initial Reviews

[alodar101]

Reading the initial reviews this morning. The list is expected

Buggy OS
Horrible camera
No speakers pretty say
No apps
Old hardware
Too expensive
Battery life is pretty good

So just about what is expected so far.
Didn't change my excitement.. Gen 1 early adopter.... Always the same

 

[Polychrome]

"No Apps"? Really? It's android...

I think anyone here knows what they're getting into with this device, and I kinda feel like the reviews aren't telling us anything we don't know. Early adopter syndrome indeed. Still eyeballing fedex's site as I wait for mine.

I'd say the expense is a valid argument however. Especially if you consider adding accessories and whatnot. But on the same token, the Z Fold 2 is like....$2k and looks like a brick folded up.

 

[bulls96]

All expected.

Makes me wonder. When will they release Duo 2?

I'm thinking that's something I'll buy.

 

[Polychrome]

All expected.

Makes me wonder. When will they release Duo 2?

I'm thinking that's something I'll buy.

I think it depends on what kind of feedback they collect on the existing device. Some things may be easier to do than others. I'm pretty curious myself, given that it took them years to come up with this one.

 

[brau0303]

Honestly, I would imagine many that are putting out the listed complaints are cushioned by the bubble wrap of worrying too much about the bestest and the mostest in terms of specs, some are also put off by a minimalist Android experience. The Duo is kind of a completely new realm of device type, it's a gen one device. That said because it's a very pure Android build and the features for the dual screen exp are a part of the base os, it will allow MS the opportunity to be very agile with updates, features, improvements and fixes. Yup, there's going some pain and some figuring out how this new device may or if it will fit into our lives but this aligns with how I believe this tech needs to evolve. I'm in
I try to listen to what folks have to say about things of interest to me, at the end of the day I decide how I feel about it.

Cheers,
BR

 

[alodar101]

My post was generally about....wondering where the comments in those reviews come from. Like you said, we knew going in, certain things. Wanna hammer them..go right ahead. But some of the other comments...not ready for primetime....too many bugs...should have fixed all the bugs....these comments, only describe every device ever released. The CNET review made mention of the magnetic pen holder. Panos very clearly said, that was true early on, but is not in the release version. So, what was CNET talking about?

This is clearly a v1 early adopters device. V2 is already in its final stages....because thats the way MS works now. Wouldn't surprise me to see v2 in late spring or early summer. Or when ever the next major chip upgrade is due. There will be some decisions to be made for sure...like...NFC, 5G...what will it cost, size wise. Cameras...MS has downplayed camera on this device from day 1. Remember, last year..during the announcement, there wasn't even a camera on the device. Personally, I take **** pics...I take **** pics on the NOTE devices, the Sx devices, on the Pixel devices. So, top of the line camera....not a bummer for me...I think the single thing I will miss right off is the NFC. I like apple pay, google pay, samsung pay. But...I have a samsung watch ..and an apple watch and a fitbit...somewhere in there i'll get NFC...Oh ****!! my device just arrived...see ya!!

 

[jnjroach]

My biggest issue with the reviews is that they are wanting to shoe-horn the DUO into a Flagship Phone (aka - iPhone 11 or Note 20 Ultra) and they are missing the point, they are also reviewing this as a B2C device and that is at best secondary for Panos and team. Those that recognize that this is much more akin to a PDA that can make phone calls are at least closer to what it is designed to be.

I'll be using this as my ultramobile productivity device and digital Moleskin (Using OneNote). This is for my work and my personal productivity. I'm not planning on playing Asphalt 8 or PUBG or vlogging with it...

I'll use it for email, eBooks, digital notes and reviewing and light editing of M365 files. Now I just need FedEx to deliver it

 

[Dan12R]

The only criticism I've seen leveled that I don't take seriously is the complaints about apps not designed to be spanned across both displays being bad when they're spanned across both displays. Of course a YouTube video looks bad when there's a giant seam running across the video. The same is true when video is spanned across two monitors. I'm not sure what magic they were thinking was going to happen there. Not all apps are designed to span but the capability is there just in case it happens to work well for an app.

The "no apps" critique is adjacent to this. When they say "No apps" they're referring to the apps the span well across both displays. That's not really a deal killer as the device functions without that. It's not like because your banking app doesn't span, your banking app doesn't work on the Duo. It just means that it's a single screen app. This isn't the second coming of Windows Phone. If apps needed to be custom built for this device, then Microsoft should have put some form of Windows on it. It's also a brand new platform and it was released two months prior to what Microsoft originally claimed as the release date (I classify "holiday" as starting in November). What were they expecting? I'm surprised there are any apps outside the Microsoft apps that span.

Most of what I'm seeing that seems valid (having not tried the device yet myself) is that the software needs to be improved (can be done over time) and that the camera doesn't match those found on the latest flagships, which we all expected.

 

[brau0303]

My biggest issue with the reviews is that they are wanting to shoe-horn the DUO into a Flagship Phone (aka - iPhone 11 or Note 20 Ultra) and they are missing the point, they are also reviewing this as a B2C device and that is at best secondary for Panos and team. Those that recognize that this is much more akin to a PDA that can make phone calls are at least closer to what it is designed to be.

I'll be using this as my ultramobile productivity device and digital Moleskin (Using OneNote). This is for my work and my personal productivity. I'm not planning on playing Asphalt 8 or PUBG or vlogging with it...

I'll use it for email, eBooks, digital notes and reviewing and light editing of M365 files. Now I just need FedEx to deliver it

I was looking more closely at what the reviewers were talking about in a bit more depth and I feel like a common thread seemed to be where the reviewers kept trying to compare the Duo to some other phone and since this is a unique device you must be open minded to examine and rate the Duo on it's own other then perhaps some comparison with performance of a component like the processor or such. There is no direct 1 to 1 correlation with any current device. For myself now beginning my transition is interesting so far. There are some things I have had for many years that I will have to adapt to not having (S-Note being a big one) Also figuring out some of the way the Duo behaves and how I will interact with it.

Cheers,
BR

 

[jnjroach]

I'm setting mine up right now - 270MB patch right out of the gate...

 

[SnakePlisskin]

Seen a few reviewers and now my own person experience say the camera is not completely awful. But again, expected that people arent buying this phone for the camera.

Everything else that is "wrong" with the device can be fixed by software updates.

Can't hate on a first gen device software on day 1 IMO. I will give it a few months before I claim they wont fix it and the device is not worth it. At least the buggyness of it is not breaking it in any way. Seen no issues whee something crashes and never recovers or anything like that.

Surprised at how much I am actually enjoying it and using both screens. I expected I would keep the phone folded and use one screen most of the time. So far thats not the case.

 

[Mark Kaplan]

I like the device and disagree with the posters comments. It all depends on what your looking for and expecting. This device is not a phone. Yes it makes phone calls, but its not a phone. It's a mini-pc that also makes phone calls. I'm a former W10M user that was in that to the very end. I moved to the Duo from a Samsung Galaxy S9+. I would say the learning curve is about 3 days for me as I'm almost there.

Buggy OS - other than an OS error on initial bootup, I have yet to encounter any OS issues aside from having a delay sometimes waking the device up.
Horrible camera - I wouldnt say its horrible. The pictures I took are sufficient for my needs. No, its not the best but its ok.
No speakers pretty say - Well, if there were no speakers it wouldnt make any sounds. It has speakers. Just not the high quality speakers you'd find in a smartphone. Again, they do for me what I need them to do. Anything more I'm paired to a good speaker.
No apps - Don't understand this comment at all. It's Android and runs all Android apps.
Old hardware - Old but today's standards maybe but quite fast and function IMHO.
Too expensive
Battery life is pretty good

 

[JOHNGAETANO]

So if I want to utilize as a phone I should carry two devices? Use a Duo as a dual screen tablet?

 

[jnjroach]

So if I want to utilize as a phone I should carry two devices? Use a Duo as a dual screen tablet?

I don't think we are saying that, we are saying if your expectation is using like a pure smart phone there are other options, if you have a vision on using this as a productivity device that makes calls you should be fine...

I reset my Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ and I'm using the Duo as my phone and small tablet as my companion to my Surface Pro X.

 

[Polychrome]

Maybe I remember wrong, but I remember the original surface getting a fair amount of criticism. It was a pretty bricky device when it first came out.

My husband had insisted I play Final Fantasy 7 at the time just so I understood it, and I had the surface open on my desk next to my work computer running that.

The number of jaw drops I got from my co-workers was astounding. "OMG YOU'RE PLAYING FF7 ON A TABLET WHERE DO YOU GET THAT?" Suddenly they started popping up everywhere. All that fuss over an old game. LOL

Now you see more surfaces than ipads and macbooks in coffee shop settings. (Or well, you did, before people stopped hanging out at them.) They're everywhere now.

I do wish Microsoft had stuck to their guns on the "andromeda". People want to run windows "for real" on a portable device. The "app gap" is a completely different monster if you have every last bit of software since the 90s in your library. (Not to mention the ability to run webapps well.) It's a massive untapped market. But oh well.

For what it's worth, although I'm only showing off pictures of the duo (as we haven't had a proper "office" in a year and a half), it has gotten a lot of compliments from co-workers today.

 

[Eric Hardman]

Cost should not be part of a review as the cost is the amount one is willing to pay for a device and relative to the amount one is willing to give up to obtain the device. I prefer the review to focus on the main pro/cons of the device. +

 

[brau0303]

Cost should not be part of a review as the cost is the amount one is willing to pay for a device and relative to the amount one is willing to give up to obtain the device. I prefer the review to focus on the main pro/cons of the device. +

Agreed, perhaps a mention of device/option cost just for the information but otherwise it's purely subjective and really somewhat less important than actual device features and how well the device performs.

This is just my opinion but for some of the folks that don't care for the duo. I think they just don't get it. Camera MP is a great example MP is way less important than actual performance (there are top tier phones that are still rocking 12mb cameras and producing great image results, that said, the Duo lacks some functionality other devices have because of the space constraints but there is allot they can do to refine performance with software improvements because the base camera and it's implementation are solid) I would love to see a gcam port and see what it could do.

Cheers,
BR

 

[Hazuos]

First day, amazing experience. Obviously subjective but it was first contact and the wait for a surface that would replace my iPhone has been quite long!!

Second day, first issues. Not big ones. It is actually when you try to do more that you realize you need more time to understand how to use the device.

Third day. I handle the duo much better and I enjoy it a lot! While there is often an issue with detection, gyroscope, camera orientation and touch response, it seems that there is just so much more going with all the different scenarios of use.

Overall, it is an amazing device. There is no way to go back to a narrow slab phone.

 

[brau0303]

Definitely a learning curve, I was at a family b-day party and had some issues taking pictures not really the Duo's fault, more me needing to better understand this new device and how to effectively use it for different things.

Cheers,
BR

 

[jnjroach]

I've used my Duo for all my compute needs all weekend, I haven't used my Pro X since Friday at 5PM. I find I use Edge expanded with screens in landscape, I use OneNote expanded in Portrait and have setup some traditional phone apps in Duo Groups.

I use this device much more like I've been using the other Surface Tablets and honestly like how I wanted to use my old Toshiba Libretto L105 from years ago.