Jobs pulling a MacBook Air out of an envelope are long over. Apple is letting Microsoft do all the innovation now.
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I think we have different meanings of “innovate”. Innovating is not trying 100 different things every year because “what if”. It’s having a clear new vision and taking risks. You can see if it success by seeing how the industry changes. After the Apple Watch, wearables rocketed. After the AirPods, *everyone* has a wireless earphone. Surface? They’re great computers, but as products they haven’t made a significant impact. I mean it, they’re good, but pretty generic, essentially the same concept as the old Tablet PCs.
 
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I like the idea, but the execution is terrible, underpowered, too small a battery, not enough memory, the hinges are ugly, and then I haven't even started about it running android.
 
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spinstorm said:
This is a total waste of space. Stupid design, stupid idea.

Does anyone here really want this? Come on.

I have a Galaxy Fold I love - I am not looking for 2009 and two phones stuck together.
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Explain how Galaxy Fold is better device than Duo? I have one as a test device and it's awkward beyond belief. It's too narrow and thick folded to be a "phone". It's a weird aspect ratio tablet when unfolded. It doesn't support apps being split into 2 halves (email list on left, email content on right). All I can think of picking it up is a chocolate ice cream bar.

fold.jpg
 
AlexESP said:
I think we have different meanings of “innovate”. Innovating is not trying 100 different things every year because “what if”. It’s having a clear new vision and taking risks. You can see if it success by seeing how the industry changes. After the Apple Watch, wearables rocketed. After the AirPods, *everyone* has a wireless earphone. Surface? They’re great computers, but as products they haven’t made a significant impact. I mean it, they’re good, but pretty generic, essentially the same concept as the old Tablet PCs.
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If you think that the Apple Watch (again, from Steve Jobs) and Airpods means innovating, but the Surface Pro, Surface Studio, Surface Neo and Surface Duo are not innovating, then I'm just going to have to disagree with you. I mean I'm arguing this point on a Mac forum, so my opinion is likely to go unheard which is fine.

All I'm saying is that Steve Jobs brought us innovation and Tim Cook hasn't. Maybe that will change with ARM. While we wait, we're still using basically the same iPhones, same iPads, same laptops, same OSX. Oh yeah, except Tim Cook innovated Airpods by making them wireless. Lol.

Edit: I don't care about the Duo but intend to purchase a Neo when it's released.
 
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“...the WonderBar, which seems to be much more useful and functional that Apple’s Touch Bar”

Once again, Dan from MacRumors uncorks another doozy! Really? You think that something with 400-500% more surface area might be more functional that a tiny strip? You think a giant touch screen area that looks like it’s the size of two iPhone SEs is more functional than a skinny row of virtual function keys? I know it’s fashionable to be cynical and bash the TouchBar, and so content creators love scoring points with red meat like this, but come on, Dan from MacRumors.

Did you know that a lobster is more filling than a crawfish? That SUV’s haul more than SmartCars? That apples taste different than oranges?
 
jerryk said:
Looks too big to be a pocketable phone and too small to be a tablet.
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So does every single phablet released in around 2010-2014. Large screen phone cannot do productivity task like a tablet but too big to be used as a phone with only one hand.
 
Apple would make an epic foldable phone. The duo looks like a lot of fun in the mean time though.
 
a borderless iPad Pro 12.9” on each side would be awesome for note taking and document reading. Right now it’s a bit cramp to read two documents side by side with the iPad Pro.
 
planteater said:
It's just sad to see Microsoft without their own OS on their own devices. Stooping to Android. It seems they should have fought a bit harder before ditching their mobile OS.
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It all comes down to apps. All the best apps and most popular apps are on Android and iOS. Windows Phone OS failed with respect to developer interest and mindshare.
 
smulji said:
It all comes down to apps. All the best apps and most popular apps are on Android and iOS. Windows Phone OS failed with respect to developer interest and mindshare.
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Yes, it sure did. I'm just saying they could have fought harder for the gold at the end of the rainbow, given their industry status and wealth. Even if that meant paying for developers to release on them, giving phones away at cost. Whatever it took to remain in the game. I could be wrong, but it didn't seem to me they really gave it their all, especially given the investment they already had in it.
 
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Microsoft that’s not a phone. It’s a tablet with phone functionality like all android tablets have had.

Seems weird they’d risk damaging their Surface brand by putting Android on it (obviously because they don’t have a mobile OS).

This products seems poorly thought up that even Microsoft doesn’t know what it’s suppose to be. I doubt it’s going to do well. But happy to be proven wrong.
 
sammyman said:
There are a lot of jokes on this thread about how dated this is, and how this will come with viruses, and how this will flop etc etc.

I just want to say, I'm a long time Apple fan (owned just about every Apple product since 2001), but the Microsoft Surface team is doing something Apple is NOT. Innovating. Since Steve Jobs died, Apple has released what great innovations? The Apple Watch? Which I'm sure was right out of Steve's playbook. The only thing interesting in the future of Apple is ARM, which has a lot of potential. But the days of Steve Jobs pulling a MacBook Air out of an envelope are long over. Apple is letting Microsoft do all the innovation now.
Click to expand...

I tend to focus less on the technical definition of “innovation” and more on the process that goes into making each product possible. And the reason why Apple continues to be so successful today is due to their design led process.

Design is the magic ingredient, with Apple designers calling the shots, and searching for and having technology made to serve the product experience, not engineers excited about new hot tech and trying to turn it into a product.

Apple Glasses vs. foldable phones is the latest example of Apple's design culture leading to an entirely different product than what engineering-led companies are doing. Maybe the surface duo and the galaxy fold really are engineering marvels, but all that is for naught is they don’t provide a great user experience at the end of the day.

That to me is the greatest difference between meaningful innovation that sells, vs innovation that looks good on a spec sheet and makes for a great tech blog article, but then nobody buys it because it turns out to not be a very great or useful product at the end of the day.
 
sammyman said:
There are a lot of jokes on this thread about how dated this is, and how this will come with viruses, and how this will flop etc etc.

I just want to say, I'm a long time Apple fan (owned just about every Apple product since 2001), but the Microsoft Surface team is doing something Apple is NOT. Innovating. Since Steve Jobs died, Apple has released what great innovations? The Apple Watch? Which I'm sure was right out of Steve's playbook. The only thing interesting in the future of Apple is ARM, which has a lot of potential. But the days of Steve Jobs pulling a MacBook Air out of an envelope are long over. Apple is letting Microsoft do all the innovation now.
Click to expand...

It's a design MS is working on from as early as 2009 and even made an internal promo video, this innovation is 11 years old now and still doesn't have real mass production. At the moment it's a gimmick, MS just isn't a device company.

Same with the Surface Studio, nice product, nice idea, but underpowered and overpriced. Another gimmick. Apple will probably take the same idea for it's new Apple silicon iMac models but implement it better, good hardware in mass production at a normal price. The big innovator here will be Apple, not MS.
 
sammyman said:
If you think that the Apple Watch (again, from Steve Jobs) and Airpods means innovating, but the Surface Pro, Surface Studio, Surface Neo and Surface Duo are not innovating, then I'm just going to have to disagree with you. I mean I'm arguing this point on a Mac forum, so my opinion is likely to go unheard which is fine.

All I'm saying is that Steve Jobs brought us innovation and Tim Cook hasn't. Maybe that will change with ARM. While we wait, we're still using basically the same iPhones, same iPads, same laptops, same OSX. Oh yeah, except Tim Cook innovated Airpods by making them wireless. Lol.

Edit: I don't care about the Duo but intend to purchase a Neo when it's released.
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First of all, the Apple Watch was developed after Steve Jobs passed away (many sources point to that, and it makes sense since they’re 3 years apart). Apple products don’t success because of having an Apple logo. Look at the HomePod: not innovative, just a great speaker.

Can you argue that the AirPods haven’t made more impact than all the products you mentioned combined? It was a really focused product that succeeded where no one had, not because of a single factor, but many: chip, design, pairing experience...

While Microsoft seems to me like a catch-all company, that doesn’t have a clear vision but theoretical ideas that don’t work in the real world, and they don’t take risks. For example, it’s obvious that the Surface X wouldn’t success if they don’t take a bolder approach to ARM. The Surface Pro is a great computer that you can pull apart from the keyboard, take notes, etc. but that’s it, not a tablet.

Of course you can disagree, but Apple has lately created new categories of products almost from scratch, while Microsoft hasn’t. And that’s precisely why iPhones, iPad, Macs, etc. don’t completely change every 5 years. In fact, a great foundation shouldn’t.
 
Since you have a bezel across the display for all the time you use it in tablet mode (which ought to be most of the time unless in back-to-back folded mode but then you only get a very expensive 5" Android device), I think this one would be pretty annoying to use.

I think this device's main problem is that mobile devices have apps that aren't that complex in use that you want to keep two side by side displays at once. iPad supports such a feature too but without forcing you into it and only for temporary use. It's a different matter with 27" desktops because the applications and tasks, especially in professional settings, are often much more involved. On a mobile device, sure, there are occasions like seeing your mails and a contact sheet both at once but they're temporary at best.
 
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