Surface Duo Discussion Thread

Instead of guessing, why don't you just ask the microsoft employees.

Q & A:
https://www.windowscentral.com/join-live-surface-duo-demo-and-qa-microsoft

Microsoft hasn't exactly advertised this, but there are a dozen Surface Duo demo sessions scheduled through the end of August. The sessions are live and available to stream online, and you'll get a chance to ask questions about Duo as well. You can sign up to join one of the sessions at Microsoft now.

Try it out at best buy:
https://www.windowscentral.com/surface-duo-displays-already-available-some-best-buy-stores

If you don't live near a participating Best Buy, you'll also get a chance to check out Surface Duo at AT&T stores starting August 28.

later
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Already registered. There's one today 2:00-2:30 EDT.

 

Cool, let us know how it was.

 

There's actually 2 more today, one at 7 pm and another at 8pm central time.

later
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Nice discussion of the Duo hardware by someone with (non-functional) preview hardware in hand. Notably he doesn't cover pocketability.

 

Surface Duo Q&A, August 21, 2:00-2:30 EDT

Mostly demos of things we've seen before. Some items I noted:

1. Modes: He referred to Duo as being in Book Mode (held in landscape and partially folded), Compose Mode (held in portrait, bent or not) and Tent Mode which you saw in the Panos press video. Folded back was just "single screen" - which he pitched as focusing solely on one app or on a call with no other distraction.
2. He tried to show "Peek Mode", partially opening a closed Duo which is supposed to show day/time; it wasn't a good enough camera angle to see it.
3. After showing the physical movements, he loaded the Your Phone app and broadcast from his laptop (looked like a Surface Book). It took longer than was comfortable to load the Duo screen image. He probably should've rebooted before starting the demo.
4. Microsoft Launcher allows you to either swipe/gesture home screens around or use the traditional Android 3 buttons at the bottom of the screen. Interestingly, the 3 buttons come up at the bottom of both screens.
5. If you've used Microsoft Launcher, the feed screen works the same.
6. He did show the action for pairing two apps to launch in tandem, including naming the pair and choosing the left/right arrangement.
7. He used Edge and To Do as a pair. Then selected a recipe list and dragged it to the other screen to create a task list. I think Microsoft is obsessed with cooking.
8. He used a regular Surface Pen (like from a Pro, Studio or Surface Book) to do some of the clicks, drags and swipes; no demo of ink.
9. Something new: When he spanned both screens with Outlook, you could see the inbox/message view we've seen before. Then he clicked on the Calendar icon and you got the Day view on the left with the detail of individual appointments on the right. Good use of screen real estate.
10. He made this statement: "All apps will span both screens, it just depends on what they do with the extra real estate." It'll be interesting to see if this is true.
11. The moderators aggregated the questions and gave him things to do in response.
12. First question was about the camera. He took a selfie with it, and then flipped it around and took a photo of his laptop screen (that's how we saw his laptop). No real news there.
13. Something new: Next question was about spanning the Phone App (which is the Google dialer app). It does span. That view puts the dialer on the right screen and the contacts list on the left.
14. Last question was about external sensors. He rotated it from several views. No sensors on either back panel. He said there were speakers - plural - but didn't point out the locations. One observation from this - the back glass panels seem highly reflective of the light from his laptop. Never noticed the reflectivity in any of the other demos. Also, it did not have the bumper on it.

That was about it. The presenter was enthusiastic, if not particularly polished. He showed a couple of other apps like Spotify and Microsoft News as a pair, and with the loading error on the Your Phone app, we only had 5 or 6 minutes for questions.

 

Time will tell, but I bet that when most users span an image across the Duo, they will eventually get used to the gap and it won't bother them very much. I've had experiences that back this up...

 

From landscape, the presenter did span a YouTube video of the Panos presser and clicked full screen, which put the "revolutionary hinge" right down the middle of Panos. Then he turned the Duo to portrait mode. YouTube spanned in full screen mode held in portrait put the video in the center, cutting Panos in halves, top and bottom. Not a great look for the boss....

You may be right. My personal inclination will probably be to keep any video on one screen.

 

Re #7, when you're in charge of meal planning and prep for 4-5 people, every single meal of every single day, and snacks, that starts to matter. A lot. As a homeschooling mom of three, that may have been one of the most compelling parts of the whole demo for me. I may or may not have gasped when he showed that.

 

Gamesmanship?

iPhone 12 announcement set for, drum roll please, September 10?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordon...-date-launch-upgrade-new-iphone/#5fdf5b7271b0