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00:00Hey what's up, MKBHD here.
00:12So you remember the original Surface Duo?
00:15The dual-screen, foldable Android device from Microsoft?
00:19It had a lot of potential and a lot of hype behind it.
00:23We were hoping it would be great, and then it just wasn't really that good at all.
00:27Disappointingly, it had pretty weak performance, the software was very buggy, and the camera
00:33was trash.
00:34But the one nice thing about it was it had really nice, sleek, thin hardware, and a great
00:41hinge.
00:42But there was a lot to fix.
00:43But now, one year later, we have the sequel, the shiny, new dark-colored sequel, the answer
00:50to Microsoft's nightmares, the Surface Duo 2.
00:53Sweet.
00:55This isn't the full review, I haven't had it for very long, but I have some initial
00:58impressions on it, which are that I think that this device, and all Microsoft has done
01:04to it, has revealed that this idea may not really have a great future.
01:11It may be fundamentally flawed in the way it's used.
01:15Microsoft went through and valiantly improved a ton of stuff about this, especially versus
01:20the original.
01:21They found a lot of flaws, they made them all objectively better, and yet some of that
01:26stuff still also made it worse.
01:30See, pretty much all the changes Microsoft has made are objectively better than the last
01:35one.
01:36So there's a bunch of stuff here.
01:37They have all new high-end specs inside, they've made the displays bigger and faster with thinner
01:42bezels, and they added a set of real cameras on the back, and there's much better software
01:46implementation to tie it all together.
01:49But yet, this Surface Duo has a completely new set of problems that this Surface Duo
01:54didn't have.
01:55But then the cherry on top is this new one is now $1499, $1,499.
02:01That's actually more expensive than the first one, which started at $1399 before it plummeted
02:08the whole year it was out.
02:09I think it was eventually like $900 off or something like that.
02:12So you might think, wow, that's a bold move, making an even more expensive Surface, even
02:16when the first one flopped so hard.
02:18But this was also clearly going to cost more to make.
02:22So you might remember when the first Surface Duo came out, it had one-year-old, slightly
02:25out-of-date specs.
02:27This one's launching with the highest-end chip.
02:29It's a Snapdragon 888, it has 8 gigs of RAM and up to half a terabyte of storage.
02:34And they've done a lot with this new display here.
02:37So first of all, it's slightly bigger, it's 8.3 inches corner to corner now, with nearly
02:42the same size footprint because the bezels are smaller all the way around.
02:46Especially that top bezel.
02:47No more flash needed since the main camera system's on the back now.
02:51And this display is also now brighter, up to 800 nits, and it is high refresh rate
02:55now.
02:56It's a 90 hertz panel.
02:57Weirdly, there is no option to change refresh rate anywhere in the display settings, like
03:02you can't knock it down to 60 hertz if you want to, but whatever.
03:05Everything is smoother, especially while scrolling.
03:08But the main new thing here with this display is it curves over the edges in the middle
03:14near the hinge from both sides.
03:16So it kind of gives this sort of subtle waterfall look.
03:19And the dual screens now kind of have this effect of looking closer together, almost
03:24like it's one giant folding screen.
03:27And this definitely encourages you to span apps across both displays more often, and
03:32yeah, treat it like one big display.
03:34The only problem with that is when you do, lots of those important pixels in the middle
03:40of the screen are now just spilling over that edge into being unreadable.
03:46But also some are completely missing, like you can't read whatever's supposed to be in
03:51those middle few pixels.
03:52So any pictures or any text that are supposed to be in the middle of the screen are now
03:56just gone, which is beyond annoying.
03:59It's a bit of a problem for any sort of reading, and you can forget about spanning games horizontally.
04:05Imagine trying to aim something with the crosshairs missing.
04:07Now it's the Surface Duo, so horizontal gaming isn't really a huge thing.
04:10This is actually a great form factor for split gaming like this, emulator games, all that
04:15sort of stuff, split screen top-bottom gaming.
04:18And that's actually one of the biggest...
04:19I've had a little bit of time to play with this, game passes on this device, and it's
04:23a lot of fun.
04:24But yeah, the missing text in the middle of the screen, not great.
04:30But then the other big change to the hardware, as you've already seen, is it has real cameras
04:35on the back now.
04:36A whole triple camera system, a 12 megapixel primary, plus a 2X telephoto, and a 16 megapixel
04:42ultra-wide, all stacked into this camera bump that has matte rails all the way around the
04:47outsides.
04:48There's a flash next to it, there's HDR, portrait mode, optical zoom.
04:53These cameras, they're not amazing, but they are way more capable than before.
04:57So objectively, if we just ignore the design for a second, that's better.
05:02They've put better cameras on this phone, device.
05:06But obviously, Microsoft never really wanted to bolt cameras to the back and ruin their
05:12perfectly clean, sleek, thin design.
05:15That's why they didn't do it with the first one, and they got the great hardware, but
05:18then that meant to take pictures of stuff, you'd have to flip it open and use the selfie
05:23camera like that, and then this was just a webcam, it was pretty bad.
05:28So this time, yeah, there's a set of real cameras on the back, they've caved and done
05:31it, and I can confirm, they're all better than the webcam was.
05:35So having some optical zoom, having the ability to take decent videos, that's all nice.
05:40I mean, it's a 2x telephoto, which isn't that great, but it's something.
05:44But now that they've made this change, which a lot of people, including me, were wondering
05:48if they would do it or not, it turns out that this is now a bit more annoying to use.
05:55So obviously with this Mesa sticking out the back, you're now unable to fully open the
06:00Surface Duo to flat anymore.
06:02So anytime you use it with one hand folded back, it's got to be slightly open like this,
06:08just a few millimeters short of going flat, which is enough to be easy to slip your finger
06:12in and close it quickly, but it is not as comfortable to use it for a while and hold
06:18it like this with one hand.
06:19Now I do admire that they've shaped this camera bump to match the exact angle that the back
06:25screen folds over and touches it so that it lays flush.
06:28It's a neat little couple degree adjustment there.
06:31It's nice.
06:32It feels like there's also magnets in here to hold it against that camera bump.
06:35But now, as you've noticed, that's covering the cameras, which means anytime you want
06:40to take photos, you have to swivel it down because closing it up covers the cameras.
06:44So now you have to have it open fully like this every time you take pictures.
06:52I don't know, maybe you do the viewfinder open at the top and then the photos populating
06:57at the bottom.
06:58And that's cool enough when it works.
07:00Maybe that's more fun for some people for taking pictures.
07:03But overall, yeah, it's physically less convenient, especially when you just want to snap a quick
07:08photo real quick.
07:10So you can see why this idea, even though it's a really cool idea, feels broken.
07:15Like Microsoft found ways to make this objectively better, especially on paper than the last one.
07:23But yet it got more annoying.
07:25It got worse to use.
07:27And I think fundamentally, I was thinking about all the different ways that they could
07:31maybe save this.
07:32Maybe they can fix this in some way, maybe making it thicker, maybe, you know, filling
07:38it in.
07:39So if the camera bump isn't a bump, what are the things that they could do?
07:41I couldn't come up with any because I feel like the thing that is flawed about this
07:46is the lack of any outside display.
07:49Just this passport design.
07:51Like, of course, there's a ton of software optimization that's gone into making this
07:55UI work with two screens.
07:57And that's super cool.
07:58Maybe making it a little bit thicker would give you some more battery to power these
08:01two screens for longer.
08:03But that wouldn't really solve anything.
08:05You know, I thought a lot about the aspect ratio, about the layout of everything.
08:09But even the layout's better here, too.
08:11Now the power button and fingerprint reader are combined into one.
08:14Believe it or not, it wasn't on the first one.
08:16And I really like the matte black rails and this new darker color.
08:19It just feels much more professional.
08:22It feels more my type, to be honest.
08:24But even in the software, the software was buggy last time on the Surface Duo, and it
08:29is buggy again this time, too.
08:31Mainly, I've been having touch responsiveness issues where it really doesn't like when
08:37I start a swipe action from off the display.
08:40Like, if I swipe up from the bezel, it constantly doesn't respond when I do that.
08:45Plus, there's all kinds of missed button presses and momentary, complete lapses of
08:50all responsiveness.
08:51It's still really bad for a device of this price.
08:54And I'd say I hope they can fix it with some software, but this has been an issue for a
08:58full year now, so I'm not exactly optimistic.
09:00But the fundamental flaw is there's no outside screen, which means there's no usability when
09:04it's closed.
09:05You have to open it to do anything.
09:07So we've seen even the Moto Razr and Samsung Z Flip 3 have decently usable outside screens.
09:15And then of course, the Fold 3 just has a whole smartphone UI basically on the outside.
09:19You can use it a whole bunch without ever even opening it.
09:22And there's a lot of foldables that have all these different ways of using it without
09:25opening it.
09:26But with this, you have to open it and then unlock it and use it every time.
09:30And it sounds like such a small thing, just sounds, I feel like I'm just like complaining
09:34and it seems really petty, but when you actually use it, it becomes a pretty big deal.
09:38And this also means anytime you fully open it and fold it over flat, you have just straight
09:44display glass now on the outside.
09:46So if you were to put it in your pocket like this or put it down on a table like this,
09:51that makes the glass pretty vulnerable to scratches.
09:54And it's also just the extra layer of having to open it, unfold it, unlock the phone and
10:00then get started with everything, even for like the quickest little thing.
10:03If you just want to snap a quick picture or you just take it out of your pocket for a
10:06quick phone call every time, that's a huge deal to me.
10:10Now you can view some quick things like the time and check your notifications by actually
10:14checking that curved over part of the display in the middle of the phone while it's closed,
10:20which is more than nothing.
10:22It is actually super cool that it curves over so much that you can actually see it and read
10:26it in there, but you don't really interact with it at all.
10:31And that's the absolute minimum in terms of functionality.
10:33And also this is just one more thing, but this is minor.
10:36If you try to place it down on a desk like this, it works.
10:39But with the camera bump now, you cannot place it down on a desk on the other side or it's
10:43annoying.
10:44I mean, you can, but it's very wobbly and annoying.
10:46So it felt like an ambidextrous device before.
10:48Now you always have to remember to get it right.
10:50So here's my question to you.
10:52We've seen companies go back on things, right?
10:55Like we just with Apple saw them release a new MacBook Pro that we're all loving because
11:00they went back on a ton of the stuff that we've hated about the last couple of years
11:04of MacBook Pros and now we're all over it again.
11:07And so I wonder if there should be something considered with the Surface Duo.
11:13Like, what do you think?
11:14Should Microsoft give up on the outside screen form factor or should they do an outside screen
11:19or should Surface Duo just stay the way it is for the people who like it the way it
11:23is and who will pay that price to use this as it exists today?
11:28I don't know.
11:29I'm curious.
11:30Let me know in your thoughts below in the comment section.
11:32I'm very curious if anyone has any other ideas about Surface Duo, but that's pretty
11:36much it.
11:37Anyway, stay tuned to the next video where we have something that I'm a lot more excited
11:42about for sure.
11:44Much more positive video.
11:45It's Techtober.
11:46There's a lot coming.
11:47Thanks for watching.
11:48Catch you guys in the next one.
11:49Peace.