Surface Duo Discussion Thread

, "It's not a purse, its a satchel."

 

Good enough for Dr. Jones

 

Android Central, one of the biggest Android oriented sites weighing in with an at least worth reading ten on the Duo.

Like I said this is gonna be a polarizing device... which could actually be a good thing

https://www.androidcentral.com/surface-duo-poll-results

 

Hello everyone! I'm an infrequent contributor, but love seeing the enthusiasm and knowledge on these boards. Just to refresh everyone and introduce myself to the newcomers...

I started with Surface 2. Sat out the upgrades until Surface 2017 (or the only non-numbered Surface). Prior to Surface, I was enjoying the HP Tablet PC, a tm2t.

Like many here, I am swayed by how slick the Duo looks and runs. Many times we focus on specs, and not on the work that we expect from our personal devices. So from a spec perspective, the Duo isn't exciting. Watching Panos and others use the device is very exciting.

But then I come into the reality of what devices I have/need and how Duo fits within those devices...

I am an iPhone user. My family uses iPhone. I use an Apple Watch to keep track of my exercise and to help me pay attention to notifications. I use the Apple Watch/iPhone to make Apple Pay payments. I use iMessage to contact my family. I use Find My Friends to see where everyone is. I keep appointments in Apple Calendar. They have addresses that integrate into Apple Maps. Press on an address in the Apple Calendar and it launches Apple Maps. I share my ETA with my kids via Apple Maps and they get a notification of my ETA and updates if I hit traffic. My car as CarPlay and it keeps me on time, on place and on task.

...I know that I can get some of this in the Android ecosystem, but I'm not going to ditch all of this. And I'm not going to have my family ditch their iPhones just so I can get a Duo. And as a phone, the Duo isn't impressive. No 5G. No NFC for Android/Google Pay.

I saw someone mention getting the Duo and not using it as a phone. So then I have an iPhone, Duo and a Surface 2017.

I love the cloud. Keep a bunch of stuff on it. But the nice thing about using my Surface as a tablet/laptop/docked PC is that EVERYTHING is setup the way I like it. The iPhone has MS apps, and I like OneNote on it. It is primarily a consumption device, but I can do some light data entry.

So Duo would be the most useful in scenarios where the Surface 2017 is "too big". So do the Duo productivity gains over the iPhone and/or the ability to bring the Duo places where I wouldn't bring the Surface warrant an outlay of $1,500?

Right now I'm thinking no...

My other question for the group is if you are in a position to have to have an iPhone and the Duo is a companion device between the phone and a 2-in-1 or laptop... Then what does Duo bring over the Go 2? It is the similar calculus as above... Does the Duo productivity gains over the Go and/or the ability to bring the Duo places where I wouldn't bring the 2-in-1 warrant the $900 premium over the Go 2.

Discuss amongst yourselves...

So far my answer is that since Duo can't replace my phone and isn't price competitive with other options, I'm glad to sit this one out.

 

I bet the price drops pretty quick.

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk

 

Is the DUO too slow?

I have been seeing the Panos video and just notice something odd in all the presentation videos.

notice when panos wants to go back to the home screen from the app or when he switches app, there is a lag in that the video pans out every time and panos fills in with his standard sentences before he goes back to the device and the video too gets the device screen back on. i just got the feeling that either it is freezing for a second or two or it is just slow to open another app.

 

And the switch has begun...

 

Watched the whole presser/presentation on YT yesterday. First, the SD is not a phone, it is a tablet with phone capability. Besides, when did you make a phone call the last time?
Second, the thing that got me was the Kindle app. Finally an e-book reader in a book format, and being able to have OneNote open next to it made me tingle a bit.
Third, that damn price. I subscribed to the notion it would be a $999/$1199 combo. At those prices I want some color options to I can accessorize (and yes, I know most of you don't care).
Fourth, I can't believe they didn't come up with some way of incorporating the stylus into the device. Some clamp thing to the hinge, or something.

Am I tempted? You becha. Will I dole out $1500 (need the extra storage since it doesn't have a microSD slot)? Highly unlikely.

 

I will rightly accept my public flogging, because I have lost the Duo burn again. I can't justify buying a V1 device without Microsoft Complete, so the 256gb model, with Complete and a slim pen (which is on a small sale) comes to $1810 before taxes - even with the $700 trade-in allowance I'm just north of $1100 for this beauty. I can get the Galaxy Note 20u with 512gb for $600 ($450 for 128gb model) thanks to Samsung's insane desire to convert us iPhone fanboys.

PS - @Bishop - definitely a Zonk -

 

Brad Sams tweeted about this and I pretty much agree too. It's just a shame that you can't get a Windows desktop experience when you dock to a monitor like with the old Windows Phones with Continuum. I mean I get it, Windows Phone failed badly so that was never an option. Not running Android apps as a phone would make this a non-starter. But this thing is also basically the same as the guts of the Pro X (just clocked a bit lower to have a lower TDP), it'd be a much more interesting proposition if you could dock to a monitor and be in a Windows experience.

But besides that, as interesting of a compromise as this is for right now, I still think the future of this device is eventually going to need to be one big screen (eventually when it's possible). Hell, maybe even a software divider if they are dead set on the paradigm of these being separate. But until you can watch videos or browse the web without the gap it's never going to be able to be mass market.

Edit: Someone in the Twitter responses described the first idea better than I did. Basically a reverse WSL. Where instead of Linux running on Windows, it'd be Windows running on Android when docked. As critical as I am about this thing in general, that would be the killer feature for me right there.