![]() ![]() While in portrait mode the user can scroll up and down to see the obscured content, in landscape mode there is no way for users to see that content (unless they give up and use the site on half of the screen). The website on a Duo in portrait mode (top) and landscape (bottom) as displayed by the Edge browser: The middle of the page is “covered” by Duo’s spine. Whereas the lack of continuity is passable in portrait mode, it’s utterly unusable in landscape mode. ![]() The Duo seems to be focused on multitasking, because, even though it is possible to show one app on both screens (and technically take advantage of the larger screen real estate), it’s practically not a great experience for the majority of the apps that have not been customized for it - when you maximize an application to take up both Duo screens, some of the content will be obscured by the spine in the middle. The diagonal of a single Duo screen measures 5.6 inches (14.2 cm) with both screens combined, it reaches 8.1 inches (20.6 cm). Somewhere between a phone and a tablet, the Duo opens up like a book to show two screens side by side. A prominent example is the Surface Duo device, which runs a custom version of Android. In the last few years, we have started to see mobile devices that afford multiple windows side by side. But it’s a chicken-and-egg problem: do people not engage in complex activities on mobile due to the single-window constraint or do they not need the multiple windows because they perform only simple activities on their mobile devices? Part of the reason is that people don’t do complex activities on small screens, and simple activities rarely require two windows. ![]() Even on larger screens such as tablets, where technically it is possible to split the screen, it’s not very often that we see users working with two different applications side by side. Most phones today don’t allow two different application windows visible on the screen at the same time. It’s very likely that by now they have learned how to juggle multiple windows.īut their behavior back in 2019 was due to the single-window constraint on modern smartphones. Things may have changed in the era of COVID, with kids being forced to spend their school day in front of their laptops. They seemed to have no idea that they could place two different application windows side by side and combine information from both sources and were painfully trying to move from one application to another. They all owned smartphones and were masters at using those, but when it came to switching tasks on their laptops or working with multiple applications, they were completely ignorant. What was amazing to me as an observer was how little these kids knew about how to use a computer. It was the first class in a Java course and they were supposed to install several programs in order to set up their personal laptops so they could compile and run Java programs. In addition to Google Play store, the Duo will likely get Microsoft-optimized apps redesigned for the Duo-and Microsoft owns lots of apps.Back in the fall of 2019, I remember observing a group of middle schoolers interacting with computers. So the Surface Duo runs on Android and all the software goodies that come with that partnership. Windows Phone could never even get close to the full breadth of apps available on Android, so Microsoft decided that if you can't beat 'em-join 'em. Like other emerging dual-screen smartphones (basically just the Galaxy Fold), the Surface Duo works on a 360-degree hinge, so you can use it like a widescreen tablet-with two 5.6-inch displays working together-or a slightly beefy smartphone.īut the real innovation is its apps. Microsoft's hardware chief Panos Panay made sure to identify the new phone/tablet wunderkind as specifically a Surface device, inline with its years-long quest to combine all the tech in our lives with gadgets like the Surface Pro 2-in-1s, the Surface Laptop, and the newly-announced Surface Neo.īut this device finally tries to tackle the smartphone, that indispensable communication device that rules our lives. But today Microsoft mounted a comeback of sorts, introducing the Microsoft Surface Duo, and there are a lot of things going on here. ![]()
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