On September 22, 2021, Microsoft released the Surface Duo2, which claims to have improved many shortcomings of the original Surface Duo, but not surprisingly, the improved Surface Duo2 has given birth to a lot of new bugs, so that users really feel surprised.
It may be that the recent home life is too boring, bored I got a Surface Duo2, let's take a look at what Microsoft's product manager has in his head and actually launched this product in the second generation.
Image source: Pin Play LU photo
When you open the product package, you can say that the Surface Duo2 is an e-reader, a tablet, and a small laptop. But in any case, you say that it is a mobile phone I do not agree, this product can not do anything without opening, even if you answer the phone to open it like a book.
Image source: Pin Play LU photo
Fortunately, the Surface Duo2 owner is still a good hinge structure, which makes the texture of the fuselage as a whole rise a lot, if the hinge of a "clamshell machine" is loose, then you will completely lose the desire to use it.
The biggest difference between the mobile phone and the Surface Duo1 generation is that due to the bulge of the rear camera, this machine cannot fit perfectly... This is simply the biggest problem facing The second generation: you can't safely open it for a long time, always worried about whether the screen will be squeezed and broken due to the extra gap belt, and the feel is greatly reduced.
Image source: Pin Play LU photo
However, Microsoft is still trying to solve this problem as much as possible, such as designing a wedge angle for the rear camera module, which can make the screen 100% fit after flipping without any dangerous support points, but compared to the 1st generation of the fully fitted way, the 2nd generation of this incomplete fit folding method is still unacceptable to me. And because Microsoft's product does not have an external screen on the outside, when you fold the phone, you can't use the rear camera...
Image source: Only when spread out, the rear camera can work properly Play LU shooting
Image source: Pin Play LU photo
The left screen can be used as a preview frame for photos when taking pictures, but as far as I know, all folding screen phones support this.
In addition, if you want to use it as an ordinary mobile phone to single screen, then it will face the same problem as Huawei Mate Xs, the outer outline after folding is all screens, you can't use ordinary mobile phones to carry it into the pocket at will, and because of the bulge of the camera, it can't fit completely like the first generation of products, which makes his physical structure more fragile.
Image source: Pin Play LU photo
The entire phone is still composed of two screens side by side, it has a higher brightness (800 nits) than the first generation, and a high refresh rate of 90Hz globally (of course, unsurprisingly, you can't adjust the refresh rate, you can't drop it to 60Hz in the setting), and both halves of the screen use a curved design at the hinge, which makes the distance between the two screens closer, and the border in the middle is slightly narrower. And users can view some basic information through the part of the screen exposed at the hinge, such as time, charging status, etc., the idea is still relatively innovative.
The whole machine still has some small ideas in it Image source: play LU shooting
But the disadvantages of this are also very obvious, that is, compared to the first generation of products, Surface Duo2 will lose text and information because of these two curved borders, because they are folded into the position of the border, so when using two screens to watch movies and read text in full screen at the same time, the picture between the two screens is not cut open on both sides of the display, but directly does not show, in the process of use, it is very easy to make people's blood pressure soar.
Unoptimized apps will lose text at the location of the curved screen Image source: Pin Play LU photo
With two side-by-side screens, what I was most looking forward to before I got it was using comic-like and book-reading software on the Surface Duo2, which really felt like a real book when it opened. In the actual use process, apps like WeChat Reading that have been adapted can achieve a very comfortable reading experience in full-screen mode, which is really like turning a book.
Image source: One of the few APP with good experience, WeChat reading is a product play LU photo
But in fact, most apps will not make additional adaptations to this kind of dual-screen reading, so they are very rude to force the optional screen to use full screen, which will cause the problem mentioned above, the picture is missing.
Image source: The reading experience of the large screen is very fragmented
Compared to using an APP in full screen, I am more accustomed to turning on multiple APP applications at the same time on the screen of the Surface Duo2, even on the iPad Pro before, I did not often use the split screen function, but on the Surface Duo, a forced fog split screen electronic device, I deeply experienced the beauty of the split screen application.
Since the app of the two screens is completely independent, you don't need to worry about using WeChat chat on the left screen, the keyboard of the input method will compress the reading space of the comic on the right, and the benefits of having two screens are vividly displayed at this moment. This is also one of the few advantages of this product.
Image source: OPPO Find N enter text when splitting the screen to play LU shooting
Image source: Surface Duo2 does not have this problem of playing LU shooting
But in addition, you can hardly find the advantages of this phone, because it is not officially listed in China, the menu interface of Surface Duo2 is filled with large sections of English menus, and the anti-false touch of the mobile phone is also a mess, not to mention localized applications.
Surface Duo2 system difficulty is not similar to the Google Pixel because of the native system caused by the "difficult to use", but simply caused by the simple system, with the current sales of the Surface Duo series, it is difficult to expect that there will be developers willing to do separate optimizations for the Surface Duo dual-screen system.
Compared to the 1st generation product, Microsoft Surface Duo2 replaced with a faster processor, with a larger screen and a higher refresh rate, and also supported 5G networks. Microsoft is trying to do the best hardware as possible, but compared to traditional mobile phone manufacturers, they still have too many pits to step on the road to making mobile phones.
I believe that Microsoft very much hopes that the Surface Duo product and the "folding screen" mobile phone on the market will make a comparison, and share a point, but after my actual experience for a week, let alone the comparison, the Surface Duo2 even the rear lights of the folding screen mobile phone can not be seen, I really do not know why I want to spend 999 US dollars to buy it. The official pricing of this product is 1499 knives, currently at the price of 999 knives "limited time promotion", as of press time, Microsoft Surface Duo2 in the official website shows all sold out, eager for its generation of pricing for 1399 knives, and finally at the price of 499 knives for "sale", plus the Win10X dual-screen system built for it earlier announced the suspension of development, I seriously doubt that the Surface Duo this dual-screen product line is going to be cut.
I really hope that Microsoft has suddenly woken up to the fact that the Surface Duo is difficult to use is not a problem with the software, but that this form is wrong from the beginning.