The foldable world hasn’t quite managed to blow our eyelids off in terms of choices, but ever since they started rolling out in 2019, we’ve seen examples of how a phone could look different.
Granted, the options haven’t been wide and varied, with the original Samsung Fold and Fold 2 last year delivering a phone that unfolds into a tablet, while the Samsung Flip is a biggish phone that folds flat into a smaller phone. Motorola offered something similar in that way with a recent Razr, and there’s also a bunch of foldable prototypes, including a rollable design that we’ve not yet seen a consumer-ready model of.
And then there was the Surface Duo, a Microsoft-made return to phones made up of two screens connected by a hinge.
Microsoft first showed the Surface Duo in 2019, but that first model never quite made it to Australia, missing in action and seeing a limited release overseas first. However its next take will see Australian release, as the Surface Duo 2 is given a price and availability date.
Announced alongside Microsoft’s Surface Pro 8 and Surface Laptop Studio this week, the Surface Duo uses two 5.8 inch screens connected on a special hinge to make one wide 8.3 inch screen.
That hinge has borrowed some inspiration from 2-in-1 laptops because it can fold backwards, allowing the screens to sit both front and back, or close shut like a book. The spine will even provide notifications when closed, allowing it to offer information when not in use.
It’s a little like what LG made in the dual-screen V50, but with a way to fold the screens back, making it a phone that feels a little more like a dual-screen computer.
In short, the Surface Duo 2 is like a foldable, but also not one at all, providing two screens, three cameras (12mp wide F1.7, 12mp 2x zoom F2.4, 16mp ultra-wide F2.2), a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, and support for 5G, Bluetooth, and WiFi. It will even handle Microsoft’s Surface Pen, turning it into a notebook of sorts.
That puts the Surface Duo 2 within spitting distance of the Galaxy Fold 3, especially given they both handle styluses and allow you to take notes, and they both come with $2K price tags.
As such, the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 will start at $2319 in Australia when it launches in late-October, fending off the $2499 Galaxy Fold 3 as one of Australia’s only other large foldable devices with support for a pen.
We suspect Windows users with a love for Surface will be the target here, but with Android running on the Duo 2, it could be ideal for a whole lot of others, as well.
