Tested: Surface Duo 2 | One of yours is better than two …

There’s no shortage of interest in the concept of a foldable dual-screen phone, and Microsoft’s Surface Duo 2 offers some useful demonstrations. But it is so expensive and its faults are so obvious that one cannot recommend its purchase.

Karim Benessaieh
Press

WE love

Samsung, with its Galaxy Z Flip and Fold, has been trying since 2019 to convince consumers of the charm of foldable dual-screen phones with one constant concern: when folded, these devices have roughly the appearance of a normal phone.

This is not at all the bet that Microsoft made with its Surface Duo, the first version of which also arrived on the market in 2019. Here we are in 2021 with the more powerful Surface Duo 2, an Android phone in which high-end components have been added. Folded, it is the size of a passport, 92 mm by 145 mm, 11 mm thick. Inside, we have two 5.8-inch AMOLED screens connected by two rotating parts that can rotate 360 ​​degrees.

AMOLED displays are flawless, with a peak brightness of 800 nits, 401 ppi resolution and excellent contrast handling with HDR capability. These screens can be managed independently, each displaying an application or a menu. Applications can also be spread across the two screens, which then form a larger 8.3 ” with a visible space in the middle.

We thus find ourselves able to manage two applications at the same time, for example to hold a conference on Zoom on the right while checking his emails on the left. Some applications, especially those designed by Microsoft, use the two screens in complementarity. For example, you open the application Camera : All the functions and views of the lenses appear on the right, while the pictures taken appear on the left. Some games can take advantage of this setup as well, with touch sensitive keys on one side and the game screen on the other.

On the back we have three cameras, a 12 Mpx wide-angle, a 12 Mpx x2 optical telephoto lens and a 16 Mpx 110-degree ultra-wide-angle. Without being a champion in this area, the Surface Duo 2 takes good photos, with excellent level of detail and faithful colors without being bland. Its low-light capability is poor, however, and it is outclassed in high-contrast situations, while the shaded parts are very dark in sunny weather.

We like less

This phone is very poorly held with one hand. Having a phone conversation is not at all pleasant, holding it with one hand while hanging out with the other is uncomfortable.

While it turns heads with its unusual design, the Surface Duo 2 is too big, with dimensions unsuitable for trouser pockets.

In theory, when closed, this phone displays a series of information like the time and notifications on a thin strip on the side. We never managed to activate it. We also had to play around in the setups, restarting a few times before we managed to force the apps to show on both screens. Some applications then refuse to open.

To unlock the phone, you have the choice between a PIN and a fingerprint reader hidden on the power button, on the right side. This reader is very finicky and only accepts unlocking once in three.

Starting at $ 1,899.99 for 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, it’s way overpriced for what it offers. It does not have, for example, magnetic charging, an anomaly in this price range. We passed it to Geekbench 5 benchmarking to compare it to more expensive phones.

Its processor does less well than a Galaxy S20 FE which dates from fall 2020, but it makes up for it with a graphics card that is only outdated, in Android phones, by the high-performance Pixel 6 Pro.

One buys ?

Using two apps at the same time can be useful, and some users will surely find their way with the Surface Duo 2, which is far from a failed device. But the test in our case was frustrating, with this big phone that does not hold well in the hand and its bugs. Its very high price, moreover, prevents us from recommending its purchase. We’ll talk about it again for version 3 … if Microsoft does its homework again.