If you keep tabs on the latest happenings in the tech world, you must have heard that Microsoft will first bring Windows 10X to laptops instead of dual-screen devices. The company refocused its approach towards foldables earlier this week, sort-of telling us that the Surface Neo might not see the light of day in 2020.
This begged us to question the launch of the Android-powered Surface Duo. It was also shown off alongside the Surface Neo at a hardware event last year. Well, sources aware of Microsoft’s plans (via Android Authority) have revealed that the Surface Duo release is still on track. The foldable phone, running Android with Microsoft’s customizations on top, is launching sometime in 2020.
Surface Duo, for those unaware, is a foldable smartphone made by Microsoft. It has dual-screens connected by a hinge and it runs Android out-of-the-box instead of the company’s Windows 10 Mobile OS. The latter saw interest diminish over the past few years and reached its end-of-life earlier this year.
Microsoft has already given developers access to the Surface Duo SDK. We installed this SDK to give you a quick look at what Microsoft’s vision for Android and foldable phones looks like. You can head to the link above to check out all of the new features and our first impressions.
Moving past the software, Surface Duo was said to be powered by the Snapdragon 855 chipset. The demo unit ran Android 9 Pie and had massive bezels, as seen in the image above. However, for the final version, we hope Microsoft will minimize the bezels (I mean, just take a look at other foldable phones), upgrade to Snapdragon 865, and run Android 11 out-of-the-box.
I, for one, am really looking forward to getting my hands on Microsoft’s first self-branded Android phone. It may not be the best foldable phone when it comes out later in 2020. Samsung and Huawei would have made a considerable leap by then. But, Surface Duo will definitely have its own charm. What do you think?
