OG (Original) MS Duo as an Android 12L Mini-Tablet

I was encouraged to pick up a used OG Duo as a mini-tablet experiment after reading this article:

5 Likes

Ted - do you use the same slim pen with the Duo and Surface Pro?

Hope any others crazy enough to have tried this please share here.

2 Likes

Anyone have any experience with Mint Mobile? It only works with smartphones (no tablet data option) and the Duo IS a smartphone (for which it is a poor choice) but that would give me a lot of data to play with when out and about.

I’m even thinking of porting my RingCentral business phone number to the OGDuo…

2 Likes

Renaisser 520. I imagine almost any Surface Pen will do better. Mine has an awful lot of diagonal wavering.

OneNote:

3 Likes

I used it on my Samsung Tab A 8 w/SPen (2019) for a while. If TMobile’s coverage area is good where you are, it worked.

Of course, if TMobile coverage is good for you, you might also want to look at the TMobile Digits App (move your iPhone to TMobile as well and you could have both numbers ringing on/calling from either device…)
T-Mobile Digits allows multiple phone numbers on one phone (or one number across all your devices) | TechSpot

Great thread. I can’t tell you how many times I have been glued to my EBay app, ready to pull the trigger on an OG Duo. The only reason I have not done so is that I am so busy at work that I have no time to play around with one of these.

I know, for this site, that is heresy!

4 Likes

I’ve also been close a couple of times. :joy: Maybe I should use half the refund from my Airpods Max to buy a Surface Duo uno. :slight_smile: Or maybe I should wait for Dale’s to become available! :upside_down_face:

5 Likes

Oh ye of little faith (but LOTS of practical experience with yours truly)…

2 Likes

Don’t let work interfere with important forum business…New OGDuo’s are rolling for $400+/- and used $300+/-, but the real problem is stocks are dwindling and most are LOCKED to AT&T and I do mean LOCKED - no unlock requests are being granted - seems like AT&T must have gotten stuck with a boatload…

1 Like

RingCentral plus AT&T does let me ring personal and business on my iPhone, but I’d like to put this one on a different carrier just for the an alternate availability. Mint seems to be the best price, with even Verizon MVNO’s being overpriced…

1 Like

Back to the topic at hand - mini-tablet use case. Thurrott opined today that he believes MS is working to bring Android, with the new Windows 11 skinning of the new Android 12L on the Duos - to sub-11" tablets as the “Surface Tablet.” He was even “complimentary” of the Duos now that they have the Windows 11 look.

That’s all well and good, but why not go the OTHER direction instead and bring WOA to both of those classes of devices…

2 Likes

I can see the unlocked versions running out since there have been occasional sales lately on Woot! for new ones at $250(128GB) to $300(256GB). The AT&T versions seem to be in endless supply but yeah, word is that neither AT&T nor MS will pay any attention if you ask for an unlock lately.

Why the hell would Windows cede the > 11" tablet space?

1 Like

Think he was referring to sub-11" - I don’t think they should cede it to Android either with WOA still in development, but you never know what MS is up to…

AND neither does Thurrott anymore - I don’t think he has personal contacts that feed him info - that goes mostly to Rubino and Bowden these days…

2 Likes

On Fold3, I have Mint and internet is pretty quick in metro areas or towns >100k population.
It can get hit or miss in rural areas however.

It’s easy for me to feel the differences because my work phone is on Verizon.

1 Like

That’s exactly how I use mine. Slotted in an MVNO SIM and share data between it and the one in my SP8.

2 Likes

That’s great - I would really like to have the secondary device on Verizon just to spread my options, but even Verizon’s MVNO’s are overpriced - I know,m you get what you pay for, but still…

1 Like

Well, I take the “Verizon MVNO overpriced” comment back - anyone use or have experience with “Visible - by Verizon”

Same pricing as Mint Mobile ($30/month unlimited 5g/4g prepaid) with a higher priced tier for “ultrawide band 5g” at $45/month. Since I’m paying $20/month just for an AT&T 4g data SIM, that seems pretty reasonable and it IS on the Verizon network.

1 Like

Unfortunately the Duo is not compatible on the Visible network. It’s not whitelisted. People on Reddit have tried and with lots of effort have gotten a SIM card to provide some data-only service, but that’s the best that’s happened.

It seems that they have recently changed to the regular Verizon APN so maybe it’s okay now, as this one redditor hopes:

https://www.reddit.com/r/surfaceduo/comments/y2z5s5/original_surface_duo_on_visible/

I was on Visible for several years and gave it up because Verizon has no signal at the national park where I volunteer in the summer. It was also getting really terrible with congestion and slow speeds at the time I quit.

1 Like

Thanks for the heads up Ted - they are offering a no charge 15 day trial so i may give that a fly, but I’ve also followed your comment by looking at Trustpilot and a few other sites where Visible gets 70% 1 star ratings - and to think they are actually OWNED by Verizon… :crying_cat_face: