Microsoft Floor Duo’s dual-screen hinge design is already successful me over

Product opinions are bizarre in 2020, and no gadget I’ve seen this yr has been weirder than the Microsoft Floor Duo. Microsoft’s return to telephones takes the type of a dual-screen, hinged, foldable Android gadget that appears like two tiny iPads bonded collectively. There will likely be two 5.6-inch OLED screens that collectively type an 8.1-inch show, certain collectively by a novel hinge that Microsoft says has been within the works for years. It is 9.9 millimeters thick when closed, 4.8mm when open, weighs 8.Eight ounces (250 grams) and prices $1,399 for the beginning configuration, with 128GB of storage. Microsoft is beginning preorders Wednesday and can ship it Sept. 10. Worldwide costs aren’t but obtainable, however $1,399 converts to about £1,070 or AU$1,960.

I have been skeptical about dual-screen units, and I wasn’t positive how I might really feel in regards to the Floor Duo. Wannabe model of Samsung’s probably much more costly Galaxy Z Fold 2? (This is how the Floor Duo compares to the Galaxy Z Fold 2 and Motorola Razr.) Bizarre tiny dual-screened model of the Microsoft Floor pill? One thing extra? 

Inside somewhat white field in entrance of me is a gadget that appears like somewhat e-book. The Microsoft Home windows emblem is embossed on high. I open it, bending it a couple of occasions. I really feel like I am holding a small Moleskine pocket book, made from glass and steel. Inside? No shows. Simply circuitry via glass. This is not a working model of the Microsoft Floor Duo being unveiled at present. It is a particular see-through prototype despatched to me upfront simply so I can see the circuits and really feel how the hinge works. 

I haven’t had a chance to use an actual working device yet. Instead, I got this specially made, see-through prototype. Kind of ridiculous. And yet, even holding it, I’m already falling in love with the feel of the thing. 

This feeling isn’t new.

I’ve been wrong on dual-screen devices before

Back in 2004, I remember opening up an absurd two-screen device that I felt was sure to fail. It had a stylus. It promised twice the viewing area for whole new experiences. I thought it was insane. It was the Nintendo DS, and I soon realized it was a lot more amazing than I expected.

I think about that Nintendo DS whenever I see a product with dual screens or folding screens. But I think about it the most when holding a nonworking shell of the Surface Duo for the first time. I’ve seen the Galaxy Fold, and the Moto Razr, and all the other dual-screen laptops and tablets that seem to be sprouting up like weeds. The Duo seems a lot more like a Nintendo DS or some sort of magic Moleskine. It’s tiny. But not that tiny. It depends on whether you’re perceiving it as a tablet, a phone or a funky digital book.

Microsoft promised to reinvent the idea of dual-screen computing with the Surface Duo and Neo a year ago. The Surface Neo, which will boast two 9-inch screens, has been delayed until 2021. But the Duo is arriving in a few weeks, sooner than expected, maybe right alongside Samsung’s new Galaxy Fold update, in the middle of a pandemic year where everyone’s budget has collapsed and their need for gadgets has become a lot more practical.

The Duo is a phone, but Microsoft clearly doesn’t want to call it a phone. Maybe what Panos Panay, head of Microsoft’s devices business, told me and CNET editor Ian Sherr last week will turn out to be true. Maybe it really is a new device category. 

Skeptical? Heck yes

I told my kids I was going to review a dual-screened, phone-slash-tablet thing from Microsoft. My oldest son looked at the folding nonworking device and said, “That’s weird.” But my youngest son was totally into it. “Whoa, does that mean you can play two games at the same time?”

My oldest son says his younger brother is an optimist while he’s more of a realist. It’s also interesting to hear how two kids who never saw a dual-screen thing besides the Nintendo 3DS react to the idea in the first place. 

Microsoft’s goal, here, is clearly to make the whole idea make sense from a multitasking perspective, helping to solve problems on phones that are already overburdened. I’ll say this much: Being stuck at home on infinite Zooms while trying to work has made me more aware of the need for multidisplays than ever before.

Here’s what Microsoft’s proposition could mean for transforming the foldable device space — a space that clearly hasn’t taken hold yet, but which Google, Microsoft and a lot of other companies are trying to compete in, using physical folding devices and even wearable virtual ones. Will an extra screen solve Microsoft’s phone problems, or will it evolve phones into something many people might not even need? Or is Microsoft’s work on functioning, practical dual-screen apps the sort of necessary work these devices needed in the first place?

2 screens: Are they better than 1?

“As it turns out, it might feel familiar, because there’s this thing, it’s called Windows,” Panay says about using the two-screened Duo. “The idea where I can now formally put two windows next to each other.” That’s what the Duo experience should be, according to Panay: familiar, not strange. Or that’s the hope.

Of course, the Surface Duo is running Google’s Android software, not Windows. 

I listen to this over a Microsoft Teams interview done remotely, where I also get a tour of a showroom inside Microsoft’s Building 87 — the same building where the Microsoft HoloLens was developed, and which I visited in person a year ago.

Microsoft’s Duo team operates from research that says two screens are more productive than one, so Microsoft treats the dual screens like a portable pair of monitors. But that’s been the pitch we’ve heard from every other dual-screen phone- and tablet-maker. Microsoft’s angle is aiming to get those screens looking as work-friendly as possible, and make the whole thing feel easy and comfortable to use. The displays are separate rather than folding. That’s to allow for more durable glass and to work with Microsoft Pen without denting the screen, according to Microsoft Technical Fellow Steven Bathiche.

The 4:3 aspect ratio on the two 5.6-inch OLED displays is meant to handle the work-friendly part. The idea is to make web pages and documents look readable without weird reformatting, and compare to the same work being done on a laptop or tablet. 

The two 5.6-inch displays combine for an effective 8.1 inches — I say effective because those two displays are still split by a little seam in the middle. Panay says that size is amazing for web browsing, but the clear seam in the middle means it won’t be ideal for big videos, necessarily. For that reason, viewing big movies isn’t part of Microsoft’s Duo pitch, although looking at videos on one screen while doing something on the other definitely is. 

One thing I find interesting about Duo is that it can stand up easily at a ton of angles: At least, the nonworking model I held in my hands does. It feels like a device I might use to watch something on in one screen and take notes on in another. Again, kind of 3DS-like. But that really depends whether the final product feels useful or awkward.

Apps will work, but not all be dual-screen optimized

Microsoft’s core productivity apps — including Outlook, Word and OneNote — work in dual-display modes and can recognize each other to allow information to be easily thrown between apps. That’s similar to the sort of drag-and-drop ideas that are being worked into the iPad’s dual-app multitasking modes. But other Android apps won’t immediately get that extra level of detail.

Google’s core apps, which include Gmail and Drive, will hopefully be optimized for the Duo soon, but it’s unclear when. A few other third party apps are being courted to make Duo-optimized dual-screen Android versions, most notably Amazon’s Kindle app, which will have two-page reading. “The reading experience is crazy,” Panay boasts. “It’s like picking up a book — you turn a page, it goes from the right to the left, and you just fall into it. You fall in love.”

How many others app-makers will come aboard? That’s the challenge with a new form and an operating system Microsoft didn’t even create. The Duo, running Android 10, is a sort of living concept car for future dual-screen apps and devices.

The dual-screen ideas and the way Microsoft handles them in apps will influence where the Surface Neo goes next year. And it may affect what future devices choose to focus on, too. “When we construct those [dual-screen] APIs for builders, we do not simply need them on Duo,” Panay says. “When twin screens come, even on folding screens, we would like these APIs to circulate into Android so builders can construct for each dual-screen cellphone.” 

It is unclear, although, whether or not Google’s plans for dual-screened units will likely be in sync with Microsoft’s, or if this can be a momentary marriage of comfort earlier than the comparatively small group of dual-screened and folding telephones possibly expands to a bigger scale subsequent yr.

“I can not let you know what Google’s engaged on,” Panay provides, “However I do imagine that if firms wish to choose up dual-screen or transfer ahead, we’re setting groundwork foundationally for purposes to broaden, to rotate the fitting means, to span these screens to make use of each screens.”

No 5G, giant bezels: Sacrifices to get to measurement

I additionally get a transparent message from Microsoft that measurement, for the Floor Duo, has been every thing. Getting the Duo to a comfortable and compact type has meant leaving some options off. There is no 5G or Wi-Fi 6, as a result of based on Pavan Davaluri, a 16-year Microsoft veteran and Floor engineer we spoke to, the battery efficiency is not at the moment there for the dimensions of the Duo. “There’s some basic issues in 5G that must come to life to have the ability to match right into a 4.8mm design,” Davaluri says. “That type of tech isn’t there but. It is one thing we’re actively engaged on.” 

Equally, the bigger bezels on the highest and backside of the Floor Duo shows, which clearly aren’t as edge-to-edge as different telephones, do not appear perfect both. It is much less display actual property for the dimensions. Davaluri admits this was a part of a compromise to suit the Duo’s battery and parts into such a skinny design. Microsoft targeted on show high quality, hinge mechanisms, gadget measurement and battery life over bezels and 5G. “Bezel optimization and 5G, for instance, within the grand scheme, I believe are solvable issues,” Davaluri provides.

The Floor Duo actually does really feel skinny. The nonworking gadget I held is thinner, when opened, than an iPhone 11 Professional, which is 0.32 inches (8.1mm). Closed, it is thicker, nevertheless it would not really feel almost as cumbersome as a folded-up Samsung Galaxy Fold, which is 17.1mm thick when closed. And it would not really feel like two telephones glued collectively, both. It is extra book-like in its dimensions.

The all-glass back and front of the Duo look sharp, however the design was chosen to enhance antenna reception. Will the Duo be sturdy sufficient? The gadget makes use of Corning’s Gorilla Glass 5 throughout, however Microsoft would not give any claims on drop check reliability. And as for the graceful, sturdy-feeling twin hinges, we’re informed to anticipate “years” of use, however not a particular variety of folds it may possibly survive. “The Floor Duo hinge is designed and examined to perform properly past the lifespan of the product,” Microsoft guarantees us.

It higher be good, and it higher final, as a result of a tool like this is not low-cost. Beginning at $1,399, it is not far off from different premium telephones — and extra approachable than the Galaxy Fold was at $2,000. Nevertheless it’s some huge cash in a world the place you would additionally purchase a cellphone and laptop computer mixed for significantly much less.

2 screens, however simply 1 digital camera

The Floor Duo would not appear to be about its digital camera, which is a shock when nearly each different cellphone has many of them. There is a single 11-megapixel digital camera on the within, which might turn out to be an exterior digital camera if the Duo shows are flipped round. The f2.Zero digital camera has some AI and a portrait mode, and may shoot 4K video at 30 and 60fps with HDR and slow-motion video. It would not have optical picture stabilization or any of the opposite step-up zoom and focus options you discover in different telephones. 

I do not know what the digital camera will likely be like, however Microsoft is clearly downplaying it as a core characteristic on the Floor Duo. And in a world that is extra camera-focused than ever, that looks as if bizarre timing.

A selected software within the toolbox

Microsoft is not going for a one-gadget-that-does-everything method right here. As an alternative it means that this can be a gadget that may go well with some, nevertheless it’s not essentially for everybody. The concept of specialised devices is not new: Our lives are already flooded with good audio system, smartwatches, modular recreation consoles and tablets that usually slide someplace between telephones and laptops. 

Panay appeared hesitant to name the Duo a brand new gadget class, as a result of it actually is not. It is an Android cellphone. Or, a pill. “It truly is 5 years of invention … we simply have a perception that there is a new class right here,” Panay provides. 

Microsoft’s argument is sensible, although, particularly as a software program developer who lives amongst units starting from iPads to recreation consoles to VR headsets. I am reminded, holding the Floor Duo, of the primary wearables earlier than smartwatches turned a factor, or the primary smartphones earlier than the iPhone, or early VR headsets earlier than Oculus. Twin display units have to nail down their id, nonetheless.

I additionally surprise: In a world the place screens could also be in all places and more and more digital via VR and AR headsets and glasses (or TVs and shows that may sync seamlessly along with your cellphone), what’s the goal of a dual-screen pocket gadget?

Steven Bathiche, a Microsoft Technical Fellow who heads the Utilized Sciences Group, has a farther-ranging view of the place units like Floor Duo match. “Every little thing is one of the best for one thing and the worst for one thing else,” he informed me from an area that seemed like his house.

“I see a world the place we’ll simply have an increasing number of basically specialised instruments that will help you get stuff completed,” Bathiche says. “However they will be related by software program and thru the cloud to make them really feel like they work as one.”

For a corporation that additionally pushes into costly skilled instruments reminiscent of Microsoft’s $3,500 HoloLens combined actuality headset, it is unclear which clients will likely be first to select up a Floor Duo. However as an idea automobile to test-drive apps and construct out a highway the place different units will comply with, it makes good sense. I simply do not know, but, if I will wish to hop aboard.