Microsoft shows prototype of Surface Duo phone with Android

Microsoft has shown a prototype of its Surface Duo phone. It is an Android device with two screens. The company plans to release the dual-display smartphone before the end of next year.

The smartphone has two 4:3 screens of around 115x85mm, with a surface of around 97 square centimeters and a diagonal of 5.6″. These fold out to a screen of around 115x170mm with a surface of 194 square centimeters and a diagonal of 8.3,” says Microsoft. The edges are large for a mobile device these days. The soc is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855, Wired claims. It would be on the old side when released next year.

The phone runs on Android and has Google apps on board, the manufacturer showed. Currently it is a modified version of Android 9 Pie, but a new version will probably be on the device. There are prototypes with a white and a black housing. The dimensions are not yet known, but it seems about the same height as a regular smartphone, but a lot wider. Given the width of the screen, a housing of at least 9 cm wide, while many smartphones keep it at 7 to 7.5 cm.

It is Microsoft’s first smartphone since the release of the Lumia 650 in 2016. At the time of the acquisition of Nokia’s telephone branch, the Finnish manufacturer already released Android phones under the name Nokia X, but without Google services. It is the first time a mobile device appears in Microsoft’s Surface line.

Microsoft made more announcements at its own Surface event.
– Microsoft unveils Windows 10X and Surface Neo with two 9″ screens
– Microsoft introduces 5.3mm thin Surface Pro X with ARM chip and Surface Pro 7
– Microsoft presents Surface Laptop 3 with custom AMD Ryzen processor
– AMD processor in Surface Laptop is Ryzen 7 3780U with Zen+ cores and Vega 11 GPU
– Microsoft presents wireless earphones with Office 365 integration