A Year with the Surface Duo 2
Phil Clapham
Modern Workplace, Security, Generative AI, Cloud & Co-Host of MTDAMA and Sydney Workplace Technology Meetup
Disclosure.
From November of 2016 to December of 2018, I worked at Microsoft within the Surface business. During that time, I wrote a whitepaper on Surface Hub adoption therefore this was an interesting experiment as the Surface Hub is a Group Collaboration device at the completely opposite end of the spectrum to a Surface Duo2 which intrinsically inherits the identity of the person for it to be fully relevant and useful for its user.
I’ve been using the Surface Duo2 for over a year therefore I thought it would be helpful to document my experience in that time.
My intention was not to write a whitepaper; however, I documented my use cases on my iPhone for both my own personal uses as well as my business uses and over the course of the last year measured how well this mapped to Surface Duo2 usage.
I received a Surface Duo2 with 256b of memory through my company, it is not something I have had to pay for personally.
?Background
As a long time, iPhone user, I still think the iPhone 4 was one of the most iconic smartphones of all time, moreover my first foray into the world of Apple on handhelds was the iPhone 3GS which is more than 13 years ago.
Before the switch I was fully invested in the Apple ecosystem with an iPhone 11, an iWatch 6 and my car supports Carplay. My iPhone was protected in Belkin clear case with a front of screen glass protector overlay which I had to replace every 6-12 months as it seemed to garner pocket and drop wear and tear that causes the glass protector to crack and lose touch sensitivity over time.
Originally it was on a two-year Telstra contract but that finished in November 2021 so the timing of the exercise and subsequent year later update was nicely matched.
Several years ago, I did have a foray into Android on the Samsung Galaxy 2 and the experience was truly terrible. Samsung forked Android so badly that things that I needed to work just didn’t. I had major issues with Android Carplay in addition to a series of horrible bugs that required hardware reboots to enable the phone to be usable again.
It’s fair to say that I am technically minded and understand much of the Microsoft Modern Workplace tools, although these days I’m more business focused. I liked the granular configurability of Android, but I wasn’t a tinkerer on the Platform. There were a core set of things I needed to work and once working I’m not one to change. The old adage applied “If it’s not broken don’t fix it”
As an example, I’m not into changing my backgrounds or layouts regularly. Once I find what works I can stick with it for years. This view is perhaps down to my demographic or being time poor. I would image it would be quite different if I were a student in my twenties whose top use cases might be listening to music whilst on the bus and taking photos thus needing a decent camera for social media posting.
I currently manage a large Hybrid Workplace team at Generation-e so I live within the M365 ecosystem and work on it every day.
I have a strong focus on M365 Adoption for all different types of users which is probably one of the reasons why I am writing this article.
I have a M365 tenancy for my family, I have a tenancy that I use for my job and another tenancy which I use with another company on which I mentor the trainees.
I’m a Surface Laptop 4 user with Windows 11 and I am literally immersed in M365 five days of the week.
My immediate family are also within the Apple ecosystem with my wife on iPhone 11 and we have various iPads and older iPhones that the kids use.
I use Find my Phone to find the location of my family when I don’t know where they are.
I’m not a big Siri user and I don’t have any particularly valid reason not to learn how to use Siri other than it’s just not high up in my priority list of to do’s. I must be honest and say that although I have a car cradle that I put my phone in for every journey I probably interact on the keyboard too often in the car on the following apps:
It’s true that I’m heavily invested in the Microsoft enterprise tools and hardware available to me, but Android and Microsoft have constantly failed when they have tried to get into my Everyday Carry which is why I have stayed with Apple for so long.
I will granularly break down my smartphone usage into personal and business use cases and then apply them to the Surface Duo2 and Android provide follow up comments on how well they have translated.
Thereafter I will compare the workflows between IOS and Android with the Surface Duo2 hardware to come to a qualified conclusion of what works and what doesn’t
What Surface Duo2 Did I Receive?
I received the Surface Duo2 256GB in black with a Surface Slim Pen and black bumpers.
Initially once the Duo2 was unboxed and started. It needed an immediate Android update to version 11 which it completed in less than an hour.
Hardware Impressions
My first impressions of the physical build quality was good and in line with the rest of the Surface Range. There were no physical flaws, and the hinges especially were of high quality in terms of mechanical engineering and materials used.
The screens separated by the upper and lower hinges ‘snap’ forward and back with ease. The camera bulge is angled at the exact degree that allows the left-hand screen to be folded back and rest flush against the back of the right-hand screen. This camera bulge angle also enables the Duo2 to be rested flat on a table or other flat surface.
The cameras protrude a couple of millimetres from the case which breaks up the whole aesthetic but for me I’m less interested in the form and more the function. I could see how some people might really be put out about the bulkiness of the camera but the fact the screens don’t lie completely flat when folded back was helpful when folding the left-hand screen forward again.
Because the build quality tolerances are so tight when the left-hand screen is folded back flush with the right-hand screen it would be very difficult to get your fingers into the edge to fold forward again.
If the camera bulge were not there, I think it would be almost impossible to fold it forward with one hand. You would not be able to get any purchase because of the resistance of the hinge and the engineering execution to have the screens sitting so flush with one another.
Because the camera bulge enables a couple of millimetres of separation between the screens It’s much easier to get purchase to move the left-hand screen forwards.
Many of the hardware reviews that I have read spent a lot of time breaking down the camera against other devices. ?I’m not into cameras as much as others because I don’t have any use cases that require high degrees of zoom or other capabilities. As the Duo2 is targeted towards business I suspect unless there is a specific use case that requires certain functionalities of the camera that it will be lower down the priority list for the demographic it is being marketed towards.
I do need to scan documents or receipts and be able to make video calls along with taking a couple of family photos. I don’t need pan, tilt, zoom or other camera niceties. I wonder if I am the 95% percentile when it comes to phone cameras....
The button layout is simple with a volume button and a power/fingerprint reader button.
One of the most useful features on the Surface range of devices is Windows Hello. I also use facial recognition on my iPhone.
After a year it’s fair to say that I miss not having some form of facial recognition with the Duo2. I found facial recognition especially useful on iPhone in MS Authenticator where it asks for multiple verifications every time you use it.
Certain use cases lend themselves well to facial recognition such as unlocking your phone whilst in the car thus not having to remove any hands off the wheel, however, the fingerprint reader was easily trained and is accurate so the transition to fingerprint reader was easy enough, but I still prefer facial recognition which Duo2 does not have. ?
I feel like not having facial recognition is a miss on MS part. Windows Hello is a Windows OS feature and trying to apply that to Android as an operating system is super difficult, however, I do think this is just an Engineering problem that can be solved, the question is whether MS wanted to pour money into solving this on a product in future iterations is difficult to answer as I don’t think there is a large market for the Duo2 as a personal device. In my opinion it is 100% business and M365 orientated.
Software Impressions
My biggest problem was transferring data from the iPhone across to Android.
Simply put, there is no easy way to migrate. Yes, there are tools both in the OS and 3rd party but none of them complete the task end to end.
Fortunately, due to my Samsung Android disaster experience several years previous, my expectations were pretty low, and I used the migration opportunity to break down my primary and secondary use case applications and list them in order of priority and relevance to systematically determine what I should install and why. I didn’t want to randomly start installing more apps without a clear understanding of what, why, where when and how I should use them.
When I have used Android phones in the past, I’ve been frustrated by the amount of crapware that is loaded. Crapware being duplicate applications or unnecessary applications that are loaded with the factory image by the manufacturer to enforce you sharing personal data with them. This is especially true of my experience with Samsung and all the additional yet duplicate apps they preinstall that uselessly lock you into their ecosystem mostly just to capture your personal data. Thereafter those apps are hard wired to the OS so you can’t uninstall them, meaning even if you don’t use them, they are still likely capturing information on you unnecessarily. This is not a problem with Duo2. Most of the additional apps that are installed are M365 based which then leaves you free to have a quick initialisation and a smooth transition to a working handset.
I understood that going through this exercise would involve moving data manually which in many ways gave me the opportunity to also assess the portability of my applications on iPhone. Clearly any app that saves data locally to the device is going to be much harder to move. Additionally, the lock in of the Apple ecosystem provides additional challenges to move data such as photos and contact between OS’s/Ecosystems.
Top priority data for me was:
-???????Emails
-???????Photos/video stored on iPhone/iCloud (sentimental reasons)
-???????SMS History and other persistent messages E.G. Teams data
-???????Call History
-???????Contacts
-???????MS Authenticator Data
Backup Strategy
Being in the iPhone ecosystem for so long meant I was surreptitiously locking into buying additional services such as app subscriptions and iCloud for photo cloud syncing which is not as open as other file sharing services such as OneDrive.
I wasn’t able to install an official Apple iCloud app on Android to sync data between mobile platforms. There are 3rd party apps to do this, but I didn’t feel comfortable doing that and only bringing a subset of the required data on the list over.
This means that when you move between iPhone or Android also leveraging a Windows based OS and device you need to have a personal backup strategy whose top capability is to span across all devices and operating systems.
For example, I have photos on 3 different PC’s, a Macbook, a separate set of photos on my iPhone and I am retiring my iPhone in favour of Android, what do I do?
The strategy for me was to combine them all into a single service that would give me backup ubiquity across all devices and platforms.
Since I was already using OneDrive for amalgamation of 2 business accounts and 1 personal account it offered me a simple solution thus my strategy was:
The result of doing this is that all photos are now in a single OneDrive account that can be accessed from any device and the iCloud subscription can be retired.
My app of choice to complete this was Wondershare MobileTrans because it was simple to use. ?I connected my iPhone and Duo2 to my desktop PC and selected what I wanted to copy across. There was about 50Gb of Data inclusive of app data, and it took a couple of hours, but I did get everything other than the MS Authenticator Data.
Once I had all my apps installed and data secured, I then used MobileTrans to perform a full back up to my PC.
I can understand why you can’t easily move MS Authenticator data simply as its core to the integrity of the federated identity that you re-authorise yourself against every service you need two factor authentication for, but in the same token it’s a pain and time drain not to be able to copy it across.
I did try to restore MS Authenticator data from my Hotmail account backup but it immediately failed and prompted to send logs to MS. Obviously this is an issue and the error message didn’t tell me anything useful to be able to diagnose or better understand the issue.
I don’t know if this was related to my Hotmail account being converted to password less, however it failed therefore the many 2FA accounts had to be added manually.
Upon powering up and in default mode, the Duo2 prompted for Google Cloud but that will only bring contacts and calendar within Apple across. Another reason to pay the $60 for Wondershare. It’s not cheap but worth it if you consider how core that data is to your everyday use cases and the amount of time it saved.
Photos and video can be extracted from iCloud later as it wasn’t as important to me.
First Time Boot
Outlook was the first application I loaded, and I had to load the email accounts manually. Not a big problem and pretty straightforward once MS authenticator had been fixed.
Thereafter I loaded or logged into all my other MS app including:
Phone Link
Phone Link or Your Phone Companion as it was called a year ago requires a special mention.
I have used a very early beta of this before on iPhone, however it was very limited.
The Phone Link integration between Windows11 and Android when you are coming from IOS is like getting a brand-new piece of functionality and a new application.
I have found Phone Link to be extremely helpful for responding to SMSs via the PC using the full keyboard, as well as being able to make calls. Due to a quirk, there is another reason why Phone Link is better for Sending SMS’s than the Duo2 itself.
At the time of using Android 11 the Google Messages app (SMS but other apps such as whiteboard also suffer from this problem) was not optimised to span the dual screen real estate correctly. Due to the curved nature of the screen to facilitate the glance bar, 3 characters are lost in the curvature of each screen edges.
If the Google Message app is spanned across both screens the message app reply frame spans two thirds of all the screen space therefore 3 characters get lost in each edge (6 in total) which makes the spanning of this app useless.
However, due to the Duo2’s screen being broadcast onto the Windows 11 Phone Link app window the physical limitation of the curved edges is not broadcast therefore all 6 lost characters can be properly seen.
You can see the loss of characters in this zoomed in view above. If you were typing a longer message that spanned several lines, then it’s a problem to see 6 characters per line that are being lost in the curvature. This makes the app spanning for Google Messages across two screens redundant.
As previously mentioned, the Google Messenger app was eventually fixed, however this problem manifests itself on any application not specifically optimised for Surface Duo2's dual screens.
When the Google Messenger app is being broadcast into Phone Link, the physical folds of the device are not an issue. As you can see from the Figure below
To some extent Google have fixed this in Android 12L but it’s still not a great experience on Duo2.
At my desk in my home office, I have a Plantronics 8200UC which is paired with a BT600 dongle therefore Phone Link is useful when receiving or making calls from the Duo2 itself. I can complete the entire call process from an app on my desktop PC.
Another excellent use of Phone Link is to manage notifications. I found it much easier on a large desktop monitor to read the number of notifications that come to my phone and then be able to manage them. I get around 300 notifications a day between all the apps. For example, 50 of these might be from LinkedIn therefore it’s easier to identify the notification source on the larger desktop monitors and then turn on only what I wanted to see within the LinkedIn app.
The Phone Link app does offer the ability to run the Android Duo2 based app within a window on my Windows 11 desktop. Some people may find this quite useful, but I didn’t really have a use case for it as most of the data I wanted e.g. Banking are available in the browser on the PC.
Once the Windows Subsystem for Android is GA within Windows 11 there may be additional use case functionality that can be unlocked between Windows 11 and Android within individual applications.
Almost all the other apps were cloud based. Arccos, my golf stats tracking app as an example only required my login details. If you are using a password management app such as Lastpass then restoring app passwords should be straightforward.
In total is took me about 7 hours to get all my data migrated, apps installed and logged into.
It took me another couple of hours to get apps installed on the home screen with the app groupings and widgets that works best for me.
I didn’t change any wallpaper or do any other tinkering other than bring my one British ringtone over as an mp3 which I had saved in my email.
?Android Auto Preparation
To use the Duo2 in the car I had to change the iPhone lightening cable in the car to USB-C to leverage Android Auto. I have the cables properly routed underneath the dashboard, so this took about 15 minutes to rerun the USB-C cable. I used the USB-C charging cable from my Xbox Elite2 controller as it is braided and more than 3m long. I also purchased a couple of Enkay USB-C to Lightening converters so my wife can leverage Carplay for her iPhone 11.
Android Auto
This has improved greatly since the last time I used it.
The Nav bar at the bottom was a very annoying issue for me as it obscures 1/7th of the screen and there is no way to auto hide it. This seems like an obvious Google software fix and from a quick check of the forums I can see many people complaining about losing for much of the screen real estate. This does not happen on Carplay.
Initially when using Google Voice Assistant, it didn’t support dialling calls or sending text messages. This got fixed within a couple of months.
When I tried this initially a year ago the Android Auto functionality with Teams was all but useless. You can have Teams Instant Message’s read out via the Google Assistant but cannot initiate a call back to the recipient of the message. If I receive an important message, I don’t want to use the Google Assistant to respond. It takes too much time and is not effective, instead I want to escalate to a voice call, but at the time this did not seem possible with the AA/Teams integration.
Carplay and Teams is much more feature rich and simply better.
Google Maps works just as well as Carplay. I also have access to a Podcasting app where I have my podcast subscriptions for easy navigation and play as well as Scribd and Audible for listening to books. For offline mapping I have a subscription to Sygic. If I end up in the backcountry with no 4G signal I can still get effective mapping using Android Auto.
I did feel that Android Auto was much more stable than the last time I used it. The Duo2 connected immediately and the only bugs I could find was around the Bluetooth handoff.
I paired the Duo2 to the car via Bluetooth and on some occasions when making calls the Bluetooth was not activated and I had to use the phone speaker.
With Carplay when the iPhone is connected, Carplay takes over all the media streams via the lightening cable, Android Auto on the other hand splits the data from the Duo2 via cable and maintains the Bluetooth connection for audio streams whether they be a call or streaming a book via Scribd. This is what proved to be occasionally unstable.
The quick fix was to force the Bluetooth via the Duo2 Settings, which is a bit of an annoyance, but it was a very occasional problem.
App Use Cases
I’ve broken down my main use cases into the following list in no particular order.
Mode of Operation
Working From Anywhere:
The apps list does not change and would typically consist of the following apps in order of priority
Critical Use Case column is an app that is required to be mandatory installed. In other words, if it is not installed there is not workflow enabled for the use case. For example, if MS Authenticator is not installed then two factor Authentication for email access cannot be enacted and Outlook will not function as it cannot verify the identity of the user trying to access the requested mailbox.
If Outlook and Teams cannot be installed, then the entire “Working from Anywhere” or Working in Office use case breaks down as it pertains to Mobile. ?
Driving
Based on priority whilst driving.
Driving whilst being in the car requires different workflows as the entire experience SHOULD be voice driven due to safety concerns. You should not be lifting your hands off the steering wheel to interact with your phone therefore almost all the apps listed above must be enabled for Android Auto and/or be voice driven from the Duo2.
Google Maps and Sygic are down the table slightly because you only need them if you are going somewhere that you don’t know how to get to. In most cases my journeys are all routine therefore I have already memorised the routes. However, here is an interesting snippet, Google Maps is the default app which is passive. I will have it running on Android Auto even if I am listening to an Audiobook as it provides a visual representation of traffic that I can then use to decide whether I should make a detour. For meetings that I must travel to and be punctual for I may put the route in despite me knowing it because the traffic real time data will tell me the likely arrival time which I can then use to make a decision to contact the meeting host and tell them if I will be late and expected ETA based on the data in the app.
Scribd, Audible and Podcasts all have the same priority because they all do the same thing which is provide access to podcasts, audiobooks or other documentation that can be read to the user.
To be honest, those apps will most likely be the majority of actual ACTIVE usage time. For example, on a 1-hour drive to a customer, you might take 10 minutes of calls on the PSTN via 4G or Teams and the other 50minutes will be listening to Scribd, Audible or Podcasts.
Voice Assistant on Android
There are a few voice assistants available on Android, however the one that comes out of the box with the Duo2 is Google Assistant.
Two of the most important features of any voice assistant is the ability to initiate Phone calls (especially helpful whilst driving) and initiate, compose, and respond to SMS.
After a couple of months this was supported but wasn’t in the original Duo2 shipped build.
There must be some form of API dependency between the voice assistant and the phone hardware as Google Assistant works for Calls and SMS on the Google Pixel series. Same for Samsung Galaxy and Bixby so what happened to Cortana on the Duo2?
The following video on the MS Surface YouTube channel highlight being able to listen to emails within Outlook.
To be able to leverage this functionality it has to be explicitly turned on within Outlook settings under Play my Email.
?Furthermore, this video shows the creation of calendar events with Cortana Voice
This isn’t yet supported on Duo2 which as a MS product is quite annoying. ?
It does support responding to email in Outlook Mobile on Android with Voice, however, if your in the car that kind of defeats the purpose if you can’t have the initial email read to you to know what it is you need to respond to.
I would have thought that one of the main advantages of M365ising the Duo2 is to create a level of stickiness on the device for business users. Adding Cortana into supporting SMS, Calls, Calendar events etc would have added rich voice enabled functionality which is what Cortana was primarily designed for.
The application of Cortana seems half baked. It’s in Outlook for email but not for Calendar and its missing everywhere else on the Duo2. When compared to Siri on the iPhone voice driven functionality on the Duo2 is a big miss.
Gym, Exercising or Playing Sports
This is an interesting one and I have broken it down into two activities as an example. If I were to go cycling on my road bike the list of apps would be slightly different to record my activities.
Fitness tracking is in yellow highlights because it is initiated by my Apple Watch and I do not have a similar WearOS device to compare against. Typically, I would use the inbuild IOS Activity tracking to capture the activity stats including Heart Rate, Distance, Steps, time elapsed etc. I used to use Garmin for this as I had a Vivoactive 3, however I switched to the Apple Watch when I bought an iPhone 11.
When playing Golf, I need Arccos for the stat tracking and Miscore for the scoring. I class those two apps as critical because without Arccos I don’t know where to improve my game and without Miscore I cannot submit a score for my Australian Golf Union official handicap.
Gym use case and workflow is slightly different.
Fitness tracking is now Critical because I want the workout to be recorded as it goes against my nutritional intake calculations for the day. Scribd etc for entertainment to relieve the boredom of pumping iron or cardio and messaging based apps score higher than Real Time Media apps due to the fact I don’t want to talk to anyone on the PSTN or Teams when I am working out.
Toilet time
Whether you like it or not most of the general population will take their phones to the toilet when “sitting down”. If you’re like me and have a couple of kids, then you’ll appreciate the alone time of anything between 10 to 30 mins every day even more. To be honest this behaviour is not that different to when we took a physical newspaper into the toilet and read it to catch up on the important topics of the day.
Mostly browsing the main news sources in both private and non-private sessions.
LinkedIn to catch up on any notifications or mentions and Facebook for any groups that I am a member of. For example, I get my Real Time updates from the golf club I am a member of to let us know of inclement course conditions before playing. I used to have a lot of connections on Facebook, but I retired them to less than 50. Making my Facebook list means you must be a family member or close friend that lives overseas, other than that I use Facebook for Groups and Marketplace only.
YouTube for any notifications of any video updates from my subscriptions (150 of them) and what I will want to prioritise for viewing in the evening on the YouTube App on Xbox as I don’t watch terrestrial television.
Before Bed
This is not a good practice as the blue light emissions will make it harder to sleep so it’s always best to schedule your Phone to Night Light mode.
Moreover, my typical use cases at this time of day are 100% more for information consumption. You won’t catch me responding to a SMS or Email because I’m tired and most likely not thinking straight enough to produce a concise, lucid, and intelligent response so close to cranial shutdown.
I suppose that the before bed use case is not too dissimilar to reading a book in the sense that you are consuming information rather than creating content. This use case for me can last between 5 to 25 minutes. One of the interesting elements of the Duo2 for this use case is the dual screens. Using Kindle makes it much more like reading a physical book. It literally mimics the turning of a page within the digital realm. Depending on your viewpoint this can extend the length of time for this use case.
The ability to Group Apps also has some validity within the use case as I have Edge and Brave grouped together which means I can have a general tab and a very secure tab open on each screen and choose to browse any page anonymously. Although when lying down with two browser tabs open it makes it difficult to physically hold the Duo2.
In the Android 12L update I noticed that it was now possible to have Edge span over both screens and have public and private tabs opened. This was a great enhancement as before it made it impossible to use Edge as the only browser since it couldn’t span across both screens with separate browsing sessions.
Grocery Shopping
This is a low use but high value use case for me, especially during 2021 COVID restrictions where you wanted to go to the supermarket once a week and get it right first time.
The family use Anylist and we can all add what we want to our shared grocery list.
This use case was heavily dependent on my iWatch for the ticking off items from the List on the watch thus having to avoid constantly holding and logging into your phone and when it comes to payment by using Apple Wallet on the iWatch.
I don’t have a WearOS device, but I would image the workflow would be similar albeit Anylist doesn’t support WearOS which means I would have to find a similar like functionality app for an Android based wearable.
This is a snappy and simple use case which is effectively solved with two applications.
Apps Not Associated with a Use Case, Mode of Operation or Activity. (some of the app names have been changed for Security)
There is a bunch of apps in the above table that don’t necessarily have specific use case defined for it.
A good example of this are my Home Automation apps.
The ones I use the most are (in order):
?-???????MitsiAir: To control the Aircon remotely
-???????PocketHome: To control the garage door and house arm
-???????D-Link: For internal security cameras and lights
-???????Philips: For internal and external lights
-???????Ring: for answering doorbell
-???????Fibaro: for controlling Z-Wave devices (internal and external)
-???????MySolar: for monitoring solar panel electricity generation
-???????Sense: for monitoring household energy consumption
I don’t have a particular activity or use case with an associated workflow. If I’m cold I can turn the temperature on the aircon up without having to move from my seat so it’s about convenience and time saving than a particular workflow or series of events that is adding value.
Perhaps there is something to be said to adding it to an existing use case such as Working from Home and defining it as part of the workflow that underpins the use case but that somehow doesn’t feel right.
The app is important to me but is isolated as a once off albeit it could be a once off many times a day.
Dual Screen Implementation
The amount of screen real estate is the obvious reason to purchase the Duo2 but is it worth the money?
The Duo2 is wider than a standard iPhone and that is the first thing that you notice when you pick it up. Moreover, once it is unfolded it is unlike any other mobile device I have experienced. There is a LOT if screen real estate and although the Duo2 is heavier it doesn’t feel heavier. There is a good equilibrium between the size and expected real estate versus the weight.
At 90Hz the screens are vibrant and very responsive to touch. Almost to responsive.
Within LinkedIn as an example when I want to scroll the touch sensitivity is so high and quick that it will open an article when all I want is to scroll down.
In the end I had to change the touch and hold delay to be medium which is a good option to have but would probably confuse and be difficult to find for most standard users.
Microsoft have given some initial thought on how the dual screen layout should work. The home screen is spread across both screens which enables an expanded app and widget layout which is very helpful.
Provisional thought has also gone into how apps can be loaded to take advantage of the screen real estate in terms of App Groups.
App Groups allow apps to be paired so that they can be launched one on each screen. This is especially helpful when you create an app group and place them in the shortcut group at the bottom of the home screen.
The shortcuts at the bottom have six slots/icons on one screen which then drops to 3 per screen when both screens are opened. With an app group you can double the number of apps to 12 per screen but it would be nice to have 6 shortcuts per screen when both screens are active instead of the standard 3 per screen as it is today. That would be a nice feature enhancement.
When an App Group is activated, it truly feels like the Duo2 is built for multi-tasking.
As an example, in portrait I can open LinkedIn and Facebook at the same time and leverage double screen social media goodness. Same deal with browsing when I use Edge and Brave per screen.
When rotating the screen to landscape mode, apps can span in landscape mode which is especially helpful if you want to browse a webpage full width or read a word document.
One thing that needs some work is the curved screen edges which you can see on the screenshot above. Whilst browsing in landscape on Edge I don’t have a problem with the size width of bezels in the middle of the screen, but what I do have a problem with is the amount of webpage that gets lost in the edge of the bevel curvature that you cannot see when your eyes are looking down perpendicular to the screen. It’s a refraction problem with the glass, however I would have thought that one of the advantages of using Android as an OS is that a specific Microsoft Admin setting could be added for the user to toggle between having Edge browser curvature turned off thereby enabling the user to layout the webpage without losing a portion of the webpage within the curvature. This would also be a helpful setting for other apps e.g. MS Whiteboard that don’t span correctly in both portrait or landscape mode.
Compare the two screen captures above, you can see the difference versus what the webpage is supposed to look like without the curvature obscuring the headlines.
There is a hardware limitation around the bevel thickness. For me I don’t have a problem with the screen being split or even the separation of distance of the webpage across the gap, but I do have a problem with data being lost unnecessarily and the fact that it can be fixed in software.
MS seemed to have mastered the gestures to convert an app to span across both screens. It’s a simple upward swipe from the bottom of the screen and place the app evenly across the middle of the device for it to span both screens.
Thereafter it’s clear that this is where MS have spent a good deal of time optimizing Edge, OneNote, Calendar, Outlook, Teams, To do, OneDrive and Office for Duo2.
If I have Calendar and Outlook in an App group, then I can see my calendar for the day as well as all four of my email account at the same time. This is much more useable in an on-the-go mode during the day. In many ways it could effectively replace having to pull out a laptop of tablet some simple responses.
When responding to an email in Outlook and turning the phone to landscape mode (compose mode), one entire screen can be dedicated to the onscreen keyboard which is can give you dual thumb typing of 4 fingers typing when paid on a surface. What I found much more effective is when I paired my MS Wedge keyboard, and I could touch type.
I was also able to pair this via direct wired connection to my Espresso 15-inch touchscreen monitor.
It required the following:
With the Espresso Display, MS Wedge Keyboard and MS Travel Dock it possible to desktopize the Microsoft apps despite them running on an Android OS.
From a practical purpose it’s probably a non-starter when you can just pull out a Surface Pro X or Pro 9, however if I had a Chromecast and access to any Display or Monitor e.g. An overnight hotel stay it’s feasible to cast although I’m unsure how practical.
The MS Wedge Keyboard alone with the Duo2 and Outlook in landscape mode was fast and effective in responding to email. It’s nice to have the extended external screen space however just having the ability to touch type alone made the completion of email responses very fast and effective.
MS has also made the Office apps more interactive between themselves. For example, I can open OneDrive and Outlook on each screen and if I want to attach a file to my email response it’s a simple drag and drop operation from OneDrive to the open email response windows on the other screen.
OneNote
I have a special mention for OneNote. I switched to taking handwritten notes on OneNote on my Surface Pro X as I can link it back to Teams and avoid having to carry around a pen and paper. One disadvantage to OneNote on desktop is the inconvenience of having to pull out the Pro from a bag, wait for it to boot, authentication, launch the app, find the app, find the notebook, find the note etc, it just takes time. For instant notes it’s not usable but fine for a meeting where there is a period of formal meeting setup before getting into the bones of the agenda.
OneNote on Duo2 with the Surface Slim Pen changes that. Notes are next to instant, and the pen is extremely responsive and precise. For some reason I like the smaller form factor for taking notes. Perhaps it’s because there is little to no palm interaction. On the ProX I tend to use it like a piece of A4 and start at the top of the page thus resting my palm on the screen.
Using OneNote in Book mode is my preference although the larger Surface Pro experience can be mimicked in Compose mode (landscape).
One thing I didn’t like is the automatic enforcement of Dark Mode within the app that is based off a global admin setting.
For handwriting I have found it better to have black ink on a white background. Dark mode enforces a dark background with white ink. The only way to get around it is to turn dark mode off which then applies the setting to all apps.
Other than that annoyance, I found OneNote very usable and accessible.
Microsoft Teams
MSTeams optimisation for Duo2’s dual screens have been given a lot of development time.
Within settings there is an option to set apps to launch on both screens. I’ve set this for almost all the MS apps as they have obviously been optimised for this. None more so than Teams.
With 4 Accounts on the Teams Mobile apps, in many ways it’s already more useful than running Teams on the desktop where I cannot easily switch between tenancies.
Once selecting the account and the action e.g., Chat, the list of persistent message interactions is on the left-hand screen and the message windows on the right-hand screen.
That’s consistent for all the other actions including Activity, Teams, Calendar and Calling.
When in a meeting and the Duo2 is in Compose Mode the content and gallery views are split between the two screens. This is where it would be helpful to pair with a Bluetooth speakerphone and Miracast to a larger display.
The Duo2 is equally capable powering a small room as a Teams device in a pinch as it is a Teams device for the individual. As Office is integrated, being able to share or send content is easy from the Share tray.
At the time of writing Presenter mode on Android (where the presenter video is overlaid on the content share) was not available.
With Room Remote extensions available now, far end camera control plus additional features and functionality for controlling Microsoft Teams Rooms, the Teams App for Android is extremely powerful, functional and accessible. In many ways it’s the standout app on the Duo2.
One thing that was noticeable is using Teams in compose mode for a call that is more than 15 minutes generated a lot of heat and consumes battery at a faster than normal rate. MS Teams is using scalable video codecs that put the onus of video processing on the device itself, so the CPU is getting hammered which is why the Duo2 gets hot during VC calls.
Different Screen Modes
Duo2 is a dual screen phone that does not require a screen protector to be used in various modes. This makes you appreciate the quality of the glass used.
It is so satisfying to be able to put the Duo2 down on the table in stage mode during a Teams call. ?As you are hands free the camera angle can be adjusted or the DUO2 can be placed at a higher location to minimise the double chin angle.
This mode is also handy when playing games like word puzzles or mah-jong that require you to hold screens for long periods of time. Placing it down on a table and using the pen as a stylus to draw and tap takes playing a game on a mobile phone device less fatiguing. Why? First your hands are not exposed to the extra heat generated from the CPU when running a graphically intensive game or feel cramped in the same position for extended periods of time.
Tent mode is practically the same, especially when you don’t need the camera to be facing you directly and it avoids any risk of scratchy or damaging the screens. This is where the bumper come into play for those with OCD like me that hates new shinny things to be scratched or flawed.
The other useful thing about the stage mode is when you want to use it as a tripod for recording video or taking a photo on timer. I was able to place it high angling down to take video of myself which could then be uploaded as a message response to an IM in a Teams channel.
?Camera and Photo editing
It’s a little more difficult for me to assess the camera as I don’t have a specific use case that requires it. As a more of a passive photo taker the camera capabilities seem equal to the iPhone 11 that used in the past. I’m sure many consumer smartphone users who are not M365 customers will probably scream at that statement, moreover, I’m not active on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook as a content creator so my need for a camera is to take an occasion picture with the family.
I probably take more photos of receipts that I need to use to claim company expenses or pictures of meeting rooms that I need for site surveys than actual people footage.
For site survey’s my most important consideration is to be able to upload via OneDrive to a SharePoint or Teams site in real time than the differences in resolution and quality between an iPhone or a Duo2.
The dual screens do have the ability to overlay the camera app across both screens. When a picture is taken you can immediately see it on the left hand ‘viewer’ screen where you can perform editing functions whilst still having the camera active. What I did find annoying is the picture taking functionality can only exist on the right-hand screen. If holding the camera in compose mode it makes more sense to me to have viewfinder display on the left-hand screen therefore separating the actual camera lens and viewfinder onto the opposing display. This could be fixed in software, moreover, there should really be an option to enable this already. The usual 4K60fps and 16:9 screen sizes are supported.
Gestures
As an iPhone user there is no real way to use a modern-day iPhone without learning the accompanying gestures of IOS.
Therefore, coming from the IOS ecosystem into Android on Duo2 is pretty straightforward. The swipe from the bottom edge of the screen is effective as an app changer or app close and the swipe up to move an app to the centre of the screens to maximise both screens make sense and are easy to accomplish.
Autorotation between book and compose mode is fast, glitch free and smooth.
The fingerprint reader is also fast and accurate so despite not having FaceID or Windows Hello it didn’t hinder too much except when using the Duo2 in the car. Having FaceID when driving with Carplay promotes an end-to-end touch free experience. On the flip slide when where dark sunglasses FaceID does not recognise properly, and I’m then forced to type the PIN code into the phone.
I do feel like there should be a shortcut button for NFC payments. If you double click the power button when the Duo2 is open it will activate the Camera app. When you double click the power button when the Duo2 is closed it will activate the light beside the camera, moreover, I would like the ability to program the double-click gesture against both volume up and down buttons as I would use one of the volume buttons to initiate Google Pay making it easier for NFC payments in the Supermarket which is a defined use case that I leverage.
Learning Curve
Coming from the IOS and iPhone ecosystem for so many years I was surprised at how little of a learning curve there is.
None of the apps that I owned on iPhone did not have a corresponding app on Android. Apple Pay and Google Pay perform the same functions as do Google Calls, Google Messages and a number of other built-in apps.
Initially the camera usage caught me out due to the lens being behind the right-hand screen. As an example, If I opened the ServiceNSW app on the left-hand screen to complete a COVID check in you have a tendency to automatically point the back of the left-hand screen at the QR code you want to scan due to force of habit. Eventually I remembered that the camera lenses where on the right-hand side even if the app was opened on the left-hand screen.
I found the gestures between IOS and Android to be very similar therefore it took me only a few hours to master the Duo2. ?
Pocketability
This is an interesting question.
What is the trade-off between size of the device and functionality of the device to determine it’s pocket ability equation?
In other words, how likely are you going to carry it around if you feel that it is too big? Clearly there must be an intrinsic value to the individual based on many of the use cases I’ve previous defined and determined which are exclusive to my workflow and associated value streams.
When it comes to notifications of SMS’s, Calls and Teams the Duo2 offers the Glance bar which is the curved edge trade off to the SMS creation and Edge browsing issues I’ve previously mentioned. The curved nature of the screen offers a sliver of screen to provide external notifications to the user when the screens are closed. It’s an elegant solution without having to put an external screen on one of the displays which would consume additional battery life. It’s not fantastic but its not terrible either, it just works as expected.
When considering the pocketability equation it’s important to consider the Surface Slim pen. The inking experience on the Duo2 is terrific. Very responsive and easy to use, however the pen must be carried and accounted for separately. The Slim pen can magnetically mount to the back of the left-hand screen, however it’s not tight enough not to get easily separated in the act of putting the Duo2 in your pocket or even once its in your pocket separating when you are simply walking. Unless you purchase the pen holder as an additional expense, the pen also doesn’t sit square, the eraser end seems to hang over the top of the screen which does not make good for a tight seal against the screen to prevent separation as you can see from the pictures below.
The Duo2 is definitely the biggest “phone” I’ve carried. I use the term “phone” loosely because it’s going to get directly compared to a typical smartphone despite it having the least number of characteristics common to a smartphone.
It sits somewhere between a 2:1 tablet and a Smartphone. You can achieve all the most common M365 use cases and it can make calls and send SMSs, but I would contest that being a smartphone is not its primary function, instead it’s primary function is to be a portable yet small form factor designed around M365 Collaboration Tools and Xbox gaming.
If those things are high up on your mobile value list, then the device is acceptably pocketable despite its size. For me the value outweighs the size and weight.
Bugs
During my first 8 weeks with the Duo2 here is a list of bugs or issues that I encountered:
FIXED: Unable to scroll through YouTube subscriptions (app killer). The subscriptions were at the top of the app in a horizontal carousel which I was unable to scroll through. This was subsequently fixed with the subscriptions appearing on a vertical carousel which worked.
FIXED: Unable to use back button on brave
FIXED: Authentication issue in office when trying to open a new document. This eventually fixed itself, but I can’t tell you how. My setup is complicated with 4 tenancies.
FIXED: Unable to scroll down to move widgets up. Cut off below the fold
NOT FIXED: Whiteboard and other apps don't span the screen correctly. It should only use the pixels visible to the user when both screens are being used instead it folds the canvas round into the glance bar
FIXED: Phone app did not pop in for ground when Scott called me on the 28th. Was browsing edge at the time. Required a reboot.
IXED: Camera is full of bugs and can easily replicate crashing. Initially the camera kept freezing and would max out the CPU. Its now fixed but is not as fast to take and process images as the ipuone.
NOT FIXED: Unable to turn off or put alarm on snooze. There is an argument on whether this is a bug (as the Alarm app works as intended) or a feature enhancement. For me not being able to perform a basic snooze by touching any of the outer buttons when the alarm is going off is a bug. This means you have to sleep with the screens open to be able to access the alarm slider.
FIXED: Lost access to quick settings menu reboot fixed
FIXED: When PHONE LINK is connected, and calls made from Duo2 there are no progress tones that can be heard on the Duo2 either in speaker or via the receiver.
FIXED: Voice calls on Android Auto don't enable mic and speakers on car
UNABLE TO REPLICATE: Random loss of WiFi under multi-Gigabyte download
NOT FIXED: If you are using Surface Duo2 enrolled into Intune and AAD it generates another company specific version of Company Portal. Company Portal is installed by default with the Duo2 OS and cannot be removed therefore you are left with two versions of the company portal.
FIXED: 1st picture does not send from photo app to email as an attachment
No Root Cause Identified: Teams major bugs around share content and raise hand. Once I reinstalled, I could not replicate this issue.
?The last bug pertains to not being able to share content other than a Whiteboard from the Teams Client on Android. You can’t share documents or the Duo2 Screen. Furthermore, Raise hand is not available.
That bug was my biggest and most serious problem that I found as it completely breaks the Working at Anywhere or Hybrid Mobile Workspace value stream and use case. I did raise it with MS but in the end the fix required a factory reset of the whole device. Thereafter I could not reproduce it.
This is because the Teams app is factory loaded as part of the Duo2’s initial image. The app cannot be deleted and reinstalled therefore something must have gotten twisted when it was connecting to the company portal for verification of the Teams app upgrade to the latest version.
The factory reset in my opinion was not a suitable fix as it requires a tremendous amount of time to backup all data including app data, photos, contacts, videos etc
I had to take snapshots of my home screen layout as I had perfected it over several weeks and take note of my widgets and widget layout so that I could manually apply them once the factory reset was complete.
The entire factory reset took over a day. Maybe I was simply unlucky.
Features Missing
Fixes and Updates
It’s clear that I initially encountered more bugs on Android than I have experienced with the iPhone. This is perhaps not unexpected with a brand-new form factor in a brand new device which is essentially Generation 2.
It’s also worth pointing out that despite my experiences with bugs, most of them got fixed reasonably quickly in addition to a couple of major feature enhancements that are significantly valuable to me.
There is a monthly cadence for Duo2 updates in which major and minor functionality is released. The last big update was the release of Android 12L on Duo2 which happened in around the beginning of November 2022.
The update was huge a 3.2GB and many users encountered major issues. For an account of issues go over to Shane Craig’s youtube channel ((135) Shane Craig - YouTube)
The update list includes:
Upgrades the Android operating system to Android 12L for foldable devices. For general information about Android 12, see Android 12.
Addresses scenario outlined in the Android Security Bulletin—October 2022.
New Surface Duo 2 features:
?
Battery
The Duo2 battery is the biggest battery I have used in a smartphone at 4449mAh. That added to the weight of the device but also adds to the hand reassurance that quality comes with a bit more heft. The Lithium polymer design enables it to be spread across a large surface area, however it also must have enough juice to power two high resolution screens over an entire day. According to Microsoft. The upper limits of video playback are 15.5 hours but talk time gets a minor bump up to 28 hours, maximum. In my day-to-day usage with the value streams and use cases I have defined I get more than one day out of a single charge provided I am not in back to back MS Teams calls.
The Duo2 does not support wireless charging although it does support 23W fast charging. There is a “hack” with the additional of an external 3rd party wireless charging receiver plugged into the USBC port to enable the functionality but as I’ve not tested it therefore can’t recommend it.
Ultimately battery drain is down to what you are using it for. If you are dual browsing with Brave and Edge for example on each screen, then it’s going to require more power. Same goes for gaming, if your blue toothing to an Elite 2 controller and Miracasting to a large screen then the battery will drain faster. If you use only one screen when two are not necessary, then you’re going to leverage the battery significantly to last longer. Common sense should prevail to get the most out of the battery.
When using fast charging you can expect to recover approx. 80% within about an hour.
I didn’t have any challenges or issues with the battery even when using M365 apps except MS Teams in dual screen for an extended period. I’m not expecting to get two days out of a single charge so there is probably a bit of perception lag behind what is likely in my case.
Gaming
One of the most surprising aspects of the Duo2 is its gaming potential.
I never really did much gaming on the iPhone 11 because the screen was just too small. Perhaps my expectations of gaming were too high for the device as I have been a PC gamer for years and own an Xbox which is used in the Media Room at my residence as the main streaming device for YouTube, Netflix and Disney+ as well as playing big title games.
I’m more of a high-res graphics + excellent gameplay type gamer. The sorts of games that need plenty of memory, CPU, and masses of GPU. The thought of being able to do this meaningfully or immersivity on a mobile device just didn’t resonate, however I think the Duo2 could change this.
I’m surprised that Microsoft has not really advocated this aspect of the device as I found it to be very capable in several areas which I will detail for both small and big screen gaming whilst having access to Cloud gaming and a massive back catalogue of title that keeps growing due to MS acquiring gaming houses such as Bethesda and Activision. Most if not all of which will be covered with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Playing games on the Duo2 itself is relatively simple, however, due to the Duo2’s screen real estate there are a few things to consider first.
All games I tested will span both screens when in ‘book’ mode, which gives you a massive mobile gaming area.
Games like Pro Evolution Soccer 2021 provide on screen controls when in ‘Tent’ Mode
There is a selection of games that are optimised for ‘Compose’ mode where the screens are leveraged for different purposes. Asphalt Legends is a game that is provided in the factory build which supports ‘Compose’ Mode.
As you can seen when racing in Asphalt Legends the upper screen displays the racing simulation which is controlled by tilting the Duo2 left or right whilst the lower screen displays the course you are racing around.
This is an effective use of the dual screens and provides elements of gameplay you cannot replicate on a console because you can only leverage one screen. I think the displays and compute on the Duo2 really open new avenues of game development that could be immersive and very creative.
Further adding to the versatility and gameplay is the ability to pair my Xbox Elite 2 controller via Bluetooth to the Duo2.
To test this, I downloaded Grimvalor from Bethesda (a game house recent acquisition by Microsoft) and was able to use the same controller for my Xbox via Bluetooth that I could now pair and use with my Duo2. This made the game even more playable as the entire screen real estate could be leveraged for gameplay without any on screen control overlays.
Additional to this, I screen casted to my Hisense 55inch with a Google Chromecast via HDMI and was able to turn the Duo2 into an Android native mini gaming console.
There are a couple of caveats to this.
Between the three points made above that places a lot of strain on the battery so expect battery drain. I would recommend plugging the Duo2 into USB Power to prolong your gaming time which could easily stretch into hours if you get really into it.
I paired to the Elite 2 controller and the battery drain was not as pronounced which makes it perfect for a long train journey or flight. When paired with a decent set of earphones it is remarkably immersive and it’s all running completely native to the Android OS.
There are a few things that you must consider then picking which games to play.
Don’t expect all titles to be able to leverage all the modes I have detailed as support for dual screen ‘compose’ mode gameplay as seen in Asphalt Legends for example, is entirely up to the game developer to build support for.
On PES 2021 in ‘Book’ mode I could not use the Elite 2 Controller, however with Grimvalor this was not a problem.
Both are Konami titles.
One has support for Bluetooth paired controllers, and one does not. That makes it hard for consumers to know what the fullest extent of capability is for a game to leverage the Duo2 hardware. It certainly doesn’t state what is supported when you search for the title on the Play Store, so it’s all trial and error.
But there is more……..
As a subscriber to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate I have access to a huge catalogue of titles that I can play on Console, PC and now Cloud.
Cloud is where gaming is heading for the masses. If you have an internet connection that supports the required bandwidth (perfect for 5G or NBN speeds) then you don’t need the beefy compute found in modern consoles such as Playstation 5, Xbox Series X or even top end PC’s. The compute required for the gaming is moved to the cloud then streamed to any device that supports it.
Using Xbox Cloud Gaming I had access to all the titles I own on my Xbox Console in addition to any other game that is part of the Xbox Ultimate catalogue.
I fired up Elite Dangerous, it synced my last saved position (Hahn Gateway) and let me play as if I was on a PC or Xbox. I found it to be responsive but it’s entirely dependent on the available network bandwidth and latency on the network. When casting to a bigger screen the results were surprisingly good perhaps due to the Duo2 having more available compute since it’s not running the game natively (which should mean better battery life), however the trade off is that your stressing the radios as there is now two Wi-Fi connections, one to the Wi-Fi LAN and a point to point Miracast connection to the TV.
I think MS have a significant opportunity with the Duo2 as a mobile gaming device. Hopefully with acquisitions such as Activision and Bethesda, titles such as PES and Call of Duty can be tailored to work with all the modes I have detailed on the Duo2.
Make no mistake, Microsoft believe that gaming has massive growth potential from the 8-year-old up to the 80 year old. Making titles accessible from a mobile device natively or via Xbox Cloud is an indication of how seriously they are taking gaming and trying to make it mainstream.
Conclusion
Is it worth the money?
Surprisingly in my case the answer is yes.
To arrive at this conclusion, it’s important to recap the methodology I used to determine my exact value streams and workflow.
Fortunately, Apple has a couple of tools on iPhone to track what apps you are spending the most time in.
The first way to find out which app you spend the most time in is via the Screen Time setting. This you can find in near the top of your Settings app.
Upon entering this menu you will see a chart showing your daily average of phone usage generally. Underneath this chart, select the option to See All Activity.
This setting shows you a second chart which shows your screen time, over the week and the day. This chart will show your usage generally in different categories, such as “social networking” and “entertainment.” Underneath that is a list of “Most Used” apps. Each of the apps has a time next to it, and you can scroll back through previous days and weeks to compare how much time you spend on each app over time.
The second method is via the Battery setting. When you enter this menu, you’ll see a chart of your phone‘s battery charge level over the last 24 hours or the last ten days. If you scroll down from this menu, you’ll see “Battery Usage by App.” This shows you how much battery power each app takes up by itself.
To put a number on that, hit the option “See All Activity.” This will show you how much time you’ve spent with each app on your screen or in the background.
You can’t really tell which apps you have spent the most time on just on this one screen, however if you check it every 48 hours, over the course of 4 weeks it’s possible to build a comprehensive list of most used apps, when and why.
It takes a bit of work but at the end of 4 weeks using this methodology I had my top 5 value streams detailed which also helped me to justify what apps I didn’t want to move to Android because the usage of that app was opportunistic and did not fit into a detailed value stream or specific point use case.
Value Stream versus Use Case.
In my instance the Value Streams represent the series of steps that I use to implement Solutions based on mobile application on Android that provide a continuous flow of value to myself for a specific event or set of circumstances during my day.
A?use case?is a description of how a person who actually uses that app or series of apps on Android will accomplish a goal.?
There are subtle differences between these definitions.
The Use Case is the how.
The Value Stream is the process of quantifying the when, where and why to define the intrinsic value to the individual.
Intrinsic value is a measure of what this value stream is worth to me. It is entirely subjective and must be determined by each individual as each person’s perceived value of anything is usually different.
OK, that’s deep, however, we are trying to put a measure of value on a device that is approx. AUD$2500.
If you look at reviews of the Duo2 on websites or YouTube videos most reviewers who have spent less than week with the Duo2 are simply providing their opinion and a lot of the time emotions…..without quantifying how they got to that conclusion which is not really objective or helpful.
Reviewers who have spent more than 6 months as their daily driver generally provide a more rounded and reasoned view without necessarily providing any empirical data or logical reasoning to substantiate their intrinsic value.
My intention was to use the available data to break down my use cases and workflow into succinct value streams so that you can follow my methodology and arrive at your own intrinsic value whilst keeping emotions in check i.e. wow it looks cool, or I love two screens. (Great but why….)
I have identified six value streams some of which are quite narrow yet critical activities e.g., Grocery Shopping and some of which are quite wide e.g., working from anywhere. Mobile Office Working requires several more applications to be accessed and to work in tandem that Grocery Shopping, however if my family doesn’t eat then that becomes a major problem much greater than being able to make a Teams call.
All are valid so I wouldn’t rate one over the other, however when determining the value of the Duo2 its clear that the integration of the M365 apps into the dual screen layout is the standout performer beyond what any single screen device can do.
In my opinion I could replace my 2:1 or laptop for the day with the Duo2 whilst leveraging Hybrid working and being out in the field meeting customers.
This is one of the reasons why I think the Duo2 is less of a phone and more of a collaboration and productivity device when leveraging many of the value streams I have mentioned.
Again, and in my opinion the Duo2 is geared towards current M365 or Office 365 users and is not a mainstream consumer device. Yet it overlaps a large percentage of consumer value streams and use cases, however the real unexpected standout is gaming.
This came out of left field for me, however now that I have used the device for an extended period, I can completely see the appeal.
With Phil Spencer running Xbox and being part of the SLT at MS, I can see all the pieces of the puzzle coming together as to how a small form factor device could unlock cloud gaming to the masses.
Again, the Duo2 with 5G leans towards M365/O365 and Xbox Ultimate cloud subscriptions thus generating linear monthly revenue for Microsoft beyond the margin on the device itself which despite it’s big price tag could still be a loss leader.
For this device to be of value to the reader, you must systematically determine your value streams.
If you live in the Microsoft Clouds then the Duo2 makes a lot of sense.
After 12 years of sustained Applie iPhone I now use my Duo2 daily as my primary driver for my company work. This isn’t going to change for the foreseeable future.
?Appendix:
Duo2 Specifications
I so love this device...and it sits on my desk...looking at me daily...I am just such a Camera snob that I have to use the Galaxy S22 Ultra day to day...but oh, my Duo 2 wants to be my "daily driver" in the worst way!
Technology Strategist / Education CTO | Enterprise PS | Artificial Intelligence, Azure, M365, Security | Data | School Improvement |Always Learning | Speaker | Luthier | AI podcast | Mental Health | PhD student
1 年Superb
Founder & CEO at Azured Consulting
1 年You should compare notes Brad Wilson
Modern Workplace, Security, Generative AI, Cloud & Co-Host of MTDAMA and Sydney Workplace Technology Meetup
1 年Mary Jo Foley you might be interested in this.