Notification bar stuck. Some apps freeze. Camera keeps flipping back and forth.
These are a few of many notes I made while testing Microsoft's new phone, the dual-screen Surface Duo. I've run into so many bugs these past two weeks that I had to start jotting them down just to keep track. Presumably after hearing feedback from fellow reviewers and myself, Microsoft pushed an update to our devices a few days earlier than planned. After the update, the software became more stable, but many bugs and quirks remain. Even with the biggest wrinkles ironed out, using the Duo is still an exercise in frustration.
The two displays aren't the problem; in fact, they're exemplary. Ever use two computer monitors at the same time? It's hard to go back to a single screen afterward, and the same is true here. But what drains the Duo of its mobile multitasking charm is glitchy software that makes this $1,400 phone feel like a work in progress. And as much as Microsoft doesn't want to call it a phone, that's what the Duo is, and it falls short as one in a few key areas.
The Surface Duo is not the first dual-screen smartphone, but it arrives at a time when companies are experimenting wildly with phone designs. Samsung and Motorola, for example, sell devices with folding screens in distinct shapes and sizes. But rather than falling in line with this new (and delicate) folding glass technology, Microsoft is betting big on the two-screen approach, which it hopes will be a boon for productivity. It's even planning a two-screen Windows laptop for 2021.
What makes the Duo even more special is that it's Microsoft's first stab at Android (and a phone) since its Nokia days. Why not use Windows instead of Google's operating system? Apps. The company's Windows Phone mobile OS was crippled because it didn't attract third-party apps, and Microsoft isn't making the same mistake twice. The Google Play Store has almost every app you could want, including those made by Microsoft. And sure, you can install Microsoft's apps on any other Android phone, but running them on the Duo is unique. Microsoft got something right here: Two screens are better than one.
In its closed state, the Surface Duo looks like a small paper notebook, and a pretty one at that. Unlike a lot of modern tech, it feels warm and inviting, as if opening it will unlock the secrets of the universe. Pick it up and it feels lighter than it looks. Its surprising thinness also makes it easy to hold and tote around (unlike my experience with some other dual-screen phones), though it is wide, so it might not fit your pants pockets (it barely fit mine).