The Microsoft Surface Duo. It's been a while since Microsoft has released a cell phone
– four years actually. So it's nice to see them come back swinging with a dual screen,
folding tablet of a smartphone. Today we're going to durability test the Surface Duo right
alongside the slim pin. This video is sponsored by Audible.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
The Surface Duo costs about $1400. And before we get too mad at that massive price, it's
really kind of justified since it's like two regular phones stuck together. Two screens,
two batteries, so I won't make fun of the price too much. The bumper case, however,
does deserve whatever jokes come its way. It's included in the box right alongside the
18 watt fast charger. And don't get me wrong, it was nice of Microsoft to include some protection.
As you can tell, this phone is unlike anything else we've ever seen, with a full complete
360 degree hinge that can close like a book, or open up and have the screen on the front
and back. So designing an effective physically protective case for this contraption would
be super complex. I would have liked to attend the meeting though where someone suggested
just taping rubber strips to the side. I mean, yeah, it'll probably be effective and definitely
better than nothing. I just didn't see that one coming. Who knows how long it will actually
stick to the side of the phone for though, which makes this durability test all the more
important.
The Duo is shorter than my Note 10 Plus, and also a bit wider and incredibly thin. When
folded shut it's just about as thick as my phone is inside of my case. Opened up though,
it feels more like an e-reader with glass on the front and the back. It does feel heavier
than it looks and I honestly kind of like it.
The Duo is running Android and acts just like any other Android phone would, except for
all this extra screen real estate. You can have Twitter open on one half of the phone
and Instagram open on the other, so it's easier to watch society collapse in real time.
Before we start the scratch test, let's break open Microsoft's stylus. Now this slim pin
is sold separately but does work on the Surface Duo, and costs a little over $100. It's got
its own exterior charging station. Not quite as streamlined as Apple's Apple Pencil, or
the Samsung S pen inside of the Notes, but to be fair, this Slim pen also doesn't snap
in half quite as easy as the others do. This guy is a tank.
I'll start slicing through both plastic sides of the pen, and take a quick break to analyze
the clicky bit up at the top. Then all the plastics can be removed to reveal a long internal
metal housing with two magnets built into the sides. The magnets allow itself to perch
on the side of the Duo. I'm not sure if that's on purpose or not. It doesn't seem like it
would end up staying there very long.
I'll remove the two screws and open up the metal sheath and we get our first look at
quite possibly the cutest battery we've ever seen. This little cylinder is a 15 milliamp
hour capacity cell made by Panasonic. Takes about 90 minutes to charge and operates the
pen for about 14 hours. Kind of fun.
Now let's get into the scratch test. The Duo has dual 5.6 inch displays which fold open
to reveal an 8.1 inch screen overall. With the hinge and bezel in the middle though it's
more like a second monitor than an extended display. I've always used multiple monitors
on my desktop computers though, so I get the appeal.
The Microsoft Duo is using Gorilla Glass 5, which means it scratches at level 6 with deeper
grooves at a level 7. I'm strangely drawn to this device. Weird phones have always appealed
to me. My first phone was a Nokia 6800 with the keyboard on either half of the screen.
But cameras are also important to me and this phone only has one. One front facing camera
under the front glass. No camera bump or rear cameras, just the one 11 megapixel little
guy. There's also only one speaker right here in the earpiece. The grill is secure, but
one speaker is just not the same as stereo. So the lack of cameras and lack of stereo
speakers will probably be mostly what keeps me from switching to this phone. Also, very
strangely for a $1400 device, the frame is made from plastic, as well as the buttons.
Not a deal breaker by itself, but the thinness of the halves combined with the plastic frame
does make me nervous for the bend test.
There is plastic along the top, as well as along the bottom next to that USB-C charging
port. There is no headphone jack. The Duo does have a SIM card tray but no expandable
memory. There is no IP rating, but there is a little peak feature which just allows the
time and date to pop up along the inside edge. Almost like an always on display but on the
inside.
The Duo feels more elegant than normal cell phones. Almost like a book. It's more sophisticated.
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Now, it might also just be my imagination, but I do feel like this Microsoft Duo will
regularly just not recognize my finger swipes. The screen would just sit unresponsive when
I would swipe across it, or try to open and close apps, and I haven't even been that mean
to it yet. Hopefully it's just a minor software issue.
Every surface on the Duo is made from glass which does make it feel high-tech since heaviness
is kind of associated with quality – at least for me. The plastic frame of the phone
doesn't draw too much attention to itself. Speaking of the plastic frame though, I did
already scratch the fingerprint scanner a bit on my way around with my razor blade.
So as I try and set my fingerprint this time, it's having a real struggle getting a good
read. But once my fingerprint is finally recognized, it does seem to unlock the phone every single
time.
The bumper case also has a cut out for the fingerprint sensor. It's still a little bit
funny that a piece of tape is the only thing holding the case to the phone. As for the
burn test, Microsoft is using dual AMOLED displays on either half, and we can verify
that by scientifically holding my lighter to the screen for about 12 seconds and watching
the display turn white. We still don't quite know why it does this yet, but if we do it
enough times, we might find out why. Therefore, science.
Now for the bend test. Microsoft has already done half of my job for me. The phone bends
incredibly smoothly all the way around. The hinge is super simple and pretty much all
exposed. We'll take a closer look at how it works from the inside during the teardown.
Since this phone is wider than most, it might not fit comfortably in most front pockets,
and people who own it are going to be tempted to put it in their back pocket like a wallet,
which means there's a good chance that Duo will get sat on. And if it does get sat on,
it's probably going to do something like this and flex more than any other phone we've seen
in recent history. When we open it up though, surprisingly it still turns on even though
there is a permanent curve to the phone now.
The plastic frame is not helping much with the structural integrity, but the metal hinge
however, is holding its own and carrying the load. Bending it back the other direction
we can see that the phone is flexing quite a bit, but not along the hinge. The hinge
mechanism is made from metal along with the two rods running lengthwise down its spine.
If the metal hinge was not there, this phone would definitely be toast. The metal is enough
to keep the phone alive. So the Microsoft Surface Duo passes my durability test.
I still don't recommend sitting on it, but it's nice to know that the Duo is not super
fragile. Overall I'm impressed. Plop a few more nice cameras on the back and I could
very well see myself using version number 2.
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Twitter. Thanks a ton for watching. I'll see you around.