AfterDawn: Tech news

Microsoft makes a surprising return to smartphones: Here's Surface Duo

Written by Matti Robinson @ 02 Oct 2019 12:49 User comments (3)

Microsoft makes a surprising return to smartphones: Here's Surface Duo

Microsoft has today unveiled their first smartphone in years. Surface Duo was announced at the company's Surface event rather surprisingly, in a very "one more thing" fashion.
The Redmond company of course has a very storied history with smartphones, and there has been rumors about an upcoming Surface Phone for years, but it's fair to say that pretty much nobody expected a smartphone announcement today.

However, Surface Duo announcement wasn't exactly a run-of-the-mill smartphone reveal. Instead, the company essentially teased a product that is still year away from launch.

According to Microsoft, Surface Duo is slated for 2020 holiday season release.

We did get some specs as well as a good look at the industrial design today though. Microsoft says that the device will feature two 5.6 inch displays that fold 360 degrees using a hinge in the middle.

Unlike all the other Surface devices, Surface Duo also runs Android, which means that Microsoft isn't ready or willing to join the mobile platform wars again with Windows.



However, you can expect Microsoft's own Windows-like experience from Surface Duo, and the company assured that it is a true Surface experience.

Current prototypes have used Snapdragon 855 chips but we can expect more up-to-date specs when launch is closer. That is pretty much all there is to say about the device so far.







Previous Next  

3 user comments

15.10.2019 22:32

Goes on to show that Satya Nadella is a whole lot smarter than Steve Ballmer who practically ruined Microsoft.

This message has been edited since its posting. Latest edit was made on 07 Oct 2019 @ 11:56

26.10.2019 22:36

I was just saying to someone today that there is a vacuum in the market right now. Someone needs to make a new smartphone. Bam! This article appears.

Too bad it's really non-news. They might have a phone ready next year running Android. yawn.

37.10.2019 23:58

Originally posted by cart0181:
I was just saying to someone today that there is a vacuum in the market right now. Someone needs to make a new smartphone. Bam! This article appears.

Too bad it's really non-news. They might have a phone ready next year running Android. yawn.
I believe they should revisit Win CE 3.0 and later and see what are the possibilities of creating an altogether new Mobile Phone OS.

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

Sony suspends memory card sales because memory chips are simply not available Sony suspends memory card sales because memory chips are simply not available (28 Mar 2026 6:49)
Sony has announced that it is temporarily suspending the sale of memory cards used in mobile phones and digital cameras, among other things. The company states that the reason is problems with the availability of memory chips.
Austria plans to ban social media for under 14 year olds Austria plans to ban social media for under 14 year olds (28 Mar 2026 6:17)
Austria is planning to ban social media for children under 14. The reform aims to protect children from harmful effects and addictions, but at the same time, it is problematic from a privacy perspective.
TP-Link urges users to update their routers - several vulnerabilities patched TP-Link urges users to update their routers - several vulnerabilities patched (26 Mar 2026 1:56)
Serious security vulnerabilities have been discovered in several TP-Link router models, for which patches were released at the end of March 2026. The company urges users to update their router software immediately.
Google: The feared Q-Day is now expected to happen in 2029 Google: The feared Q-Day is now expected to happen in 2029 (25 Mar 2026 4:32)
Google has advanced its estimate of when current forms of encryption will become insecure. The moment is called Q-Day, or Quantum Day, when the computational power of quantum computers will be sufficient to break currently used encryptions.
OpenAI shuts down its AI video service Sora OpenAI shuts down its AI video service Sora (24 Mar 2026 6:28)
OpenAI has decided to shut down Sora, its AI video creator, just months after its release. The decision is due to issues such as copyright problems and the deepfake phenomenon.

News archive