Microsoft has finally pulled the wraps off of the Surface Duo, its Android-based foldable (that it won't call a phone). It will start at $1,399 for a 128GB model when it launches on September 10. Microsoft made the announcement in a blog post this morning.
That price puts it among the most expensive phones on the market (it's $1,499 for the 256GB model). Some of that is due to the Surface name, as well as the fact that you're getting two screens that total 8.1-inches when the device is open. But with a last-gen Snapdragon 855 processor, it's a bit behind on compute.
The Surface Duo's two 5.6-inch displays are both 1800 x 1350 resolution AMOLED screens that Microsoft has dubbed "PixelSense Fusion." They should work with any Surface Pen (not included).
The not-a-phone is also coming with an 11MP camera, 6GB of RAM and a 3,577 mAh battery.
At 4.8mm (0.2 inch) when opened, Microsoft is calling this the thinnest Surface Device ever.
Microsoft's Surface Duo will support LTE on AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon in the United States, but availability and carriers have not yet been announced worldwide. The Duo will be available for pre-order at Microsoft's online store, AT&T and Best Buy.
This is also the first piece of Surface hardware to run something other than Windows. It's full-on Android, including Google Search, Google Calendar and the Play Store. But Microsoft has also included a bunch of its own software, including Office apps, OneDrive, Edge, Teams and LinkedIn. That's where we're most interested: to see how this portable device fits into our daily lives and integrates with our workflow when we get back to our computers.
The Surface Duo is Microsoft's first foldable. It was announced alongside the Surface Neo, a Windows foldable at an event in October, but the Neo has seemingly been shelved while the company continues to work on Windows 10X.
For a long time, a project called Andromeda, thought to be a Windows-based, pocketable foldable, was rumored, seemingly taking up the mantle of the canceled Courier.
