Microsoft
Windows Central’s Zac Bowden is the lead reporter on all the Microsoft Surface rumors and your last report is that the Surface Duo 3 is dead, or at least a device in the same mold as the Surface Duo 1 and 2 has been cancelled. Someday there may be a device from Microsoft branded as “Surface Duo 3”, but the Surface Duo form factor – a dual-screen device with a 360-degree hinge – is dead. The report says that Microsoft is now working on a “more traditional folding design, with a 180-degree hinge, foldable inner screen and outer cover screen” – in the same vein as the Galaxy Fold.
The Surface Duo lineup made for two of the clunkiest Android devices on the market. Instead of the tall, thin screens that Android phones typically use, both Surface Duos used short, fat screens, making the Duo line the widest smartphones on the market. The original Surface Duo was intended to run the canceled “Windows 10x” operating system, which would have taken advantage of the unique screen ratio. When that operating system was cancelled, the design was revived as an Android phone, but those short, fat screens led to many poor Android app layouts, with the screen’s limited vertical space further reduced by Android’s large headers and tab bars. . It looks like Microsoft wanted to get to the same basic outline as a Moleskine notebook, but Android apps just weren’t designed for that ratio. Furthermore, even when folded, being dramatically wider than any other smartphone on the market, it also made it literally painful to try and hold with one hand.
After two nearly identical releases, Microsoft appeared to be taking the “too broad” line of thinking. The report says that the canceled Surface Duo 3 would have “narrower and taller edge-to-edge displays”, which would put the phone in a more reasonable form factor.
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With those plans dead, what is “considered a third-generation Duo internally” will be a more normal foldable smartphone, and it’s unclear whether it will be branded “Surface Duo 3” or not. As we argued in our review of the original device, equipping the device with a continuous internal display would be a huge improvement over the dual-screen design. With a large foldable screen, you can still get all the dual-screen functionality through the Android software’s split-screen mode, but with the added benefit of also having a large screen for tablet apps, movies, games and websites.
In addition to the incompatible Android form factor, Microsoft’s Android phones have had a slew of other issues that the company will need to fix. Surface Duos have always looked like foldable beta devices, and this compromise might have worked if not for the full price of an actual foldable phone. The $1,400-$1,500 prices were uncompetitive for what were basically two smartphones glued together, so you have to wonder what’s going on with Microsoft’s supply chain. Microsoft’s Android software division has also been a mess, with the company outsourcing the Surface Duo 1 OS up to two months before launch and, as a result, shipping a disastrously buggy version of Android. Microsoft has since bought the team it was outsourcing its Android builds to, but so far, Surface Duo customers have seen a worst in class Android update registration.
The report describes Microsoft as wanting to make its Android phone work better with Windows through an internal program called “Perfect Together” that is building Apple-style integrations between phone and laptops/desktops. Despite the Surface Duo’s failure, Bowden says Microsoft is “all-in” with Android and “eager to expand its lineup of Android smartphone offerings” beyond the new foldable device. The report says that Microsoft has come up with several ideas for a “mainstream” style Surface phone that might launch someday.
It looks like we’ll be waiting a while for Microsoft’s next Android phone, with Bowden saying the foldable “doesn’t yet have a concrete shipping window for the device, which means it’s unlikely to be ready in time for this fall.”
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