Last month Microsoft revealed that the Surface Duo smartphone was going to become available from 10th September - that's today. At the time of writing the device seems to be pre-orderable, but not orderable on the US site. However, I can't even find it listed on Microsoft's UK site.
At one time it was feared that the Surface Duo would be delayed as long as the Surface Neo, but thankfully that hasn't happened. As a reminder the Surface Neo is the larger dual screen device which is set to run Windows 10X on an Intel Lakefield based platform. Also as a reminder, it is worth recapping the Surface Duo's specs which are directly below:
- Twin 5.6-inch OLED displays (1800 x 1350) with Gorilla Glass open up to form an 8.1-inch overall workspace (2700 x 1800) with a 3:2 aspect ratio.
- 'Revolutionary 360-degree hinge'
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 SoC
- 6GB of RAM
- Up to 256GB of storage
- Single 11-megapixel f/2.0 camera with EIS and 4K video recording up to 60fps
- Wi-Fi and LTE but no 5G support
- Surface Pen support
- Twin battery packs adding up to 3,577mAh capacity for 'all day battery life'
- 4.8mm thick unfolded, 9.6mm folded
While some will decry the specs of yesteryear tethered to pricing starting from US$1,399.99, the Surface Duo is quite a unique dual-screen proposition and may effectively be marketed at businesses and enterprises with Microsoft's out of the box support/bundling of Office apps, 'Enterprise-grade security', and a variety of mobile device management (MDM) options.
To help get the Surface Duo off to a good start, Microsoft has readied a new promotional video, which you can view embedded directly above. The central proposition is that the Surface Duo offers "a new way to get things done," especially while you are on the move. To get this message across this latest video concentrates on how much more space users have to check and respond to emails, calendars, appointments and so on - important tasks for road warriors.
A promo video or two are also available on the Surface Twitter social media pages. Two recent videos show off; the comfortable media consumption in tent mode, and the some fancy flexing of the hinged device (oops, don't copy these guys and drop it).
In the US the Surface Duo price is from $1,399 device only, or on contract with the likes of AT&T from $47pcm. Windows Central recently reported that non-US customers will have to wait until 2021 until they can get their mitts on the Duo.
