SURFACE PRO DUO 2 ANDROID
SURFACE PRO DUO 2 WINDOWS

8GB is on the cusp of what we’d deem ‘enough’ for the amount of multitasking you’ll be doing, and rapid swaps between pairs of apps could result in more reloading than you expect for such a pricey handset. It’s paired with 8GB of RAM, and your choice of 128, 256 or 512GB of on-board storage.įor daily use, there’s more than enough grunt here, with apps loading quickly enough and no noticeable slowdown. It’s still a generation behind today’s top phones, though (soon to be two), so won’t be smashing any benchmark records. Microsoft Surface Duo 2 performance & battery life: last year’s modelĪ Snapdragon 888 CPU brings 5G support to the Surface Duo range for the first time, and is a welcome step up in performance from the Snapdragon 855 used in the original version. Microsoft is clearly committed to supporting the Surface Duo range, given the number of updates we’ve seen over the last ten months, so that bodes well for future support.

SURFACE PRO DUO 2 ANDROID

A Microsoft feed replaces Google Discover, and there are a handful of pre-installed Microsoft apps, but it otherwise won’t feel too alien for first-timers.Īccording to Google the firm is working to bring the tablet-optimised Android 12L to its devices later in 2022, but there’s no concrete timeline.

Twin-screen interaction aside, the whole thing sits on top of Android 11 with a lightly customised skin. Given the productivity focus, it’s nice to see Microsoft give some thoughts to what people are doing in their downtime too. Some third party apps don’t like portrait view either – but that’s true on all Android phones, so it’s hard to fault Microsoft here.Ī cool new addition for 2022 is support for Xbox Game Pass cloud gaming, with one of the screens turning into a touchscreen controller – but only for certain games. Things aren’t as bad as they were at launch, but we still encountered a few crashes. It works brilliantly for Microsoft’s apps like Outlook or OneNote, which are optimised for dual screens, but can still be a bit flakey with other Android apps.

SURFACE PRO DUO 2 WINDOWS

The Duo 2 lets you drag and drop apps together so they open as a pair, with swipes along the bottom of the screen moving windows between screens – or expanding them to fill both. Gesture-based controls and well thought-out multitasking modes were the order of the day for the original Surface Duo, and that’s still true here. Microsoft Surface Duo 2 software: positive steps The stereo speakers put in a decent enough showing, but with no 3.5mm headphone port you’ll need a dongle (or Bluetooth) for personal listening. Stretch content across both screens and you’re left with a distracting gap in the middle, but stick to one display and the 3:2 aspect ratio leaves you with black bars topping and tailing your videos. Multimedia and gaming aren’t exactly in the Duo 2’s wheelhouse, though. We’re not talking Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra levels of retina-scorching light, but plenty to use outdoors without having to squint. Photos and videos look superb, with largely accurate hues in the Natural colour mode and respectable brightness for a premium phone. These are OLED panels, with the sort of epic colour saturation and contrast we expect of the tech. There’s no option to dial it back to save battery, though. Refresh rate has been bumped to 90Hz this time around, which makes for a much smoother experience when scrolling through web pages or flinging apps between the two screens.

At 1899×1344 each, or a combined 2688×1892, you’re still getting plenty of detail – whether using one screen at a time or both at once. The top and bottom bezels are still on the chunky side, as they have to make room for the hinge, but that just means there’s always somewhere to grip the thing without accidentally tapping the touchscreen.Įven with a slight resolution bump, pixel density largely stays the same as it was before. That’s a welcome improvement over the 5.6in/8.1in combo you got on the first-gen model. With some strategically slimmed-down bezels, the Surface Duo 2’s two screens have grown to 5.8in each, opening up to an 8.3in “single” display.

Surface pro duo 2