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Microsoft Announces the Surface Duo, a Dual-Screen Android Phone (thenextweb.com) 57

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Microsoft announced a bunch of stuff at its event including a dual-screen device running new Windows 10X, the Surface earbuds, and the Surface Laptop 3. And then, out of nowhere, it hit us with a dual-screen phone that runs Android. From a report: Mircosoft's new Surface Duo is a dual-screen device running the Android operating system. The device has two 5.6-inch screens powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 processor. Each display can run two different apps at the same time, or the Duo can be turned into landscape mode, allowing the second display to be used as a keyboard or game controller. The version of Android on offer here looks heavily skinned, too, to resemble a version of Windows.

Further reading: Microsoft Surface Duo shows Linux is the future -- not Windows.
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Microsoft Announces the Surface Duo, a Dual-Screen Android Phone More

Microsoft Announces the Surface Duo, a Dual-Screen Android Phone

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  • Google Play? (Score:4)

    by Dallas May ( 4891515 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @12:40PM (#59261672)

    Does it come with google play or other google apps?

    • With dual screen it should come with New Mario Bros

    • Re:Google Play? (Score:4, Informative)

      by art123 ( 309756 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @01:10PM (#59261842)

      Yes it does have Google Play store. Microsoft collaborated with Google. Hell has indeed frozen over.

      • M$ is using android for its mobile devices, chromium for its web browser... turning into Google's unnecessary little brother, aren't they

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Zak3056 ( 69287 )

          M$ is using android for its mobile devices, chromium for its web browser... turning into Google's unnecessary little brother, aren't they

          My money says quid pro quo. Microsoft starts building software on Google's stack, Google doesn't compete with Azure. Other than being a slam dunk antitrust issue (or which no actual proof will ever be found) it's win-win for both of them.

        • It looks to me like they are leaving the consumer market behind and instead focusing on back-end business software and services.

          They have come full circle and are now IBM in c.2005. In 2035, expect Microsoft to be developing technology for Quantum Computers and Google to be selling off their consumer products like GMail and Maps and focusing more on back-end services.

        • turning into Google's unnecessary little brother, aren't they

          Nothing of the sort. MS is simply doing what it should have a long time ago, recognise there's no way they are going to own the underpinning of the mobile OS or the internet browser and instead stick to something that they are at least partially competent at: producing user facing software and expanding their ever increasing ecosystem.

          There's nothing unnecessary about having your entire Office Suite including your company's authentication and cloud services on your mobile device. There's also nothing unnece

      • Yes it does have Google Play store. Microsoft collaborated with Google. Hell has indeed frozen over.

        It's the only thing those two can do to try and at least slow-down Apple in the mobile space.

        So now there will be TWO entirely-different UI paradigms for dual-screen phones under Android.

        Sucks to be an Android Dev., I guess!

    • And from Google play you get to install Windows 10.

  • Looks nice (Score:3)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @12:41PM (#59261676)

    The form factor seems a bit strange when closed, kind of wide - I wonder if it would fit in a pocket OK?

    But you have to think Microsoft would have engineered the folding aspect properly so it would be less prone to failure than the Samsung device has been...

    I look forward to learning more about this one.

    • The form factor seems a bit strange when closed, kind of wide - I wonder if it would fit in a pocket OK?

      .

      I have the same question. Looks like a good idea, though. [wikipedia.org]

      • Looks like a good idea, though.

        If they could bring in a lot of Courier features they had talked about before to that new device, it could really be compelling - in fact it seems like a really great idea for Microsoft to do what Samsung has tried to do, and really customize Android heavily. They could probably come up with a pretty nice end result.

    • Its two separate displays which are connected by hinges. So intrinsically more reliable than Samsung's folding screen. It's really no different than any other clamshell device except it has a second screen instead of a keyboard. So its failure points are probably similar, worn hinges over time, potentially failing cables routed through the hinges etc.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • They make tablets, laptops, and game consoles, and don't have any problems selling those. They also make keyboards and mice, or at least have them branded with their name. There's no reason why a single company couldn't have products from multiple categories.

      • No, Microsoft makes their own keyboards and mice. They made some of the very first high quality mice for the PC.

        • As I heard it, MSFTs initial hardware division (mice and keyboards) came about simply because the company had so many employees getting RSIs and wanting hardware that was more ergonomic and also usable/productive, and they figured there was a market.

          Those early mice were *great*, too. I have a 5-button ergonomic Intellimouse from before 2001 that still works. Its tracking is kind of meh by modern standards (though it was revolutionary at the time) and the action on the clickwheel has gotten a little gummy,

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Njovich ( 553857 )

      They have been in the hardware business since 1980: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    • Yeah and who would get a router from a search engine company, or a smart speaker from an online bookstore?

    • I know right? It's like a fruit company selling laptops, earbuds, and phones. stick to your wheel house people!

    • It sounds like a software company.

      Camarillo Brillo sounds like the kind of person who has no clue and wonders on a daily basis who tied his shoelaces for him.

  • How far they have sunk.

    • How far they have sunk.

      Or risen. Behaving like a real company making products people might want, rather than what they used to do which is making products that people didn't have a choice about.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by art123 ( 309756 )

        Agreed. They gave mobile a shot. Windows Phone was a decent OS -- very responsive on cheap hardware. But it is hard to be the 3rd or 4th most popular mobile platform when iOS and Android had 90%+ market share a few years ago and now likely 99%.

        Many tech platforms result in only a single winner or maybe two. Blu-ray vs HD DVD. VHS vs Beta. SD vs Compact Flash vs xD vs Memory Stick.

        Microsoft wasted a lot of money on Windows Phone but is on the right track now.

        • They should have cut sooner. They threw a lot of good money after bad for no other reason than stubbornness. It was fairly obvious after the first year or two that Windows Phone wasn't going to recover. I think the change in leadership at Microsoft really did a lot of good in terms of forcing Microsoft to realize what their path forward is.

          And I agree, Windows Phone was actually pretty good. Nokia did a great job making some damn fine phones. I think the failure was more in coming in too late without a c

          • Yeap, I'm still using my Windows phone because I like it's interface *much* better than the iOS or Android interfaces. But I'll probably have to give it up when it reaches end of life at the end of this year. I suppose there was no way to fit an emulator for android apps into a Windows phone, but I wonder what would have happened if they could have.

            • I suppose there was no way to fit an emulator for android apps into a Windows phone, but I wonder what would have happened if they could have.

              Microsoft actually developed a system to do this. The same technology that powers WSL (v1) on the desktop - a ELF program loader and Linux syscall binary compatibility, plus user-mode libraries and file system extensions for compatibility - was briefly used to allow Windows 10 Mobile to run Android apps through what was called "Windows Bridge for Android [mspoweruser.com]" or by its co

    • Oh you preferred the Ballmer era? With Ballmer in charge, we'd have a chance to (finally) see the year of the Linux desktop.
  • that it is the "Year of the Linux Desktop" yet???
    https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
  • More information can be found in this Wired article [wired.com]. What is interesting to me is that hardware and the "app layer" is now more important than the "OS layer". At Microsoft, the Linux kernel is appearing in many places. Now Microsoft is going to produce an Android "phone". I am amazed at how Microsoft has changed in the last 10-20 years.

    • I am amazed at how Microsoft has changed in the last 10-20 years.

      They didn't want to change- the market forced them to change.

      • That maybe true, but hats off to MS for finally listening to the Market. Most companies don't.

      • Isnt' that true of many companies? the ones that can't change, die.

      • That's why Ford Motors eventually sold cars in other than black. They had good reason to stick to black for a long time, but eventually that reason went away, and they changed. Microsoft is the Ford Motors of the computer industry.

    • I suppose it makes sense, especially with them giving away Win10. No one lines up at the store for a new OS, but may for some slick hardware that runs all the applications they want/need.

  • A phone (Score:3)

    by tarokejihi ( 5097645 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @01:20PM (#59261900)

    According to the source [wired.com]: "Panos Panay, Microsoft’s chief product officer, doesn’t want you to call it a phone."

    But if it walks like a phone and it quacks like a phone, then it must be a phone :-)

  • The version of Android on offer here looks heavily skinned, too, to resemble a version of Windows.

    So in other words... it's a hard pass!

  • Won't Launch For Over A Year (Score:3)

    by WankerWeasel ( 875277 ) on Wednesday October 02, 2019 @01:29PM (#59261964)
    Notice this part saying it's not coming until NEXT holiday season. It's more than a year away. "The Surface Duo will officially launch next year during the holiday season. But the company wants to give developers a taste of developing for dual-screen devices early in the game."

  • Dual (or rather, foldable) screens are a nice idea to get a bigger screen with a reduced form factor, but until we can open the device and have both screens touch each other with no border at all (so that it really becomes a single screen), I won't be sold to that idea.

  • Anybody even considering this should have their head examined....

  • Watching the presentation they talk about what developers can do across Windows and across Linux.

    We shouldn't expect it to be Linux and fully Android. Remember that WSL was built to enable Android compat for WinPhones initially but failed to be compatible enough,
    but with WSL2 on the horizon they might've solved most hurdles so it could be that they just run Android apps via WSL2 "emulation" and the core OS is actually still windows.

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