Microsoft wasn’t kidding around last year when it announced the Surface Duo, an Android phone with two 5.6-inch screens joined at the hinge so it can unfold into a tablet. The company has confirmed it’ll launch the device on September 10, with a $1,399 price tag.
The two OLED displays feature a 4:3 aspect ratio and a resolution of 1800 x 1350 pixels, and together, they form an 8.1-inch screen at 2700 x 1800 pixels, with a 3:2 aspect ratio. They’re both protected by Gorilla Glass, and work with Microsoft’s Surface styli.
Under the hood, the Surface Duo packs a powerful Snapdragon 855 processor, and 6GB RAM, 128GB or 256GB of UFS 3.0 storage, and a 3,577mAh battery. The spec nerds among you will recognize that those aren’t quite top-of-the-line specs, but they’re not too shabby either. I’m equally intrigued by the modest battery capacity for this dual-display device, and by Microsoft’s claim that it’ll last all day.
Unlike most phones these days, the Surface Duo only has a single camera — an 11-megapixel f/2.0 shooter that supports a low light mode, HDR multi-frame shots, 4K video recording at 30fps and 60fps, and up to 7x digital zoom.
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The foldable phone is designed to run any and every Android app, and also support some cool tricks in optimized apps, like opening links from an email side-by-side on the second display.
At $1,400, it’s clearly out of reach for most people in the market for a new phone. But beyond that, it also has the difficult challenge of making a case for a dual-screen device, something the Samsung Galaxy Fold series is still taking its time with.
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