Surface Duo 2 Long-Term Review: Revisiting A Different Kind Of Foldable - YouTube
Seems it has gotten better
My SDuo 1 has definitely gotten better.
Donāt know if youāve ever seen Grandpa Technology on YouTube (I hope heās a member here), but you should check him out.
The link is to a video where he ādebunksā a half-@$#%& Duo Deux review:
Debunk ShortCircuitās Is Microsoft even TRYING? - Surface Duo 2 - YouTube
Fun and informative.
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Dale Ross does sound like a name Iāve heard on this forum. Might be mistaking though, cos weāve got a couple of Dales here.
Yeah, that stupid YouTuber (not actually a tech reviewer), Shortcircuit again? His video was quite comical.
Another guy, Scaryifliteral, also did a similar video like Grandpa Technology calling out all his BS.
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The Duo 2 is now $500 off at Microsoft, Bestbuy, and Amazon. I was just at Besbuy and Iāll admit being tempted at that price, but Iām sold on Dex for the time being and my zfold is a 512, so itād be a step down in a lot of ways. But still, $999 entry price isnāt bad.
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At that price & new in box from MS, Iām back in. There are also some software related improvements by MS and others that make it more viable for my use case. Iāll post more later.
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And the TPCR effect strikes again! Weāve gotten to the point where donāt even need lengthy rationalizations anymore. 
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Not just here, our lead Android engineer couldnāt resist either and bought one at lunch yesterday. Watching him this morning heās hooked
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Stand by. My rationalizations (and there are LOTS of them) are currently taking a back seat to my day job. As I mentioned, detailed explanation forthcoming.
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I have to admit Iām somewhat on the fence.
Still rocking my Duo 1, but the bumperās coming off, Duo 1 bumpers are nearly impossible to find, and retaping it on has proven not very reliable. Also a concerning chunk of my Duo 1ās casing broke off by the USB-C port. It started with a crack, then another crack, till a whole chunk just came outā¦I slide it back in and have some tape over it, but it gives me a little concern about the longevity of my Duoās USB-port.
So somewhat looking to move on from the Duo 1. A nice discounted Duo 2 is an idea Iām entertaining. Where as I couldnāt justify $500+ for the first Duo, having used it and being won over by its utility, I could see myself justifying $999 for the DUO 2. Pity it couldnāt be closer to that $409 price. Iām somewhat even considering getting another cheap DUO 1ā¦or even a 2nd since that would still be cheaper then getting the Duo 2.
But I can also get a refurbed/mint ZFold 3 for around the same $999 range, but for that I think I would rather wait till the zFold 4, especially if the rumors of slimmer hinge pannout. Since the ZFold 3 is out in the wild a bit more, Iād had many opportunities to compare it to my Duo1, and that almost double thickness when folded (compared to the still slim Duo folded) turns me off a bit.
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Side note, thanks to the way this forum works Iāve seen the word āflabbergastedā more this year than I have in the rest of my life! :vb-grin:
Sorry 
TBH, my SDuo 1 has been stable since the last major update. And with each minor update it gets better. That two screen multitasking is a joy to use. For all talk of the features of One UI, Iāve never for once used the split screen/multi window thing on my Fold 3.
Still have the Demo SDuo 2 in my cart on ITSavvy and have been tempted to pull the trigger, but canāt justify that purchase when the SDuo 1 is serving me well.
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Well, in a moment of weakness today, I stopped by BestBuy and decided to spring for a Duo 2 at the $999 price, so Karma will all but ensure it gets a knockdown in price to $500-ish within the next month or soā¦if only to spite me.
First impressions, overall Iām not as happy as I thought I would be.
Microsoft cheaped out, no bumper and no full charger. I had to order the pen cover separately and that will come in hopefully this week. I donāt have the Slim Pen 2 yet, but I tried my Slim Pen 1 on it. Canāt say I noticed any change in drawing performance over using the Slim Pen 1 on the Duo 1, but Iāll get the Slim Pen 2 eventually. Hopefully that will make more of a difference. The Duo does seem more slicker/slippier then my DUO 1, but that may change when I get the Pen bumper cover.
The Camera bump itself donāt bug me as much as I thought it would, its alot slimmer then it looks in pics. I havenāt really had time to test out the camera yet, but hopefully it will be better then the DUO 1 camera. I can also see an improvement with the Selfie camera which on the Duo 1 had a weird thing with overhead lights sometimes, but the default camera editing tool seems woefully more limited then the camera options on the Duo 1.
I will say I will miss the flash on the inside camera. As much as the Duoās camera was hit or miss, it was kind of nice seeing the screen displaying the pic when it takes it. Its form factor made it a perfect selfie camera.
Now the glance bar, is there a way to turn it on to at least display the time? One of the more useful uses of it I imagined would be to see things like the Time without opening the Duo 2, but canāt get the time to display on it. Is there like a gesture, tap, or action that pull it up? UPDATE - figured this one out, when its closed, you just have to push the power button.
And as far as the screen itself, not really a fan of the curve for the gesturebar, its rapidly apparent on the screen since it skews the color in the middle where it curves. And while the screen is larger, its not as large as I thought it would be. One thing I was surprised at is they made the device itself smaller. If you line it up with the DUO 1 hinge for hinge, its clearly apparent the DUO 2 has slightly smaller footprint. Not sure why they did that, frankly I would have rather had the foot print size retained and just have the difference added to make the screen bigger.
I will say the DUO 2 is very snappy and so far seems less glitchy then the DUO 1. I donāt want to carry it around till I get the bumper, so I havenāt swaped my Sim Card yet. But part of me this early has a nagging feeling I should have went for the Z Fold 3 instead.
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You know, some people here would get both devices, and postpone their decision till the end of the return window. :vb-agree:
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News for the flabbergasted thread 
Thereās a firmware update for the Duo:
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Saw that. Downloaded it. Danged if I can find out how to add the other messaging apps, or update the pen firmware. It does feel smooth.
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So some belated love/appreciation for the Duo from one of the more notable critics of it.
Whatās most interesting to me, is that he did what weāve counseled customers to do as well, which is to make a conscious rethink of the way you use your mobile device, so that you can take best advantage of it. Still not everyoneās cup of tea though.
PS: One unheralded benefit of the Duo 2 is itās one of the faster Android phones out there at the moment too.
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Wellā¦ Iām going to attempt to replace my Huawei Mate 20 x with a Duo 2. Wish me luck.
The 20 x has been THE best phone that Iāve owned and itāll be difficult to let it go. I used it for nearly all of my photos, navigating around a whole load of cities and more.
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As requested: good luck!! And let us know how it goes.