Microsoft Surface Duo: Microsoft's folding smartphone is a bit like a Nintendo DS

Microsoft is officially back in the smartphone business – and not only that, it has jumped aboard the foldable camera phone bandwagon by announcing the Microsoft Surface Duo. 

Unveiled at a press event in New York, the Microsoft Surface Duo will feature an Android operating system – as is only sensible, though still somewhat surprising given Microsoft's persistent attempts to make Windows Mobile OS a thing. 

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"This product brings together the absolute best of Microsoft, and we're partnering with Google to bring the absolute best of Android in one product," said Microsoft Product Chief, Panos Panay (thanks, CNet). "This is industry pushing technology."

Interestingly, Microsoft distinctly considers the Duo to be part of the Surface family – which is to say that it isn't strictly a smartphone. "Make no mistake, this product is a Surface," Panay noted. 

And the Duo isn't strictly a folding device, either – not in the sense that the Samsung Galaxy Fold is, anyway. Where folding phones such as the Galaxy feature a single, seamless screen (the cause of Samsung's many miseries), the Surface Duo features separate dual screens, albeit in close proximity. 

Given that the Samsung has yet to pass any sustained durability tests (having spectacularly failed to last longer than a day without the screen breaking in its first go-around), we suspect that Microsoft made the right call. 

Very little else is known about the Microsoft Surface Duo, though we do know that it features a single rear (selfie) camera – there appears to be no front facing primary camera at all. 

Microsoft's presentation goes to great lengths to showcase the two screens being used independently, rather than as a single seamless tablet screen. It depicted one screen as a display and the other as a keyboard, for inputting text, or as a virtual joypad for playing Xbox games. Stylus input on one screen was also shown.

In this sense, Microsoft seems to be pitching the Duo's functionality as similar to the Nintendo DS. It seems to consider the two screens serving separate purposes, rather than combining to form a single larger display. It will be interesting to see whether this, or Samsung's approach, sees greater success when it launches in holiday 2020.

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