Microsoft's vision of Android, as seen in the Surface Duo and Surface Duo 2, is a world away from the flagship smartphone experience. Why is that important to users and reviewers of the dual-screen format?
The first thought is to compare the Duo environment to that of the folding smartphones. These devices use bleeding edge technology to bend their screens around the hinge assembly. They offer either a secondary screen to use when the device is closed, or the main screen folds in such a way to keep it as accessible as possible. These outside screens work well to provide a “smartphone-llke” experience and as such make them easier to compare to regular smartphone designs.
When you have apps that don’t recognise the central bar you have some usability disasters. When Google’s Gmail fails to show things working as ordered you know you have issues to deal with. When you try to span YouTube over the two screens, it’s like attending a drive-in movie in a classic VW camper van with a split windshield. Try to scroll through a website and the cognitive load, at least for me, to deal with the strip is just too high.
My first time using in this case the original Surface Duo could be summed up as a case of “how in the Sam Hill am I meant to use this?” It took time to push through the expectation of the device. In essence I had to rethink how I used a mobile device. Having two screens is not the same as having two phones side by side, or a tablet with one big screen. That mental barrier took time to vault over.
You have the same guide-rails on the desktop, although both Windows and macOS are more configurable than the mobile counterparts, with both Apple and Microsoft noting research on the interface and the human factors in working with a computer. Curiously in Windows 11 the idea of splitting apps over the desktop screen into their own windows is baked into the UI, with a ‘configure the window view’ on the title bars. With one touch you can move to a Surface Duo like twin app view.
But it still has a high bar of investment. Not only is there the time required to become comfortable, the entry level prices of $1500 on the first Duo, and now on the Duo 2, requires a significant level of confidence for a personal user. I suspect it’s more likely that Duos are in the corporate environment due to IT budgets being spent, rather than individuals.
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