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The first Android phone ever to be released by Microsoft is almost upon us and it is a bold design. Let’s take a look at what it gives you in terms of the unique hardware Microsoft has brought to market with the Microsoft Surface Duo.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 1
Source: Microsoft

Surface Duo Hardware

Of course, the first thing that stands out about the Duo is the dual screens. Each one of them is 5.6 inches and the total diagonal is 8.1 inches! That’s an incredible amount of real estate to be carrying around in your pocket.

The 360° hinge makes the magic happen to allow for many different postures of the phone.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 2
Source: Microsoft

It can be folded over like a regular phone for phone calls “open”, or the opposite direction to “close”. Reports from early release phones say it feels just like other max size phones and fits into most pockets, but watch out skinny jeans people.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 3
Source: Microsoft

Tent mode for watching movies is easy for Surface Duo. This form factor is a top request for travelers on planes, but these days not as important since everyone has gone virtual.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 4
Source: Microsoft

Held vertically to have the effect of a web browser on a PC. This is a great experience when sitting or again when traveling on a plane or train. Much easier to consume information without constant flicks of the fingers.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 5
Source: Microsoft

Used in your lap or on a table as a mini-laptop. This form factor is known as the “Barbie laptop”, and is quite useful for consuming information and typing at the same time.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 6
Source: Microsoft

Design Specifications

Each screen is 5.6 inches each and when folded flat the total size is 8.1. Each side is then only 4.8 mm thin when opened making for a really thin phone. The entire phone is made of glass which gives it a high-end feel to the touch. There is a fingerprint reader, volume, and power button (all on the same side of the phone), along with the fast charging USB-C connection.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 7
Source: Microsoft

Finger print reader to unlock the phone or authenticate to applications.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 8
Rapid unlock with the finger print reader – Source: Microsoft

The Surface Duo supports Fast Charging with the included 18-watt USB-C power supply, or video output.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 9
USB-C with fast charging – Source: Microsoft

11MP, f2.0, image quality tuning with various modes depending on posture; 4K video recording with gyro-based digital video stabilization.

Surface Duo Hardware First Look 10
11MP and 4K are ample for a business focused phone – Source: Microsoft

What’s in the Box?

  • Surface Duo
  • Surface Duo Bumper (Color: Glacier)
  • Surface Duo USB-C® Power Supply (18w)
  • Quick Start Guide
  • Warranty and Compliance
  • GuideSIM Ejector tool
Surface Duo Hardware First Look 11
Surface Duo Box contents – Source: Microsoft

Surface Duo Tech Specs

DimensionsOpen:145.2 mm (H) x 186.9 mm (W) x 4.8 mm (T) Closed:145.2 mm (H) x 93.3 mm (W) x 9.9 mm (T at hinge)
Weight250 grams
DisplayDual PixelSense™ Fusion Displays open: 8.1” AMOLED, 2700×1800 (3:2), 401 PPISingle PixelSense™ Display: 5.6” AMOLED, 1800×1350 (4:3), 401 PPIDisplay Material: Corning® Gorilla® Glass
Battery LifeUp to 15.5 hours of Local Video Playback2Up to 10 days of Standby Time2Up to 27 hours of Talk Time2
Battery Capacity3577mAh (typical) dual battery3
Battery chargingBattery charging using 18W in box power supply
Camera and video recordingAdaptive camera 11MP, f/2.0, 1.0 µm, PDAF and 84.0° diagonal FOV optimized with AI for front and rear Photos:Auto mode with low-light & HDR multi-frame photo capture and dynamic range scene detectionSuper resolution zoom, and super zoom up to 7x Portrait mode with adjustable depth controlPanorama modeBurst mode Video recording:4K video recording at 30 fps and 60 fps1080p video recording at 30 fps and 60 fpsHEVC and H.264 video recording formatsGyro-based digital video stabilization
Video conferencingMicrosoft Teams and Skype video conferencing up to 1080p at 30fpsHigh CRI LED Flash for both front and world facing photo and video scenarios
Countries, carriers, and compatibilityCountries: U.S. Unlocked device***: AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless Locked device: AT&T
Network and connectivityWiFi: WiFi-5 802.11ac (2.4/5GHz) Bluetooth: Bluetooth® 5.0 LTE: 4×4 MIMO, Cat.18 DL / Cat 5 UL, 5CA, LAA. Up to 1.2Gbps Download / Up to 150Mbps Upload Bands Supported:FDD-LTE: 1,2,3,4,5,7,8,12,13,14,19,20,25,26,28,29,30,66TD-LTE: 38,39,40,41,46WCDMA: 1,2,5,8GSM/GPRS: GSM-850, E-GSM-900, DCS-1800, PCS-1900Location: GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou, QZSS
SIMOne eSIM5 and one Nano SIM Note: AT&T locked device will not support eSIM
ProcessorQualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Mobile Platform optimized for the dual-screen experience
ConnectionsUSB-C® 3.1
Storage and memory128GB or 256GB UFS 3.0 of internal storage6 6GB DRAM
AudioMono speaker, Dual Mic noise suppression and echo cancellation optimized for productive use in all postures Best-in-class Full Duplex communication for voice calls in hands-free mode Audio formats supported: 3GP, MP3, MP4, MKV, WAV, OGG, M4A, AAC, TS, AMR, FLAC, MID, MIDI, RTTL, RTX, OTA, IMY Qualcomm® aptX™
SoftwareMicrosoft built-in applications:Microsoft Office: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Office Lens, PDF Reader, and moreMicrosoft OutlookMicrosoft TeamsMicrosoft OneDriveMicrosoft EdgeMicrosoft OneNoteMicrosoft To DoMicrosoft NewsMicrosoft AuthenticatorMicrosoft Bing SearchIntune Company PortalLinkedInMicrosoft Solitaire CollectionSurface Audio Microsoft Surface Duo UI core features:Dual screen windowingAdaptive modesApp GroupsMicrosoft 365 FeedDynamic dockUniversal SearchAdaptive CameraMicrosoft SwiftKey Adaptive KeyboardYour Phone Companion – Link to Windows Other preinstalled apps:Google SearchGoogle AssistantGoogle CalendarGoogle DriveGoogle DuoGoogle PhotosGoogle Play Movies & TVGoogle Play StoreGoogle MapsChromeGmailYouTubeYouTube MusicContactsMessagesPhoneFilesClockCalculatorSound recorderSpotify (Unlocked)HBO MAX (AT&T)AT&T TV (AT&T)My AT&T (AT&T)Call Protect (AT&T)Amazon Shopping (AT&T)NBA (AT&T) Operating System: Android™ 10
SensorsDual AccelerometerDual GyroscopeDual MagnetometerDual Ambient Light SensorProximity SensorHall SensorFingerprint Sensor
Video playbackVideo Playback Formats8: MKV, MOV, MP4, H.265(HEVC), AVI, WMV, TS, 3GP, FLV, WEBM Wireless: Chromecast support Wired: DisplayPort over USB-C®. Supports video out when connecting via HDMI Adapter*
ExteriorExterior Material: Corning® Gorilla® Glass Color: Glacier
Security and authenticationBiometric lock type: Fingerprint reader (1:100K FAR <3% FRR)Lock type: Swipe, PIN, password Security applications pre-loaded on device: Microsoft Authenticator
Language supportAll supported languages (Android™ 10)
Pen and inkingSupports all in market generations of Surface Slim Pen, Surface Pen and Surface Hub 2 Pen*Simultaneous Pen and touch are supported
What’s in the box
Surface Duo
Surface Duo Bumper (Color: Glacier)
Surface Duo USB-C® Power Supply (18w)
Quick Start Guide
Warranty and Compliance Guide
SIM Ejector tool
Warranty1-year limited hardware warranty
The Microsoft Store Promise for Surface60-day return policy90 days of free technical phone support
Free virtual workshops and training

I can’t wait until September 10! I pre-ordered mine yesterday!

@deltadan

Microsoft MVP

Dan Patrick is the Chief Infrastructure Architect for Solliance and a 15 year veteran at Microsoft. He has an extensive background in IT Infrastructure and Operations. Dan has both architected and lead teams building and supporting some of the largest service providers in North America with as many 15,000 Windows Servers and 120 million endpoints. Dan has worked with Azure IaaS solutions extensively since 2012. He has a passion for Virtualization with deep experience leveraging Hyper-V, Vmware, and Citrix. He is also a Clustering specialist focusing on large host clusters and SQL Always On Availability Groups. Recently Dan, authored the Networking, Azure Active Directory and Containers portion of the 70-533 Exam Reference for Microsoft Press. You can follow him on Twitter @deltadan