Surface Duo Discussion Thread

Best Buy upped it to $300 off on both models this morning . That's a decent discount
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/microsoft-surface-duo-128gb-unlocked-glacier/6419335.p?skuId=6419335

 

, imo from overpriced to a pretty good deal , unexpected but good news dual screen phone fans.

 

I agree with you. much as I'm very happy with my Duo overall it needs to be a $999/$1099 device all things considered

 

AT&T users don't get the extra $100 break unless they sign up for a 30 month contract (to get the additional $3/month as a bill credit) - they may give you additional bill credit for a trade in if you have a late model iPhone - have to go negotiate in store at Best Buy.

Remember - with AT&T's bill credits, if you want out of your contract you pay the full remaining price of the phone (in other words, if they're giving you $30 month in bill credits, and you're paying $45/month before the credits, you have to pay them $45 X remaining months to get out of the contract - NOT $15 X remaining months). The Best Buy folks are not real good about explaining this particular "gotcha" to the buyer...

 

So this is the kind of stuff that drives me nuts about a lot of these blogs. I will admit that I don't read SlashGear regularly and likely less so with the rise of The Verge and Engadget.

That being said, this article is irresponsible in multiple ways engaging in total rumor based speculation without any facts to back them.

So first they speculate that the recent price cuts might be due to poor sales. So two potential issues I have with that.

First of all, there was not the typical for other manufacturers, preorder deals that Samsung, Apple and the carriers always have prior to a major release. The reasons that MS didn't do that are unknown to us. Our own speculation (and it is just our speculation) is that it was likely a combination of lack of broad carrier commitment , possibly lower initial production due to manufacturing challenges that are Covid related and last but not least, essentially an unproven in the market, form factor.

So with the important caveat that MS never shares raw sales data with us (or for that matter, most of the press either), MS has told us that the Duo "has been doing better than expected in business and somewhat softer than expected in consumer". And FWIW MS "trend based information" to us has tracked consistently with the broader press.

So the most plausible explanation for the recent price cuts ,which FWIW are totally on the consumer side; pricing for corporate always follows its own path. They are almost certainly an attempt to goose sales for the Christmas season. And support for that comes anecdotally in the fact that the best deals from Best Buy require carrier service.

That last paragraph then goes even further off the rails, when it talks about MS lack of cohesive policy around price matching or refunds attributes it instead to a conspiracy theory, that it's a way for MS to get back early defective units, implicitly referencing the rumors about the cracking USB port.

Occam's razor, would instead point to a more obvious answer which is that MS just lacks experience in this area of customer service compared to somebody like Apple or Samsung.

So once again, a Monday morning rant from me Link below
https://www.slashgear.com/surface-duo-gets-a-big-price-cut-and-early-buyers-are-up-in-arms-25644319/

 

Comment number two on that page is proof why you should NEVER worry about the quality of a SlashGear review or its readers:

"jbelkin • 9 hours ago
Why is anyone shocked? You bought the Zune of tablets. Hello?? They can't get WIN 10 right after 50 years of OSes ... why would you expect them to get hardware right? OR that you paid 800% markup for corporate ego ..."

Or, as my Dad used to say - they don't know "come here" from "sic 'em"

 

A few more post-update observations:

• As delighted as I am with the performance of the Duo's fingerprint reader, in recent weeks I've noticed that it's starting to get a bit flakey. It now sometimes takes a few tries with my thumb or about two tries with my index finger to get the Duo unlocked. Looks like I may have to delete and re-enter my fingerprints sometime soon. We'll see...
• And that leads to another thing; on the occasions when the fingerprint reader balks, I'm pretty sure I've noticed a bug with the PIN keypad. On several occasions, it has refused to recognize my PIN on the first attempt (second attempt always works). Some of these could be my clumsy fingers, but on at least two occasions, I know that I entered the correct PIN, only to have it rejected. Again, the second attempt always works...
• The phone UI is certainly improved, but I'm still having problems with it when the screen times out but the call is still under way. I've tried shaking the phone, touching the I/O button and touching the fingerprint reader to relight the screen, but none of these seems to work smoothly for me. I wish there was an option to simply leave the phone UI screen on during the duration of the call...

 

@Steve S . As I have said before, I have not had great luck with the fingerprint reader. However a MS engineer suggested that I restart the duo if it's start happening with increasing frequency. He alluded to some RAM based code that is used and thus gets cleared with a restart.

FWIW it did improve for me and then gradually declines until I restart again. Clumsy yes, but the improved speed when the reader works makes it worthwhile for me.

 

Gotta love those $1,500 beta features

Edit: Sorry, $1,300 now.

 

Hey - you're skirting my territory as the resident sarcastic humorist...