(upbeat digital music)
- Hey, what's up, MKBHD, here.
So you remember the original Surface Duo,
the dual screen foldable Android device from Microsoft?
Had a lot of potential and a lot of hype behind it.
We were hoping it would be great,
and then it just wasn't really that good at all.
Disappointingly, it had pretty weak performance.
The software was very buggy and the camera was trash.
But the one nice thing about it was it had
really nice sleek, thin hardware and a great hinge,
but there was a lot to fix.
But now one year later we have the sequel,
the shiny new dark colored sequel, the answer
to Microsoft's nightmares, the Surface Duo 2, sweet.
So this isn't the full review,
I haven't had it for very long, but I have
some initial impressions on it, which are that
I think that this device and all Microsoft
has done to it has revealed that this idea
may not really have a great *future.
It may be fundamentally flawed in the way it's used.
Like Microsoft went through and valiantly improved
a ton of stuff about this, especially versus the original.
They found a lot of flaws, they made them
all objectively better, and yet some
of that stuff still also made it worse.
See pretty much all the changes Microsoft has made
are objectives really better than the last one.
So there's a bunch of stuff here.
They have all new high-end specs inside.
They've made the displays bigger and faster
with thinner bezels and they added
a set of real cameras on the back.
And there's much better software
implementation to tie it all together.
But yet this Surface Duo has a completely new set
of problems that this Surface Duo didn't have.
But then the cherry on top is this new one
is now $1,499, $1,499, that's actually more expensive
than the first one, which started at 1$,399
before it plummeted the whole year it was out.
I think it was eventually like $900
off or something like that.
So you might think, wow, that's a bold move,
making a even more expensive Surface,
even when the first one flopped so hard,
but this was also clearly gonna cost more to make.
So you might remember when the first Surface Duo came out,
it had one-year-old slightly out of date specs.
This one's launching with the highest end chip.
It's a Snapdragon Triple Eight, it has eight gigs of RAM
and up to half a terabyte of storage.
And they've done a lot with this new display here.
So first of all, it's slightly bigger.
It's 8.3 inches corner to corner now
with nearly the same size footprint,
because the bezels are smaller all the way around,
especially that top bezel.
No more flash needed since the main
camera systems on the back now.
And this display is also now brighter, up to 800 nits
and it is higher fresh rate, now, it's a 90 Hertz panel.
Weirdly there is no option to change refresh rate
anywhere in the display settings.
You can't knock it down to 60 Hertz if you want to,
but whatever, everything is smoother,
especially while scrolling.
But the main new thing here with this display
is it curves over the edges in the middle,
near the hinge from both sides.
So it kind of gives this sort of subtle waterfall look.
And the dual screens now kind of have
this effect of looking closer together,
almost like it's one giant folding screen.
And this definitely encourages you to span apps
across both displays more often and yeah,
treat it like one big display.
The only problem with that is when you do,
lots of those important pixels in the middle of the screen
are now just spilling over that edge into being unreadable.
But also some are completely missing.
You can't read whatever supposed
to be in those middle few pixels.
So any pictures or any text that are supposed
to be in the middle of the screen
are now just gone, which is beyond annoying.
It's a bit of a problem for any sort of reading.
And you can forget about spanning games horizontally.
Imagine trying to aim something with the crosshairs missing.
Now it's the Surface Duo, so horizontal
gaming isn't really a huge thing.
This is actually a great form factor
for split gaming like this emulator games,
all that sort of stuff, split-screen top-bottom gaming.
And that's actually one of the biggest,
I've had a little bit of time to play
with this, Game Pass is on this device,
and it's a lot of fun, but yeah, the missing text
in the middle of the screen, not great.
But then the other big change to the hardware,
as you've already seen, is it has
real cameras on the back, now.
It's got a whole triple camera system, a 12 megapixel
primary plus a two X telephoto and a 16 megapixel ultra-wide
all stacked into this camera bump that has
matte rails all the way around the outsides.
There's a flash next to it.
It has HDR, portrait mode, optical zoom.
These cameras, they're not amazing,
but they are way more capable than before.
So objectively, if we just ignore
the design for a second that's better.
They've put better cameras on this phone, device,
but obviously Microsoft never really wanted
to bolt cameras to the back and ruin
their perfectly clean, sleek, thin design.
That's why they didn't do it with the first one.
And they got the great hardware,
but then that meant to take pictures of stuff
you'd have to flip it open and use the selfie camera
like that and then this was just a webcam.
It was pretty bad, so this time, yeah,
there's a set of real cameras on the back.
They've caved and done it and I can confirm
they're all better than the webcam was.
So having some optical zoom, having the ability
to take decent videos, that's all nice.
I mean, it's a two X telephoto,
which isn't that great, but it's something.
But now that they've made this change,
which a lot of people, including me
were wondering if they would do it or not,
it turns out that this is now a bit more annoying to use.
So obviously with this mesa out the back,
you're now unable to fully open
the Surface Duo to flat anymore.
So anytime you use it with one hand folded back,
it's gotta be slightly open like this,
just a few millimeters short of going flat,
which is enough to be easy to slip
your finger in and like close it quickly.
But it is not as comfortable to use it
for awhile and hold it like this with one hand.
Now I do admire that they've shaped this camera bump
to match the exact angle that the back screen folds over
and touches it so that it lays flush,
just a neat little, couple degree adjustment there.
It's nice, it feels like there's also magnets
in here to hold it against that camera bump.
But now, as you've noticed, that's covering the cameras,
which means anytime you want to take photos you have
to swivel it down because closing it up covers the cameras.
So now you have to have it open fully
like this every time you take pictures.
Ah, I don't know, maybe you do the viewfinder open
at the top and then the photos populating at the bottom.
And that's cool enough when it works.
Maybe that's more fun for some people for taking pictures,
but overall, yeah, it's physically less convenient,
especially when you just wanna snap
a quick photo real quick.
So you can see why this idea, even though
it's a really cool idea, feels broken.
Like Microsoft found ways to make this objectively better,
especially on paper, than the last one,
but yet it got more annoying, it got worse to use.
And I think fundamentally I was thinking about
all the different ways that they could maybe save this.
Maybe they can fix this in some way,
maybe making it thicker, maybe filling it in
so that the camera bump isn't a bump.
What are the things that they could do?
I couldn't come up with any because I feel like
the thing that is flawed about this is the lack
of any outside display, just this passport design.
Like of course, there's a ton of software optimization
that's gone into making this UI work
with two screens and that's super cool.
Maybe making it a little bit thicker
would give you some more battery
to power these two screens for longer,
but that wouldn't really solve anything.
I thought a lot about the aspect ratio,
about the layout of everything,
but even the layout is better here, too.
Now the power button and fingerprint reader
are combined into one, believe it
or not, it wasn't on the first one.
And I really liked the matte black rails and this new
darker color, it just feels much more professional.
It feels more my type to be honest.
But even in the software, the software
was buggy last time on the Surface Duo,
and it is buggy again this time, too.
Mainly I've been having touch responsiveness issues
where it really doesn't like when I start
a swipe action from off the display.
Like if I swipe up from the bezel,
it constantly doesn't respond when I do that.
Plus there's all kinds of missed button presses
and momentary, complete lapses of all responsiveness.
It's still really bad for a device of this price.
And I'd say I hope they can fix it with some software,
but this has been an issue for a full year now,
so I'm not exactly optimistic.
But the fundamental flaw is there's no outside screen,
which means there's no usability when it's closed,
you have to open it to do anything.
So we've seen even the Moto Razr and Samsung Z Flip Three
have decently usable outside screens.
And then of course, Z Fold Three just has
a whole smartphone UI, basically on the outside,
you can use it a whole bunch without ever even opening it.
And there's a lot of foldables that have all
these different ways of using it without opening it.
But with this, you have to open it
and then unlock it and use it every time
and it sounds like such a small thing,
just sounds, I feel like I'm just like complaining
and it seems really petty, but when you actually
use it, it becomes a pretty big deal.
And this also means anytime you fully open it
and fold it over flat you have just straight
display glass now on the outside.
So if you were to put it in your pocket like this,
or put it down on a table like this,
that makes the glass pretty vulnerable to scratches.
And it's also just the extra layer
of having to open it, unfold it, unlock the phone,
and then get started with everything,
even for like the quickest little thing.
If you just wanna snap a quick picture
or you just take it out your pocket for a quick phone call,
every time, that's a huge deal to me.
Now you can view some quick things like the time
and check your notifications by actually checking
that curved over part of the display
in the middle of the phone while it's closed,
which is more than nothing, it is actually super cool
that it curves over so much that you
can actually see it and read it in there,
but you don't really interact with it at all.
And that's the absolute minimum in terms of functionality.
And also this is one, just one more thing,
but this is minor, if you try to place it
down on a desk like this, it works,
but with the camera bump, now,
you cannot place it down on a desk on the other side,
or it's a annoying, I mean you can,
but it's very wobbly and annoying.
So it felt like an ambidextrous device before,
now you always have to remember to get it right.
So here's my question to you.
We've seen companies go back on things, right?
Like, we just, with Apple, saw them release
a new MacBook Pro that we're all loving because they went
back on a ton of this stuff that we've hated
about the last couple of years of MacBook Pros
and now we're all over it again.
And so I wonder if there should be something
considered with the Surface Duo,
like what do you think, should Microsoft give up
on the outside screen form factor,
or should they do an outside screen,
or should Surface Duo just stay the way it is
for the people who like it the way it is
and who will pay that price to use this as it exists today?
I don't know, I'm curious, let me know your thoughts
below in the comments section, I'm very curious
if anyone has any other ideas about Surface Duo.
But that's pretty much it.
Anyway, stay tuned to the next video
where we have something that I'm a lot more excited about.
For sure a much more positive video.
It's Techtober, there's a lot coming.
Thanks for watching, catch you guys in the next one.
Peace.
(laid back digital music)