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Windows Central’s Zac Bowden is the go-to reporter for Microsoft Surface rumors, and his latest report is that the Surface Duo 3 has been discontinued, or at least the same type of devices as the Surface Duo 1 and 2 have been cancelled. am. One day we may see his Microsoft device branded “Surface Duo 3,” but the Surface Duo form factor — a dual-screen device with a 360-degree hinge — is dead. According to the report, Microsoft is currently working on a “more traditional foldable design with a 180-degree hinge, an inner folding screen, and an outer cover display,” in line with the Galaxy Fold.
The Surface Duo series was built for two of the most annoying Android devices on the market. Instead of the tall, thin displays that Android phones typically use, both Surface Duos used short, fat displays, making the Duo line the widest smartphones on the market. The original Surface Duo was supposed to run the canceled “Windows 10x” OS. This would have taken advantage of its own screen aspect ratio. When that OS was canceled, the project was reclaimed as an Android phone, but those short and fat displays led to many poor Android app layouts, and the limited vertical screen space made Android’s large further reduced by the header and tab bar. It seems Microsoft wanted to land on the same basic outline as the Moleskine notebook, but the Android app isn’t designed for that aspect ratio. Because it’s wider than , it was literally a pain to hold in one hand.
After two nearly identical versions, Microsoft seemed to be moving towards a “too broad” mentality. The canceled Surface Duo 3 would have had a “narrower and taller edge-to-edge display,” according to the report, and the phone would have had a more streamlined form factor.
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Once those plans are finished, it’s not clear if what is “internally considered a 3rd generation Duo” will become a more normal foldable smartphone, branded as “Surface Duo 3”. As we discussed in our original device review, equipping a device with a back-to-back internal screen is a huge improvement over a dual-screen design. You get the dual-screen capabilities of the , but with the added benefit of having one large screen for tablet apps, movies, games, and websites.
In addition to Android-incompatible form factors, Microsoft’s Android phones had many other issues that the company needed to fix. The Surface Duos always felt like a beta foldable device, and that compromise might have worked if it wasn’t for the full price of a real foldable phone. The $1,400 to $1,500 price point wasn’t competitive as basically his two smartphones glued together, so we have to wonder what Microsoft’s supply chain is going through. . Microsoft’s Android software division is also in turmoil, with the company outsourcing the Surface Duo 1 OS up to two months before release, resulting in shipping a disastrously buggy Android build. Microsoft has since acquired the team that was outsourcing Android builds, but so far Surface Duo customers have seen his Android update record the worst in its class.
The report says Microsoft wants to make Android phones work better with Windows via an internal program called “Perfect Together” that builds an Apple-style integration between phones and laptops/desktops. explains. Despite the Surface Duo’s failure, Bowden says Microsoft is “all in” on his Android and is “eager to expand its Android smartphone line-up beyond new foldable devices. ‘ said. Reports say that Microsoft has prototyped several ideas for his Surface phone in a “mainstream” Slavic style that could one day ship.
It looks like we’ll have to wait a while for Microsoft’s next Android smartphone to launch. Bowden said of the foldable device, “We don’t have a concrete shipping window for the device yet, which means it’s unlikely to arrive in time for this fall.”
