https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/surface/microsoft-wont-say-if-surface-duo-is-getting-any-more-android-os-releases
Microsoft fails to reassure Surface Duo users.
I like strange tech. I owned a Pebble. I drive a PHEV. I had a phone with a side-slider keyboard way after it stopped being cool. I bought a Moto Z for the Moto Mods. I have a bin full of strange old input peripherals for the PC, like a SpaceOrb I bought for Descent. I still own a Sega Dreamcast. I'm on my third bone-conducting headset.
I like weird gear. I am in the target market for companies making weird gear.
I have no interest in this folding crap.
Man. I really miss my pebble. It was prefect for me. Android wear is a bit much, and the fitbits are not quite enough. I'm dealing with a MI band for now, but I would kill for a new pebble.
Haven't heard news about this device for ages.
Does anyone own one? Wonder if more apps are now compatible with the split display
I only know one person who's bought one after a long period of considerations, and they've been complaining about issues with it since day 1
I own one! Replying from it right now. I really like it as a handheld emulator (especially the Nintendo DS) and as an eReader. With emulation, you can hold it sideways and use one screen for buttons and one screen as a huge display, and as an eReader the folding format makes for a very natural-feeling reading experience while holding it like a book.
I owned one, had horrible freezing issues and screens going unavailable randomly, making folded use a horrible game of flipping the phone to get the other screen, but now it switched to the other screen. Sent it for repairs under warranty for one screen having flickering issues, they sent me a new one. The new one was still bad, but at least both screens worked.
Battery life was pretty bad. Had like a 2500mah battery which with two screens drains very quickly. I used it for a few months as a primary phone and put it in a drawer. It was several versions of android behind. Took it out one year later, it worked fine, used it for a while... But these phones are made of glass, and there wasn't a proper case for it because of the hinge, so Microsoft sends you these rubber bumpers you glue onto the phone which come off easily over time, official replacement "case" which was just rubber cost like $40 bucks, which made me buy double sided adhesive to keep using the original.
Anyways some people like to have multiple phones and it's good as a second phone if you spend all day near a charger. For anything else it's impractical.
Reading on it was great, though. Haven't tried a folding or hinge phone since
There's been some positive words since the fire sale; kinda wish I picked one up for work.
Definitely a failure on Microsoft's part that will make anyone wary of trying the inevitable foldable and slab phones they'll release. You don't have to declare a Duo 3 is coming or anything right now, but you have to say that you're supporting the device that came out less than 2 years ago.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
If you’ve been holding out hope that Microsoft was gearing up to ship a big update for Surface Duo at some point this year, I think it might be time to let that boat sail.
The company has seemingly gone radio silent on all things Surface Duo, providing “nothing to share” responses to any questions asked about the product.
Existing Surface Duo 2 customers will continue to get monthly security updates between now and October 2024, but whether or not the company plans to deliver any more major Android OS versions is another question entirely.
This would have been a chance for Microsoft to reassure existing users that they hadn’t been abandoned, but the company decided to issue yet another “nothing to share” comment.
Before active development on Surface Duo OS stopped, the company was working on a handful of new features that would have shipped on top of Android 12L.
These new features included a new Windows 365-powered Continuum mode, which would let you log in to a Cloud PC when plugging the Surface Duo into an external display.
I'm a bot and I'm open source!
It's so weird that Continuum mode didn't make it, but the Lenovo ThinkPhone seems to be getting it.
Do they have anything successful besides windows which even getting bad light due to privacy relates stuffs.
Back in 2011 I had Lumia 710. that device performed exceptionally well compared to Android alternatives but Microsoft fuvked it up by going apple way , making everything closed source, free games on Android were paid on windows phone os.
That's because no one wants a decade old concept, the currier, that was only released to compete with actual folding phones.
I have both the Duo 1 and Duo 2. It is definitely a love / hate relationship.
The quality of the hardware is really good. But software has been disappointing since launch. While a lot of the bugs have been fixed, you kinda need to use Microsoft Launcher on this device. And in typical Microsoft fashion, it is worse on their own hardware than on any other phone. You cannot backup and restore your launcher configuration, cannot change the grid sizes, cannot change icons, etc.
Apps do generally work fine because unlike the Z Fold and Pixel Fold, they open on only one screen by default. You have to manually span them across both screens if you want, but very few apps are actually aware of there being a gap between the screens.
I don't remember who, but someone described this device perfectly imo: Surface Duo is the most amazing piece of tech that I ever owned, but it is also the worst phone that I ever owned.