A new look at the Surface Duo's dual screen experience

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Credit where credit's due. WC's Zac Bowden, a fellow Brit, has been putting so much effort into setting up a workable experience on the various builds of the Surface Duo emulator. I too have been grabbing versions but what Microsoft provide is a lot more bare bones than the semi-workable smartphone system he's cobbled together, he refers to it having taken him 'forever'. And I'm lagging behind in my own Duo playtime so much that I'm just going to embed Zac's new 25 minute (yes, it's long, there's an enormous amount in it and you will need a drink to keep you going!) video below.

Don't worry, I'll do my own take on the Duo experience in due course, but in the meantime, it's over to Zac. As usual, click through to YouTube and max everything out for best quality:

Nicely done, Zac. Producing such videos is a lot of work and here we see almost everything the Duo will offer in terms of UI beyond that which you'd find in existing Android handsets.

Of particular note is the last section, starting at about 22:30, where Zac flips the device into clamshell (Communicator) mode and demonstrates both QWERTY 'laptop' typing and also verticaly scrolling through two landscape screens - very clever and slick all round.

As I say, I'll keep playing with the emulator here and will feature it again at some point on AAWP.

And no, we still don't know when the Duo will be formally available, nor the price. Some people still think it might appear before Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 2, but given the state of the Duo's software, i.e. slick but with elements missing, I think it will miss this target and wouldn't be surprised if it became October or similar, and at a £1000 price tag.

Source / Credit: YouTube